Prosecutors seek life for ex-school aide
facing 119 child sex abuse counts
By Neal Augenstein
LaPLATA, Md. — Charles County prosecutors intend to seek a life sentence against the former middle school teacher’s aide indicted on 119 counts involving child sex abuse of 24 victims.
Carlos Deangelo Bell, 30, of Waldorf, made a brief court appearance in Circuit Court on Wednesday,
In July, Bell was indicted (3rd story on link) on 12 counts of child sexual abuse, 48 counts of second-degree sexual offense and 44 counts of filming child pornography, among other charges.
Bell also faces multiple misdemeanor charges of attempting to transmit HIV to his young victims.
Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and sandals, with waist and ankle chains, Bell smiled with his attorney before the hearing, but said nothing during the proceedings.
Prosecutors have filed a motion saying that because Bell’s alleged victims were children, they intend to seek enhanced penalties, which could make Bell eligible for life in prison if convicted.
According to court records, Bell recorded the abuse of male students ranging from sixth to eighth grade, and that some of the recorded assaults took place in school classrooms.
The assaults allegedly spanned more than two years, from March 2015 to June 1 of this year.
Bell’s next court appearance will be Nov. 3. He is scheduled to go on trial in January 2018.
Guatemalan Man Pleads Guilty To Child Sex Abuse Charges from 1998
By Michael Woyton (Patch Staff)
MAMARONECK, NY — A man extradited from Guatemala could be going to jail for up to 25 years after pleading guilty to child sex abuse. Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. announced Wednesday that Luis Ortiz, 50, of Mamaroneck, New York pleaded guilty Oct. 3 to first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, a felony. He had been extradited from Guatemala in May and returned to Mamaroneck Village Court on a bench warrant issued in 1998 when he failed to appear on two felony complaints.
Scarpino said, on Nov. 9, 1998, the then 5-year-old victim told her mother that Ortiz had sexually abused her while she was in his home the previous weekend. That same day the victim’s mother filed a report with the Village of Mamaroneck Police Department. Ortiz was arrested two days later on Nov. 11, 1998, and charged with first-degree sexual abuse after admitting to sexually abusing the child that weekend, police said.
Ortiz was arraigned on the charge in the Mamaroneck Village Court and bail was set at $25,000, however that amount was reduced by a County Court judge to $5,000.
On Dec. 1, 1998, during a forensic interview of the child, she disclosed additional information which indicated Ortiz had engaged in several more serious sexual assaults against the child over a period of months, and he was then charged with first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child. The crimes are alleged to have occurred between March 1, 1998, and Nov. 8, 1998, when Ortiz's wife was babysitting the victim at their home in Mamaroneck.
Ortiz was arraigned on the new charges in Mamaroneck Village Court and this time bail was set at $50,000. After the bail was reduced in County Court to $10,000, he made bail on Dec. 10, 1999. Ortiz failed to appear at his two next scheduled court dates and on
Local police questioned the Ortiz's family but he could not be located.
On January 20, 1999, Crime Stoppers offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Ortiz’s whereabouts.
On March 7, 2000, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office requested that a Red Notice — an international alert — be issued by Interpol. Extensive paperwork was filed which included a statement of facts and an agreement to extradite the defendant in the event he was ever located.
On July 5, 2000, law enforcement received a tip that Ortiz had been seen in El Salvador, but local police were unable to locate him. Because he is a citizen of that country, efforts to locate him were concentrated there.
In 2012, the U.S. Marshall’s Service obtained information that he was in Guatemala living under an assumed name. U.S. Marshalls contacted the Department of State which requested that the Guatemalan authorities obtain a provisional arrest warrant from Guatemalan Courts.
The provisional arrest warrant was obtained and Ortiz was apprehended in Guatemala in August 2016 by members of the Diplomatic Security Service of the State Department and the U.S. Marshall’s Service. After exhausting attempts to avoid extradition, he was returned to the United States by federal law enforcement agents and turned over to Mamaroneck Village detectives at JFK Airport on Wednesday night, May 3, 2017. He appeared in Mamaroneck Village Court Wednesday and was remanded by Judge Gallagher.
Ortiz will be sentenced on Nov. 28, 2017. He faces a maximum possible sentence of 25 years in state prison.
Robinson police arrest 2 men in
child sexual abuse investigation
By KRISTIN HOPPA
Two Robinson brothers were arrested Wednesday morning after a three-month investigation into sexual abuse allegations involving a 14-year-old girl, Robinson Police Chief Phillip Prasifka said.
Mark Anthony Jones, 37, and George Louis Jones, 25, were arrested after Robinson police were notified of allegations of sexual abuse involving a 14-year-old girl in mid-July. Prasifka said the alleged abuse had been occurring over the last 10 months, prompting police to open an investigation.
Officers executed a search warrant Wednesday morning at the brothers' home in the 1600 block of Coahuila Drive. Both men were arrested without incident, Prasifka said.
Mark Jones was arrested on a first-degree felony charge of continuous sexual assault of a child. George Jones was arrested on a first-degree felony charge of continuous sexual assault of a child and a second-degree felony charge of indecency with a child.
Both men were taken to McLennan County Jail after their arrests. Bond information was not immediately available.
Three Portland Men Sue Boy Scouts of America for $21 Million for Knowingly Hiring a Sexual Predator
By Katie Shepherd
Three Portland men sued the Boy Scouts of America and the local Cascade Pacific Council today for knowingly hiring a man who had previously given alcohol to scouts and had sexually abused a boy in California.
