Evangelist Acton Bowen indicted on new
child sex charge
Youth evangelist Acton Bowen has been indicted on another felony charge in Jefferson County.
According to court records made public Thursday, the 37-year-old founder of Acton Bowen Outreach, was indicted June 22 on a felony charge of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.
Bowen in May was indicted on charges of second-degree sodomy and enticing a child to enter a vehicle or house for immoral purposes. He was initially arrested in April on those charges brought by Hoover police. The victim in that case was a young male, but police did not release his age except to say he is over 12 and under 16.
The new indictment involves the same Hoover victim, and an alleged incident that happened around the same time as the other reported crimes.
Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector said the department's Special Victim's Unit first launched the investigation three weeks prior to Bowen's April 10 arrest. According to Alabama law, a person commits the crime of second-sodomy if he or she, being 16 years old or older, engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another person less than 16 and more than 12 years old.
Hoover police also originally charged Bowen with second-degree sexual abuse, but court records do not indicate that he was indicted on that charge.
Minnesota man sentenced for failing to appear as witness at sexual abuse trial
By Barry Amundson
ABERDEEN, S.D. -- A 30-year-old Moorhead, Minn., man has been sentenced for failing to appear as a witness in a sexual abuse trial of a man on the Sisseton-Wahpeton reservation in far northeast South Dakota.
Jack Moore entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to two days in jail, which he already served, on Tuesday, June 26, in federal court in Aberdeen.
Moore had failed to appear in December of last year in the Aberdeen trial of Dashown Raymond Keys, 26, who was found guilty of four counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and two counts of abusive sexual contact of a child. Keys was from Milwaukee, Wis., but was staying on the reservation with extended family and repeatedly sexually abused one girl under the age of 12 who was the daughter of the family he was staying with. The other girl would come for sleepovers and Keys was also convicted of sexually abusing her.
The FBI investigated both the Moore and Keys cases.
Elementary teacher charged with institutional child sexual assault in Pennsylvania
By: Myles Snyder
GRANTVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) - A teacher is accused of sexually abusing a student and having inappropriate contact with four others at a Dauphin County elementary school.
James W. Mentzer, 39, of Hummelstown, was charged Thursday with felony counts of institutional sexual assault and unlawful contact with a minor regarding incidents at East Hanover Elementary School in Grantville, state police said.
Mentzer is additionally charged with a misdemeanor count of indecent assault and five counts of corruption of minors.
School administrators contacted police in February to report suspected child abuse involving Mentzer. The investigation revealed Mentzer had inappropriate contact with an 8-year-old, a 9-year-old, and three 11-year-olds at the school beginning in August 2017, police said in a news release.
The criminal complaint states that Mentzer "engaged in a course of escalating grooming" with the girls by pulling them out of recess or other classes to work on a "project" in his room. Each of the girls reported they were alone with Mentzer and the door was closed.
The girls said Mentzer recorded videos of them, sometimes as they read aloud or played with puppets. For other videos, the girls said Mentzer swung a necklace in front of their face and had them repeat, "I will obey you, Master" or "I will obey your commands, Master."
He told one of the girls she would have to do whatever he asked, the complaint states.
Another girl said Mentzer asked her to read while holding a giraffe puppet and became angry when she wouldn't speak as the giraffe. She said Mentzer rubbed her arms, legs, and groin as she read.
Police said Mentzer had pulled the girl out of line for recess without her teacher's knowledge.
When school administrators confronted Mentzer about his behavior, he admitted to being along with students and having them call him "Master." He referred to his conduct as to being part of his "master plan," according to the complaint.
He reportedly could not provide the videos, claiming the recordings did not work.
Lower Dauphin superintendent Dr. Robert Schultz said Mentzer was placed on administrative leave when the allegations were brought to the school’s attention.
Mentzer has been a full-time elementary school teacher with the district since 2003.
Police said anyone with information on other possible victims should call the Harrisburg station at 717-671-7500.
A sex-assault case 30 years in the making in Utah's LDS church
Yet another sexual assault investigation is raising questions about the role of the LDS Church in reporting and responding to such matters. This case involves a former Arizona police officer who also worked for more than 20 years as a Provo cop and a Utah County sheriff’s deputy.
(Photo courtesy Utah County Sheriff's Office) Gerald Salcido
Jessica Miller, SL Trib
Two young women told investigators in Mesa, Ariz., that one of the department’s former officers had groped and sexually assaulted them 11 years earlier at sleepovers.
The handwritten report from 1995 doesn’t explain the steps detectives took next, but within months, the case went dormant. An investigator wrote that there was scant evidence and no likelihood that Officer Gerald Salcido would ever be convicted.
