Former Texas School Bus Driver Arraigned
on Child Sex Abuse Charges
By: Mike Jimenez 
EDINBURG - A former IDEA Schools bus driver is accused of sexually abusing children. He has been indicted and formally arraigned on additional charges.
Jose Luis Garza appeared in a Hidalgo County courtroom this morning. Garza was arrested last in May 2018 (7th story on link) on several charges of child sex abuse after a child came forward with the allegations of abuse.
Today Garza pled not guilty to three indictments totaling 24 counts. They include: Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child, Indecency with a Child, and Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child. Pre-trial for Jose Luis Garza is set for May 9. Trail date has been set for May 13.
Former Texas A&M Forest Service firefighter ordered to serve 30 years for sexual assaulting a girl for 9 years
CONROE, Texas — A former Texas A&M Forest Service wildland firefighter was ordered to serve 30 years in state prison Wednesday for sexually assaulting a girl for more than nine years, starting when she was 8 years old.
This case was investigated (8th story on link) by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), with assistance from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Montgomery County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Taskforce.
On March 6, in the 359th Montgomery County (Texas) District Court, Jeffrey Pittman, 47, from Porter, Texas, pleaded guilty to and was ordered to serve 30 years in prison for continuous sexual assault of a child; he was also sentenced to 20 years for sexual assault of a child. Pittman’s sentences are to be served concurrently. He is not eligible for early parole.
In March 2018, MCSO began investigating Pittman for allegations of child sex abuse. After it was discovered that he had taken inappropriate photographs of a girl, HSI Houston and the Montgomery County ICAC Task Force were brought in to assist with the investigation.
A forensic search of Pittman’s cellphone revealed numerous pornographic images of children. Investigators subsequently uncovered evidence to confirm suspicions that Pittman had engaged in sex acts with a girl for more than nine years, from the time she was about 8 years old.
Following the announcement, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Mark Dawson, HSI Houston, commended the lengthy sentence and assured the public that removing child predators from the streets remains a top priority for HSI.
“Today’s sentence sends a strong message to child predators everywhere,” said SAC Dawson. “HSI will continue to aggressively pursue those who seek to abuse our most vulnerable population to ensure they are brought to justice for their heinous acts.”
This investigation was conducted under HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 19,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child exploitation material, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2018, more than 3,000 (3191) child predators were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 850 (859) victims identified or rescued.
Weird Ohio minister sought in child sexual abuse case
left a bizarre trail of drugs, sermons, and names
By Adam Ferrise, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Prophet R.L. Bynoe gives weekly sermons online, told followers that God appointed him to foretell the future of those who listened to him and held twice-monthly services at a Beachwood hotel where he promised that he could help heal the sick.
Social media posts from the church’s website insist that speaking with the prophet on the phone will amount to a life-alerting experience. He encouraged people to fight through adversity on an hourlong radio program. His website encourages people to email prayers and offers his book “The Sacred Power of Excellent Leadership” for $25.
But U.S. marshals and local police are now searching for him. Authorities say he is a suspect in a sexual assault against a minor and lied to officials after a February arrest on a drug-dealing warrant that turned out to be for a completely different person.
Authorities have been baffled by Bynoe, who spent time in prison under the name Taj Mahal Frazer (seriously). Officials are trying to figure his real identity and have struggled to do so in the past.
He also tricked U.S. Marshals and other police agencies on Friday when he spoke with them during an hours-long standoff at an East Cleveland apartment building, making them believe he was inside. When they broke down the door, the police found he had been speaking with them through a web cam set up inside the apartment, according to the U.S. marshals.
U.S. Marshals said on Monday they are still searching for Frazer. He had been arrested in February on a federal methamphetamine-dealing warrant from Arizona, but prosecutors in Cleveland later wrote in court records that he was not the man they were looking for, despite sharing the same unusual name.
Frazer, in a hearing to determine his identity following the arrest, said he was the person being sought in the Arizona indictment, according to a transcript of the hearing. Prosecutors did not say how they determined he was not the Taj Mahal Frazer that Arizona authorities were looking for.
Police have not released any information on the sexual abuse accusations, only saying that Frazer is a suspect.
