Ex Orlando teacher avoids prison time in
child sex abuse case
WESH ORLANDO, Fla. —
A former Orlando preschool teacher convicted of child molestation was sentenced to 15 years probation during a sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Jayrico Hamilton plead guilty in March to three counts of lewd conduct on a child.
He was released from jail Tuesday night.
Hamilton will spend the next 15 years on probation and will be required to register as a sex offender.
Before his sentence was handed down, the family of one of the victims, who was age four at the time, expressed their feelings.
"We want you to understand that you have hurt us terribly," the victim's father said. "We have to live every day with this. We have to live every day knowing what he put him through," the victim's mother said, tearfully.
Hamilton was originally charged with sexual battery on a child under 12 and if he’d been tried on that charge he could’ve gotten life in prison.
Wow! That's quite the plea deal. From life to probation, for a repeat offender. Good lawyer. DA - not so much. What state will he show up in next?
Hamilton was a teacher at Bright Horizons in Baldwin Park. The Baldwin Park center hired Hamilton in 2016 and was later fined and put on probation by the state for not doing enough to vet Hamilton's background, which would have revealed a prior conviction in Virginia.
Seattle Boy Scouts chapter settles suit over longstanding child sex abuse
by KOMO News
SEATTLE - A local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America has settled a lawsuit brought by a Washington state man who alleges he was sexually abused at the age of 14 by two scout leaders who had previously been identified in the Boy Scouts' "perversion files" yet were allowed to keep working with children for several years.
According to the lawsuit, the abuse took place in 1983 when the victim was training to be a counselor at the Fire Mountain Boy Scout Camp in Mount Vernon. The victim claims he was sexually abused by a man who served as the camp's "health officer" and another who worked as its "aquatics instructor."
Both men are listed in the Boy Scout’s “ineligible volunteer” files, which are confidential files the Boy Scouts maintained on scout leaders who it deemed ineligible to volunteer for a variety of reasons, including “perversion,” according to the suit.
The lawsuit was settled by the Boy Scouts of America and the Everett-based Evergreen Area Council just before the case was about to head to trial in King County Superior Court and before the judge could rule on a motion that would have ordered the Boy Scouts to provide the victim with all of their ineligible volunteer files.
The amount of the settlement is confidential. The victim is not being identified.
According to the Boy Scouts' files, in the 1960s the "health officer" was removed from his position as a scoutmaster in Iowa based on allegations that he used his position as a scout leader to sexually abuse children. In court papers, the victim alleged the Boy Scouts allowed him to return to scouting in the early 1970s despite its knowledge that he posed a danger to children.
In 1980 the Boy Scouts wrote to the Evergreen Area Council about again removing the "health officer," but the Boy Scouts ultimately agreed he could continue as a scout leader "on probation." The lawsuit says the Boy Scouts allowed the "health officer" to hold a number of leadership positions, including at the camp where the victim claims the man sexually abused him.
Michelle Esteban | Boy Scouts Settlement
The Boy Scout file for the other volunteer, the "aquatics instructor," indicates he was removed from scouting in 1987 after he was convicted of molesting children in his capacity as a school bus driver for the Everett School District.
But the victim provided evidence that the Boy Scouts received multiple complaints about the man as early as the late 1970s, including complaints from a scoutmaster who testified he personally reported concerns about the man molesting children to the Evergreen Area Council’s scout executive in 1981. Yet he was allowed to continue as a scout leader.
The Boy Scouts confirmed that the organization has reached a "mutually agreed upon settlement" with the victim.
Nappo, the man's lawyer, and his law partner, Michael T. Pfau, said the local victim's case is undoubtedly just the tip of the iceberg, yet the Boy Scouts so far have declined to release all of their "perversion files."
"Given more and more abuse survivors are coming forward, we have every reason to believe the number of abusive Boy Scout leaders (nationwide) could exceed 10,000," Pfau said. "If the Boy Scouts want to be forgiven the first step is for them to redact the names of abuse survivors and then release the files.”
California karate instructor withdraws plea deal
- heading to trial
BY ROSALIO AHUMADA
A Modesto karate instructor on Tuesday was supposed to be sentenced to 29 years and eight months in prison for sexually abusing several of his students. But the defendant wants to withdraw his no contest plea, which could send the Stanislaus County child abuse case to trial.
Carlos Silva Loya was the owner and master instructor of Kempo Karate School when he was arrested in August 2016. Prosecutors initially charged him with 29 felony counts of sexual abuse based on allegations from boys at his school.
One boy, identified in court as John Doe 1, was the first to allege Loya had sexually abused him. During a police interrogation, Loya confessed to having a sexual relationship with John Doe 1, according to testimony from Modesto police Detective Sean Dodge.
At a March 2017 preliminary hearing, Dodge testified that Loya admitted to having sex with the boy five times and was willing to write a letter of apology. After a news report about Loya’s arrest appeared in The Modesto Bee, Dodge said, several other boys reported that Loya abused them, as well.
Dodge questioned Loya shortly after his arrest. The detective told the judge that Loya thought he was being questioned because the defendant was a registered sex offender stemming from a sexual battery conviction about 25 years ago.
On March 26, Loya and the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office agreed to the plea deal. Loya pleaded no contest to seven counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts with a child and one count of committing sodomy by force on a child younger than 14 years old. The rest of the charges were dropped.
