Ankeny, Ia., man with Perry home faces
child sex crime charges
By The Perry News
An Ankeny chiropractor with an office in Des Moines and a cabin near Perry was arrested Friday on multiple charges of child sexual abuse, assault and exploitation.
Joshua Blake Hanisch, 39, of Ankeny was charged with four counts of second-degree sex abuse, two counts of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of purchase/possess depiction of minor in sex act and four counts of possession of a controlled substance.
According to court records, Hanisch allegedly abused and assaulted six minor females, all under the age of 12, between May 1, 2016, and Sept. 5, 2018, by touching them inappropriately while giving the children rides in his golf cart,
The Ankeny Police Department began investigating Hanisch in late March after learning from the Iowa Department of Human Services that the chiropractor allegedly sexually abused three minor victims. Further investigation by law enforcement disclosed three more alleged victims of sex abuse.
Search warrants executed April 3 also led to a charge of first-offense purchase/possess depiction of minor in sex act. According to court records, Hanisch “admitted to using his iPhone” between March 10, 2020, and April 3, 2020, “to search the internet for pornography and then watched multiple video clips, believed by him to be children under the age of 15 years old engaged in prohibited sexual acts.”
The search warrants also disclosed a variety of cannabis-related items. According to court records, “a bag containing 50 THC edibles” was found at Hanisch’s workplace at 4539 Douglas Ave. in Des Moines, and “multiple mason jars containing a green leafy substance” and “various containers of THC edibles” were located at Hanisch’s Ankeny residence.
At Hanisch’s cabin south of Perry on Jewell Place, a law enforcement search disclosed “five mason jars, each containing a green leafy substance identified as marijuana,” with a total weight of 1087 grams.
Hanisch is held in the Polk County Jail on a $435,000 cash or surety bond. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing May 13 in Polk County District Court.
California Woman Arrested for Possession of
‘Child Sexual Abuse Material’
Posted by: SNO Staff
MADERA COUNTY — A Madera County woman was arrested this week on charges of possession of “child sexual abuse materials.” The arrest came after the Madera County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Division received a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children regarding internet child sexual abuse material activity in Madera County.
As a result of this tip an investigation was conducted which identified a residence in the 700 block of Blue Oak Lane in Riverstone as a possible source of images of child sexual abuse activity, according to Deputy Sarah Jackson, MCSO public information officer.
On Thursday (April 16), MCSO detectives together with representatives of the Central California ICAC Task Force served a search warrant at the residence.
After a search of electronic devices located at the home, detectives arrested Kristine Mettler, 45, for possession and distribution of child pornography.
Mettler was booked into the Madera County Department of Corrections without incident for the felony violation, with bail set at $25,000. According to court records, bail was subsequently posted and Mettler has been released.
“The Madera County Sheriff’s Office maintains an active relationship with the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and is committed to relentlessly pursuing offenders who utilize the internet to victimize children,” said Deputy Jackson, adding that law enforcement officials have begun using new “terminology” in cases involving child pornography.
“The California Penal Code still designates the crime as ‘child pornography,’” she said. “But there has been a shift toward [using the term] ‘child sexual abuse material/images.’ The purpose in this shift is to be clear that the child victims involved are not consenting, willing participants but real victims in every sense.”
MCSO is asking anyone with information regarding this case or other victims to please contact the Sheriff’s Office at 559-675-7770.
Spanish Fork, Ut, man held without bail for
child sex abuse charges
By Ryann Richardson Daily Herald
A Spanish Fork man was charged in the Provo District Court after allegedly sexually abusing a juvenile male and female under the ages of 12 years old over a period of time.
Authorities arrested 19-year-old Jacob Fernandez on Monday evening after two juvenile victims came forward, telling an adult woman that Fernandez had sexually abused them continuously since 2014, according to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest.
The two juveniles were between the ages of 8 and 11 years old. The female juvenile told authorities that Fernandez had allegedly touched her buttocks and breasts.
The male juvenile told police Fernandez had allegedly been sexually abusing him for two years, including forcing him to perform oral sex on Fernandez between April and July in 2019. The male child also recounted to police several other sexual acts he was forced to commit that are still under investigation.
According to arrest documents, Fernandez allegedly told police he knew what he was doing was wrong, and he was sorry for what he did. Fernandez has no prior criminal history. Fernandez was taken into custody under suspicion of a first-degree felony charge of sodomy on a child.
The Utah County Attorney’s Office filed charges against Fernandez in the Provo District Court on Friday. He is currently facing three first-degree felony charges for sodomy on a child, one first-degree felony charge for aggravated sexual abuse of a child, and a class A misdemeanor charge of lewdness involving a child.
