Two Families, a Priest, Mike Tyson Confession on Today's USA P&P List

Mike Tyson opens up about being sexually

abused as a child — 

‘It made me have to be tough for the world I lived in’  

BY BRETT BODNER

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Mike Tyson shared details of his life to ESPN's Jeremy Schapp like he never has before.

In an interview with Schapp on ESPN's "E:60," Tyson talked about the time he was sexually abused as a child. He told Schapp he was grabbed by a man who tried to pull him into a building, but wouldn't go into details about what was done to him.

"Well I don't like to talk about that, I like to keep that where it was in the past, but I was molested as a child," Tyson said.

When asked what kind of impact it made on him, Tyson said "It made me have to be tough for the world I lived in."

Schapp said he's interviewed Tyson several times over the last 25 years, but this topic was one that was never discussed.

"It was no one's business to know, people just don't talk about it because to some people they believe it's demasculating them," Tyson said.

The former boxing champ said he "probably" felt shame because of what happened to him.

"I learned that it doesn't make you any less of a man because it happened," Tyson said.

Schapp continued to ask Tyson about what happened, leading the boxer to ask the reporter why he wanted to continue talking about his past. When Schapp said it was because he never heard Tyson talk about it, the fighter said he never told anyone about it before.

Although he said he never talked about it, Tyson actually discussed being sexually assaulted by a stranger in SiriusXM's Opie Radio in 2014.

The former boxer said a man he didn't know snatched him off the street and abused him when he was seven-years-old. He eventually escaped by running away from the man.

"I'm not embarrassed or ashamed of anything from that perspective," Tyson said.

Florida man charged in Illinois with

sexual assault of child

Associated Press 

TROY, Ill. (AP) — A Florida man faces charges in southern Illinois that accuse him of luring a 12-year-old boy through social media and then sexually assaulting him in the early 2000s.

The (Alton) Telegraph and Bellville News-Democrat report Monday that 41-year-old Derrick R. Sepp, of Apopka, Florida, is charged with three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault. Each count carries a maximum 30-year prison sentence. He also faces one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Virginia man gets 6 more years in child sex case

Justin Faulconer 

An Amherst man was sentenced Monday to six years in prison on three counts of indecent liberties with a child by a person in a supervisory or custodial relationship, adding to an 8-year sentence he previously received this past spring on similar charges involving the same victim.

Carlton Eugene Adcock, 53, pleaded guilty to the charges in Amherst County Circuit Court. He previously was sentenced in May to eight years behind bars after Judge Michael Garrett found him guilty of two counts of indecent liberties with a child in the case involving the same victim.

Assistant Commonwealth’s He now will serve an active 14-year sentence on the combined charges.

Attorney Amber Drumheller said the victim was 17 last July when she reported the sexual abuse to the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office. The abuse from Adcock had been going on for several years and “intensified” over the previous two months, the victim told a deputy last July, Drumheller said.

Adcock, a paraplegic paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair, was arrested in August 2016 and has since been in custody.

Drumheller also read in court, as part of prosecutors’ evidence, a string of sexually explicit text messages Adcock sent to the victim.

In accordance with a plea agreement, two counts of object sexual penetration by force against Adcock were dropped Monday.

The victim testified in a March 2017 trial in Amherst County Circuit Court the sexual abuse from Adcock was a “daily thing” and she suffers from post-traumatic stress.

At the conclusion of the trial in March Garrett found Adcock not guilty of 14 other sex-related felonies in the case.

Drumheller said Monday the victim was willing to testify once more but prefers not to go through the ordeal again.

Adcock’s attorney, E. Gordon Peters, referenced his client’s medical condition in court in saying the allure of any sex act “overrode his judgment.”

In addition to imposing the 6-year sentence, Garrett ordered 20 years of good behavior, two of which must be supervised. Adcock also is ordered to register as a sex offender upon his release.

Robert Warris:

Husband in 'house of sexual abuse' sentenced to 13 to 40 years in Pennsylvania

Lehigh County Courthouse, Allentown PA. (SHARON K. MERKEL / THE MORNING CALL)

Laurie Mason Schroeder, Of The Morning Call

The husband of an Allentown woman who was sent to prison in 2015 for sexually assaulting a child will begin serving his own state prison term this week for sexually assaulting a different child.

Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos told the defendant, Robert Warris, that she could not fathom the debauchery that was going on in his home.

“I don’t think anyone can imagine what was going on behind closed doors in the Warris household,” Dantos said. “It was just a house of sexual abuse.”

Warris, 43, pleaded guilty in March to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, a first-degree felony.

