Long Island man arrested, charged with
sex abuse of 5 y/o
By Lisa Irizarry 
Amilcar Alvarado, 32, of Riverhead has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing a 5-year-old, State Police said on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017.
A Riverhead woman’s adult male roommate has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing her 5-year-old son, State Police said Saturday.
Amilcar Alvarado, 32, was charged with first-degree criminal sexual act, first-degree sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, after the boy’s mother walked into the Riverside barracks of the State Police at about 3:35 p.m. Friday to report the alleged crime.
North Carolina couple charged with
sex abuse of child
By Shawn Taylor
Two people who were charged with child abuse last year were charged this week with performing sex acts on the same child victim, according to the Troutman Police Department.
Police say the sex acts happened at the same time as the abuse last year, but only just recently came to light.
Stephanie Johanna Giddens, 37, and her 38-year-old boyfriend, Andrew Patrick Williams, are facing several felony charges related to the alleged sexual assault, which took place in June 2016.
According to Troutman Police Chief Matthew Selves, the two were suspects in a child abuse case at that time involving the same victim. The couple lived together in a home on Cedar Street.
The Record & Landmark is not reporting details about the victim’s identity, including name and age. The child is a relative of Giddens, according to court documents.
In the original abuse case, Giddens and Williams were charged with tying the victim up by the child’s hands and ankles using belts, the arrest warrants say. The victim’s ankles, wrists, back, chest and face were bruised and the child was treated at a hospital, according to other documents in the court file.
Giddens admitted to tying the child up, the court document said, and social services took emergency custody of the child at that time.
Giddens and Williams were both charged with misdemeanor child abuse. Giddens was also charged at the time with misdemeanor false imprisonment.
The charges against Williams were dismissed. Giddens was convicted only on the child abuse charge later that year and was placed on 18 months of probation.
The case was considered closed, Selves said, until new information surfaced.
According to an arrest warrant, Williams allegedly performed several sex acts on the child. The sexual assault inflicted “serious mental injury” on the child, the warrant alleges.
Giddens allowed the alleged sexual assault to happen, according to her arrest warrant.
Williams was arrested at his home on Monday and charged with intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury and two counts of statutory sex offense with a child by an adult, Selves said.
Giddens was arrested Wednesday when she arrived at her probation officer’s office. She was charged with child abuse causing serious physical injury and two counts of child abuse by a sex act.
All charges are felonies.
Williams was given a $250,000 secured bond. Giddens has a $150,000 secured bond. Both were still in custody on Friday.
Williams has a criminal history which includes assault, assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of a controlled substance and multiple DWI charges, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety offender search.
Lawsuit accuses Columbia’s First Baptist Church of history of covering up child sex abuse
BY JOHN MONK
COLUMBIA, SC
Wendell Estep - Pastor 1st Baptist Church, Columbia, SC
A Richland County lawsuit quotes numerous sexually explicit text messages that a First Baptist Church youth worker allegedly sent to a boy in a church program, adding church officials did little or nothing for years while the worker sexually abused the youth.
That inaction is part of the downtown Columbia church’s history of failing to take action against potential molesters, the lawsuit alleges. The boy, now 17, was about 11 when the abuse began, according to the lawsuit, filed in Richland County Circuit Court this week.
Because of the assaults and touching, the youth suffered personal injury and “severe emotional distress,” the lawsuit alleges, asking for a minimum of $150,000 in damages.
To expose the church’s alleged pattern of concealing abuse, the lawsuit also seeks a court order to unseal three sealed civil lawsuits against First Baptist and an ex-deacon, John Hubner, a convicted child sex abuser. Hubner, 69, was convicted in 2002 in Richland County for lewd acts on a child at First Baptist and now is serving a 36-year sentence.
In response to questions from The State about the lawsuit, First Baptist released a statement Friday:
“Last fall, First Baptist Church became aware of allegations of inappropriate conduct by an unpaid volunteer in the student ministries department,” said the statement by R. Bryan Barnes, a First Baptist member and Columbia lawyer.
“As church policy dictates, the appropriate committee investigated. The committee concluded the volunteer violated church policies. Disciplinary action was taken. The volunteer no longer attends First Baptist Church and was prohibited from further contact with our students. ... Church lawyers advise against further public comment at this time.”
