Former California Christian school staff member
arrested on suspicion of child sex abuse
BY DEKE FARROWModesto Bee
A former staff member at a Christian school in Tuolumne was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of sexually abusing underage students in the 1990s.
Mona McGrady, 61, was the target of a nearly 6-month-long investigation, the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office announced. She had served as sports team coordinator and a coach at Mother Lode Christian School, 18393 Gardner Ave, Tuolumne.
The reported incidents occurred between 1995-97, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sgt. Andrea Benson said Tuesday afternoon. One alleged victim initially reported abuse, she said, and detectives are interviewing another. “The investigation is ongoing,” Benson said in an email to The Bee, “so possibly more out there.”
McGrady, who resigned from the school almost two decades ago, the Sheriff’s Office says, faces 13 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child 14 or 15 years old. She also faces one count of sexual penetration with a foreign object of a person under 18.
California church volunteer charged with
child rape and sexual assault on an animal
By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY | The Press-Enterprise
An Arizona man charged here Tuesday with four counts of child rape was described by authorities as a volunteer at a church in Rancho Cucamonga.
Christopher Allen Sjaarda, 38, of Mohave Valley, Arizona also “travels between California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada and may have had contact with other victims in those states,” according to a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities did not identify the church at which Sjaarda was a volunteer.
Sjaarda was arrested Saturday in Rancho Cucamonga by sheriff’s detectives. They had been investigating him on a complaint that he had sexually abused a minor girl over the past five years, according to the release.
The four felony child rape charges each say the alleged violations took place on a child 10 years of age or younger. Sjaarda also faces two felony child pornography charges and a misdemeanor sexual assault on an animal charge. Court records did not show his plea at midday Tuesday.
He was in custody without bail at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
The case is still under investigation. Anyone with information about is asked to call the Rancho Cucamonga Police Detective Division at 909-477-2800. Anonymous tips can be made through the We-tip hotline at 1-800-782-7463 or www.wetip.com.
Most Wanted: Robert Shane Piatt, Sexual abuse of a child in California
BY BEE STAFF REPORTS
Modesto Bee
NAME: Robert Shane Piatt
CHARGE: Sexual abuse of a child
DESCRIPTION: 59 years old, brown hair, brown eyes
THE CASE: Piatt is wanted by the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department on suspicion of committing continuous sexual abuse of a child younger than 14 years old.
NOTES: Sheriff’s officials said Piatt is known to frequent Keyes, Modesto and Oakdale.
REPORT A TIP: Police ask anyone with information about Piatt’s whereabouts to call Crime Stoppers at 209-521-4636. Tipsters can email through the Crime Stoppers website, stancrimetips.com. Callers to Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
Las Vegas police officer given 25 life sentences
in child sex abuse case
Theil would be eligible for parole in 2412
Kristen DeSilva
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -- A former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer was sentenced on Wednesday for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a child.
According to court records, Bret Theil was given 25 consecutive life sentences on 28 felony counts. Due to the structure of the sentencing, Theil would be eligible for parole in 2412.
A grand jury indicted Theil in February 2018 on charges of first-degree kidnapping of a minor, lewdness with a child under the age of 14, sexual assault with a minor under 14 years, sexual assault with a minor under sixteen years, sexual assault and child abuse, neglect or endangerment.
He was taken into custody following a standoff (5th story on link) that started Feb. 7, 2018, when officers responded to a report of a suicidal person near Corn Creek Road and U.S. 95. Responding officers confirmed the person was Theil.
According to the indictment, the abuse started when the child was 9 or 10 years old, in 2005 or 2006. Police said the preliminary investigation suggested Theil abused a family member for several years before it was brought to the attention of law enforcement.
Washington State to pay $1.7 million to woman
who suffered unspeakable abuse as a child
In spite of many signs, 3 pregnancies and various reports the Dept of Social and Health Services did nothing to help her
BY ALEXIS KRELL
The News Tribune
Washington state will pay $1.7 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman who said it failed to protect her from abuse as a child.
