Horrible care-giver gets bond lowered so she can go home - Alabama
Judge and I both angry over pathetic plea deal for nut-case - Montana
Another Farmington man accused of child rape - New Mexico
Sesser man gets summer court date for several CSA charges - Illinois
Woman with 100s of child sex abuse charges
has bond lowered
Patrick Ary A Lauderdale County, Alabama judge approved a lower bond for a foster mother charged in what is believed to be Lauderdale County's biggest child sex abuse case ever.
Spurgeon faces hundreds of criminal charges of child abuse, endangering the welfare of a child and enticing a child for immoral purposes. She's also charged with domestic violence and human trafficking.
Spurgeon and her husband, Daniel, were foster parents to 11 victims in Lauderdale County, authorities said.
The Spurgeons were arrested on child abuse charges in Florida in 2016. They're accused of abusing 10 adopted and foster children there.
At last check, Daniel Spurgeon was still behind bars in Florida, waiting to be extradited to Alabama.
Lauderdale Co., Alabama
Plea deal angers judge and me
Pinski voices anger over plea deal in child sex abuse case
Seaborn Larson , Great Falls Tribune
A 44-year-old man was sentenced to the maximum prison term for criminal endangerment, reduced from the sex-crime-against-a-child charge initially filed against him two years ago.
"I don't like one bit sentencing Joseph Paranteau to criminal endangerment," Cascade County District Judge Greg Pinski said at Paranteau's Wednesday sentencing. "Any notion of justice is notably absent from the charge of criminal endangerment... The court believes that he is a sex offender, and it's a travesty that he is not charged as one."
Pinski's temperament was heated in court Wednesday as he sentenced Paranteau to 10 years in Montana State Prison. Paranteau was charged in May 2015 with a sex crime against a child after the 10-year-old girl told school officials he had touched her genitals on several occasions.
Wednesday's sentencing marked Paranteau's third felony conviction, following an assault charge in which he threatened his victim with a knife, and an assault with a weapon incident, in which Paranteau brandished a gun on a victim in order to collect a drug debt.
"To put it quite simply, Mr. Paranteau is a street thug and imposes a risk to his community," Pinski said.
Pinski previously rejected a plea agreement which would have convicted Paranteau for assault on a minor, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. In February, prosecutors and Paranteau's defense counsel struck a deal in which he pleaded guilty to criminal endangerment, bringing a possibility of a 10-year prison sentence.
Deputy County Attorney Amanda Lofink on Wednesday described the difficulty in trying Paranteau for the charges initially filed against him. She said putting the child victim on the stand in order to get a jury to convict Paranteau may have caused more harm than good.
"The state never wants to put a child victim through a trial if they don't have to ... It would further traumatize the child," she said. "It was determined that that was too far a risk to go to trial and potentially not get a conviction and the victim not see any resolution or justice in this case."
This is so pathetic! When he is back out in 6 years how is the victim going to cope with that? She'll be just 16 and very vulnerable - no possibility of either justice or resolution!
If your judicial system could be brought into the 21st century there would be a way for the girl to testify without a significant risk of harm.
In the plea agreement signed by both parties in February, the prosecution said it would recommend Paranteau be sentenced to five years with the Department of Corrections, with all time suspended. But, in an unusual move by the county attorney's office, Lofink deviated from the original recommendation in the plea agreement at Wednesday's hearing.
Citing information in the pre-sentence investigation, which is not public record, Lofink said Paranteau had still not taken responsibility for the crimes which he pleaded guilty to in the agreement.
"When asked what his recommendation as the court should do with his case, he responded 'I should not be going through any of this, it should be dropped,'" Lofink read to the court.
Twice during the case, Paranteau's bond was revoked: first when he attempted to contact the victim's mother and drove by the victim's home, and again when he was caught in counties outside of Cascade County, specifically in a bar, which are all violations of the conditions of his release. Paranteau has been in jail since his last condition violation, when he was arrested in March.
Lofink instead recommended Paranteau be sentenced to five years in state prison with none suspended.