Frazer, born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, runs the Shiloh New Life International, which meets in person twice per week in Embassy Suites by Hilton Hotel in Beachwood off Interstate 271. The congregation met in other area hotels.
Frazer, or Bynoe as he’s called on the church’s website, says he’s been a minister since he was 18 years old and that he’s “known far and wide for his divine accuracy and directness in the Caribbean, South America, South Africa, Europe, and the USA,” the website says.
His wife, Alexis Bynoe, who is listed as a minister and a prophetess on the church’s website, filed their businesses— The Shiloh New Life International Center, LLC. And The Institute of Apostles and Prophets Congress, LLC.— with the Ohio Secretary of State in 2016 and 2017, respectively. His LinkedIn profile says he’s been a pastor for Shiloh New Life International Center since 2002.
U.S. Marshals, however, say that Frazer in 2006 was convicted in a drug-dealing case in which he spent a “significant” amount of time in prison.
Frazer served eight years in prison after a jury found him guilty of drug trafficking and possession. He was released from prison on March 6, 2014 and ended probation 13 months later, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.
The Southeast Area Law Enforcement drug task force began investigating Frazer after anonymous complaints by a woman who said Frazer and two others were ordering large shipments of marijuana to be delivered to women across the area by UPS or FedEx.
The women would take the drugs back to the Maple Heights home that was being used as a stash house and where Frazer lived.
Investigators sifted through Frazer’s garbage twice and finding documents with the name Ronley Bynoe on them. The officers reported searching numerous databases and being unable to find anyone with a Social Security number, driver’s license or any other documentation under that name.
Detectives later found a plane ticket from Cleveland to New York under the name Taj Mahal Frazer. They also reported finding a trip itinerary for a religious conference for the dates that Frazer was in New York. Both times police reported finding loose marijuana and other items used to package drugs for re-selling.
The detectives in that case also had issues trying to identify Frazer. The officers wrote in court records that Frazer had a marijuana possession conviction in Georgia, but investigators later learned the Georgia conviction belonged to a different Taj Mahal Frazer (there can't be two) only after running his fingerprints through a national database.
Investigators on March 3, 2006 raided Frazer’s home after arresting a man who drove from the home with two boxes of marijuana in the bed of his truck.
Frazer pulled up to the home while detectives were watching. They raided the home and found Frazer in the basement, surrounded by a large-scale operation that included some 44 pounds of marijuana that Frazer was cutting up, weighing and putting into gallon-size freezer bags.
Investigators also found various identification cards with the names Taj Mahal Frazer and Ronley Bynoe, according to court records, including an Ohio driver’s license, identification cards from the Virgin Islands and Georgia and a Walt Disney access card with Frazer’s photo on it, but with the name Ronley Bynoe.
Investigators also seized more than $1,600 cash, a gun found under Frazer’s bed and a Scarface plaque in the living room.
During the investigation, authorities seized two of Frazer’s cars because he bought them with drug money. In order to seize Frazer’s cars, officials had to establish that Frazer could have only bought them through illicit means.
Investigators noted that Frazer asked one of the car dealers to hire him so he could show proof of employment. His girlfriend at the time told police he had no job and wasn’t employed and detectives found he lied about his employment history when he bought the cars.
Maine man formally charged with sex abuse of child
By Catherine Pegram
HARMONY, Maine (WABI) - A man from Harmony has been indicted for sex crimes against a child.
69-year-old Darrell Woodard is charged with unlawful sexual contact after a grand jury heard his case last week.
Court documents say he molested the child in July.
The child was under the age of 12 at the time.
Life in prison for Florida woman convicted in
child sex trafficking case
By WCTV Eyewitness News
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) -- A Tallahassee woman found guilty of allowing various drug dealers to sexually abuse a child in exchange for drugs has been sentenced to life in prison.
Monday afternoon, 37-year-old Celeste Chambers received a mandatory life sentence for sexual battery on a child under 12.
At her trial in January, Chambers was also found guilty on four counts of lewd and lascivious conduct, child abuse and human trafficking.
Chambers was ordered to carry a mandatory “sexual predator” designation.
Former Montana school trainer in
sex abuse case set to plead guilty
by The Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. — A former Montana athletic trainer who prosecutors say sexually abused numerous students over decades under the guise of improving their athletic performance is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of coercion and enticement.