Years went by.
Salcido moved to Utah, where he worked as a Provo officer for 12 years and then another decade as a deputy with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.
While he was working for Provo, he allegedly confessed to his crimes — not to police, but to his wife and his Mormon bishop. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excommunicated Salcido in 2006, but it appears church officials never told investigators about the confession.
Only a dozen years later, when the mother of one of the victims complained to police in Arizona, did Salcido end up arrested and charged with molestation. That happened this January.
A recently obtained police report sheds light on the role religious leaders played in this on-again, off-again investigation that has left the victims frustrated, yet hopeful the man they say molested them some 30 years ago may yet face a prison sentence.
There is much more to this story which can be found on the Salt Lake Tribune
Texas Educator Jailed In Alleged Sexual Abuse Of A Student
A former teacher’s aide with the PSJA (Pharr-San Juan-Alamo) school district remains behind bars – charged with child sexual assault and improper relationship between educator and student. 63-year-old Jesus Cantu is accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old female student.
The teen reportedly had run away from home and was staying with Cantu at his home in San Juan. The PSJA school district fired Cantu immediately after learning of the relationship, which was prior to his arrest. Cantu had worked as a teacher’s aide at PSJA Memorial Early College High School.
PA sex offender views child porn the night of his prison release
Liz Evans Scolforo, York Dispatch
A registered sex offender celebrated his first night of freedom from York County Prison by downloading child pornography on a computer owned by a good Samaritan who put him up for the night, according to police allegations.
Keith Lenier Biegger, 24, is now back in county prison on $200,000 bail, charged with possessing child pornography, disseminating child pornography and possessing an instrument of crime.
He also is being held on a probation-violation detainer for allegedly violating his probation on his 2014 criminal case, according to prison records.
He pleaded guilty to charges including sexual abuse of a minor, indecent assault, invasion of privacy and possessing child pornography in that case, court records state, and the conviction makes him a registered sex offender under the state's Megan's law.
Biegger was staying at Julia's Motel on Locust Point Road in Conewago Township when he was arrested on Wednesday, June 27, and arraigned by District Judge David Eshbach, according to court documents.
According to charging documents filed by Northern York County Regional Police Detective Mark Baker, Biegger was released from York County Prison on March 26.
Nowhere to go: He had nowhere to go, so the brother of one of his friends agreed to put him up for the night at his Dover borough home, documents state.
In addition to letting Biegger stay with him and his family for the night, the man also allowed Biegger to use an old computer so he had a way to contact friends, according to charging documents.
The next day, the man drove Biegger to an area homeless shelter and dropped him off, police said, adding the man said it was the last time he spoke with Biegger.
Two months later, on May 28, West York Police alerted Northern Regional Police to child pornography that had been shared on the eMule peer-to-peer file-sharing network, police said.
Images, videos found: Baker investigated and determined that nine images and six videos of child pornography were downloaded onto the Dover man's computer overnight March 26 — the night Biegger was given access to it, charging documents allege.
Baker also was able to use the laptop's user history to determine that Biegger accessed the computer that night, police said.
Court records do not indicate whether Biegger has retained an attorney. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 17, court records state.
In 2014, after his first set of child-porn charges were filed in York County, members of the U.S. Marshals Service's fugitive task force captured Biegger in San Diego, California.
North Carolina man faces multiple child sex abuse charges involving teenage victim
By Dal Kalsi
MARION, NC (FOX Carolina) -
McDowell County detectives said a 27-year-old Marion man was arrested on multiple child sex abuse charges.
William Clinton Craig Jr. of Mourning Dove Drive is charged with two counts each of statutory sex offense and taking indecent liberties with a child and one count of sexual battery.
Detectives said Craig had inappropriate sexual contact multiple times with a female acquaintance.
The crimes occurred between 2015 to 2017, when the girl was 14 and 15 years old.
Police say a PA pastor failed to report child sex abuse,
now he's facing charges
BY LAUREN MUTHLER
A Huntingdon County pastor is facing a third-degree felony charge after police say he was informed about the sexual abuse of a child and did not report it.
David Riehl Fisher, 63, was charged Wednesday with endangering the welfare of children, according to court documents.
According to state police at Huntingdon, the alleged abuse of a 14-year-old girl occurred in 2007, sometime between June 1 and September 1, in Logan Township. Police say Fisher was told about the suspected abuse on several occasions but never reported it to authorities.
Fisher was arraigned Wednesday before Huntingdon County District Judge Lisa Marie Covert. Monetary bail, which Fisher was unable to post, was set at 10 percent of $5,000.
Logan Twnshp, PA
No comments:
Post a Comment