Jacksonville sheriff: Sting nets 17 men trying
to have sex with children
Arrested include a Navy Lieutenant and a victim advocate
By Vic Micolucci - I-TEAM reporter, anchor, Jenese Harris - Reporter/anchor, Steve Patrick - News4Jax digital managing editor
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Sheriff Mike Williams announced Tuesday the arrests of 17 men accused of soliciting underage girls and boys to arrange to meet in Jacksonville for sex. Two more arrests are pending.
Williams said these men thought they were talking to 13- or 14-year-old girls or boys in chat rooms and other online forums. When they went to meet their victims, the men were met by Jacksonville Sheriff's Office detectives.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office called it Operation DUVAL, standing for Disrupting Underage Virtual Abuse Locally. The teamed with nearly a dozen other law enforcement agencies in the trolling sting.
The men accused range in age from 19 to 67. Most of them lived in Jacksonville, but some traveled from out of state or Orlando thinking they were meeting a child for sex. they were meeting Some of them had no prior criminal histories. One was a convicted sexual offender.
One of the men, Edward Arthur Stanley, 60, is a victim advocate in North Carolina who was in Jacksonville for a Department of Defense victim advocate conference. Police said he tried to meet at a 14-year-old girl for sex.
"I think there’s a drive in some of these people, as evil as it is, that they cannot control," Williams said.
I think they can control it, but just don't!
The sheriff said this should serve as a reminder to all parents to warn their children about predators and monitor where they are going and who they are talking to online.
One of those arrested was a 30-year-old Navy lieutenant who was picked up by Clay County deputies last Thursday. Michael McNeil was accused of trying to meet 12-year-old deaf girl for sex.
The lawyer sent angry text messages to a child victim. Now, he’s doing life in prison
Caution: some fairly graphic details below
BY DAVID J. NEAL, dneal@miamiherald.com
A Florida attorney was disbarred, a career buried by his conviction on 41 counts of child rape, child molestation and child pornography possession.
The child in these crimes by Melbourne attorney, former Brevard sheriff’ deputy and University of Miami law school graduate Joseph Pallante III was a relative by marriage.
And bullying text messages from the 49-year-old Pallante III unlocked the door. “You act as if you are embarrassed of me, you’re no good, you are only going to be trailer trash.”
Court documents say that’s what Feb. 11, 2014, text messages from Pallante to the girl said “in substance.” Pallante, the girl told her math teacher, felt she acted as if she was embarrassed by him when she ran into him at Walgreens.
As the math teacher walked the girl to the guidance counselor, court documents say, she sensed it was worth asking, “Does he touch you?”
“He beats me.”
“No, is he touching you in a sexual way?”
The girl denied that, at first. But, the court documents say, she said later to the guidance counselor: “He makes me give him” oral sex “sometimes.”
In a written statement quoted in court documents, the girl stated, “The last time I had to give him a blow job was a couple of weeks ago because my mom wasn’t home. If I don’t give him a blow job or what he wants, then he gets mad at me and picks me up and pulls my hair then throws me across the house...
The statement ended with “Also, to go along with the sexual abuse, he had tried and half succeeded in (describes oral sex), but I’ve kicked him off. He started the sexual abuse when I was about 10 years old.”
In Pallante’s probable cause affidavit, Satellite Beach police reported that he “would masturbate in front of the victim” and later forced her to fondle him.
Also, Pallante, the affidavit said, “made the juvenile victim watch pornographic videos of persons having oral sex on a couple of occasions as to enhance her performance.”
The girl had told the guidance counselor that Pallante’s wife, Teya Pallante, “drinks an awful lot, so when I tell her stuff, she doesn’t remember.”
Alcohol fueled what Satellite Beach cops found on a computer snagged from the Pallante home during the investigation.
“I observed at least three videos that showed the defendant, Teya Pallante, naked with exposed genitals and obviously intoxicated,” an investigator wrote in Teya Pallante’s probable cause affidavit. “One video showed the intoxicated naked juvenile dancing. (Joseph Pallante) asks the juvenile if she is drunk. The juvenile replies yes, and then she is asked how many ‘shots’ she had. The juvenile replied ‘three.’