In a separate hearing, Dantos found that Warris meets the legal criteria to be labeled a sexually violent predator under Megan’s Law. That means he’ll face lifetime police monitoring and mandatory counseling, and his neighbors will be notified when he’s released from prison and moves into a community.

I don’t think anyone can imagine what was going on behind closed doors in the Warris household. It was just a house of sexual abuse.

— Judge Maria L. Dantos

Warris is married to Rachel Warris, 41, who was sentenced in June to 15 to 33 years behind bars for sexually assaulting their son's 13-year-old friend while he was visiting their home.

Robert Warris admitted that he repeatedly sexually assaulted a boy in 2008 and 2009, starting when the victim was 9 years old. The allegations came to light after Rachel Warris’ trial.

In court Monday, it was revealed that Robert Warris also admitted to sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl when Warris was 13 years old, and had been placed in a treatment facility for young sex offenders.

Apparently it did him no good at all.

The male victim, who is now 18, was in the courtroom but did not testify. His foster father and therapist talked to the judge, outlining the difficulties the teen has had as a result of the abuse.

“This is a very scarred child,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Anna-Kristie Marks. “The lasting and permanent effects on him are unimaginable.”

Warris did not testify Monday, but mumbled a few times as the judge and prosecutors were speaking. Dantos asked him if he wanted to make a statement but he declined.

As a condition of Warris’ parole, he is banned from having any contact with children.

Another member of the Warris family is awaiting trial for sexually assaulting a child. Max Warris, 22, son of Robert and Rachel Warris, was arrested in October for allegedly sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy. He has a court date in September.

Rachel Warris:

Judge blasts 'predator' with 33-year max for

teen sex assault

By Sarah Cassi, For lehighvalleylive.com

In the end, it was Rachel Warris' own words that a Lehigh County judge invoked before giving the Allentown woman the maximum sentence for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

Warris repeatedly proclaimed her innocence in the case, testifying at her trial in March that the victim pushed his penis in her face and she had to bite him to get him away.

Rachel Warris' trial on charges including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault began Tuesday morning.

Prosecutors presented a trove of evidence they said showed Warris, who was 39 at the time of the crime, was grooming the boy months before she sexually assaulted him Feb. 11, 2015.

A Lehigh County jury found Warris guilty on all counts -- involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors.

On Tuesday, the 41-year-old Warris opted not to make a statement to Judge Maria Dantos before receiving her sentence.

Dantos confronted Warris about statements the defendant made in a pre-sentence investigation. The judge said it showed Warris had no remorse and took no responsibility for what happened, and that she was "predator" who "groomed him at an early age."

Dantos asked point blank if Warris bit the boy on his genitals, and she said yes, "but there was a reason."

"Your explanation of what happened is not credible, it was not believed by the jury and is, quite frankly, ridiculous," Dantos replied.

Before handing down the maximum sentence in the case -- 15 to 33 years in state prison, the judge read from a letter Warris wrote to her fellow inmates, following  misconduct in the jail.

"I hope you reflect on your behavior and how it affected me," Warris wrote to the other inmates. "Be mad at nobody but yourself."

The victim and his mother were not in the courtroom on Tuesday. "They're trying to move on," Senior Deputy District Attorney Anna-Kristie Morfi Marks.

Marks said Warris' sentence is one of the higher ones she has seen in cases where an adult sexually assaults a teenager.

Dantos said she was impressed by the victim, calling him bright and charismatic, and lauded his mother, who called police after seeing Facebook messages from Warris to her son.

Max Warris:

3rd member of Allentown family accused of

child sex assault

Please read the comments at the bottom of this post. Max, it would appear, is as much a victim of his parents as a perpetrator, if not more so.

By Sarah Cassi, For lehighvalleylive.com

A third member of an Allentown family has been accused of sexually assaulting a child.

Max Warris was arrested Friday in connection with the sexual assault of a 9-year-old boy between July 2008 and July 2009. Warris would have been 13 or 14 at the time of the alleged assault, police said.

The same age as his father when he first sexually assaulted a child (see above).

Warris, who is now 21 and living in Macungie, is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and indecent assault. He is free after posting $15,000 bail on Sunday.

Allentown police said investigators received information about the alleged sexual assault on June 15.

In an interview with police on June 27, the accuser disclosed that Max Warris sexually assaulted him, investigators said. In an interview with investigators, Warris reportedly admitted to the assault.

Warris' mother, Rachel, is serving 15 to 33 years in state prison, for sexually assaulting a different 13-year-old boy in 2015 at the family's home on Dixon Street in Allentown.

Rachel Warris maintained she was innocent in the case, and took the witness stand in her own defense to claim it was the accuser who attacked her.