Loya returned to court Tuesday afternoon. His attorney, Ben Jacob, told the judge that his client wanted to explore the possibility of withdrawing his plea. Jacob asked the judge to postpone the hearing so Loya could have time to file a motion to withdraw his plea.
Loya has hired a new attorney, Lewis Wentz, to help him conduct research and file the motion. On Tuesday, Wentz told the judge that Loya suffered a severe head injury about six years ago. The attorney said he needs time to hire a head trauma expert to examine Loya, presumably to determine whether Loya’s injury provides the legal grounds to withdraw his plea.
Wentz also said he needs time to review the voluminous case before filing the motion to withdraw the plea.
Deputy District Attorney Erin Schwartz told the judge that the defendant has no legal basis to withdraw his plea. She argued that Loya has had plenty of time to consider a trial and a plea deal.
Schwartz said Loya has had other attorneys represent him in this case, including the county’s Public Defender’s Office, and Jacob has been on this case for more than a year. She asked the judge to proceed with the sentencing.
Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Thomas Zeff said the court can’t deny the defendant his right to file a motion to withdraw his plea. “I don’t think I have much of a choice in the matter,” Zeff said in court.
The judge scheduled the defendant to return to court July 23 to argue his motion to withdraw his plea. If Zeff rejects the defense motion, he will then reschedule Loya’s sentencing.
It was an agreed upon sentence. If the motion is denied, why can't the judge just sentence him then. Why schedule another hearing?
Loya remains in custody at the Stanislaus County Jail, where he has been since Aug. 17, 2016.
West Virginia man charged with sexually abusing 9 y/o girl
By WSAZ News
LOGAN COUNTY, W.Va. -- A man from Logan County is accused of sexually abusing a child.
Albert Hoosier, 37, of Mallory, is facing one count of sexual abuse.
West Virginia State Police is handling the investigation. Investigators received the complaint Friday, May 3.
Troopers say Hoosier confessed to abusing a 9-year-old girl.
Hoosier is in the Southwestern Regional Jail without bail.
Utah man convicted of child sex abuse to spend
15 years to life in prison
By Amy Macavinta
Idaho State Journal
A Logan man who will spend a minimum of 15 years in prison expressed remorse Tuesday for sexually assaulting a young child hundreds of times.
Trisden Smith, 22, was charged in January with 20 counts of child sex abuse ranging from rape and sodomy on a child to the one charge he pleaded guilty to — aggravated sexual abuse, a charge that is representative of his position of trust over the girl.
“If he felt bad, he could have stopped after the first time — or the second time, or the third time, or the 300th time,” said Cache County prosecutor Jake Gordon. “All of the remorse he is expressing now … I think it is a little disingenuous.”
They always have remorse when they are caught. But the remorse is because they were caught, not for the harm they've done to children.
According to Gordon, the years-long period of abuse only stopped in January this year after the victim reportedly expressed what was happening to her in a statement that was overheard by her mother.
Aggravated abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, generally carries a possible punishment of 15 years to life in the Utah State Prison.
However, state law allows the judge to consider alternative sentencing on this charge if the defense can demonstrate it is in the interest of justice to do so.
Defense attorney Shannon Demler argued that due to Smith’s young age, his lack of history of criminal history, and his expression of remorse, it would be appropriate for the judge to send him to prison for a minimum of either 6 or 10 years rather than the 15 minimum typically associated with aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
However, Gordon said the severity of this case warrants 15-to-life, and in his view, it isn’t enough, calling the maximum sentence a gift to society.
“He wants to blame this on abuse and drugs, but he knew better,” he said.
Judge Brian Cannell said he felt like the maximum sentence is appropriate in this case.
“You are young and you have had challenges, but that doesn’t excuse the behavior,” he said.
NH man sentenced for child/baby sex abuse images
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) A New Hampshire man has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for the transportation and possession of child pornography.
Court documents say Zachary Benoit, 28, of Canaan, was identified in 2017 during an investigation by the Grafton County Sheriff's Department. Authorities said he uploaded numerous images of child sexual abuse, which were intercepted by law enforcement.
The documents said forensic examinations of several of Benoit's electronic devices revealed thousands of images and videos depicting the sexual assaults of children, including babies and toddlers.
Benoit pleaded guilty in November.
Suspect arrested in Michigan child sex abuse case
OKEMOS - Police say they were able to catch a suspect in a child sex abuse case because a store worker recognized him from an incident a month ago.
Meridian Township police responded to a call in the 4800 block of Marsh Road in Okemos back on April 9th. That's after three girls say a man approached them and asked if they wanted to film an adult movie in his van.
The girls ran and reported the incident to police, but they were unable to find him.
But on Sunday, police got a call from a employee at a store who recognized the man from the month before.
Officers caught up with Thomas Allen Thrush, but say he tried to run when they tried to question him. They caught him after a quick chase.
Prosecutors charged Thrush on Tuesday with two crimes - one count of Child Sexual Abusive Activity, and one county of Resisting and Obstructing.
He is currently at the Ingham County jail. A judge set a bond of $75,000. If he makes bond, he won't be allowed to have contact with anyone under the age of 18.
Police continue their investigation. They want anyone with information to reach out to the Meridian Township Police Department.
No comments:
Post a Comment