Former teacher, Scout leader, swim instructor and prolific child molester is dead
While never convicted of any CSA crimes, dozens name him as their molester
By JEFF PETERSON FOR THE FOXBORO REPORTER
Providing belated closure to a tragic chapter in local history, word has been received that former schoolteacher, Boy Scout leader and swim instructor William Sheehan died in Florida two years ago, apparently unknown to his accusers here in Foxboro and elsewhere.
The Rev. William Dudley, pastor of the Union Church of South Foxboro who also serves on the town’s Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Committee, said Tuesday that a member of the Sheehan survivors community living in Florida had just learned that Sheehan died March 23, 2017 of late-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
That information was subsequently corroborated by The Foxboro Reporter through an online records search at the Lee County Clerk’s office in southwest Florida.
Those records show that a death notice for William Edward Sheehan had been recorded on May 5, 2017. While a copy of the actual death notice could not be obtained, an estate tax affidavit recorded four days later by Steven M. Sheehan of 8236 San Carlos Blvd. in Fort Myers confirmed that William E. Sheehan (aka William E. Sheehan Jr.) had died on March 23, 2017.
Sheehan, considered a serial predator who molested dozens of young boys in Foxboro and Florida from the 1960s through the 1980s, was known to be living in a Fort Myers nursing home and suffering from advanced dementia.
He had relocated to Fort Myers from Foxboro with his family in 1981, ostensibly for job security at a time when Bay State cities and towns were grappling with the budgetary impacts of Proposition 2-1/2, just enacted by Massachusetts voters. Hired as a teacher by the local school district, Sheehan also continued his involvement with the Boy Scouts.
A warrant for his arrest had been issued in 2012, after Foxboro police investigated claims from several survivors who went public with their accusations. Due to his medical condition, however, Sheehan was deemed unfit to stand trial and the warrant was never enforced.
Paths to healing
The knowledge that Sheehan remained beyond the reach of law enforcement was a bitter pill for many in the survivors’ community, some of whom sought other paths to healing. One of these, in late 2016, involved a formal apology issued by the board of selectmen on behalf of the town.
The board of selectmen or select board is commonly the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States.
That apology was delivered by Selectman James DeVellis, who is closing out his third term on the board this May. DeVellis this week characterized the matter as a “painful chapter” for townspeople.
“I was not surprised when I heard Sheehan died two years ago and nobody relayed that to the victims, who have never been given a courtesy throughout their saga” DeVellis said via text message.
On one hand, DeVellis said, Foxboro should be proud of the aggressive awareness training program which eventually resulted from the Sheehan tragedy. But he also pointed out those steps were not initiated by local officials or institutions -- and undertaken only because Sheehan’s victims forced the issue..
“Institutions like churches, scouts, towns and universities have instinctively covered this behavior to protect themselves,” he observed.
DeVellis also said he continues to wrestle with unanswered questions surrounding Sheehan’s multi-faceted role in Foxboro, which ended with an abrupt departure and a letter of recommendation to Florida, where he allegedly continued to molest new victims.
“For that, I find it hard to find any closure with his death — just another painful chapter,” he said.
But rest assured, he has not escaped Judgment!
Another watershed event for survivors was the April 2017 demolition of the administration building at Cocasset River Park, the town-owned and operated swimming facility overseen by Sheehan during the 1960s and ‘70s where many of the attacks had taken place.
One of those present for the demolition was Dudley, who several years earlier said publicly that Sheehan had assaulted him at the recreation area off Mill Street. “I am personally comforted to hear that Bill Sheehan is no longer alive to cause harm to anyone,” Dudley said Wednesday morning.
“In his life, he grievously damaged hundreds of people and his death closes a chapter of torment for many, giving them a sense of knowing they no longer must share the world with him. We survivors have reactions from anger to relief, but short of his conviction, we all see this as good news.”
Also on hand at Cocasset River Park to witness the April 2017 demolition was Aaron Averhart, who had traveled from Florida for the occasion.
Averhart, a key figure in the Sheehan drama, told Florida authorities in 1989 that Sheehan molested and raped him over the course of four summers at Dr. Franklin Miles Boy Scout Camp in Charlotte County, Fla.
Although criminal charges were never filed, Sheehan was banned from scouting later that year and had his Florida teaching certificate permanently revoked in 1990.
Years later, after the emergence of social media, Averhart connected with the survivors’ network in Foxboro and began writing a memoir titled “Finding Foxborough,” which chronicles his journey through sexual abuse. And this week, he became the conduit for news of Sheehan’s death.