A Lehigh County jury convicted her on all the charges.

Robert Warris, Max's father, is also accused of repeatedly raping a boy, starting when the accuser was 9 years old. Robert Warris, 42, was sentenced to 13-40 years in prison (see above).

When Robert Warris was arrested and charged last year in connection with the rape accusations, he was on probation as part of a first-time offender program, after he filed a fake police report against his wife's victim.

Rachel Warris was arrested and charged in her case on Feb. 18, 2015. The following day, Robert Warris called police and claimed the accuser in his wife's case exposed himself to the couple's son.

Former Brattleboro man receives 87 months in prison for child sex abuse images

By Bob Audette

CONCORD, N.H. — A man who formerly lived in Brattleboro, Vt., was sentenced Monday to 87 months in federal prison for possessing images of child sexual abuse.

Jeremiah Pless, 33, of Keene, was was convicted on April 11 by a jury that was presented with evidence found during a search of a residence in Hinsdale on Feb. 18, 2015.

The investigation, which was led by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Hinsdale Police Department, began in May 2014, when Det. Matthew Raymond of the Vermont Office of the Attorney General, working with the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, conducted what is known as "a proactive investigation to identify individuals distributing child pornography via peer-to-peer file sharing networks ..." according to the complaint filed against Pless in June 2015.

During the investigation, Raymond discovered that someone using a computer at Gateway Drive in Hinsdale was downloading illegal images.

Once the location was identified, the case was turned over to the New Hampshire ICAC for further investigation, and in October 2014 Faulkner was notified about the case. A search warrant was presented at the residence and while the search was being conducted, Pless at first denied any knowledge of illegal activity, though he eventually admitted during the interview that he had downloaded and viewed illegal images.

Following his prison sentence, Pless will be placed on 10 years of supervised release. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

2 South Carolina men facing child sex charges from years of alleged abuse

By J. Bryan Randall, Digital Content Manager 

AIKEN, SC (WFXG) -

Two Aiken man have been arrested, accused of sexually abusing a young girl over the course of several years.

Fulmer

According to an incident report from the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, deputies met with a woman, an acquaintance of the girl, on March 30. She told deputies that the girl told her that she had been sexually abused by several men since she was six years old and had recently had sex with a man in Windsor. She says the girl also told her she had recently been assault by two or three men at school.

The resulting investigation led to the arrest of two men on Friday, July 21: Cary Lathan Fulmer and Daniel Chase White, both of whom live on Wire Road in Aiken.

Fulmer is accused of encouraging the victim to drink alcoholic beverages, molesting her and forcing her to perform oral sex on him. These incidents reportedly occurred between Sept. 2009 and Sept. 2013.

White

He is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

White is accused of molesting the victim, performing oral sex on her, forcing her to perform oral sex on him, using a vibrator on her and having sexual intercourse with her. These incidents all reportedly happened between Sept. 2007 and Jan. 2015. 

On April 30, 2016, the victim says White tied her down and forced her to have sex with him against her will. He is currently facing two charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, seventeen counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, eight counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and three charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Fulmer and White are being held at the Aiken County Detention Center.

A ‘monster of epic proportions’ sentenced for child sex abuse in NY

By SCOTT DESMIT

The victim did not appear in court.

Instead, she videotaped two speeches, one that was played in open court Monday morning and the other a tape that was strictly for the man who repeatedly molested her.

Scott A. Reed, 51, sat silent as the one video was played in Genesee County Court, moments before he was sentenced.

The girl, now a woman, said Reed subjected her to almost daily abuse, abuse that lasted 10 years as he “silenced” her and groomed her so that she would never tell.

She did tell, eventually, and for that Reed was arrested. In April, Reed, of Elba, admitted that yes, he did molest that child, over and over again beginning when she was a pre-teen and ending in 2008.

Reed, she said, “turned into a monster of epic proportions.”

“He never apologized to me and lied to everyone," she said. “He is a sick and disgusting person. He violated my trust and my innocence and gave me years of pain and trauma that I have to deal with.”

The victim was aware of the plea deal offered to Reed, one that would have him pleaded guilty to course of sexual conduct against a child with the promise of no more than six months in jail and 10 years probation.

“He deserves a year in jail for each of the 10 years he molested me,” she said. “I know that won’t happen but that’s what he deserves.”

Assistant District Attorney Robert Zickl said the deal was offered as the “best” way to serve and protect the community and noted that should Reed violate probation, he would face an almost certain state prison sentence.

Defense attorney Benjamin Bonarigo said the case has not only had a “profound and significant” effect on the victim, but Reed, as well.