The men, identified as PW, RM and MJ in the complaint, say they were sexually abused as children between 1974 and 1976 by a scout leader named Calvin Malone who was shuffled between boy scout chapters following repeated allegations of sexual abuse and other improper behavior. They were 10, 11 and 13 when Malone allegedly abused them.
The suit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges that the organizations had a file on Malone that indicated he had given drugs and alcohol to scouts in California and abused at least one boy there. The Boy Scouts created a confidential internal file on Malone that should have barred him from volunteering or working for the organization in the future, the suit alleges. The Portland Boy Scout chapter hired him on as a scout leader anyway.
The men are seeking $21 million in damages.
The three men are represented by local law firm Crew Janci LLP. That firm previously represented two other plaintiffs who alleged Malone abused them.
"The Boy Scouts of America is outraged there have been times when Scouts were abused and we sincerely apologize to victims and their families," Matthew Devore, Scout Executive and CEO of the Cascade Pacific Council said in a statement. "The behavior included in these allegations is abhorrent and runs counter to everything for which the BSA stands. Nothing is more important than the safety of our youth members. In the many years since these alleged actions occurred, we have continued to strengthen our efforts to protect youth."
Malone went to another Boy Scout chapter after the allegations of abuse in Portland surfaced. Four men in Montana also sued the Boy Scouts for alleged abuse at Malone's hands after he was allowed to become a scout leader there after leaving Portland.
Because of his longtime involvement in the Boy Scouts, Malone positioned himself as a credible youth organizer for years. He is also alleged to have abused boys in Washington and Alabama.
"The tragedy of the Calvin Malone story is that this man was allowed to continue on in the eyes of the boys as a trusted leader," says attorney Peter Janci, who is representing the three Portland plaintiffs. "There is a very far reaching wake of destruction by this man."
Janci says the cases against Malone have slowly surfaced over the years in part because the Boy Scouts of America keeps its internal files secret—though his law firm has managed to obtain some of those documents through the courts.
"We've had to fight them every step of the way," he says.
Malone was convicted of child rape and molestation in 1993. His incarceration was extended in 2014 by involuntary civil confinement in Washington's McNeil Corrections Center, sometimes called "Sex Offender Island."
Local man gets 25 years in jail for sex abuse of a child
Special to the Progress
Clifton Wayne Jones
On Sept. 29, in the 2nd Judicial District Court of Cherokee County, a jury of 12 found Clifton Wayne Jones guilty of continuous sexual assault of a child.
The victim, who shall remain nameless, confronted her accuser and testified about a series of sexual acts that Jones inflicted on her during the period of several months.
After being found guilty, the jury sentenced Jones to 25 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
After the trial ended, the victim made a statement, in open court, confronting the perpetrator and letting him know that she was “bent but not broken” by his crimes.
Because of the particularly heinous nature of these crimes, Jones will not be eligible for parole for the entirety of his sentence.
The District Attorney’s Office would like to give special thanks to Detective Greg Compton of the Jacksonville Police Department and the staff at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Cherokee and Anderson counties. Without their help, this criminal might still be free today.
Cherokee Co., TX
Child porn suspect charged with child sex abuse
DON LEHMAN
QUEENSBURY — A former amusement park worker who was arrested in May for allegedly possessing child pornography was charged Tuesday with repeatedly sexually abusing a child, police said.
Chad R. Knowlton, 23, was charged with course of sexual conduct against a child and first-degree sexual abuse, both felonies, after an investigation by State Police and the FBI. The investigation began when he was snared last spring in a federal child pornography investigation, authorities said. He was accused of possessing and distributing child pornography.
During that investigation, police learned that Knowlton had allegedly sexually abused as many as four children, dating back as far as eight years.
“Two minors acknowledged that the defendant engaged in sexual contact with them at the defendant’s request,” an order of detention filed in the case in U.S. District Court reads.
Police believe he may have had as many as four child victims, and the inquiry into those allegations is ongoing. It yielded the charges filed this week in Queensbury Town Court that allege Knowlton repeatedly had sexual contact with a child under the age of 12.
Knowlton worked at Great Escape amusement park for several months in 2012, but police said there have been no allegations raised about any improper contact with children there.
The federal charges against him have been repeatedly postponed in recent months “to allow for the completion of the analysis of the defendant’s electronic devices,” court records show.
Knowlton is being held in Rensselaer County Jail, pending further court action. There was no court date set for the case to return before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Stewart.
Course of sexual conduct is punishable by up to 25 years in state prison, while Knowlton also faces up to 20 years on each federal child pornography charge that is filed. He currently faces a single count, with a grand jury review of that case still pending.
Lincolnton man guilty of child sexual assault
A Lincolnton man was sentenced to prison on Monday after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a child.
Scott Allen Sherbert, 48, of Davis Road, was arrested in September 2016 by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and charged with two felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a child and two felony counts of child abuse by a sexual act for incidents that occurred between January 2005 and December 2009.
Sherbert pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of 23 to 88 months each, meaning he could spent as many as 15 years in prison. Sherbert will also be required to register as a sex offender for 30 years when he is released from prison, according to a press release from the Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said Sherbert is related to his victim.
Shortly after he was arrested in the case, Sherbert’s wife, Beverly Kistler Sherbert, was charged with one felony count of accessory after the fact of a felony and one misdemeanor count of common law obstruction of justice. Deputies said, at the time of Beverly Sherbert’s arrest, that she knew the sexual abuse was occurring and did nothing to stop it and that she sent text messages to victim telling the victim to drop the charges against Scott Sherbert.
Beverly Sherbert was convicted of felony accessory to taking indecent liberties with a child in May and was sentenced a year of probation, according to North Carolina Department of Public Safety records.
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