The sequence of events began last week when Averhart contacted the Fort Myers Free Press in hopes of preparing a story that might help him connecting with other Sheehan survivors in southwest Florida.
When a reporter returned his call this Tuesday, she told him that she had been able to confirm Sheehan’s death in March 2017. Averhart, in turn, reached out to the survivors’ community in Foxboro.
“To be honest my reaction was a mix of celebration and nausea,” he said Wednesday morning. “It’s a bittersweet thing that I’m still trying to wrap my head around.”
Robert Correia, who chairs the Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Committee, also said he had mixed emotions at news of Sheehan’s death. “In one way, he was never convicted of anything,” Correia pointed out. “So in that respect there’s really no proof he actually did anything.”
Florida man accused of child sex abuse arrested in Texas
A 55-year-old Florida man who was wanted on almost a dozen child sex-abuse warrants was arrested Wednesday in Rowlett, police say.
Detectives arrested Michael Glenn Chope about 9 a.m. in the 8100 block of Regatta Drive, near Dalrock Road, after they received information from Florida authorities about his location.
Chope was wanted on 11 felony warrants out of Clay County in Florida, including 10 counts of sexual battery of a child and one count of possession of a photograph of the sexual performance of a child.
The Orange Park man has been the subject of an extensive manhunt in Florida, police said.
Chope is expected to be held at the Dallas County Jail pending extradition to Florida, police said.
Wisconsin man charged with sex assault,
physical abuse of five minors
Sharon Roznik, Fond du Lac Reporter
FOND DU LAC - A Ripon man was charged Wednesday with 31 counts involving abuse and repeated sexual assaults of children, along with child enticement.
Fond du Lac County Circuit Court Judge Richard Nuss ordered 57-year-old Terry Lee Phelps be held on a cash bond of $500,000 for felony charges that include first-degree sexual assault of a child, repeated sexual assault of a child, physical abuse of a child and repeated acts causing bodily harm, exposing intimate parts, felony intimidation of a witness and distribution of THC to minors.
Four girls and a boy told investigators that between September 2016 and October 2018 Phelps forced them to remove clothing and then he spanked them while they were on his lap for doing things that were wrong, like leaving a gum wrapper on the floor or swearing.
A girl born in 2005 said she was hit with a belt by Phelps, a friend of the family, "probably over a thousand times," beginning in sixth grade when she was 9 years old. The girl said Phelps would sexually abuse her when she slept overnight at his house, and he would lie to her and say that her dad did not want her to come home and would not let her leave.
The girl said she was scared to tell the truth because Phelps told her he would do "way worse things" to her if she did.
Three more girls told detectives Phelps also spanked them and would pressure them into smoking weed out in the garage of his residence, the records state. One of the girls said they all called Phelps "Grandpa" and that the abuse took place at locations near Ripon and at the Dartford Inn in Green Lake.
The mother of a young boy born in 2007 said Phelps spanked him as well, and that when the children are with Phelps they "must follow Terry's rules," and go into the bathroom with him, where he does things to them, court records state. At the time Phelps was staying at a Ripon residence in which a woman was babysitting children.
Phelps will next appear in court for a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. May 17.
Upstate NY Man Arrested For Child Sex Abuse
An Erie County man was arrested by members of the Cortland County Sheriffs Office yesterday (April 2) after an investigation into allegations he sexual abused a child.
An investigation by the Sheriffs Office revealed that 27-year-old Robert Burnett, of Alden, NY, had inappropriate contact with a 7-year-old girl while they lived together in the Town of Cortlandville during the Fall of 2016.
Burnett has been charged with Sex Abuse in the 1st Degree, Forcible Touching, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
He was arraigned and released to return on May 6.
Reno Police Arrest Man on Several
Child Sexual Assault Charges
Reno Police say they have arrested a Reno man on several child sexual assault charges.
Police say a tip led them to the suspect, 29-year-old Robert Johnson.
Authorities accuse Johnson of having a relationship with a 13-year-old victim.
Detectives believe this is an isolated incident and there are no other victims.
Johnson was booked into the Washoe County Jail Tuesday on seven counts of sexual assault of a minor.
Kentucky child services employee pleads guilty to sexual abuse of 16 y/o in care
By BRAD STACY The Morehead News
A Morehead man and former Sunrise Children Services employee has pleaded guilty to two counts of first degree sexual abuse after police say he inappropriately touched a 16-year-old female residing at the residential facility for teen girls.