Teya Pallante “is present on the couch and does not stop or verbally oppose the consumption.”
In another video, Joseph Pallante asks his naked relative, as she sits on a couch drinking a Keystone beer next to her mother, “why are you floating?”
The affidavit says the girl answers, “Because I’m f----- up.”
Teya Pallante did 17 months in prison on three counts of three counts of use of a child in a sexual performance and one count of child neglect. She got out last Sept. 12 and is on probation until Sept. 11, 2027, and must register as a sex offender.
A Brevard jury convicted Joseph Pallante III of one count of proving obscene material to a minor, two counts of rape by an adult on a victim under 12, three counts of rape on a minor by a custodial family member, eight counts of lewd and lascivious molestation by an adult on a victim under 12, two counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition by an adult on a victim between 12 and 16 years of age, and 26 counts of child pornography possession.
He has been sentenced to life in prison.
DHS’ Negligence Led To Sexual Abuse Of
Oregon Foster Girls, $15M Lawsuit Claims
By Pritha Paul
Oregon’s Department of Human Services (DHS) was sued for allegedly placing two minor girls in a foster home with a sexually abusive teen, which laid the ground for their physical and mental trauma.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon on Friday, claimed the DHS negligently placed a 13-year-old boy with a history of domestic abuse in the same foster home as six other children in October 2014, five of whom were below the age of 10. Among those five were the victims — aged seven and five years respectively at the time.
The suit, filed by the girls’ guardian, sought $50,000 for each sister's counseling and treatment, as well as $2.5 million each for non-economic damages. Along with other damages, the lawsuit amounts to $5 million, Oregon Live reported. However, the suit also cited Oregon's "vulnerable persons" law, which allowed the plaintiff to seek triple the amount of damages suffered by the children, bringing the amount to $15 million.
“Specifically, DHS was aware that [the teen] had sexually abused his younger sister prior to placement in foster care with [the foster parent] K.B., for which he received treatment,” the lawsuit states, CBS-affiliated KOIN reported.
The abusive teen was shifted to the facility two days after the victims moved into the foster home. Although the DHS knew about the boy’s past behavior, it made no effort to supervise him while inside the facility, the lawsuit claimed.
He lived with the victims for two months in 2014, during which he repeatedly raped the older victim, while fondling both of them multiple times and forcing them to touch his private parts. The younger victim was also forced to watch the teen masturbate. He used to lock both of them in the room while he abused them.
The teen also threatened the older victim not to complain about the abuse she suffered at his hands.
According to the lawsuit, one of the foster parents “demanded” the teen be removed from the foster home after just a month, but DHS ignored the request and allowed the teen to stay in the home for an additional month. As a result of the abuses, both the victims — who were disabled, as a result of experiencing abuse prior to moving into foster care — suffered depression, anxiety, embarrassment, shame, nightmares and sleep disruption.
The shockingly poor status of the DHS and foster care in Oregon was laid bare in the secretary of state's recent audit of its services.
“Oregon's most vulnerable children are being placed into a foster care system that has serious problems. Child welfare workers are burning out and consistently leaving the system in high numbers. The supply of suitable foster homes and residential facilities is dwindling, resulting in some children spending days and weeks in hotels. Foster parents are struggling with limited training, support and resources. Agency management's response to these problems has been slow, indecisive and inadequate,” a portion of the audit report, released in May stated.
Multnomah Co., OR
Parents of child molested by Marine colonel
seek $25 million for pain, suffering
Marine Col. Daniel Wilson was convicted of the sexual abuse of a child, six counts of conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman and absence without leave last year. He was sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison and dismissed from service.
By MATTHEW M. BURKE | STARS AND STRIPES
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Marine Col. Daniel Wilson had been in Australia for less than a week when alarming allegations of a “sexual nature” began to surface in the winter of 2016.