Reed, he said, “immediately went into sex offender evaluation and admitted his actions over many years.”

“He said ‘this is all my fault. I did this. It’s my fault and I have to live with this every single day,’” Bonarigo said.

Reed has “basically lost everything he has known in his adult life” and has made significant progress in counseling.

A probation report stating that Reed blamed the victim and said that she “initiated” the sexual contact was “taken out of context,” he said.

“Please discount that,” he asked Judge Charles Zambito.

Reed also spoke before being sentence, breaking down in tears as he apologized to the victim, his family and friends.

“I hurt the people that I care about most,” he said. “I cannot put into words the feeling of what I have done. I am doing all I can so that I will never do this again.”

Zambito said he struggled to accept the plea deal but, in the end, decided to allow Reed to continue counseling and avoid a state prison sentence.

He also rejected Bonarigo’s plea of a weekend jail sentence to allow Reed to keep his job, noting that Reed abused the child for 10 years and “what she had to go through.”

He sentenced Reed to six months of straight time in jail and 10 years of strict probation.

Reed was arrested in March 2016. Two weeks later, his adopted son, Jonathan M. Reed, 23, was arrested and charged with having sexual relations with two girls, ages 14 and 16. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

Good grief! Another father and son duo of perverts!

Reed’s wife, Deborah, also was charged during the investigation of her husband, accused of endangering the welfare of a child for failing to protect the child after learning of her husband’s abuse.

Oklahoma Woman Charged With Child Abuse

Patti Weaver

(Stillwater, Okla.) – A Cushing woman accused of allowing a 3-year-old girl in her custody to be taken by a boyfriend to an unknown location when she knew that he had been accused of molesting a 5-year-old girl has been charged with child abuse by failure to protect from harm.

Elizabeth Nicole Joiner, 32, for whom an arrest warrant was issued last week, was not in the Payne County Jail on Monday morning, a sheriff’s spokesman told KUSH.

Joiner, who may be in Texas with the 3-year-old girl and the boyfriend, could be given as much as a life prison term if convicted, according to the felony charge filed by Payne County Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent on July 20.

Cushing Police Officer Brad Kastl was sent on July 1 to a house on E. 8th Street regarding a sexual assault investigation on a juvenile, his affidavit said.

“During my interview with Joiner, she was very visibly upset and was crying,” the Cushing officer wrote in his affidavit.

Joiner said that the 5-year-old told her that day that Joiner’s boyfriend had sexually abused her, the affidavit alleged.

Joiner said that the 5-year-old had been seeing a counselor because for the past two years she had been performing sexual acts on her teddy bears, the affidavit alleged.

Joiner said that about six months ago, the 5-year-old told her that her 13-year-old female babysitter also touched her inappropriately, the affidavit alleged.

“I asked Joiner why she did not report the incident and she advised me she took care of the incident with the 13-year-old’s mother,” the Cushing officer alleged in his affidavit.

Joiner also said that about a year ago, the 5-year-old described a sexual abuse incident, which Joiner admitted she did not report, the affidavit alleged.

Joiner was advised by the Cushing officer to take both children to another location away from Joiner’s boyfriend, the affidavit alleged.

Two days later, on July 3, the 5-year-old girl was interviewed at the Saville Center in Stillwater, but she did not disclose sexual abuse during the interview, the affidavit said.

However, after the forensic interview, a registered nurse conducted an examination on the 5-year-old girl, who described to her various sexual acts performed on her by Joiner’s boyfriend, the affidavit alleged.

Three days later, on July 6, the Cushing officer conducted a follow-up interview with Joiner, who said she read books from the Saville Center to the 5-year-old girl on July 4, the affidavit said.

“Joiner stated to me the books were about ‘proper’ and ‘inappropriate touching,’” the Cushing officer wrote in his affidavit.

Joiner said that without being prompted, the 5-year-old girl said that Joiner’s boyfriend had done those things to her in Texas, the affidavit alleged. Joiner said that the 5-year-old said that he had done those same things to the 3-year-old girl, the affidavit alleged.

“Joiner told me she immediately stopped the conversation and called DHS and made them aware of the new information. She had also attempted to contact me at the Cushing Police Department,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.

Joiner denied that she had been in contact with her boyfriend since July 1 and said that he might have gone to Odessa, Texas, the affidavit alleged.

On July 17, a woman reported to Payne County Department of Human Services that Joiner “had told her she had left Cushing and was in Odessa, Texas,” the affidavit alleged.

Also on July 17, DHS was granted custody of both girls by a Payne County judge, the affidavit said.