The woman, identified in court records by the initials K.H., was 13 when a man in his 30s started physically and sexually abusing her, a press release from her attorney said Tuesday.
“Over and over, (the state Department of Social and Health Services) received glaring reports that K.H. was being physically and sexually abused, but over and over, DSHS ignored them,” attorney Michael T. Pfau said in the statement. “I do not understand how you can fail to take action when you receive reports that a man in his mid-30s has impregnated a teenage girl and is feeding her crack cocaine. As a result, K.H. suffered years of unspeakable trauma and abuse that should never have occurred.”
The state Department of Children, Youth and Families, the agency that now oversees child protective services, settled the lawsuit, which was filed in Pierce County Superior Court.
“The Department of Children, Youth, and Families hopes this settlement allows KH to lead a life that will provide the support she needs,” Ross Hunter, secretary of the agency, said in a statement.
According to the statement from K.H.’s attorney:
The lawsuit argued that the state should have investigated in January 1991 — when a teacher reported that K.H. was pregnant and lived with the older father — and that such an investigation would have showed that a 37-year-old drug dealer was abusing K.H.
The man provided cocaine to control K.H.’s mother, K.H. and K.H.’s siblings, the lawsuit alleged. She said the state didn’t do much to investigate earlier complaints that the mother’s drug addiction was putting K.H. and her siblings in danger.
K.H. gave birth to the man’s child in June 1991 when she was 15. Records a couple months later show the state started calling the man her boyfriend.
In addition to the teacher, a police officer later reported that the teenager had a baby with a man in his 30s and that she was living with him.
The man had drug charges and violent felonies in his criminal history, such as aiming and discharging a firearm, that K..H. argued would have shown up in a background check.
The abuse continued, she said, and she had two more children.
K.H. said it stopped when the man went to prison in 1994 for drug trafficking. Meanwhile, she said she struggled with drug addiction, homelessness, prostitution and other abusive relationships.
She started to get help after the man died in 2016.
Committee Republicans Block Survivor Testimony on Arizona Child Sex Abuse Bill
No! I am not a Democrat, not in the least, except when it comes to legislation regarding child sex abuse. In state after state Republicans have stymied reform of sickeningly inadequate statute of limitations laws. They are in the pockets of the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, and their insurance companies, and it appears they couldn't possibly care less for survivors of child sex abuse.
ELIZABETH WHITMAN | Phoenix New Times
The first time Lezleigh Jaworski spoke publicly about the sexual abuse she endured as an 11-year-old was on Monday morning, during a press conference at the Arizona State Capitol.
Immediately afterward, Jaworski, who is now 33, sat through a hearing of the House Rules Committee. Its members were deciding what to do with a bill that could directly affect the ability of survivors like her to file lawsuits against their abusers.
But the five Republicans on that eight-member committee did not want to hear what survivors like Jaworski thought of the proposed legislation.
Typically, the Rules Committee doesn't allow for testimony, so Democratic Representative Diego Espinoza asked Chairman Anthony Kern, a Republican, to create an exception.
For one thing, several survivors were there and ready to speak, Espinoza pointed out. For another, the bill in question was one of three separate bills floating around the Arizona Legislature that would change the civil statute of limitations for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
Espinoza said he wanted to know how those survivors felt about the differences between those bills, and whether they'd be for or against the one at hand, HB 2746 (for the record, they're against it, and this is why).
"I’d like to hear from them, I really would," Espinoza said, sounding almost pleading.
Kern, unsympathetic, replied, "Going back to my original comment on the previous bill, we did hear two hours of testimony there."
Espinoza pushed back. “It’s a different bill, sir," he said. "You’re speaking of two different bills.”
The bill Kern was referring to, SB 1101, would have given survivors until the age of 30 to sue, and it would've granted previously time-barred victims a one or two-year window in which to file suit. It was heard in the House Appropriations Committee in early April, where Chairwoman Regina Cobb blocked it from going to a vote.
HB 2746, on the other hand, introduced just last Thursday, would have given survivors until the age of 30 to file a civil suit, with no deliberate retroactive opportunities for anyone older than that to sue. Current law gives survivors until the age of 20 to sue in civil court, unless their abuser is charged in criminal court, which buys them one year from the disposition of that case — and that's still only if prosecutors decide to file charges.