Nichole Lovrich, Paranteau's defense attorney, objected to several conditions recommended in the plea agreement, and said a five-year sentence with no years suspended would be out of the ordinary for a criminal endangerment conviction.
But Pinski was not swayed by the defense, specifically citing Paranteau's claim of innocence in the pre-sentence investigation.
"Mr. Paranteau's portrayal of himself is nauseating," he said.
Paranteau did not speak on his own behalf, but kept his chin up for the majority of the hearing, even when the victim's father read a statement to the court.
"I've always tried to protect my daughter from harm," the victim's father said. "I feel that I failed to protect her concerning what Joseph Paranteau did to her. I want to protect my daughter and any other children from Joseph Paranteau and I feel the court would do that best by giving him the maximum sentence allowed by law."
The victim's mother also made a statement to the court by phone. She also expressed her guilt for not protecting the girl, and asked Pinski to take into account the long-term impacts of the abuse committed against her child.
"You can't just look at someone and tell they're out to harm one of your kids," she said. "I have to live with that. He needs to be held accountable for his actions."
As part of his sentencing, Paranteau will not be eligible for parole until he completes violent offender treatment phases 1 and 2. Following his release, Paranteau will be required to register as a violent offender, not a sexual offender, due to the nature of the crime of which he pleaded guilty.
"Mr. Paranteau, without a doubt, belongs in prison for 10 years. He should be sentenced for 100 years," Pinski said. "The community is truly a better, safer place, with Mr. Paranteau in prison."
Warrant issued for Farmington man
accused of child rape
Joshua Kellogg
FARMINGTON — A warrant has been issued for a Farmington man accused of three counts of child sex abuse on allegations of molesting a juvenile female.
Charges were filed against Eddie Mares, 33, on Friday in Aztec Magistrate Court on three counts of criminal sexual penetration in the second degree and false imprisonment, according to court records.
A warrant with a $100,000 cash-only bond was also signed by a judge on Friday.
The San Juan County Sheriff's Office investigated the incident, which is alleged to have taken place in March at a home on County Road 5572 in Farmington, according to court records and documents.
A deputy was dispatched on May 17 to the San Juan County Adult Detention Center after a female inmate called law enforcement for help. She claimed she may have been sexually abused by Mares, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
The female inmate told the deputy the victim had said she "felt fondling" from Mares in the past.
A forensic interview was conducted with the victim on May 18 at Childhaven in Farmington. The non-profit agency provides care for children caught in difficult situations, often abuse or neglect.
During the interview with an advocate, the victim said Mares had penetrated her with his fingers while they slept in the same bed at his home, according to the affidavit.
The victim said Mares had been drinking "a lot" of alcohol and regularly shared the bed with her and other family members, according to court documents.
When asked how she knew it was Mares, she said she had woken up and saw his face.
Mares also allegedly restrained the victim with his legs during the incident, according to court documents.
He is described as Hispanic male who is 5-foot-1 and 190 pounds, and has brown eyes and black hair, according to San Juan County Sheriff's Office detective Lt. Kyle Lincoln.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call nonemergency dispatch at 505-334-6622 or San Juan County Crime Stoppers at 505-334-8477.
Michael Hobbs, charged with child porn and child sexual abuse, receives court date
Isaac Smith
Michael Hobbs, the Sesser man charged with multiple counts of child sexual abuse and child pornography, is scheduled to sit before a jury this August.
During a preliminary hearing Wednesday, defense attorney Thomas Mansfield represented Hobbs before Judge Thomas Tedeschi. The court set pretrial dates of July 6 at 1:30 p.m., July 27 at 9:30 a.m. and a jury trial date of Aug. 8 to begin at 9:30 a.m. in Benton.
Hobbs was arrested May 4 on two counts of child pornography, a Class X felony; two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 felony; one count of indecent solicitation of a child, a Class 3 felony; and one count of grooming, a Class 4 felony. According to a news release, Hobbs’ victim was 15 years old.
Hobbs is being held in the Franklin County Jail on $500,000 bond.
Sesser, Illinois
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