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Sexual abuse victims to receive $490 million
The survivors were exploited by a late University of Michigan sports physician
Survivors of sexual assaults – mostly men – by the late sports physician Dr. Robert Anderson will collectively get a $490 million compensation from the University of Michigan. The university announced 1,050 people will share in the financial settlement.
The victims and their attorneys will decide how to split the $460 million, with the remaining $30 million set aside for future claims until July 31, 2022. The case is considered to be one of the largest regarding sexual exploitation by one person in American history.
No better than 2nd place as Michigan State U spent $500 million on the victims of Larry Nassar. Michigan State, Michigan U - 1 and 2. There must be something in the water in Michigan.
The settlement was reached on Tuesday after over 15 months of mediation starting from October 2020 between the victims and the university. Mary Sue Coleman, University of Michigan interim president, called it “a critical step among many the university has taken to improve support for survivors and more effectively prevent and address misconduct.”
Tad Deluca, a wrestler whose letter of complaint against Anderson in 2018 sparked an investigation, presented an alternate point of view. In a telephone interview to the Associated Press, he spoke of his concern that this settlement will leave other issues unaddressed.
“The settlement is going to gloss things over so Michigan can go back to having a glossy block ‘M’ and look wonderful for the world,” Deluca said, making reference to the university’s logo.
Anderson worked at the University of Michigan from 1966 until his retirement in 2003. He was director of the university’s Health Service and a physician for multiple athletic teams. In 2020, the university revealed that it was investigating multiple allegations of abuse against Anderson, who died in 2008. The lawsuits accuse the university of failing to remove him despite multiple complaints.
A report of a law firm hired by the university shows that staff had many opportunities to step in over the course of Anderson’s career, but repeatedly missed chances to stop his misconduct, despite complaints and rumors circulating among students.
FBI: NY Man Tried to Arrange Sex With 5-Year-Old,
Could Have More Victims
Prosecutors allege Richard Nguyen had a pocketful of condoms
and allergy medicine for what he thought was a meeting with a little boy
By Jonathan Dienst • NBC NY
Published January 21, 2022 at 5:47 pm
Authorities are looking for more victims who may have been targeted by Richard Nguyen of New York.
Richard Nguyen, 29, was arrested Thursday for allegedly planning to commit sex acts on a young child. The feds say he planned to use an antihistamine to make the child sleepy so he could abuse him.
The FBI says it got onto the suspected predator through an informant. There are written messages where Nguyen allegedly says he plans to use allergy medicine to put the child to sleep so he can have his way with him. He allegedly used graphic language to tell the informant he would like have sex with either of his two children, ages 8 and 5.
“I want the boys. Either of them is fine. : )” He later allegedly wrote: “Made up my mind. I want the yngr.”
Nguyen was arrested with Benadryl and condoms in his pocket when the alleged meeting was set to take place.
Manhattan US Attorney Damien Williams called the allegations “…as chilling as and disturbing as one can imagine.”
"It’s unfathomable to believe anyone would see a five-year-old boy as a sexual being. What’s more despicable in this investigation, we allege the subject brought Benadryl to drug the child," New York FBI Director Mike Driscoll said in a statement.
Defense attorney Sylvie Levine did not immediately return a request for comment.
The FBI says they fear there could be other child victims out there. Anyone with information as to whether Nguyen targeted other children is urged to call the FBI's child exploitation task force at 212-384-5000.
Colorado Man Accused Of Sexually Abusing At Least
Seven Children, Pleads Guilty To 10 Charges
By Logan Smith
January 23, 2022 at 3:24 pm
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) — Allan Richard Long pleaded guilty Friday to 10 felony counts of sexual assault on a child. Thirty-two felony charges were dismissed.
Long may be responsible for other offenses in Wyoming, Montana, Kansas, and elsewhere in Colorado.
“Investigators believe he may have committed multiple sex assault crimes in these states and possibly others,” the press release stated, “due to his access to families through his work. His occupations included volunteer firefighter, tow truck driver, truck dispatcher and over-the-road truck driver.”
No other information about his case or the offenses has been made public.
