Man gets 20 years after CSA victim suicides - Florida
2nd Police Chief in 1-cop town charged with CSA of <15 y/o - N. Dakota
Bible teacher caught in sting procuring sex with boy - Pennsylvania
Man arrested for year-long CSA of 2 girls <10 - California
4 staffers at Boy's Home charged for not reporting CSA - Pennsylvania
Woman gets light touch in sentencing for year-long CSA - Maine
Florida man receives 20-year sentence for child pornography after underage victim committed suicide
BY MEGAN CERULLONEW YORK DAILY NEWS
A Florida man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday after what prosecutors say was years of regular sexual abuse that caused a child to commit suicide.
Thomas Matassa, 24, was sentenced on one count of receiving child pornography, a charge to which he pleaded guilty in April, the Pensacola News Journal reported.
In February 2016, Matassa was charged for sexual battery of a child, relating to a minor relative’s allegations that Matassa had sexually assaulted him from a young age.
Matassa was arrested, but prosecutors were forced to drop the battery charges when the victim committed suicide four days before his deposition in the case.
The federal court then pursued the case, aiming to get justice for the child.
Matassa was charged with child pornography crimes after investigators found 30,000 messages on his computer related to child sex, in addition to 200 images depicting sex acts with children.
Matassa had previously been convicted of a child sex offense as a juvenile.
The doctor who evaluated him reportedly said there was an “excellent prognosis for not being a repeat offender,” the News Journal reported.
The victim told investigators that he was 7 years old when Matassa first assaulted him, the News Journal reported.
The assaults allegedly took place at a family home in Gulf Breeze and elsewhere.
Matassa admitted to the crimes in February 2016, but charges were dropped on Nov. 8, after the child committed suicide, Santa Rosa County Court records show, the News Journal reported.
Huh? He admitted to the crimes, but they dropped the charges? I don't understand!
The victim’s mother spoke during sentencing and described how Matassa had robbed her son of his childhood.
She said there was “no coincidence” he took his own life days before his deposition in the case.
Before Matassa was sentenced, he apologized for his crimes and said he trusted the court to determine his future, the News Journal reported.
“I’ve hurt so many people, a life cannot just come back into existence,” he said, according to the report.
He also said he should have “made better decisions.”
Judge M. Casey Rodgers imposed the maximum penalty for Matassa’s child pornography crimes, taking into account the dropped sexual battery charges, according to local media reports.
“The fact is, you did not pull the trigger ... but you might as well have ... You destroyed that young man,” Rodgers told Matassa, according to the News Journal.
Matassa will remain on lifetime supervision once he’s released from prison.
He will also be prohibited from accessing all forms of pornography, and will need prior approval from his supervisor to access a computer.
Gulf Breeze, Florida
Small-town ND police chief accused of statutory rape,
sexual abuse of child under 15
By Kim Hyatt
LAMOURE, North Dakota — James Watson, chief of the LaMoure Police Department, faces five felony charges in connection with the statutory rape and sexual abuse of a child under the age of 15, according to court documents filed Friday, June 30.
Watson, 51, was arrested while testifying in a DUI case at the LaMoure County Courthouse Thursday, June 29, and was subsequently booked into the Stutsman County Jail. Court records did not list an attorney for him.
In both Stark and Golden Valley counties, he’s charged with a felony count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 15. In Hettinger County, he’s charged with three felony counts of gross sexual imposition.
Details of the complaints filed in Stark and Golden Valley counties are nearly identical. However, the time-frames of the alleged statutory rape and alleged sexual abuse differ.
In Stark County, it spanned from fall 2011 to April 2013. While in Golden Valley County, it lasted from fall 2011 until December 2011, according to court documents.
The abuse allegedly occurred on at least a weekly basis, court documents stated.
The Hettinger County complaint was not available Friday through the state’s electronic court records system.
Watson was first hired as chief in March 2015 after completing officer training at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake in August 2014, according to Duane Stanley of the North Dakota Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, which certifies the state’s officers.
Watson, LaMoure’s only officer, has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to the city attorney. With Watson behind bars, the LaMoure County Sheriff's Department will be responding to 911 calls in the small southeast North Dakota town.
Good grief! It's infectious! Maybe they need to change the name of the town.
In 2010, the former lone LaMoure police officer, 22-year-old Kyle Mackey, resigned after six months on the job and pleaded guilty to a felony count of gross sexual imposition involving a 14-year-old girl.
Volunteer Bible study teacher arrested in
undercover child sex sting
A Westmoreland County, PA, Bible study teacher is the latest person accused of trying to meet for sex with a person he thought was a teenage boy, police say.
