Pastor, $1m Church Lawsuit, EMT/Cop Lead Today's USA PnP List

Rural Missouri man's child sexual abuse charges dismissed

Jeff Lehr
Joplin Globe

     

NEOSHO, Mo. — The Newton County prosecutor’s office this week dismissed child sexual abuse charges that a rural Joplin man was facing, citing the reluctance of the family of the victim to pursue prosecution.

Joseph W. Garrett, 40, had been facing charges of statutory sodomy with a child under 14 years of age and second-degree child molestation. Those charges were dismissed at a hearing Monday in Newton County Circuit Court.

A probable-cause affidavit filed in the case alleged that Garrett sexually abused a girl in 2017 and 2018 when she was 8 and 9 years old. The girl was interviewed in December at the Children’s Center in Joplin during the course of an investigation by the Newton County Sheriff’s Department and made disclosures that led to the filing of the charges against Garrett in February.

This is most unfortunate, for if the man did rape the little girl, he will do it again with another girl, or perhaps, several. It is most unfortunate that in the USA there is not a mechanism by which children can tell their story in a safe place and only have to do it once, or perhaps twice. That testimony then being used in court. It should not be a traumatic thing for children to get justice. They deserve it far more than their rapists.

Union County, NJ, man charged with possessing images of child sexual abuse

Bob Makin, Bridgewater Courier News 

A Union County man has been charged with possessing images of child sexual abuse, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a release.

Joseph Hinksmon, 41, of Cranford, is charged in a criminal complaint with one count of possession of child pornography. He was expected to appear Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor in Newark federal court.

On or about July 24, law enforcement lawfully obtained from Hinkmon’s residence multiple computers and electronic storage media belonging to Hinksmon, which contained about 10,000 images and 1,000 videos of child pornography, including images of prepubescent children being sexually abused, according to the release.

The charge of possession of child pornography carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito credited Special Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gregory W. Ehrie in Newark, with the investigation leading to the charge.

Franklin, NJ, man charged with sexually assaulting child in Linden

MyCentralJersey 

A Somerset County man has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a child on multiple occasions, acting Union County Prosecutor Lyndsay V. Ruotolo said in a release Friday.

Daniel Williams, 36, of Franklin, has been charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

The Special Victims Unit, working on a referral, conducted a seven-month investigation that resulted in Williams being identified as a suspect, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Tracy Boyd, who is prosecuting the case. The investigation revealed that the alleged sexual assaults began in Linden approximately five years ago, when the victim was 7 years old, and continued into the following year, Boyd said.

Williams was arrested at his home by members of the Franklin Township Police Department on Monday, and then transported to Union County Jail to await a detention hearing that took place last Friday, according to the release.

Anyone with additional information about the activities of Williams is being urged to contact Special Victims Unit Detective Jennifer Smith at 908-965-3814.

Documents closed in former Shoals, AL, pastor sexual abuse case; another investigation launched

BY CARTER WATKINS, WHNT

FLORENCE, Ala. – Court records to a high-profile sexual abuse case by a former pastor in the Shoals have been closed to the public. At the same time, allegations of sexual abuse are being looked at in another state.

At the Lauderdale County Courthouse, the records concerning former pastor John Thomas Martin have been marked confidential. District Judge Carole Medley reclassified the documents following a request from prosecutors.

In late June, Martin was taken into custody by detectives with One Place of the Shoals. An investigation was launched after a pulpit confession of his sins at Lighthouse Baptist Church on June 23rd.

“During the investigation, it came to light he admitted to four counts of sexual abuse of a child,” said Assistant District Attorney Coty Hand during an interview on July 1st.

According to courthouse officials, the court documents were reclassified to confidential to protect the identities of the victims. That means records are essentially unavailable to the general public, and moving forward, prosecutors and defense attorneys are not allowed to discuss the case outside of court.

According to the church’s web site, Martin had been the pastor at Lighthouse Baptist since 2010. Following the confession to the congregation, Martin immediately resigned.