He is being held at the Utah County Jail. His bail was initially set at $21,000 for each sodomy on a child charge, $26,250 for the aggravated sexual abuse charge, and $2,000 for the charge of lewdness involving a child. The total bail was initially set at $91,250.
District Judge Roger Griffin has since signed an order for Fernandez to be held without bail and a pretrial criminal no-contact order also has been filed for the juvenile victims.
Fernandez’ initial appearance was scheduled for Friday afternoon.
KY man arrested on 2016 child sex abuse warrant
By Jill Lyman
HENDERSON, Ky. (WFIE) - Henderson Police have arrested a Zion, Kentucky, man for sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 12.
They say 23-year-old Brian Fulkerson was arrested Monday on Zion Road in Henderson.
Police say a warrant was issued for him in 2016.
Fulkerson is being held on a $20,000 full cash bond.
Ex-Philly school cop facing charges of child sex abuse
by Mensah M. Dean
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A former Philadelphia school police officer has been charged with child sex abuse for incidents in 2013, around the time he faced public scrutiny for misconduct involving juveniles.
Howard Rubin, 51, was arrested Jan. 31 on 12 counts and is being held on $3 million bail, court records show.
The most serious charge, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse — an adult engaging in sodomy with a person 15 or younger — is a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The charges also include witness/victim intimidation, statutory sexual assault of a person 11 years or older, indecent assault of a person under 13 years old, and displaying obscene sexual materials.
The online dockets do not include details of the charges, and the coronavirus pandemic has closed city courts and limited access to records. A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson referred questions about the case to the District Attorney’s Office. Jane Roh, spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office, declined to comment, saying it is an open case.
The online records show that Rubin’s alleged crimes took place on or before July 2013, when Rubin worked as a police officer at Multicultural Academy Charter School in Hunting Park. About a year later, the school fired Rubin, citing a police investigation into claims of inappropriate behavior with students.
In the termination letter, dated Sept. 13, 2014, a copy of which was obtained by The Inquirer, principal James Higgins wrote that “some serious allegations have been made against you, which are now being investigated by police.… While we have yet to complete our investigation, we have determined that your behavior, at the very least, and even by your own admission, was unbecoming of a school police officer and a public employee.”
Howard Rubin is shown with "Empire" cast member Bryshere Yazuan Gray at a Philadelphia social function.
Two weeks later, CBS3 reported Rubin’s firing and said he was under investigation in the sexual assault of a male student. The school’s principal denied the story in a letter to parents the following day.
No charges were filed. And that November, Rubin, a Northeast Philadelphia native who had spent more than 20 years working in security at Philadelphia schools, sued the TV station for defamation and invasion of privacy.
During the litigation, CBS3 obtained his Multicultural Academy personnel file, which said that two days before his termination the school had received three complaints of sexually inappropriate behavior by Rubin with boys, court filings show.
Howard Rubin, a former Philadelphia school police officer who once provided security for rap stars, is facing trial for sexually molesting boys. In this undated photo, he holds a photo of himself with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.
In dismissing Rubin’s lawsuit in October 2015, Common Pleas Court Judge Karen Shreeves-Johns cited his school personnel file, which contained graphic details about his alleged sexual advances and grooming of boys.
Rubin appealed to Superior Court to have his lawsuit against CBS3 reinstated, and the lower court ruling was reversed in July 2017. But three months later, Rubin withdrew the case, court records show.
Rubin has moonlighted as a security guard for rappers and other recording artists, including Biggie Smalls, who he claimed gave him the nickname “the Philly Hip Hop Cop.”
His court-appointed lawyer on the current charges, William Christopher Montoya, said he couldn’t speak to the allegations and has not yet spoken to Rubin because the city courts and jails have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Justices overturn convictions of Carmel, Me, man
serving 27-year sentence for child sex crimes
By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff •
In a rare decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday unanimously overturned the convictions of a Carmel man serving a 27-year sentence on child sexual assault charges because of mistakes his lawyer made.
Richard Joseph Watson, 35, was convicted in July 2015 of two counts of gross sexual assault and one count of unlawful sexual contact, all Class A crimes, and one count of visual sexual aggression against a child, a Class C crime. He was accused giving a 10-year-old female relative a cell phone in exchange for sex, watching pornographic videos with her and showing her how to use sex toys.
Ineffective assistance of counsel is almost always argued at post-conviction review hearings but justices usually do not find that defense attorneys were at fault. The last time a conviction was overturned due to mistakes made by a defense attorney was a year ago when justices granted a new trial to Bartolo Ford, 59, of Lisbon.
