California Judge Who Let Stanford Rapist Off Easy, Recalled by County Vote

Judge who ruled in sex assault case, recalled in Santa Clara County

By Bob Egelko 

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was recalled

Photo: Jason Doiy / Associated Press

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was recalled from office by the voters Tuesday, two years after he set off national outrage by sentencing a Stanford athlete to six months in jail for sexually assaulting and attempting to rape an unconscious woman.

With 43 percent of precincts reporting, 59 percent of the county’s voters favored recalling Persky while 41 percent opposed the recall. On the same ballot, Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson led civil rights lawyer Angela Storey, 70 to 30 percent, in the election to serve the last four years of Persky’s term.

Takeaway: Persky, a judge for 15 years, is the first California jurist to be recalled since 1932.

“This is a sad day for the California judiciary,” said LaDoris Cordell, a former Santa Clara County judge who was active in the campaign against the recall. She said the vote sends a message to judges that “if they don’t go along with popular opinion ... they can lose their job.”

When Judge Persky sentenced Brock Turner to 6 months for raping an unconscious girl - that was a sad day for the California judiciary. Maybe it's time judges learn that popular opinion is what it is because of pathetic decisions like the Brock Turner case. If they don't soon decide that rape is rape whether on a university campus or whether or not the victim is passed out - they should lose their job.

Henderson, Persky’s successor, has been a Santa Clara County prosecutor since 1995. She supported the recall and was endorsed by the campaign’s organizer.

“My goal was to give voters a meaningful choice in the recall election,” she said Tuesday night. She promised to “work really hard to gain the respect of my fellow judges.”

For the first time since 1977 people power has forced a sitting US judge out of office. In 2016 Judge Aaron Persky faced international criticism for giving ex-Stanford student Brock Turner a six-month jail term, He was found guilty of three felonies after sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, for which the law prescribed a minimum of two years. Long before the #MeToo movement exploded, the lenient sentence spurred Stanford law professor Michele Landis Dauber, a family friend of the victim, to launch the successful recall campaign.

Persky did not issue a statement after the vote. Organizers of the recall could not be reached for comment.

Background: Persky, 56, was a deputy district attorney who prosecuted sex crimes before Gov. Gray Davis appointed him to the bench in 2003. He won two new six-year terms without opposition and drew little public attention or criticism until 2016, when he presided over the sexual assault trial of Stanford student Brock Turner.

Turner, 19 at the time, was arrested after two graduate students on bicycles discovered him late one night in January 2015 lying on top of an unconscious woman and caught him when he tried to run away. Turner denied assaulting the 22-year-old woman, maintaining they had acted consensually after meeting at a fraternity party where both had been drinking heavily, but a jury convicted him of three felonies.

The crimes were punishable by up to 14 years in prison, and prosecutors sought a six-year sentence. But Persky noted that the court’s probation officer had recommended a jail sentence of a year or less after speaking with the victim. The judge also cited Turner’s youth and lack of a criminal record, the “severe impact” a prison term would have on him, and his obligation to register annually with police as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

The victim, identified only as Emily Doe, spoke at the sentencing hearing, telling Turner he had taken away “my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence.” She said she considered the proposed jail sentence “an insult to me and all women.”

The statement went viral, galvanized women’s rights advocates, and touched off a campaign that generated nearly 100,000 signatures on recall petitions. It was also instrumental in the rapid enactment of a new state law requiring at least three years in prison for sexual penetration of an unconscious victim.

The recall campaign was organized by Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor whose daughter was a friend of Emily Doe. Dauber accused Persky — a former Stanford lacrosse player — of bias in favor of athletes and affluent white defendants. In one of those cases, Persky allowed a man charged with domestic violence to go to Hawaii and try out for the college football team, and to return there after pleading guilty. In another, he gave a domestic violence defendant a jail sentence that allowed him to attend football practices.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance examined those cases, and Turner’s, and said they failed to show that Persky was biased. Turner’s sentence was within the bounds of the law, the commission said, and prosecutors had agreed to the other sentences or did not object to them.

High School Athlete, PE Teacher, Sick Men and Women Lead Today's USA PnP List

Child porn charges filed against Illinois man facing life in prison for alleged child sexual assault

By KATIE SMITH

A man facing life in prison for allegedly sexually abusing two children is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday on additional child pornography charges.

A grand jury indicted 57-year-old Richard D. Lampp on the felony charges Thursday. The most serious counts carry a penalty of six to 30 years in prison.

Lampp's attorney, McHenry County Assistant Public Defender Grant Tucker, and prosecutor Sharyl Eisenstein declined to comment on the charges Monday.