A search of online public records shows Long has alternately resided in Aurora, Arvada, Denver and Colorado Springs since 2001.
Long is scheduled to be sentenced April 5th. He is still jailed in Arapahoe County on a $1 million bond.
Watertown man charged with multiple child sex abuse crimes
22 hrs ago
WATERTOWN, NY — Brandon M. Cronce, 29, a resident of Watertown without an address, was charged by city police on Thursday with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor under the age of 11 and two counts of first-degree criminal sex act with a minor under age 11.
Police also charged Mr. Cronce with committing a criminal sex act in an incident between Nov. 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020, also at Maywood Terrace. There, police say Mr. Cronce engaged in sexual contact with a 5-year-old female.
He was also charged with another criminal sex act when he gave and received oral sex from a then-8-year-old female on Jan. 1, 2015, at a house on Academy Street. In another incident, police say he subjected a then-8-year-old girl to sexual contact.
The final charge of a criminal sex act, between July 2019 and April 2020, involved a 10-year-old, police said.
Mr. Cronce was arrested and taken to the Jefferson County jail, where he was held pending an arraignment hearing. Mr. Cronce remained in the county jail as of Sunday, according to online court records.
Carpentersville Resident At Large Sentenced 45 Years For
Child Sex Abuse After Skipping Trial and Sentencing Hearing
Sat Jan 22, 2022 05:13 pm
Cardinal News
Kane County Judge Alice C. Tracy has sentenced 38-year-old Constantino Vasquez-Juan to 45 years of imprisonment in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Kane County Assistant State’s Attorneys Matthew Rodgers and Stacy Wittman presented evidence that between April 2019 and September 2019 Vasquez-Juan sexually abused the victim, who was younger than 17 years old. In addition, Vazquez-Juan coerced the victim to take sexually explicit photographs of herself and give them to him.
The sentence is three years for each count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse to be served consecutive to one another, and three years for the grooming count, to be served concurrent to the sexual abuse sentences for a total of 45 years.
Prosecutors argued, and Judge Tracy agreed, that based on the severity of the abuse and the defendant’s unwillingness to face justice, Vasquez-Juan should serve the 15 sexual abuse sentences consecutively and not concurrently.
Vasquez-Juan’s location is unknown. On Nov. 17, 2020, he posted $7,500 bond and was released from custody. He last appeared in court on March 3, 2021. When Vasquez-Juan failed to appear in court Oct. 29, 2021, for his final pre-trial hearing, Judge Tracy issued a warrant for his arrest.
The trial and sentencing hearing took place despite his absence. Anyone with information about Vasquez-Juan should call 911 or the Kane County Child Advocacy Center at (630) 208-5160.
In addition to the prison term, Vasquez-Juan must register for life as a sexual offender in accordance with the Illinois Sexual Offender Registration Act.
In accordance with Illinois law, Vasquez-Juan is eligible for day-for-day sentencing. He receives credit for 415 days served in the Kane County jail.
NC man who livestreamed sex abuse of Filipino children
receives record prison sentence
BY MICHAEL GORDON
UPDATED JANUARY 22, 2022 2:23 PM
Jake Ross paid a mother in the Philippines to sexually abuse her children while he watched it live, 8,800 miles away. Now he will be paying with the rest of his life.
On Friday, the McDowell County man was sentenced to 55 years in prison for his conviction on a half-dozen child pornography charges.
Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger of Asheville also added a lifetime of court supervision should the 47-year-old Ross live long enough to serve out his term. The sentence is the longest ever handed down in a child pornography case by the federal courts in the Asheville division of the Western District of North Carolina.
In a statement following Reidinger’s decision, U.S. Attorney Dena King of Charlotte said Ross’ punishment “reflects the depravity of his actions.”
“These types of crimes that prey on our children sicken me,” King said. Prosecutors say Ross, of Marion, was a purveyor in the disturbing world of “webcam sex tourism,” in which pornography from mostly developing countries is livestreamed on social media platforms around the globe.