For those reasons, advocates and experts say HB 2746 neither gives survivors a fair shot at justice nor protects current or future victims.
The five Republicans on the House Rules Committee Elizabeth Whitman
But Kern was insistent. “It’s a very similar bill,” he said, eliciting drawn-out murmurs of "Noooo" from the audience. He told Espinoza, "We heard lots of testimony then. I'm not going to hear testimony now."
Democratic Representative Athena Salman, tearing up, sounded quietly livid.
"I’m trying to do my job as a state representative, and I cannot do my job without hearing the testimony," she said. "This problem is so prevalent. It is a human tragedy," she said, referring to the sexual abuse of children.
Soon, a 5-3 vote along party lines vote settled the matter: The survivors shall not speak.
Kern, Vice Chairman T.J. Shope, House Speaker Rusty Bowers, and Representatives Warren Petersen and Becky Nutt — all Republicans — voted against Espinoza, Salman and their fellow Democrat Domingo DeGrazia.
Why? Money, apparently.
In the words of Kern: "We have the obligation to not only protect those that have been affected by these abuses, but we have a constitutional right to protect businesses and people that are innocent out there."
The insurance industry has lobbied against bills that would create a window allowing survivors to file lawsuits retroactively.
In a five-page letter sent to Republican Representative John Allen in early April, the American Tort Reform Association said it was "concerned" with the retroactive window in SB 1101, claiming that "organizations such as schools, boys and girls clubs, and others will be at risk of claims based on actions of people that may no longer be alive."
Mike Low, lobbyist for the Mutual Insurance Corporation of Arizona, which is against SB 1101, has previously told Phoenix New Times that opening up a window to revive time-barred claims "could create real chaos from our standpoint." He said his client hasn't formally taken a position on HB 2746 yet, but called it an "improvement," a word that Kern and other Republicans wore out on Monday during the House Rules Committee meeting.
SB 1101 — the only bill on this subject that has received a hearing — created a window "where anybody at any time without any proof can file a sexual offense claim, and that to me was nothing more than attorneys lining their pockets,” Kern said.
HB 2746, he said, was better. "It gives victims a voice."
Someone in the audience, where the silenced victims sat, let out a quiet but audible, "Booooooo."
The vice chairman, Shope, took some time to expound on why HB 2746 was so great. It extended the statute of limitations from the age of 20 to the age of 30, he said, which was "undoubtedly an improvement." As Shope waxed on, Kern nodded approvingly.
It's still pathetically inadequate. There should be no age limit. If a lawsuit is unfair to a particular person or organization, we should be trusting the courts to realize that. Apparently, Republicans don't.
"Well said, Vice Chair," Kern said, after Shope finally finished.
"He's like the worst person ever!" one survivor in the audience whispered to the woman next to her, as Kern spoke.
The bill passed, 5-3, out of committee, and received a second read on Monday. Boyer said he hoped the full House could meet to discuss the bill.
Republican State Senator Paul Boyer, who sponsored the other bills, SB 1101 and SB 1255, and described HB 2746 as a "sham," told reporters after the House Committee meeting that he is still holding out on a budget vote until one of his bills is brought to the floor for a vote.
Afterward, Jaworski, who is now 33 and a registered Republican, told New Times, "I've waited 20 years to have a voice."
But Republicans, she said, "don't even want to hear what we have to say."
"It's never going to matter to them," she said. "I feel let down by my own party."
Jaworski learned when she was 22 that the family member who abused her also abused her sisters. Her younger sister was the first to speak out.
During the press conference Monday morning, she described how the abuse had torn apart her family. Meanwhile, the family member who abused them is still out there. He can still date women who have children, she said. If he wanted, he could work in a school.
"They think it's all about money," Jaworski told New Times, referring to the lawmakers who had silenced her that day. She didn't want money, she said. "I want people to know what he's done."