In two separate cases from 2016, Lampp is charged with predatory criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual assault, sexual exploitation of a child, predatory criminal sexual abuse and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Lampp, of the 100 block of Brook Street, accepted the chance of a natural life sentence when he turned down two plea deals from prosecutors in January. He made the decision against Tucker’s recommendation and told the judge he understood the consequences he could face if jurors convicted him of the sex assault charges.

Trials previously set for later that month in both cases were delayed when prosecutors learned about pornographic pictures of children believed to have been found in Lampp's possession.

One of the photos is believed to include a child who Lampp is accused of abusing.

It is unclear how the most recent charges might affect Lampp's trials on the 2016 cases, which had been rescheduled for July.

Lampp remained at the McHenry County Jail on Monday on a total bond of $850,000.

He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on the most recent charges Wednesday morning.

I suspect he will revisit the plea deal offer. I hope Ms Eisenstein declines to offer one or, at least, stands firm against letting him off easy.

Driver who died in Illinois crash faced

child sex abuse charges

By Kevin Haas 

Authorities have identified the driver who died in single-vehicle crash Friday in Boone County as Matthew Kramer, 48, of Poplar Grove.

Kramer, 13 WREX reported, had been charged three days earlier with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of sexual exploitation of a child. Police say Kramer was arrested April 3 after it was reported he had sexually abused a child between the ages of 13 and 18. He was released from jail after posting bond.

Kramer was driving east on Lawrenceville Road, east of Grange Hall Road, around 8:30 a.m. Friday when his vehicle left the roadway and struck a tree, according to results of a preliminary investigation by Boone County sheriff’s deputies.

The accident is still under investigation.

If he thought he was escaping punishment for his crimes, he is undoubtedly keenly aware of his error by now. 

NY woman made video of child sex abuse of 4 y/o

with help from 11 y/o

By BOB BENNETT Press-Republican 

     

MALONE — A Malone woman subjected a 4-year-old to sexual contact while an 11-year-old filmed the incident, police say.

Chrystle M. Cousins, 31, was arrested Friday by Malone Village Police and charged with first-degree sexual abuse, a violent felony; endangering the welfare of a child; and second-degree criminal contempt, both misdemeanors.

The arrest followed an investigation by the Franklin County Child Protective Services, Malone Village Police Chief Christopher Premo said. 

New York State Law says a person is guilty of first-degree sexual abuse when she subjects a child younger than 11 to sexual contact.

Cousins appeared in Malone Town Court before Justice Charles Gardner for a felony preliminary hearing Monday.

Gardner sent her to Franklin County Jail on $5,000 bail or $10,000 bond. She remained in jail Monday afternoon. Cousins is scheduled to reappear in court June 19.

NY man and woman accused in sex abuse case

now facing federal charges

by WHAM 

Rochester, N.Y. – A man and women previously arrested as part of a child sex abuse investigation are now facing federal charges.

In March, John Kohlmeier and Bonnie Hughes were arrested by Greece Police for first degree criminal sexual act and other charges. Monday, federal prosecutors announced the two had been charged with production, receipt and possession of child pornography, as well as coercing and enticing a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.

Kohlmeier allegedly had sexually explicit conversations with a child under the age of 10 in early 2018 via cell phone. On March 19, Hughes allegedly took two sexually explicit images of the child at Kohlmeier’s request and, prosecutors say, the two later engaged in sexual contact with the victim.

The defendants were previously arrested by Greece Police and are currently being held in state custody.

If convicted of the federal charges, the defendants face a minimum of 15 years in prison, and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Former Idaho high school athlete charged

with child sex crimes

LAURIE WELCH lwelch@magicvalley.com 

RUPERT — Former Minico High School athlete Lauriano "Larry" Vega Jr. was arrested at his school in Heyburn Thursday on felony charges of child sex crimes.

According to court records, at the time of Vega’s arrest, he was being monitored by a GPS ankle bracelet because of similar charges pending in juvenile court. The new charges stem from incidents that court records say occurred from March 27 to 30.

Vega, 18, is a senior and formerly played football and basketball at Minico.

He is charged with two counts of child sexual abuse on suspicion of soliciting minors under the age of 16 to participate in sex acts and a count of misdemeanor battery.

Police said a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old said Vega made unwanted sexual advances toward them. The officer said he was familiar with Vega from a recent sex abuse case that he helped investigate.

According to court documents, the battery charge stems from unwanted touching of an 18-year-old woman. She was with the teen girls on March 27, and said she and Vega began flirting. She told police that when she went outside, Vega approached her and without provocation, he grabbed her around the waist and forcibly kissed her. She said she briefly kissed him back but when she realized what was happening she backed away from him and he attempted to kiss her again. Vega asked if she wanted to have sex with him and when she said no, he told her he’d never been told no before, court records said.