Taylor Ward, 25, of Pikeville, was arrested for the charge on July 14, 2017, and pleaded not guilty during his arraignment the next week.
Ward was a direct-care counselor at Sunrise Children Services’ Morehead residential center formerly located at 2495 Cranston Road. The center closed at the beginning of March.
Sunrise still has multiple locations across the Commonwealth and is state-licensed as a Behavioral Health Services Organization, which provides foster care, residential, therapeutic treatment, and community-based services.
According to the arrest warrant, Kentucky State Police Post 8 Trooper Michael Todd Butler stated that between Dec. 1, 2016, and May 31, 2017, Ward worked for Sunrise and admitted to touching a female juvenile while she was under his care.
The warrant states that the minor child said it occurred on the aforementioned dates on a regular basis.
The uniform citation added that Ward also admitted to engaging in other inappropriate acts with minors while serving as an employee at Sunrise.
Butler testified during a preliminary hearing in Rowan County District Court to show probable cause.
The KSP trooper said that while the alleged victim was living at another residential center after leaving the Morehead facility, she told a therapist that a man in their 20s in the Morehead Center forced her to take off her clothes and then touched her inappropriately.
Butler said the therapist immediately filed a report about the accusation.
In a July 12, 2017, interview with police and a social worker, the alleged victim named Ward as the man who groped and touched her.
Butler said Ward voluntarily came to Post 8 by request to be questioned about the incident, but before the interview started Ward admitted to the act.
The trooper investigating the charge also said Ward told him he believed the act was consensual.
“Ward told me the alleged victim was on restrictions and he knew where the cameras were to avoid being seen,” Butler said. “He also told me that he felt it was a consensual act with the 16-year-old girl.”
On March 15, Ward agreed to plead guilty to two counts of first degree sexual abuse and was sentenced to serve a year in prison.
He is currently lodged in the Rowan County Detention Center.
Melissa Bailey, associate director of communication for Sunrise Children Services, told The Morehead News in 2017 that Ward was immediately terminated by the agency and released a statement from Dale Suttles, president of Sunrise.
“We are incredibly saddened by this situation and our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has been involved in this allegation involving Mr. Ward,” said Suttles. “Giving kids and youth a safe haven is the cornerstone of our mission and values, and our direct-care team members receive extensive training on how to best work with and provide care for our clients. We care deeply about the safety and protection of all children, especially those who have been entrusted to our care.”
Upstate NY man pleaded guilty in child sex abuse case
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) -- One of two people accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually exploiting the child.
Federal prosecutors said that John Kohlmeier, 38, admitted to abusing the child with co-defendant Bonnie Hughes (3rd story on link).
The abuse happened between February and March of 2018.
Prosecutors said that Kohlmeier and Hughes had sexual contact with the child more than once.
Kohlmeier faces a minimum 10 years prison sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for June.
Oklahoma man arraigned for child sex abuse
By Stan Smith
UTICA, Okla. (KXII)- "It's sickening, is the word I would like to use," said John Heath, pastor of Utica Baptist Church.
The allegation that Frank Holliman abused a special needs girl has left many in the town of Utica in disbelief.
"Its something that should have never happened. Took advantage of," said Patricia Greenhall, whose son attends the church.
Holliman was a volunteer music minister for 2 years.
"I was very angry with the person, not with the church. I don't hold the church responsible, I just hold the person responsible," said Greenhall.
Court records state the girl's grandmother told pastor John Heath about what Holliman did, and Heath went to Holliman's house to confront him.
During their conversation, Holliman admitted to Heath he was touching the girls private parts.
That's when Heath first noticed that Holliman had a gun, convinced Holliman was going to hurt himself, Pastor Heath grabbed the gun and after a short struggle got it away from Holliman.
"My first initial reaction was for his safety. The thought of seeing somebody that you care about ending their life in front of you was not something that was not going to happen that day if I was going to put a stop to it," said Heath.
After talking with Holliman, Heath met with deputies. "I would like for him to spend 20 years or more, I think he deserves it, he took advantage of her," said Greenhall.
In the months following the arrest, Heath says the church has learned a lesson. "As people sometimes we trust human beings too much and we've come to realize as Christians at that church, we're all sinners in need of a savior through this," said Heath.
"The church has stood behind us, and we have stood with them, and not held them responsible," said Greenhall.
If convicted, Holliman could face life in prison.
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