Wyoming pedophile attempts suicide
hours before sentencing
TOM MORTON, K2
A Mills man guilty of sexual abuse of a minor attempted suicide in the county jail about four hours before his sentencing hearing in Natrona County District Court on Wednesday, an act that the district attorney called another effort to avoid punishment.
Of course, it doesn't work, even if you are successful in killing yourself, there is only judgment waiting on the other side of life for unrepentant pedophiles.
Sheriff's Sgt. Aaron Shatto said there was a suicide attempt at the jail at 4:25 a.m., and the person was taken to the Wyoming Medical Center for observation
Aaron Shatto did not identify the person, but the attorneys confirmed at the hearing that it was James Sanders, who was taken to the Townsend Justice Center to appear before Judge Daniel Forgey.
In October, Sanders pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, which is punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss four other charges. They recommended a sentence of 12-20 years in prison consecutive to any punishment he may receive in a separate case of child abuse.
At the beginning of the hearing, Sanders quietly asked if its could be delayed because he was still feeling bad after the attempt.
Forgey asked Sanders if he knew where he was, if he knew he was in a courtroom, if he knew he was in Casper and why he was there. Sanders mumbled that he thought he was there because of something about sexual abuse.
Forgey asked Sanders' public defender Dylan Rosalez if there had been a Title 25 emergency hold on the defendant after the attempt, to which Rosalez said no.
District Attorney Dan Itzen said he got a phone call at 5 a.m. about the attempt, but said it was another effort to stall the sentencing which has been on hold since the plea agreement. "Frankly, I'm tired of it," Itzen said. "At some point the game's up."
Forgey decided to proceed with the sentencing, saying Sanders was aware enough and competent to understand what is happening.
The judge added that Sanders in April was found competent after a mental health evaluation to proceed with the separate child abuse case. Sanders quietly said "no" when Forgey gave him the opportunity to comment.
When Forgey handed down the sentence, he reviewed the terms of the plea agreement, adding the public defender fees should be waived because Sanders won't be able to pay while incarcerated
The case began four years ago when a Mills police officer was assigned to investigate a report of child sexual abuse in April 2015.
According to court documents, the victim later told a forensic interviewer at the Children's Advocacy Project that she had been watching television with her sisters while her mother wasn't home. Sanders reportedly knocked on the front door, one of the victim's sisters opened the door, and Sanders pushed his way inside the house.
The alleged victim and another girl went into the bathroom. Sanders followed, forced the other girl out and made the victim perform oral sex on him.
The victim later told her mother, "James came into the house and had sex with me, he had me pinned and I didn't want to."
After the hearing, Itzen said he still didn't know why the Mills Police Department took so long to turn the case over to the District Attorney's Office.
Most wanted man in Tulsa, OK:
Man accused of child sexual abuse
TULSA — The most wanted man in Tulsa this week is being sought after he was accused of child sexual abuse.
Austin Havenar, 19, is currently wanted on two counts of child sexual abuse.
The man was described as being 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing about 180 pounds.
Police say the man will be held on a $50,000 bail when he is captured.
Anyone who can help police locate the whereabouts of the man is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS.
Muskogee, OK man charged with child sexual abuse
Muskogee County District Attorney Orvil Loge charged a Muskogee man Tuesday with child sexual abuse.
Court documents show the charge filed against Seth McClintock, 30, stems from conduct alleged to have occurred between Nov. 24, 2013, and May 2.
Investigators allege in an affidavit filed with the charging information the boy told "a therapist that Seth McClintock had digitally penetrated his anus."
McClintock is being held in lieu of a $50,000 bond in the Muskogee City/County Detention Facility.
He is scheduled to appear June 4 for the felony sounding docket.
Prosecutor describes “House of horrors” in Texas child sex abuse trial
By Field Walsh, TXK Today
NEW BOSTON, Texas: The residence where a 12-year-old girl was allegedly sexually abused was described as a “House of horrors” by a prosecutor during opening statements Tuesday.
Charles Edward Garton, 40, is facing two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told the jury that the home Garton shared with now-deceased John Littleton was the site of illegal activities that included the sexual exploitation of children.