The 14-year-old girl told police she was playing cards at a table at a business on March 30 when Vega sat beside her. The girl said she told Vega her age, but he propositioned her for a sex act and rubbed and grabbed her thighs underneath the table, court records said. She said when she moved away from him, Vega would move close to her again. When she stood up to leave, she told police, Vega grabbed at her buttocks but missed and grabbed the back of her thigh. The girl said when they all went outside the business to a fire pit, Vega grabbed her buttocks when she walked by him.

Police spoke to the 13-year-old girl at school, and she said Vega had also propositioned her for a sex act on March 30.

Police reviewed Vega’s GPS monitor, which showed he was at or near the business at the times and dates the girls said he was there.

After he was arrested, police said Vega admitted to police that he kissed the woman, and said he shouldn’t have done it. He denied propositioning the two minors for sex and denied touching the 14-year-old.

Minico athletic director and boys basketball coach Ty Shippen said he had no knowledge of any abuse charges made against Vega before Vega was arrested in December on previous charges. Former Minico football coach Tim Perrigot also said the arrest was the first time he heard about Vega’s charges.

Vega was the 4A Great Basin Conference Football Player of the Year in 2017.

Former Virginia PE teacher sentenced for

sexually abusing a child

by Annie Andersen

ROCKY MOUNT, VA. (WSET) -- A former Franklin County P.E. teacher will not spend any time behind bars for his sexual assault conviction. 

Clyde Smith taught at Sontag Elementary School in Franklin County. 

In August, Smith was charged with three counts of felony sexual battery on a child. According to the indictments, the incidents happened starting in January 2015 through just this past May.

Monday morning, Smith entered an Alford plea, proclaiming his innocence, but admitting that there is evidence that could convict him. As part of a plea agreement, two of the felony charges were dropped to misdemeanors and the third was changed to felony child abuse and neglect. He was sentenced to 5 years for the felony, and 2 years for both misdemeanors, all suspended.

Commonwealth's attorney AJ Dudley says the family supported the plea agreement so the child wouldn't be called to testify.

Under the plea agreement, Smith can no longer teach or be in any position that puts him in a supervisory role over children. He must also register as a sex offender.

Astonishing! No jail time! That will really teach him, I'm sure.

New Jersey man busted after cops say he offered to broadcast sexual abuse of child

Kathleen Hopkins, @Khopkinsapp 

TRENTON - A Toms River man who authorities said offered to broadcast the sexual abuse of a child on a social media application was arrested Monday and charged with distributing  child pornography.

In arresting 43-year-old David Nelson, law enforcement agents recovered more than two dozen images depicting child sexual abuse they alleged he disseminated to a Kik Messenger chat group between Oct. 24 and Oct. 26, according to a complaint filed against him in federal court here.

U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said an investigation by the FBI field office in Louisville, Kentucky, revealed that Nelson offered to broadcast the sexual abuse of a child over Kik Messenger to someone who turned out to be an undercover officer. Examination of the undercover officer's cell phone revealed chat group communications between the officer and another Kik user operating under the user name "candicesloan1995.''

The investigation revealed that Nelson was the person operating under that user name, according to the complaint.

Authorities recovered more than two dozen images of child sexual abuse that Nelson disseminated to the chat group under that user name, the complaint said. 

Nelson appeared Monday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Arpert, who ordered him detained.

If convicted of distributing child pornography, Nelson would face a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of  20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Reno man gets three life sentences after guilty plea on child abuse, pornography charges

Another boyfriend moves in with Mom to get at kid

James DeHaven, JDeHaven@rgj.com 

A 40-year-old Reno man was sentenced on Friday to three life sentences after being convicted on sexual abuse and child pornography charges, according to the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office.

Michael Jason Gallagher in January pleaded guilty to two counts of lewdness with a child under the age of 14 and one count of using or permitting a minor to produce pornography.

Gallagher was arrested and booked on three counts of lewdness and sexual assault in August 2017, when police said a 7-year-old girl disclosed incidents of abuse to a trusted adult.

Reno Police Department family crimes unit detectives determined the girl was abused over the course of several months by Gallagher, who moved in with her mother in April 2017.

While there, detectives found he committed multiple acts of lewdness with the girl, including touching her private body parts. Police said he also directed her to engage in sexual acts and poses, which he then recorded and kept on his phone.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Kelly Kossow argued during a sentencing hearing that Gallagher deserved to spend the rest of his life in jail.

He will not be eligible for parole until 2048, according to a Monday release from the district attorney’s office.