As far as where the current investigation stands, that is now confidential.

WHNT News 19 has learned Martin is also under investigation in Murfreesboro (7th story on link), Tennessee. Police there are taking a second look at allegations from 2004 in which Martin may have acted inappropriately as a youth pastor at Bellewood Baptist Church. No charges have been filed.

John Thomas Martin remains in the Lauderdale County Detention Center on bail totaling $60,000.

Mattoon, IL, sex abuse suspect now charged with child pornography

DAVE FOPAY 

JG-TC

CHARLESTON -- A Mattoon man recently accused of molesting a boy is now also charged with possessing child pornography.

Jeffrey M. West, 51, is accused of having 10 different items of child pornography that a prosecutor said were discovered during the investigation of the child abuse.

Earlier this month, West pleaded not guilty to a charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse that accused him of fondling the 9-year-old boy while the boy was visiting him on May 15.

That case marked the second sex offense charge against West in 18 years. He pleaded guilty in 2003 to charges accusing him of fondling children during two incidents two years earlier.

The newly filed child pornography charges accuse West of having videos on a computer and, in one instance, on a thumb drive in March. The allegations are that they showed children, including infants in two instances, engaged in various sex acts.

Coles County Assistant State's Attorney Jenifer Schiavone, who's prosecuting the cases against West, said the dates on the charges refer to when authorities believe the pornography was viewed.

The boy's allegations of having been molested led authorities to obtain a search warrant and the child pornography was discovered during the search that followed, Schiavone said.

Contacted Friday, Attorney Todd Reardon, who represents West, said he is "presumed innocent." He declined to comment further, noting the recent filing of the new charges.

Court records show that West posted $2,500 in bond in the new case on Monday. He was previously out of jail in the sexual abuse case.

Circuit Judge Mitchell Shick scheduled West's next hearing for Aug. 22.

The newly filed charges include one child pornography offense that would require a prison sentence of nine to 30 years with a conviction. The other charges could result in a four- to 15-year prison sentence upon conviction.

According to police testimony during an earlier hearing in the sexual abuse case, the boy also said West promised him money in exchange for a lewd photo of himself.

The boy also told police that he visited West at his business, the West Side Motors auto dealership in Mattoon, when a pornographic video was being shown, the testimony indicated.

Henrietta, NY, man sentenced to 30 years in

child sex abuse case

HENRIETTA, N.Y. (WHEC) -- A Henrietta man will now spend the next 30 years in prison for producing child pornography. 

Mark Buechler, 45, was convicted of child pornography involving two minors.

According to federal prosecutors, Buechler was arrested in 2018 following an investigation conducted by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and CPS.

On May 3, 2018, one of the victims, an 11-year-old boy, disclosed to his school counselor that Buechler had sexually abused him at Buechler's home multiple times. 

A few days later, on May 7, investigators interviewed the other victim, an 18-year-old boy, who also disclosed that he was sexually abused by Buechler over an extended period of time when he was younger. 

On two separate occasions, search warrants were conducted at the 45-year-old's Henrietta home. Investigators discovered and seized multiple digital and storage devices including computers, tablets, SD cards, thumb drives, and digital cameras. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was contacted, and on May 24, 2018, a federal search warrant was obtained to review the items that were seized.

Investigators found 8,700 images and two videos of child pornography produced by Buechler. 

"We must protect our children, the most vulnerable and precious members of our community, from predators such as this defendant," stated U.S. Attorney Kennedy. "By combining efforts with our tremendous law enforcement partners in Monroe County, we have teamed up to ensure that we communicate—in the most forceful terms possible—that those who bring harm to our children have no place in our community." 