The justices found that Portland attorney Daniel Lilley, who died in March 2017, should have allowed Ford to testify in his own defense about the night he led police on a chase in a dump truck. Ford rammed a police cruiser in 2008, and was shot in the hip. He sentenced to nine years in prison for aggravated attempted murder and other charges.
Ford’s retrial was to have been held in Belfast this spring but has been delayed due to the coronavirus epidemic. He remains free on bail.
On Tuesday, the justices found that Watson’s attorney, Robert Van Horn of Ellsworth, prejudiced jurors by playing the victim’s entire video-taped interview with police at the end of Watson’s jury trial. The girl, who was 10 in 2014 at the time of the alleged assaults, testified before the video was played but was not recalled to the stand afterwards for cross examination.
“The decision to provide the jury with two opportunities to hear the victim describe the alleged abuse — in a manner so consistent that even trial counsel testified at the [post-conviction] hearing that it was ‘the same’ — unnecessarily bolstered her credibility,” Justice Joseph Jabar wrote for the state’s high court.
Defense attorneys are expected to discredit the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses.
The defense’s trial strategy was to show that the girl made up the allegations so she could continue to live with her grandparents and not live with Watson.
Former Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy, who prosecuted the case, said on Tuesday that he would recommend reinstating the charges against Watson for a retrial.
“We can easily try this case again,” said Almy, who did not seek re-election in 2018. “In fact, we have more evidence based on statements made by the defendant after he was sentenced [to prove his guilt].”
The final decision on whether to seek a new indictment against Watson by a Penobscot County grand jury will be made by Almy’s successor, Marianne Lynch.
Watson’s original convictions following the trial were upheld by the state’s high court in 2016, where the standard is, in part, whether court procedure was followed properly and whether judges erred in admitting evidence or in giving instructions to jurors.
The reversal came following an appeal of Watson’s post-conviction review in which his new attorney, David Paris of Bath, argued that Van Horn was ineffective at the trial.
District Court Judge John Lucy, who sentenced Watson in October 2015, found on May 30, 2019, that playing the police interview was not prejudicial to the jury and denied a motion to reverse the convictions.
Lucy must reverse his previous post-conviction review order before vacating Watson’s conviction. Lucy also will need to hold a hearing to determine whether Watson can be released on bail while awaiting a new trial.
Watson was free on bail for nearly a year before his trial.
The maximum penalty for Class A crimes is 30 years in prison. The Legislature has instructed judges to sentence defendants convicted of sexually assaulting children under the age of 12 to at least 20 years in prison. The maximum penalty for a Class C crime is five years in prison.
Idaho man sentenced to prison in child sexual abuse case
By Jackson Wilde
An Idaho man who pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges was sentenced to prison on Monday.
Kyle Eugene Joe, 20, of Caldwell, was sentenced to zero to five years in the Utah State Prison to begin immediately. Joe pleaded guilty in February to two counts of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony; attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree charge amended to a third-degree felony during sentencing; and four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
According to documents filed with the 1st District Court, defense attorney Wayne Caldwell addressed concerns with the presentence report’s sentencing recommendations and said Joe’s family has made efforts to enroll Joe in a treatment program in Idaho. After some discussion with counsel, Cache County prosecutors moved to amend one of the charges and recommended a sentence of zero to five years, which was imposed. Joe was ordered to complete sex offender treatment while incarcerated at the prison.
In June 2019, Joe was initially charged with 26 felonies — 10 of which were first-degree. According to a probable cause affidavit, four victims disclosed being sexually abused by Joe. Deputies wrote that pornography was shown to the victims on several occasions when Joe was a minor and then again when he was 18 years old.
“Hundreds” of sexually explicit photos and videos involving children, including the victims, were found on his phone, deputies wrote.
Joe was booked into the Cache County Jail on June 4, 2019, where he has since been incarcerated.
Bryan, Tx, man accused of sexually assaulting a child
BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — A Bryan man is under arrest after being accused of sexually assaulting a child. Sergio Silva, 19, is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child. He is currently in the Brazos County Jail on $100,000 bond.
Investigators said it happened at a Brazos County home on the night of April 18. The child told their parents and investigators Silva had touched them and performed a sexual act while they were sleeping. The child, who is under the age of 14, says they woke up to feeling pain and Silva was also touching them under their clothes. The victim told investigators they were able to get away from Silva.When questioned, Silva allegedly did not deny committing the sex acts.
A check of Silva's record in Brazos County shows no previous charges of sexual abuse.
Utah sex offender arrested again for having
child sex abuse material
By Pat Reavy, KSL KAYSVILLE — A registered sex offender in Utah who has been convicted of crimes against children was arrested again Wednesday for allegedly possessing child pornography, according to police.
The Utah Attorney General’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served a search warrant at Wilkinson’s home Wednesday morning and found child porn on at least one of his electronic devices, according to a police affidavit.
