USA Gymnastics doctor opts for plea deal - Illinois
Man accused of thousands of sex assaults on child - Colorado
72 y/o man with dementia get 2 years for procuring - Alabama
Fugitive musician turns himself in to police - North Carolina
USA Gymnastics doctor to plead guilty to
child porn charges
USA TODAY NETWORK Matt Mencarini , Lansing State Journal
Former Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar agreed to plead guilty to federal child pornography charges.
Nassar, 53, of Holt, was indicted in December on charges of obtaining and possessing child pornography. Months later, the U.S. Attorney's Office added a third charge that alleged Nassar had images or files destroyed.
He signed an agreement to plead guilty to all three charges, according a copy of the agreement obtained by the Lansing State Journal. The plea deal does not include a sentence agreement.
Each charge carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison.
The formal plea agreement has not been filed in federal court, and no plea hearing has been scheduled. His next scheduled appearance is for August.
Matt Newburg, one of Nassar's attorneys, declined to comment.
In December, days after Nassar was arrested, an FBI agent testified at a detention hearing that, during a search of Nassar's Holt property, law enforcement found hard drives, some of which were in a trash can outside the home, that contained at least 37,000 images and videos of child pornography.
The agent also testified that videos were found that appeared to show Nassar sexually assaulting young girls in a pool.
Nassar worked at MSU for nearly 20 years. The university fired him on Sept. 20 but on Sept. 16 sent him a letter stating that, based on new sexual assault allegations and his withholding of information about a 2004 police investigation, the university was considering firing him.
On Sept. 19, according to the plea agreement, Nassar took his work laptop to a computer service store and paid $49 to have all the data, including the operating system, permanently deleted.
The plea agreement states that Nassar had the laptop erased and put the hard drives in a trash can "to impede and obstruct" the investigation.
The plea deal includes an agreement that Nassar will register as a sex offender and an agreement that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan will not prosecute him for alleged sexual exploitation or attempted sexual exploitation of children, including an incident in 2015 in his swimming pool.
Nassar also worked with USA Gymnastics. He left the organization in fall 2015 with little notice.
The plea agreement will resolve one of four criminal cases against Nassar, leaving three state sexual assault cases that are being prosecuted by the Michigan Attorney General's Office.
Those three cases include 22 first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges, with all but three relating to his former role as a doctor. Nassar faces up to life in prison if convicted on the state charges.
He's also being sued by more than 115 women and girls, all but one of whom say in court records that he sexually assaulted them during medical appointments. Many have said the abuse happened at MSU, at USA Gymnastics events or at Twistars gymnastics club in Dimondale.
MSU, USA Gymnastics and Twistars have all been named as co-defendants in some of the lawsuits.
Man accused of 6-7 years of sexual abuse of child
This means she was sexually assaulted thousands of times
By Gabrielle Porter
A Grand Junction man accused of sexually abusing a girl repeatedly over a six-year span has been arrested and could be charged with multiple counts of sexual assault.
Aaron Lyman Neff, 45, was arrested Wednesday after the now-adult woman told Grand Junction police detectives that he had been sexually assaulting her on an almost daily basis from the time she was 10 or 11 until she was 17, according to an arrest affidavit.
The woman told a friend and a church youth leader about the alleged abuse when she was a teenager. When the youth leader reported the story to the child welfare workers and a detective contacted the victim, however, she denied any abuse, Neff’s arrest affidavit said.
Last month, however, the woman got back in touch with the police department and told an officer that Neff had sexually assaulted her for years.
The woman said she once witnessed Neff assaulting another young girl, the report said. The second victim — also an adult now — told police Neff abused her once when she was 13.
Neff appeared in Mesa County Court Thursday afternoon, where his attorney asked that he be released on a personal-recognizance or cash-surety bond while his case is ongoing. Public Defender Jason Groth said that Neff has a “pretty sparse” criminal history, that he has a job at a roofing company, and that he has only missed court once in his life.
Mesa County Chief Deputy District Attorney Trish Mahre asked for a “significant” cash bond in Neff’s case because of the serious nature of the case.
Mesa County Judge Bruce Raaum sided with Mahre and ordered Neff to remain in custody on a $50,000 cash-only bond. He also ordered Neff to have no contact with children under the age of 18, and set his next court appearance for Thursday before District Judge Richard Gurley.
72-year-old man with dementia sentenced for traveling to meet child for sex
Emma Kennedy
A Mobile, Alabama, man with dementia was sentenced Friday to two years in state prison for traveling to meet with who he thought was a 12-year-old child for sexual acts.
Alfred Foster, 72, was one of 26 people arrested in a joint internet crimes against children task force operation called Operation Undertow in September 2016.
Foster messaged with the undercover agent, who was posing as a child, repeatedly to set up the meeting, and he drove to several locations and had a condom in his pocket, according to Assistant State Attorney Anne Patterson.
Foster's attorney, James Burns, spoke about his client's health problems during the sentencing hearing, saying he had suffered with dementia for approximately four years and is medicated for that condition. Burns said Foster has almost no criminal history besides the present charge.
Patterson said despite the dementia diagnosis, Foster's crime was "as egregious as it gets" and he showed consistency and responsiveness in his messages to the investigator.
Circuit Judge E.P. Nickinson sentenced Foster to two years in state prison for one count of traveling to meet a minor. A second count of lewd or lascivious acts was dropped as part of a plea agreement. Upon release, Foster will be designated as a sex offender.
44-year-old wanted child sex-abuse suspect
surrenders to Durham police
BY MARK DONOVAN
Traveling private music instructor John William Garris, 44, of 1908 Mountain Creek Road, Albemarle, turned himself in to Durham police on Thursday.
He was being sought on charges of first-degree statutory sexual offense and taking indecent liberties with a child.
He was released from the Durham County jail after posting $50,000 bond, Durham Police Department spokeswoman Kammie Michael said Friday.
The only other information police provided was that the alleged incident which resulted in the charges against Garris was reported May 1 in Durham and that the victim was known to Garris.
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