An Evangelical Megachurch Is Sued for More Than $1 Million in Texas Child Sexual Abuse Case

A woman has sued the Village Church of Flower Mound, Tex., alleging that she was sexually abused by a pastor when she was a child. She is seeking more than $1 million in damages. Credit Annie Flanagan for The New York Times 

By Elizabeth Dias

The New York Times 

A woman who said she was sexually abused as a child by a pastor at one of the country’s most prominent evangelical megachurches sued the church on Friday, alleging gross negligence and seeking more than $1 million in damages.

The case against the Village Church — which is based in Flower Mound, Tex., outside Dallas, and is led by Matt Chandler — is perhaps the most high-profile current lawsuit alleging child sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. It comes as the largest Protestant denomination in the United States has vowed to address widespread sexual abuse in its congregations.

Possibly prompted, in part, by Jimmy Carter's disassociation with SBC.

The suit alleges that the church was “willfully negligent” in its failure to protect a child in its care from being sexually assaulted. It also says the church is liable for the actions of the pastor, who was removed from the staff last year. The woman is seeking damages after she says the abuse caused emotional distress, including an ongoing struggle with depression.

“No one has ever apologized to her, ‘Hey we are so sorry we failed to protect you.’ That is what has stuck with me this entire time,” said Christi Bragg, the young woman’s mother.

Matthew Tonne, the former children’s minister, was indicted by a grand jury in November and arrested in January on charges of sexually molesting Ms. Bragg’s daughter in 2012, when she was 11. Mr. Tonne, whose lawyer has said his client had been falsely accused, faces a forthcoming criminal trial.

The family said the Village has failed to provide them with sufficient answers and support since they told church leaders about the abuse in February 2018.

The Village has “not yet to date demonstrated a good faith desire to resolve this,” said Boz Tchividjian, a lawyer representing the young woman, who is now 18. “We have provided ample opportunity and ample time for that. We have hit a brick wall, and at that point in time we had to make the difficult but necessary decision to press forward to filing the lawsuit.”

Mr. Chandler and a lawyer for the Village, Dustin Gaines, did not immediately respond to requests for comment after the suit was filed.

The suit outlines an extensive timeline of events, first reported in an investigation by The New York Times last month.

Christi Bragg with her daughter, now 18, who alleges that she was sexually abused by the former children’s minister of the Village Church when she was 11. Credit Annie Flanagan for The New York Times

The suit states the Mr. Tonne was able to access and abuse the plaintiff at a Village summer camp for children because her cabin was also the location for some adult staff meetings. Both male and female adults were present at these meetings, in violation of the church’s own policies about people of the opposite sex in children’s cabins, the suit says. On the night of the alleged assault, the suit says that Mr. Tonne met with other adults right outside the girls’ room, giving him the opportunity to enter her room and sexually violate her.

The suit also alleges that the church was not forthcoming to the young woman and the congregation about the reason Mr. Tonne was removed from its staff last year.

The Village has stated repeatedly that Mr. Tonne was removed for alcohol abuse, rather than because of the criminal investigation into whether he had sexually abused a child. When church officials decided to remove him, Mr. Chandler told congregants last month, “we had not been informed that he was the accused.”

But the lawsuit states that the Braggs had told a Village staff member by then that Mr. Tonne was a suspect.

The suit alleges that the church has not taken “independent efforts to ascertain whether Tonne abused any other children under its care and supervision.” The Village has not stated publicly if it has conducted an independent investigation.

When the Southern Baptist Convention met in Alabama last month, the denomination created a committee to evaluate allegations against churches accused of mishandling abuse. Roger S. Oldham, a spokesman for the convention’s executive leadership, said that the committee’s first order of business was to elect a leader, which it did on Monday, and that it is “formulating a plan of action.”

Mr. Chandler briefly interrupted his summer sabbatical to address the Braggs’ allegations at the convention, and then at the Village in a sermon the following Sunday. He disputed that the church had mishandled the case, and stated that he had met with the Bragg family, which Ms. Bragg said was “simply not true.”