The arresting officer noted in the affidavit that “Michael is on parole for sex offenses involving rape and has a history of sex crimes against children.”
According to court records, he was convicted of sex abuse of a child in 2001 and sentenced to one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison. He was convicted of attempted forcible sexual abuse in 2015 and sentenced to up to five years in prison.
The affidavit states Wilkinson was also charged with forcible sodomy and sex abuse of a child in 1987.
And, obviously, learned absolutely nothing in 33 years.
Durham, N.C., man who plead guilty to child sex charges from 1995, 2002 sentenced to probation
DURHAM COUNTY NEWSby: Colleen Quigley
DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — A Durham man plead guilty to multiple counts of child sex offenses for crimes that happened more than 20 years ago.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman says the victims came forward last year. “They finally got to a point where they were concerned other people might be at risk and they felt like it was important to come forward,” Freeman said.
Freeman says any case that is decades old is challenging to prosecute. In this case there was no physical evidence and the victims did not want to go to trial.
On Monday Miller plead guilty and was sentenced to probation and ordered to register as a sex offender.
“What was really important was that this person be held accountable. That there be some level of acknowledgement and he be placed under some level of restriction,” Freeman said.
Advocates at SAFEChild say delayed disclosure is very common for some victims of child sexual abuse. “Most importantly know the laws do protect them,” said SAFEChild executive director Cristin DeRonja.
SAFEChild’s mission is to prevent child abuse in Wake County through education and awareness.
DeRonja says if and when a survivor of child sexual abuse does come forward, being believed it critical to their recovery. “Even if it’s down the road, for them to heal and recover, being able to share what’s happen to them and to feel protected is really, really important,” she said.
InterAct’s 24/7 crisis line (919.828.7740) supports adult survivors of child sex abuse.
InterAct offers individual and group support, as well as help reporting to law enforcement and applying for crime victim compensation.
With the exception of court accompaniment, all of these services are still being offered during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to InterAct representative Josh Littlejohn.
Heath, NJ, man arrested on rape charges after
admitting abusing three children
Michaela Sumner, Newark AdvocateNEWARK - A Heath man was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly admitted to sexually abusing three children under 10.
According to the complaint, Newark police detectives became involved in a child sexual abuse investigation on April 16. The complaint said one victim, a 7-year-old girl, claimed Hart touched her inappropriately.
During the course of the investigation, four other children under 10 disclosed Hart touched them inappropriately and made them touch him inappropriately as well.
Police said Hart admitted to sexually abusing the 7-year-old and two other children, and indicated he couldn't remember if he abused the other two children.
In a press release, Newark police said detectives believe there may be other victims of sexual assault by Hart. Anyone with information that could help the investigation is encouraged to contact Newark Police Detective Steve Vanoy at 740-670-7928.
The criminal complaint noted Licking County prosecutors will request Hart be held on a $1 million bond because of alleged crimes involving multiple minor victims. The complaint noted a grand jury will consider multiple other charges.
A grand jury will review the case for possible indictment and possible additional charges. If convicted of the first-degree felony rape charge, Hart faces up to 11 years in prison and up to a $20,000 fine.
Danville, Ca, karate instructor held to answer for
child sex abuse charges
by Ryan J. DeganA Contra Costa County Superior Court judge has ordered a Danville karate instructor to stand trial for eight felony charges for alleged sex crimes against underage former students, prosecutors announced Thursday.
The judge also ruled that Pruitt, 63, of San Geronimo, should remain in jail custody while he awaits trial, as the DA's Office requested. The defendant is in custody on $500,000 bail.
Police arrested Pruitt, the owner of Danville Karate International on Town and Country Drive, on Feb. 24 after investigating allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior against a student.
"The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office is working closely with the Danville Police Department on the case," DA's officials said in a statement.
Pruitt’s alleged offenses involve at least two male victims who were minors at the time of the allegations, according to DA officials, and occurred as far back as 2013 and as recently as January of this year.
DA officials added that the investigation is ongoing and there may be additional victims in addition to the two associated with the criminal charges in this case. Anyone with additional information related to Pruitt should contact the Danville police Det. Daniel Lynch at 314-3711.
Corvallis, Ore, woman pleads guilty to sex crimes,
gets 4 years in prison
by Associated Press
The Corvallis Gazette-Times reports 20-year-old Shyanne Hoggins was convicted this week in Benton County Circuit Court of attempted unlawful sexual penetration, sex abuse and encouraging child sex abuse.
The crimes happened between November 2017 and March 2018 and court documents say the victim was the minor ex-girlfriend of Hoggins.
Hoggins was initially charged with 22 sex crimes.
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