He was recalled to his command at the Okinawa-based III Marine Expeditionary Force but was not investigated or reported, according to a 2017 Marine Corps Inspector General report.
With little fanfare, Wilson was shifted to the general staff at Camp Lejeune’s II MEF. Within six months, he was accused of molesting the children of a junior officer.
During a court-martial last September, Wilson was convicted of the sexual abuse of a child (2nd story on link), six counts of conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman and absence without leave. He was sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison and dismissed from service.
The parents are now seeking $25 million from the Marine Corps for the pain and suffering of their three daughters and for long-term mental health treatment. They blame former III MEF commander Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson for not holding Wilson to account for earlier transgressions, which later allowed the colonel to prey on their family.
“The Marine Corps failed to properly punish Wilson and hold him accountable for what he did in Australia,” said Adrian Perry, the mother of the girl Wilson was convicted of molesting. “They didn’t just fail our family. They failed every family in the Marine Corps when they chose to do that because really anybody could have been his prey, his next victim.”
‘Nasty bit of goods’
In March 2015, Marine Corps Forces Pacific commander Lt. Gen. John Toolan signed an order instructing Marines deployed to Australia to respect the country’s customs and to refrain from behavior that would be “offensive,” including excessive drinking.
On Feb. 16, 2016, Wilson — who had been serving as chief of staff for 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force — arrived in Australia to take over as officer-in-charge of the forward command element for Marine Rotational Force-Darwin.
Wilson was counseled about the behavior that was expected of him before he was sent, the IG report said. His counterpart in Australia, navy commander Greg Mapson, said Wilson had a serious drinking problem.
“He would polish off a bottle of Jack Daniels every night,” Mapson said. “[The Marine Corps] knew everything about him. His reputation preceded him.”
By Feb. 22, Mapson and other Australian officers had lodged complaints about Wilson because of his behavior.
The colonel was accused of forcing a subordinate officer to send him photos of his wife in lingerie and sharing them with Mapson. Mapson said Wilson later demanded nude photos and a used pair of the woman’s underwear.
Mapson said Wilson also made crude sexual comments to a fellow Marine’s wife, drank to excess every day, drove drunk, sent an inappropriate email to Mapson from the computer of a female Australian Defence Department civilian employee, which violated ADF regulations, and sent inappropriate text messages to a married female Australian Defence Force officer.
“He was a nasty bit of goods,” Mapson said of the colonel.
An incident report regarding those allegations was filed on Feb. 24, the IG report said. The next day, Toolan recalled Wilson from Darwin.
When he got back to Okinawa, Nicholson summoned Wilson, whom he referred to affectionately as “Danny,” according to the IG report, and asked him what happened. Wilson told him it was a personality conflict. Nicholson thought the allegations lacked credibility, the report added.
While Toolan later told investigators that he felt the complaints were credible, he thought it was Nicholson’s job to report the incident, which would have likely led to an investigation and discipline. Nicholson told investigators he felt it was Toolan’s job to file the report since he was the senior commander and the one who had recalled Wilson.
Nothing was done, and the colonel was moved to II MEF as operations officer on April 30, 2016.
“They kind of got in a pointing match at each other, and said, ‘No, it was you,’ ‘No, it was you,’ who had responsibility for him,” said Don Christensen, a retired Air Force colonel now serving as president of the Protect Our Defenders Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to ending rape and sexual assault in the military. Christensen and the foundation are providing legal assistance to the Perry family.
“One of the two was required to put [Wilson] in the Officer Disciplinary Notebook … They would have had to have done an actual investigation,” Christensen said. “Again, the Marine Corps IG found these allegations in Australia against Wilson were substantiated, and if they would have done the investigation, he would have been put in a track to have his Marine Corps career end.”
Christensen agrees with the IG’s decision to pin the lion’s share of blame on Nicholson.
“In this case, Gen. Nicholson did not have the discretion to ignore the crimes committed in Australia by Colonel Wilson and was required to do certain things,” he said. “[Nicholson] failed to do those certain things and as a result Wilson was allowed to move to Lejeune, and then because he was at a Lejeune, he had access to the Perry children.”