Since coming forward last month, the Bragg family said they have lost close friendships and that their daughter has been bullied. The day Mr. Chandler disputed their experience at the convention was “a day of trauma for us as a whole family,” Ms. Bragg said.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s top leaders, who promised last month to fix the way churches address sexual abuse, have not commented on the Braggs’ case.

The State of Texas protects churches and other charitable organizations from damages in lawsuits by capping their maximum liability at $500,000, according to a 1987 law. But the limit does not apply to acts that are “intentional, willfully negligent, or done with conscious indifference or reckless disregard for the safety of others.”

The lawsuit alleges that the damage cap does not apply because the church was “willfully negligent” in its failure to protect a child in its care from being sexually assaulted.

Man charged with 6 child sex abuse crimes in 2 Jefferson County, AL, cities; bond set at $3 million

By Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

A 36-year-old man is facing multiple child sex abuse charges in two Jefferson County cities.

Mario Miranda Gutierrez, who lives in Hoover, is being held in the county jail on bonds totaling more than $3 million. He was indicted earlier this year on charges stemming from a Homewood police investigation and was arrested again last week on warrants obtained by Hoover police.

Because of the age of the two victims, few details are being released about the alleged crimes. Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector said Hoover detectives launched their investigation in April after the family moved from Homewood to Hoover.

The Homewood incidents reportedly happened in 2018, and the Hoover incidents this year.

Gutierrez was indicted March 8 on two counts of sex abuse of a child under the age of 12 and one count of first-degree sex abuse in the Homewood cases. He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail, and then transferred to an immigration holding facility in Louisiana.

Hoover detectives on May 3 obtained three warrants from the Bessemer Cutoff Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office charging Gutierrez with first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy and sex abuse of a child under the age of 12. He was moved from the immigration facility in Louisiana back to the Jefferson County Jail on July 18 and remains behind bars. Bond for the Hoover charges is set at $1 million per charge.

A preliminary hearing is set for early August.

“It’s just very difficult to comprehend how anyone could commit crimes of this nature. Mr. Miranda-Gutierrez’ actions were disgusting and horrendous,’’ Rector said. “There truly are no adequate words to describe his level of depravity.”

“Investigators, DHR workers and child advocacy center employees do this type work every day and it’s not easy for them, to say the least,’’ Rector said. “They do remarkable work in protecting children and rescuing them from situations such as this. There’s no way to ever thank them enough.”

I totally agree. Just doing this blog is difficult enough.

Oklahoma man, Missouri woman take plea deals

in child sexual abuse case

By Jeff Lehr | jlehr@joplinglobe.com  

     

An Oklahoma man and Sarcoxie woman accepted plea offers this week on charges that they took sexual advantage of a 13-year-old girl in March at a Carthage motel.

Alvin E. Brown, 36, of Big Cabin, Oklahoma, pleaded guilty Thursday in Jasper County Circuit Court to a count of statutory sodomy with a child under 14 years old and was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison.

The defendant was facing a second count of statutory rape in the case. That charge was dismissed by his plea agreement, which waived his right to a sentencing assessment. Circuit Judge Gayle Crane accepted the plea deal and assessed the defendant the agreed-upon length of prison term.

Brown was prosecuted as a prior and persistent offender, having been convicted of a felony in Mississippi. As a consequence, he will be required by the Missouri Department of Corrections to serve a higher percentage of his time before becoming eligible for parole.

Amber R. Ramirez, 37, according to authorities, was Brown’s accomplice in his sexual abuse of the girl. Ramirez pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment at a hearing Monday in Crane’s courtroom.

She also was facing a count of statutory rape that was dismissed under the terms of her plea agreement. She could receive up to seven years on the endangerment count. The judge ordered a sentencing assessment of Ramirez and set her sentencing hearing for Sept. 16.

The charges against Brown and Ramirez stem from a birthday party March 1 at her residence in Sarcoxie involving the girl and other juveniles. A probable-cause affidavit states that Ramirez drove four girls gathered for a slumber party to Oklahoma to pick up Brown. When they got back to her place in Sarcoxie, Brown and Ramirez began smoking methamphetamine in front of the victim and offered some to her before engaging in sexual intercourse in front of her, according to the affidavit.