Ross, according to court documents, connected regularly with the Filipino mother on WhatsApp video chats. Federal investigators say they found 28 pornographic screenshots from those chats stored on Ross’ phone. A check of the defendant’s Google accounts uncovered other screen grabs of livestreamed abuse of children. Ross was arrested in July 2020. He was convicted by an Asheville jury in March.
Trial setting paused for Vaca man, 47, charged with
child sex crimes and seeking to hire hitman to kill victims
Judge orders Ronald Scott Thomas Jr. to return to Department 7 on Feb. 16
for a newly scheduled trial setting in the Justice Building in Vallejo
By RICHARD BAMMER | Vacaville Reporter
PUBLISHED: January 21, 2022 at 6:24 p.m.
A trial setting has been rescheduled for a 47-year-old Vacaville man charged with child molestations and attempting, while in jail, to hire a hitman to kill the victims.
Judge Tim P. Kam vacated a previous Dec. 7 trial date for Ronald Scott Thomas Jr., and then, on Jan. 12, vacated a new trial setting date due to limited Solano County Superior court operations due to COVID-19 health precautions and a surge in infections countywide.
But court records show Kam has ordered Thomas to return for a readiness conference and another trial setting 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16 in Department 7 in the Justice Building in Vallejo. Thomas is represented by criminal defense attorney David Nelson.
A Rio Vista High School graduate and a former petroleum truck driver for a Benicia business, Thomas has been in custody in Solano County Jail since June 2018, when he was arrested at his home in the 100 block of Del Rio Court in connection with child sexual abuse.
According to the Solano County District Attorney’s complaint filed that same month, Thomas was charged with the continued sexual abuse of a child and lewd and lascivious acts with that child, who was under the age of 14 at the time. The abuse reportedly occurred between June 2009 and June 2013.
The complaint also included a charge of committing a lewd act upon a child under the age of 14, said to have occurred with a second girl between September 2012 and September 2013.
Court documents also reveal that Thomas, at some point while in Solano County Jail, allegedly attempted to solicit numerous other inmates in a murder-for-hire plot.
A motion to remand the defendant and deny him bail, filed in August 2018, indicated an inmate told a correctional officer in July that Thomas asked him about having someone outside the jail kill the older victim for $5,000.
The younger victim would apparently be an optional kill, the document indicated, “as she could not remember as much of what the defendant did to her given her age.”
Thomas reportedly provided maps of the girls’ schools and church and suggested the older victim be killed along with her dad, making the deaths appear to be a “drug deal gone wrong.”
Thomas, according to the motion, offered $5,000 apiece for the victims’ deaths and suggested various ways to have the girls and a family member killed. Payment, according to the document, would follow after gaining his mother’s Power of Attorney to access money from a 401(k) pension plan.
Follow-up interviews with other inmates on Thomas’ cell block allegedly revealed seven were solicited for murder. Thomas later confessed after being confronted with mounting evidence, the officials added.
The investigation was an effort between multiple agencies, including the Solano County District Attorney’s Office, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, and the Fairfield Police Department.
Thomas is being held without bail in the Claybank Detention Facility in Fairfield.
Cass County man sentenced to 99 years in prison for
sexual abuse of child
by: Michael Fowler
Posted: Jan 21, 2022 / 07:29 PM CST
Daily News
CASS COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — A Cass County jury sentenced 26-year-old Damien O’Keith Lawson, Sr. on Wednesday to 99 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice – Institutional Division for the felony offense of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
The jury was asked by the State to deliver a sentence that sent a message saying sex offenders would not be tolerated in Cass County, thus yielding the 99-year sentence, said the DA’s office.
“I believe the jury sent a clear message with their 99 year sentence. This case was a unique one, where the child had literally been brainwashed by the defendant to believe she was ‘consenting’ to the sexual acts. It has taken months of therapy for her to realize that his behavior was wrong and reprehensible. Hopefully, with Damien Lawson out of her life and a supportive family, this child will be able to resume a normal childhood. I am grateful to the Texas Department of Public Safety, Cass County Sheriff’s Office and the Texarkana Children’s Advocacy Center for their assistance in this case. Because of their support, another sex offender is behind bars for good.”
Cass Co., Tx
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