The statement did not address the lawsuit’s allegations that First Baptist has covered up instances of sexual abuse or whether the church had contacted law enforcement about the misconduct alleged, as required by state law.
Peter Farr, an attorney for the church, said Friday those and other issues will be addressed at the proper time, in the proper forum, as the legal action continues.
Founded in 1809, First Baptist Church is one of the Columbia area’s biggest, most respected and oldest churches. It has some 7,000 members, and its $13 million, 3,300-seat sanctuary occupies a city block in downtown Columbia.
The church’s pastor, Wendell Estep, 74, has led First Baptist for 31 years. He recently announced his retirement as of next year.
Estep is a named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with First Baptist Church, Philip Turner and Andrew McCraw. The lawsuit identifies Turner as First Baptist’s staff student minister and McCraw as “a youth assistant mentor and assistant small group leader in First Baptist’s youth group.”
A church spokesman said none of the individuals named in the lawsuit would comment.
The suit was brought by a minor child, identified by the pseudonym Joel Doe, and his parents, Jane Doe and John Doe. The identity of minors in sex cases is confidential.
According to the lawsuit, “Joel Doe” began attending First Baptist while in elementary school. At age 11, he began participating in a Sunday evening youth program, designed “to create a safe environment for children to discuss various religious topics with each other and various young adult mentors,” the lawsuit says.
McCraw was assigned to be “Joel Doe’s” youth mentor and began to invite the youth to movies and dinner, and to sleep over at his house with no other “adults or youth members present,” the lawsuit says.
McCraw also began to send “Joel Doe” text messages, sometimes dozens a day, that were “sexually motivated, inappropriate and illegal,” said the lawsuit, which quotes 17 texts between July 29 and Aug. 16 of 2016.
McCraw also sent nude photos of himself to “Joel Doe,” inappropriately touched the youth while on First Baptist’s property, and “proclaimed his love” for the youth, according to the lawsuit.
During this time, First Baptist officials should have known McCraw was spending “inordinate amounts of unsupervised time with “Joel Doe,” the lawsuit says, adding church official Turner had reprimanded McCraw for having children at his house with no other adults present.
After being told of McCraw’s activities, church officials did not report them to law enforcement “despite having a statutory duty to do so” under the Child Abuse Victims’ Rights Act, the lawsuit alleges.
Efforts to reach McCraw Friday for comment were unsuccessful.
Over the years, First Baptist and Estep have fostered “a culture of secrecy that encouraged their employees ... to shield individuals” who prey on children, the lawsuit says. The church had an incentive to promote itself as a safe place because it depends “on the financial contributions of parishioners,” the lawsuit said.
First Baptist and Estep also failed to train staffers to “recognize and report” possible child abuse. Instead, church officials emphasized “secrecy and avoidance of scandal at all costs,” the lawsuit says.
“Joel Doe” is represented by Columbia attorney John Simmons, a former U.S. attorney for South Carolina and former chief prosecutor of the State Grand Jury, as well as attorneys John Warren and Derek Shoemake.
In a statement, the attorneys said they hope their lawsuit promotes reporting of child sex abuse and heightens “parental awareness for their children’s safety.”
Trial set for ex-TV host accused of rape,
child sex abuse
By The Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) — A former television personality in Louisiana charged with rape and child molestation will go to trial next year.
News outlets report the trial for Frank John Selas III is set for Feb. 5. Selas was a popular host known as Mr. Wonder on a children’s show that KNOE-TV aired during the 1970s.
As Mr. Wonder, he took a group of children camping at Valentine Lake in June 1979. After the trip, a complaint was filed with the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office that alleged sexual abuse. Selas had already fled when detectives went to arrest him. He was caught nearly 40 years later at his suburban San Diego home.
The Alexandria Daily Town Talk reports a grand jury indicted Selas on multiple offenses, including rape. He has pleaded not guilty.
Ferndale man pleads not guilty to 10 counts
of child molestation, rape
BY ASSOCIATED PRESSBELLINGHAM, Wash. — A Ferndale man accused of 10 counts of child sex crimes involving five children pleaded not guilty in Whatcom County Superior Court.
The Bellingham Herald reports that 41-year-old Mark Courtenay Fraley was charged with multiple counts of child rape, incest and child molestation.
A sexual assault protection order for all alleged victims was entered in court Friday morning.
Fraley’s trial was set for December 4.
The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office has been investigating Fraley for claims of child sex abuse since December 2012.