The next morning, they went to a motel in Carthage, where Brown allegedly raped the girl. The affidavit stated Ramirez was present during the sexual assault and at one point assisted Brown by handing him a condom.

Assistant Prosecutor Kimberly Fisher indicated at Brown’s plea hearing that the sodomy charge to which Brown was pleading guilty involved an oral sex act he committed with the girl. Fisher further indicated that had his case gone to trial, the state would have called Ramirez to testify as a witness to the crime.

Wisconsin Assistant AG asks appeals court to uphold 120 year sentence in child sexual assault case

By Heather Poltrock, WZAW

        

Assistant Attorney General Sarah Burgundy is asking an appeals court to uphold the sentence of a former EMT and police officer convicted of child sexual assault. The assaults did not occur in the capacity of his employment.

In May 2018, Jacob Swiedarke was sentenced to 120 years in prison (6th story on link) and 60 years of extended supervision.

Swiedarke argued his sentence was unduly harsh and unconscionable.

He sought postconviction relief, arguing that the court erroneously exercised its sentencing discretion because it failed to comment upon Swiedarke’s lack of a serious prior criminal record, his history of “pro-social behavior including educational accomplishments and a work ethic that became excessive to the detriment of Swiedarke’s mental functioning,” and the recommendations from the pre-sentence investigation writer and the state, which requested a total of 39 to 40 years’ initial confinement.

“The court made clear that it did not want the young victims in their lifetime to have to worry about encountering Swiedarke,” court documents state.

I frequently argue for this perverts to be locked away at least until the victims are adults, but for the rest of their lives??? Wow!

“If there’s anything about this case that shocks the public sentiment, it is Swiedarke’s conduct and crimes, not his sentence. Swiedarke is not entitled to relief,” Burgundy wrote.

Swiedarke’s attorney is expected to issue their reply Aug. 8.

Utah man convicted in fatal bar fight accused of sexually abusing child during sleepover

By Pat Reavy, KSL 

PLEASANT GROVE — A man previously convicted of sucker-punching a man and killing him is now accused of sexually assaulting a girl who was attending a sleepover at his girlfriend's house.

Eon Clayton McNeill, 32, of Pleasant Grove, is charged in 4th District Court with aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony.

On July 14, an 11-year-old girl was attending a sleepover at her friend's house in Pleasant Grove when McNeill approached the sleeping child and twice tried to pull down her shorts and touched her over her clothing, according to charging documents. She told police the man told her to trust him and that he wouldn't hurt her.

"The victim was saying 'no' loud enough that her friend started to wake up and defendant went back in his room," the charges state.

About 5 a.m. the girl told her friend that she needed to get out of the house and ran to her grandmother's house several blocks away, according to charging documents.

Police say McNeill was dating the mother of children living at the apartment and had spent the night there. He denied the allegations and said he only got up to go to the bathroom because he was sick, a police affidavit states. McNeill's next court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 27.

In 2013, he was convicted of criminal homicide by assault and obstructing justice, both third-degree felonies. In that case, in 2012 a man was escorted out of a bar in American Fork for being too intoxicated and "becoming a problem," charging documents state. McNeill, who was also in the bar and "was apparently irritated at the victim's behavior," followed the man outside and "cold cocked" him, punching him in the head without provocation or warning, the charges state.

Trenton Hall fell to the ground and his head hit the pavement, causing a skull fracture. He died a few days later.

McNeill was sentenced to two terms of zero to five years in prison. The sentences were ordered to be served concurrent and concurrent with other sentences.

In 2009, McNeill pleaded guilty to an amended charge of attempted dealing in harmful materials to a minor. In 2007, he was convicted of drug possession and sentenced to up to five years at the Utah State Prison.