DHS was able to obtain physical custody of the 5-year-old, but could not locate the 3-year-old or Joiner, the affidavit said.

“Payne County Child Welfare Supervisor Marley Miller advised me she had researched Elizabeth Joiner’s EBT card transactions and it showed her route to Odessa on I-240, based on store purchases along the way,” the Cushing officer wrote in his affidavit.

“It is clear from the information provided to Elizabeth Joiner by DHS, the Saville Center and myself, she knew the allegations against (her boyfriend) and the compelling evidence against him,” regarding the sexual abuse of the girls, the Cushing officer alleged in his affidavit.

“In spite of this information, Joiner is believed to have left the state,” with the 3-year-old girl and her boyfriend,” the Cushing officer alleged in his affidavit. No charges had been filed against Joiner’s boyfriend by Monday morning, court records show.

“Elizabeth Joiner’s inability and unwillingness to protect (the 3-year-old) is apparent through her actions,” the Cushing officer alleged in seeking an arrest warrant for her that was granted by Payne County District Judge Phillip Corley on July 20.

Lifetime registered sex offender arrested for alleged assault of child in Texas

By Samantha Forester, Digital Reporter

WICHITA FALLS, TX (KAUZ) -

A Wichita Falls man, who is a lifetime registered sex offender, is behind bars charged with Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child.

In November 2014, the father of a 5-year-old girl came to the Wichita Falls Police station to report a sexual assault. The father said his daughter had disclosed about sexual abuse to him. 

The victim was taken to Patsy's House for a forensic interview. During the interview, the victim described sexual acts done to her by Gary Ray Cline, 50. 

The detective assigned to the case noted the victim was consistent with her description of the assaults to her father, stepmother, Child Protective Services and the forensic interviewer.

Cline was contacted by authorities and he denied the allegations made against him. Cline did confirm he was around the child during visits with the child's mother and stepfather. 

Cline is a convicted felon and a lifetime registered sex offender for having committed a crime against a child victim. He was arrested on Friday, July 21.

As of Monday afternoon, Cline was behind bars in the Wichita County jail on a $250,000 bond.

Priest in Pennsylvania charged with

sexual abuse of a minor

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A 74-year-old priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor.

The Rev. John T. Sweeney was arraigned in Leechburg Monday afternoon on a charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a minor, with $50,000 unsecured bond under the condition that he stay away from minors and witnesses in the case.  

The abuse was alleged to have happened around 1991-92, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. The victim came forward after watching the movie “Spotlight,” which was about the sexual abuse scandal in Boston. Father Sweeney was a pastor at St. Margaret Mary in Lower Burrell at the time of the alleged abuse, which reportedly happened at the school there. 

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a press conference the charges were recommended by a statewide grand jury. Mr. Shapiro lauded the alleged victim as a “hero” seeking to protect other children. He asked anyone with information about abuse cases to come forward: “We care about you.”

Lower Burrell police started the investigation after reports were made to Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau. According to the criminal complaint, the priest forced the victim, then a fourth grader, to perform oral sex on him, warning him he would be in trouble if he didn’t comply. The victim said that Father Sweeney’s secretary brought him milk and cookies after the sexual assault. 

An attorney for Father Sweeney said they will defend against the charges “vigorously.”

In a statement from the diocese, spokesman Jerry Zufelt said, “The Diocese of Greensburg takes the protection of all children, young people and vulnerable adults seriously. Every report of suspected abuse of a child, young person or vulnerable adult — sexual, physical or emotional — that is made to the diocese is immediately reported to the PA ChildLine (1-800-932-0313) and the appropriate District Attorney.”

Mr. Zufelt said Bishop Edward C. Malesic is calling on all Catholics to pray for victims of sexual abuse. “... The diocese continues to educate the children and adults in the Diocese of Greensburg on how to spot and report abuse,” he said.

Citing an ongoing investigation, Mr. Zufelt said “the diocese can make no further comment.”

Mr. Shapiro said he could not comment “on what the Diocese knew or didn’t know at the time” the alleged abuse occurred.

Father Sweeney now lives in Greensburg at the Bishop Connare Center for priests. 

Iowa man charged with child sexual abuse

OTTUMWA — An Ottumwa man accused of sexually abusing a child had his bond set at $52,000 on Monday.

Armando Avelar Portillo, 49, was arrested Friday afternoon on warrants for indecent contact with a child and two counts of second degree sexual abuse. Authorities say he repeatedly put his hands down a young girl’s pants and touched her genitals.

Alvelar Portillo pleaded not guilty during a hearing Monday at the Wapello County Courthouse. Online court records did not make it clear whether he had an attorney.