Littleton, 71, died in June 2018 before he could be tried on multiple charges of human trafficking. Garton and Littleton shared a house on Meadow Lane in New Boston for 13 years.
Garton is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl from February 2018 to April 2018 who came to live in the home with her older sister when their grandparents were no longer able to care for them. The mother of the sisters was allegedly sexually abused by Littleton beginning when she was 11.
Texas Department of Public Safety Special Agent Josh Vera testified under direct examination by Assistant District Attorney Craig Foster that he has known Garton for many years and was
In the video, Garton initially denies any misconduct but eventually describes sexual contact with the girl in graphic detail.
Garton’s attorney, Bart Craytor of Texarkana, said the confession was coaxed out of Garton after hours and hours of questioning by investigators. Craytor told the jury in opening statements that Garton was a father to the alleged victim and her sister and that he went without food to make sure they got to eat.
The jury was instructed by 102nd District Judge Jeff Addison to return to court Wednesday morning to continue hearing testimony in the case. Garton faces five to 99 years or life in prison on each of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Longtime Vermont Foster Parent Charged
With Sexual Assault Of A Child
By EMILY CORWIN , VPR
A Milton man who has been a foster parent in Vermont for 25 years was arraigned Tuesday on charges including sexual assault of a child, police said.
The Department of Children and Families received the initial report and referred it to the Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations in early May. Detective Sergeant Brian LaBarge said the defendent, Keith LaFlam, 59, was arrested Monday. He will remain incarcerated pending a bail hearing.
LaBarge said he is "not aware of any other complaints," against LaFlam.
However, LaBarge says, anyone who wishes to report alleged incidents involving LaFlam is encouraged to contact his unit, DCF, or both.
Warrensburg, NY deputy supervisor charged
with child sex abuse
DON LEHMAN dlehman@poststar.com
WARRENSBURG — A local business owner who is a former Warrensburg Town Board member was arrested late Tuesday for allegedly sexually abusing a young boy, police said.
Dean G. Ackley, 59, was charged with first-degree criminal sexual act and first-degree sexual abuse, both felonies, and misdemeanor sexual abuse for accusations that he had sexual contact with a child with whom he was acquainted.
He was accused of forcibly abusing the boy during one of the incidents, according to police.
Police said the child was 14 and 15 years old, and the alleged incidents happened in the town of Warrensburg between last summer and earlier this month.
Warren County sheriff’s Lt. Steve Stockdale said police received information there were multiple sexual assaults, and the investigation was continuing this week with additional charges anticipated.
Ackley was arraigned in Warrensburg Town Court and released on $5,000 cash bail pending further prosecution June 12.
He operates Direct Deposit Bottle Redemption Center in Warrensburg, a business he started more than 12 years ago while he was on the Warrensburg Town Board.
He was on the Town Board for 16 years, serving as deputy town supervisor for several years in the early 2000s, before he lost a re-election bid in 2011.
He also formerly worked for Warren County in a number of departments in the 1990s and 2000s, including the Parks & Recreation Department before he left the county’s employ.
A phone message left for Ackley at his business Wednesday was not returned.
Warrensburg Supervisor Kevin Geraghty called the accusations “surprising,” as Ackley has been involved with town government and the business community for decades. He said Ackley recently came to Town Hall to lobby town officials to support a bill that would raise the state bottle deposit fee.
“This is going to send shock waves through the community,” Geraghty said.
First-degree criminal sexual act is punishable by up to 25 years in state prison.
Anyone with information in the case was asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at 518-732-2500. Sheriff’s investigators Doug David, Jesse Wittenberg and Ed Affinito are handling the case.
North Carolina man sentenced after
pleading guilty to child sex crimes
BURKE COUNTY, N.C. -
Omar Christian Regino Vera, 35, of Morganton, was sentenced to three to five years in prison after being convicted of two counts of taking indecent liberties with children.
The offenses occurred in April 2016 and involved a pair of minor female children, ages 8 and 11 at the time.
Vera pleaded guilty Monday in Burke County Superior Court.
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