The charge is related his use of the internet and telephones in the 1990s to coerce students to engage in sexual activity, but victims and prosecutors contend James "Doc" Jensen Jr.'s abuse occurred since the 1970s.
Jensen, 79, of Miles City is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula. Prosecutors said Jensen persuaded boys to join what he called "The Program" and then systematically abused them.
He faces up to 15 years in federal prison. Jensen's public defender, Steve Babcock, said it was in his client's best interest to plead guilty. Babcock declined further comment ahead of Tuesday's hearing.
A criminal investigation began after more than a dozen alleged victims filed a lawsuit against Jensen and the school district in September. The abuse continued until at least 2002, said Dan Rice, an attorney for the alleged victims.
"Had they (the victims) not come forward, this probably would not have been investigated, and he would have remained living in his apartment in Miles City, right across the street from the middle school where my son goes to school," Rice said.
One former student at Custer County District High School, where Jensen worked for more than two decades, said the trainer convinced boys going through puberty that they would grow stronger by submitting to repeated abuse, which prosecutors said included nude massages and sex acts.
When the high school's football team won three championships in a row, it seemed to confirm the effectiveness of Jensen's program, said the former student, who said he was abused an estimated 300 times. The Associated Press typically does not identify alleged sex abuse victims.
The plea hearing was twice delayed -- once because of a last-minute filing by prosecutors and a second time when Jensen said he wanted to enter his plea before Christensen instead of the magistrate.
Jensen has acknowledged some of the abuse, but denied other allegations. During interviews with investigators, he equated his program to Chinese acupuncture and said he "had applied it to hundreds of children," according to court filings.
The federal indictment was filed in December and focused on Jensen's actions from 1995 until 1999. Prosecutors said Jensen sexually abused students on athletic-related trips to North Dakota and California and pretended he was a teenager online to meet underage boys in the 1990s.
At the time, the statute of limitations for prosecuting child sex crimes was 10 years. That means Jensen hasn't been criminally charged with abusing former students.
Reports said he contacted some of his victims via social media shortly after the statute of limitations ran out. Partially in response to Jensen's case, Montana lawmakers are considering legislation that would end the statute of limitations for prosecuting sex crimes.
Jensen also faces state charges of possessing child pornography after authorities investigating the lawsuit's claims raided his retirement home and found 10 images of underage boys who were nude or engaged in sex acts.
He has pleaded not guilty to the state charges. A trial in that case was scheduled for June.
Former Alabama officer pleads guilty to sex with teen boy in police cruiser
By Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com
A former Oneonta police sergeant pleaded guilty Monday to multiple child sex charges involving a teen boy.
The trial for Nicholas “Shane” Osborn was set to begin in Blount County Circuit Court. He was initially arrested in 2017, first on a DUI charge and four months later on a six-count indictment (5th story on link) charging him with electronic solicitation of a minor, enticing a child for immoral purposes, two counts of second-degree sodomy, second-degree sexual abuse and reckless endangerment.
He had been with the Oneonta Police Department since 2001 at the time of his arrest.
Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said as prosecutors were getting ready to make their opening statement, Osborn entered a blind plea to electronic solicitation of a child, second-degree sodomy, reckless endangerment, and enticing a child for immoral purposes. Pursuant to Osborne’s blind plea, the sentence to be imposed will be decided by the judge at a sentencing hearing to be scheduled for a later date.
Electronic solicitation of a child and second-degree sodomy are Class B felonies each punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Enticing a child for moral purposes is a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Reckless endangerment is a misdemeanor.
According to court documents, Osborne met a 15-year-old boy on the internet via the Grinder App in May 2017. Later that evening, Osborne met the boy while Osborne was on duty and drove him to a church parking lot in Osborn’s police cruiser where Osborn engaged in deviate sexual intercourse with the minor child. Osborne was 39 years old at the time.
In September 2017, the incident was referred to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency for investigation. SBI Agent Justin Kinney was in charge of the investigation.
“Electronic solicitation of children is a continuously developing dangerous trend. I want to once again remind parents to check your child’s phone,’’ Casey said. “Supervise their time on the computer. Do not leave your children exposed to the dangers presented by social media and the web.”
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