Court records say the alleged abuse of the five children ranges from February 2011 to as late as September 2015.
Border town man pleads in child sexual assault case
By SUZANNE MOORE News Editor MOOERS — A Mooers Forks man is looking at 20 years to life in prison for repeated sexual abuse of a child.
Under New York State Law, the Clinton County District Attorney's Office said in a press release, a person is guilty of sexual assault against a child when, being age 18 or older, commits the crime of course of sexual conduct against a victim who is younger than 13 years old.
Burdo's guilty plea came with a negotiated sentence of 20 years to life in state prison with fines to be set by the court, registration as a sex offender and an order of protection for the victim.
"The plea was in satisfaction of a three-count indictment, with the defendant pleading guilty to the highest count," the release said.
"The sentencing range for predatory sexual assault against a child is an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of 10 years to life in state prison and a maximum of 25 years to life years in state prison."
Burdo was arrested in early February, accused of raping the child in the Town of Mooers several times between 2013 and 2016.
Arraigned in Mooers Town Court, he was charged with predatory sexual assault against a child, a felony, and acting in a manner injurious to a child, a misdemeanor. He was sent to Clinton County Jail without bail.
“It is an honor for my office to work with child victims of sexual assault, as we did in this case, and help them courageously stand up to their abusers and fight for the justice they so richly deserve,” District Attorney Andrew Wylie said in the release.
The People were represented by Assistant District Attorney Domenica Padula and Assistant District Attorney Jaime Douthat. Burdo's attorney is Alan Cruikshank.
Sentencing is set for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 21.
Mooers Forks, NY
Tri-Cities man in prison for child sex crimes
by Elise Haas TRI-CITIES, Wash. – A Pasco man was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Wednesday, after detectives arrested him for posting an ad seeking sex, and undercover cops responded posing as a 13-year-old girl.
Detectives with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (SER-ICAC) and Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) went undercover on a well-known website.
Authorities said 20-year-old Guillermo Rico described in graphic detail the way he wished to have sexual intercourse with the child. Rico also spoke about taking the virginity of the child.
Former firefighter reads letter to his 3-year-old child pornography victim during sentencing
Emma KennedyDanny Ray Murphy was emotional as he read a letter to his victim in the minutes before he was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison Friday.
He planned with the abuser to meet to sexually assault the child together, and at one point suggested using the Santa Rosa County fire station where Murphy worked, because it had a soundproof room.
"Not only are you a victim, you're a survivor, and hopefully you never know what it is you survived," Murphy read during sentencing.
The chats started in late 2016 when Murphy responded to a Craigslist advertisement about sexual fantasies.
The conversation turned to sexually assaulting a young boy, and continued for months until Murphy's arrest. Undercover investigators arrested another man in connection to the crime, Charles McConnell, and took over his online identity to track down Murphy.
Murphy asked for leniency based on the fact he was a first responder, a former Marine and a man without a criminal history. Murphy likened himself to a computer program that runs efficiently during its whole life, but temporarily malfunctions.
But Chief District Judge M. Casey Rodgers didn't agree, calling it one of the saddest and most tragic cases she had seen. Rodgers and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Goldberg read portions of the chat messages between the child's attacker and Murphy, maintaining that even though Murphy did not physically touch the child, he solicited the production of child pornography in asking for more images.
During trial, Murphy took the stand and initially said he was only sending the messages in an attempt to save the child. He said he thought if he could arrange a meeting, he would be able to notify authorities.
Though, in sentencing, Murphy said he doesn't know why he committed the crimes. "I can't begin to understand the depravity of mind and heart you have," Rodgers told Murphy.
Rodgers sentenced Murphy to the maximum allowed sentence for the crimes, which is 40 years. Upon release, he won't be allowed to own a computer, cellphone or use the internet, and he will be on lifetime supervision.
A third man charged in the same case, Jonah Authement, pleaded no contest to his charges this week. Authement also was charged with a slew of child pornography offenses for messaging back and forth with McConnell about meeting to sexually abuse the child. He also was arrested based on undercover investigators' messages to meet up for the acts.
Court records show Authement will be sentenced Dec. 14.
McConnell was charged with 38 offenses including sexual battery, promoting sexual performance of a child, and child pornography possession.
His case is still ongoing in Escambia County Court and his next docket day is scheduled in December.
Santa Rosa Co., FLA
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