While Nicholson originally denied responsibility, he eventually reversed course and accepted blame, according to the IG report. Nicholson did not respond to requests for comment through the Marine Corps. He is retiring from the service after 39 years.
‘Dark culture’
While Wilson settled in unscathed at his new assignment in North Carolina, Perry said her family’s nightmare was just about to begin.
Her Marine Corps major husband had served under Wilson on Okinawa. They arrived in North Carolina shortly after the colonel. Perry said Wilson “lured” them in, inviting them to “get out of the hotel,” to hang out at his house and do laundry. He was alone with their children on several occasions.
During one of these visits, Perry’s 6-year-old daughter told her that Wilson had touched her inappropriately. The family left the house and reported the incident to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Later, her other two daughters made accusations against Wilson. One accused him of molestation and the other said he offered her alcohol. Wilson was later acquitted on those charges.
Perry felt her family couldn’t be the first one victimized by the colonel, so they told NCIS about Wilson’s early relief in Darwin. That was the start of an investigation that ended with the IG report. They were shocked by what was uncovered.
“I didn’t hear all of it until we were sitting in the courtroom,” Perry said. “I had to get up and walk out at one point because I was so bothered. This is a predator, a true predator, and he has been thriving through the ranks for 37 years. How did our military miss him? How did he slip through it?”
On June 28, the Perry family filed three claims – one for each child – under the Federal Tort Claims Act, said Protect Our Defenders spokesman Brian Purchia. They are seeking $10 million each for the younger girls who claimed they were molested and $5 million for their eldest daughter, who suffers guilt for not protecting her younger sisters.
The Marine Corps has six months to pay or deny the request, Christensen said. After that six months, the family then has six months to file suit in federal district court.
Perry said she is concerned that her daughters will need mental health treatment for the rest of their lives – a servicemember who is sexually assaulted can lean on Veterans Affairs for care, but her children are civilians and won’t always be dependents. She said it was unacceptable to think they may have to pay for therapy out of their own pocket.
“For several weeks, my daughter had been coming to me a lot and crying about what Wilson did to her, crying and saying things like, ‘I just want to be normal. I don’t want to be different,’” Perry said. “She feels like she’s different because she’s had this happen to her. It’s heartbreaking … the damage that he did in this little innocent person.”
Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Brian Block said the Marine Corps does “not comment on ongoing litigation. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding Colonel Wilson’s actions in Australia and any follow-on disciplinary action is publicly available and speaks for itself,” he said.
Block said every Marine, regardless of rank or position, is expected to uphold the “values of honor, courage and commitment that define our Corps. When Marines fall short of those ideals, commanders and leaders have a variety of tools at their disposal to address that misconduct,” he said. “Every situation is unique, just as every Marine is unique.”
Perry accused Nicholson of perpetrating a cover-up to protect a friend. She described a “dark culture” in which officers take care of each other and misbehavior is overlooked.
Pedophilia is not misbehaviour! It is perversion, and anyone protecting a pervert predator ought to be disciplined severely.
Christensen said he has seen it often and called for independent prosecutors to make decisions as to which Marines are investigated and whether they are charged. “In our experience we often see senior officers step in to either enable those who’ve committed crimes or try to stop investigations,” he said.
“This shows why it’s so important that allegations of crimes be taken seriously, whether that involves a lance corporal or a colonel or a general,” he added. “You have to take them seriously because there can be lifelong consequences for others down the road if you fail to do that.”
Camp Lejeune, NC
KC man gets decade in prison for child sex cartoons
left on public library printer
BY TONY RIZZO, trizzo@kcstar.com
A Kansas City man who used a public library computer to print out sexually graphic cartoon images of children was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years and one month in prison.
David R. Buie, 63, was already on parole for possession of child pornography last year when an employee of the Mid-Continent Public Library at 9253 Blue Ridge Blvd. found the images on a library printer.