Timothy Michael Myers, 32, of Latrobe, is the third person to be arrested in two days, accused of trying to meet with an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old boy.
Myers is accused of exchanging sexual messages with the undercover agent, and then showing up to try and meet the person for sex.
Myers volunteered at a Greensburg church where he worked with children and taught a Bible study class within the past month.
He was arrested Wednesday evening after agents said he showed up at a Hempfield Township hotel thinking he was to meet with a 14-year-old boy.
Agents were waiting for him when he arrived and, when questioned by investigators, Myers allegedly told them, "I hadn't made up my mind if I was going to have sex with him, but I was prepared."
The agent who posed as a boy online said the conversation began on a social networking app.
Myers is not facing charges for anything pertaining to the Bible study class or the church. The church's pastor said Myers was not on the staff of the church and served only as a volunteer. The pastor said Myers was never left alone with children, and the church works to provide a safe environment for everyone.
The pastor added that Myers' attendance and volunteerism is no different than anyone else's at the church, and he is not credentialed or on staff in any capacity.
Police said Myers admitted to what happened and gave them a written statement.
The day before his arrest, police arrested two other men who are suspects in the same undercover sting.
South Valley Man Arrested For Alleged
Child Sex Abuse
Alleged victims reportedly under the age of 10
By: Eric Luttrell
The Porterville Police Department have made an arrest after an ongoing investigation into alleged child sexual abuse. 24-year old Johnny Vega of Porterville was taken into custody earlier today.
Investigators say they received information that Vega had been sexually abusing two girls under the age of 10. Detectives interviewed the alleged victims and both reported numerous incidents of sexual acts taking place at Vega's residence over the past year, according the Porterville Police Department.
Vega was arrested and booked at the Tulare County Sheriff's Office on multiple felony charges. His bail has been set at $470,000. Anyone with information regarding this crime is encouraged to contact Detective W. Martin at (559) 782-7400.
Four at Hoffman Homes charged with failure to report
child sex abuse
Kaitlin Greenockle
Littlestown, PA - Four employees of Hoffman Homes, a psychiatric residential treatment facility for children, were made aware of possible sexual abuse of a child, but did not make a report to proper authorities, police say.
Guy Duane Joseph, 52, of Cumberland Township; Antonio Marcus Hill, 23, of Chambersburg; Glenn Norman Nace, 27, of Manheim Township; and Timothy Wayne Speelman, 31, of Gettysburg were charged with endangering welfare of children and person to report suspected child abuse on June 30, according to court records. The charges are misdemeanors.
On Nov. 13, 2016, police received a call from Gettysburg Hospital telling them that a boy was there with his mother reporting that he was sexually abused by another boy at Hoffman Homes, according to an affidavit filed with District Judge Daniel Bowman.
Police spoke to a nurse at the hospital who said she reported the abuse to ChildLine because she did not believe it had been reported.
The mother of the boy told police that she was informed of an incident involving her son on Nov. 12, 2016. She said she called Children and Youth Services in Franklin County and then went to Hoffman Homes, in the 800 block of Orphanage Road in Mt. Joy Township, the affidavit states.
She told police that while at Hoffman Homes, she demanded her son be taken to the hospital. A Hoffman Homes staff worker drove the boy to the hospital and the mother followed, police said in the affidavit.
Police asked the boy what happened to him, and the boy said that a new kid at Hoffman Homes "had done some things to him" every night since the new boy arrived.
The mother told police her son said that he was penetrated by the other boy's penis, police said in the affidavit.
On Nov. 15, 2016, the boy told an interviewer that ever since the new boy got to the facility, he would put a "body part" inside him.
The boy said it stopped when another boy saw what was happening and told the staff. The alleged victim identified the body parts on a diagram, the affidavit states.
The boy told the interviewer that staff were supposed to be in the room at all times. He said the staff member who was supposed to be in the room was Joseph, and that Hill and Speelman were also working, police said in the affidavit.
Police spoke with the boy accused of the assault, who said the alleged victim asked him to do it. He then said that he did touch the boy's genitals several times when no one was watching.
Police interviewed Hill, Nace and Speelman. Joseph refused to be interviewed, police said.
Hill told police that Joseph was assigned to watch the room. Hill said one boy reported the alleged sexual abuse to him. He said he went into the room and saw both boys were in their own beds.
Hill said he called his supervisor, Nace, to tell him what happened.
Nace went to the building and took a report of what happened, and another employee was assigned to watch the room, Hill told police.
Police interviewed Nace, who said he was called and he took a report from Joseph and Hill, who said that Joseph had seen the accused with his hands down the alleged victim's pants.
Nace told police that he then sent the report to the vice president of clinical and residential programs at Hoffman Homes, Becky Vander-Groef, police said in the affidavit.