Police were called and investigators determined that Buie’s library card had been used for the print job. Library security cameras showed Buie using a computer at the time the images were printed.
In May, a jury in U.S. District Court in Kansas City found Buie guilty of possessing obscene images of the sexual abuse of children.
Priests caught having afternoon sex in car in Miami Beach
Arresting officer says car didn't even have tinted windows
By Andrew Perez - Reporter, Roy Ramos - Reporter, Andrea Torres - Digital Reporter/Producer, Tim Swift
video not available
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - One of the two Catholic priests who Miami Beach Police Department officers found having oral sex in a parked car on Ocean Drive in South Beach walked out of jail on Tuesday afternoon.
Miami-Dade County corrections officers released Diego Berrio, a 39-year-old priest with the Mission of San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Edwin Giraldo Cortez, a 30-year-old priest from Soacha, Colombia, who served at the St. Aloysius Parish in Chicago, remained in custody.
"It is our responsibility to ensure those who serve our people are fit for ministry," said Anne Maselli, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Chicago. "We take this matter very seriously."
Miami-Dade prosecutors charged both men with lewd and lascivious behavior. Giraldo Cortez, who reportedly served at the church in Chicago for a month, was also charged with indecent exposure.
It was easy for a police officer to spot Berrio and Giraldo Cortez about 3:30 p.m., because their black Volkswagen Beetle didn't have tinted windows, according to the police report. The rental car was parked on Ocean Driver in front of Lummus Park and the Art Deco hotels, between 13th and 14th Streets.
The car (right) was parked next to a park and playground along Ocean Drive.
"The major concern that I had was the fact that it was in public," Judge Jeffrey Rosinek said. "When a police officer can come and just watch. That's a problem."
Rosinek ultimately set bond at $500 for Cortez and $250 for Berrio. Cortez told Rosinek he was scheduled to fly back to Colombia on Wednesday.
It doesn't sound like Judge Rosinek's 'major' concern was very major after all. A minor fine and they are off.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, removed Berrio from ministry, and also will not be allowing Berrio or Giraldo Cortez to minister in the Archdiocese of Chicago, according to Maselli.
Cupich had been dealing with a scandal of his own before the priests' arrest in Miami Beach. A Vatican diplomat, who accused Pope Francis of covering up the Catholic Church's child sex abuse scandals, mentioned Cupich in his recent 11-page letter.
Carlo Maria Vigano, the retired Vatican ambassador to the United States, alleged a "pro-gay ideology" was blinding Cupich. Vigano also accused him of securing his appointment as cardinal in 2016 largely because of a "wicked pact" when a cardinal resigned amid child sex abuse allegations.
"My record in 20 years as a bishop will show that whenever I have information about anybody who misbehaves, not only with children, but with adults, I’ve always acted on it," Cupich said during an interview with the Chicago Tribune, after hearing about the letter published on the National Catholic Register and other outlets.
'Acted' is a rather indefinite verb. Did you report them all to police? I don't think so.
After a grand jury in Pennsylvania reported there were 1,000 sex abuse victims at the hands of 300 priests during a 70-year period, the Attorney General of Illinois set up a sex abuse inquiry that included the Archdiocese of Chicago.
I wonder what they will find on the infamous Cardinal Cody? But they won't be investigating the $5 million that went missing when he was treasurer, nor the married woman he kept in luxury for 25 years. Too bad!
Amid the investigation, a teenage boy said a church employee told him Rev. Gary Graf, a priest at the San Jose Luis Sanchez Del Rio parish in Chicago's Hermosa neighborhood, was attracted to him. When Graf allegedly offered the teen a free car, the teen told his parents. Cupich also removed Graf.
This is probably why when Local 10 News reported the arrest of the two priests in South Beach, a representative of the Archdiocese of Chicago called to ask a Local 10 News employee: "Is that article a joke or something?"
Local 10 News provided the representative of the church with a copy of the arrest report.
No joke! Just another of way too many examples of priests who think their vow of abstinence is a joke. That can only happen if they think God is a joke! They will find out in due course that He is not.
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