Speelman, who was walking the building and checking rooms that night, told police that on his checks, he overheard a boy telling Hill what happened, so he called Nace to report it, the affidavit states.
Speelman told police that the facility requires training on mandated reporting, which is an immediate oral report of suspected child abuse to the department through the statewide telephone number or an electronic report.
He said that he thought that reporting it to his supervisor was part of his mandated reporting, police said in the affidavit.
Hill, Nace and Speelman told police that they did not make a report to ChildLine and they did not seek medical attention for the boy.
All four have a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 23.
No attorney information is listed for any of the men charged. None could be reached for comment. Hoffman Homes officials also were unable to be reached for comment.
Wilton woman sentenced in child sexual abuse case
BY KATE MCCORMICK MORNING SENTINEL
FARMINGTON, Maine — The young girl stood at the microphone Friday in Franklin County Superior Court, flanked by nearly 20 family members and friends, leather-vested bikers, young and older women among them.
Only 13, she was facing a woman who had once been a close family friend and now was preparing to be sentenced for her role in abusing the girl sexually over nearly a year. Her statement in hand, the girl spoke to the courtroom in a low but steady voice.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-871-7741. To learn more about sexual violence prevention and response in Maine, visit the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault online at mecasa.org.
“When I first met Tami, I liked her and never thought she would do something like this,” she said. “I thought of her like family.”
“When Tami goes to jail, I won’t worry about her coming to my house,” she continued. “I could know that she won’t do this again and I would finally be able to know I can sleep at night without being scared of being in the dark.”
Tami Dalot, formerly Ouellette, pleaded no contest earlier this month to a charge of unlawful sexual contact in a plea agreement that saw prosecutors dismiss two other felony charges of gross sexual assault and visual sexual aggression against a child. As the girl spoke, Dalot, 44, turned and watched but registered no expression on her face.
Dalot and her accomplices, former husband Jamie Ouellette and his girlfriend, Anna LaRochelle, were charged originally in February 2015 after an investigation by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office found evidence the trio had molested the girl sexually and forced her to watch them have sex, according to an affidavit written by Franklin County Detective Kenneth Charles.
The Morning Sentinel does not disclose the names of victims of sexual abuse without their permission.
Ouellette and LaRochelle entered Alford pleas in September, not admitting guilt but conceding that the evidence against them probably would lead to conviction. Franklin County prosecutors dismissed lesser charges against Dalot in order to bring the more serious charges before a grand jury, her attorney said.
Justice Robert Mullen presided at Friday’s hearing and, hearing arguments from assistant district attorney Claire Andrews, sentenced Dalot to the agreed-upon sentence of six years in prison with all but two years and six months suspended.
Dalot also will serve seven years of probation with conditions including no contact with children under the age of 18 without the permission of her parole officer and her sex offender counselor, no contact with the victim or her family, no possessing or viewing sexually explicit material and no loitering in areas primarily frequented by children, such as parks, fairgrounds or schools. She will be subject to random searches to ensure her compliance and also will be required to register as a lifetime sex offender.
In addition, Dalot pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the conditions of her release for continuing to have contact with Ouellette after she was released on bail. She was sentenced to a year for each charge, to be served concurrently with her other sentence.
Now what's the point of that? Concurrent sentence means she suffers no effect from violating her conditions and terrorizing the child she victimized. What the Hell, Judge?
Andrews explained that Dalot’s sentence matched that of LaRochelle. Knowing a judge probably would provide a similar sentence to those given to Dalot’s accomplices, the district attorney’s office opted to enter into a plea agreement and spare the girl the trauma of testifying at a trial. The girl chose to be present, however, at both of the sentencing hearings.
Before handing down his sentence, Mullen spoke to the victim and praised her for her bravery. He said he hoped, with the resolution of the last of the three cases, that the victim could begin to move on.
“You still have time to be a kid, and you still have time to be a teenager,” Mullen said. “I can’t undo what was done, but you’ve showed a lot of courage in coming in here today, writing this statement and coming in and standing up in an open forum and telling me and telling the defendant the impact that this had on you.”
Melanie Tyler, 38, the girl’s mother, said she was relieved to have the cases resolved.
“She can go back to living,” she said of her daughter. Asked about the group of friends and family who had joined them, Tyler said she wanted her daughter to feel safe when she gave her statement.
“She needs to feel she’s worth it,” said Amanda Fetterhoff, a family friend.
Both women said they once had called Dalot a friend and were furious about her refusal to apologize. They said they were grateful to Mullen for his comments assuring the girl she bore no responsibility for what happened to her.
“I loved what he said to her. I wanted to hug him,” Tyler said.
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