Drug dealer, child predator sentence to 4 life terms - Kentucky
Another predator has convictions overturned - New York
Pervert plea deals for 22.5 year sentence - Oregon
Another pervert charged for videoing 11 y/o girl in shower - Montana
Football coach, SS teacher with dozens of CSA charges - Florida
Man wanted in Chicago for CSA arrested in Salt Lake City - Utah
Junior hockey coach charged in several states with CSA - New Jersey
26 y/o creep charged with deviate sex with 7 y/o - Missouri
Foster father charged with CSA of 8 boys in his care - New York
Toronto man charged with luring and CSA of 14 y/o boy - Ontario
Pill kingpin gets life for trafficking and child sex abuse
PIKEVILLE A federal judge has sentenced a Knott County man to four consecutive life sentences, for drug trafficking and sexually abusing the young children of parents he encountered during his drug trafficking operations.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar sentenced Freddie Kennedy Jr. on one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone; seven counts of crossing a state line with the intent to engage in a sex act with a minor under the age of 12; and ten counts of transporting a minor under the age of 18 across a state line with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Parole is not available in the federal system so Kennedy must serve the entirety of his life sentence. A jury convicted Kennedy in February after a two-day trial.
The evidence at trial established that from April 2013 to June 2015 Kennedy organized a drug conspiracy in which several others traveled to out-of-state pain clinics to illegally obtain prescription drugs. In exchange for funding these trips, Kennedy received a portion of the drugs, which he then distributed to local dealers and users in the Knott and Perry County areas. The conspiracy was responsible for the illegal distribution of thousands of oxycodone pills.
The evidence also established that on multiple occasions and beginning sometime around October of 2013 Kennedy had sexual contact with four minor victims, including three under the age of 10 at the time he abused them. Kennedy gained access to these minor victims because their parents were individuals he encountered during his drug trafficking operations. Kennedy would offer to watch the young children.
According to the evidence, while watching the children, Kennedy intentionally groomed them, buying them expensive presents and taking them to the movies, out to eat, and to go shopping, in an effort to gain their trust.
While some of the sexual abuse occurred at Kennedy’s residences in Perry and Knott Counties, much of it occurred during separate out-of-state trips, where he took the young children with him. Kennedy took them for overnight stays at a hotel in Indiana. The young children stayed in the same room with Kennedy and, on each occasion, Kennedy engaged in sexual acts with the minor victims.
Knott County, KY
Sodomy and sex convictions reversed in Batavia
child sex abuse case
By Melinda Miller
Sean M. Vickers' conviction for sodomy and criminal sexual acts against minors has been reversed by an Appellate Court that objected to changes made in the charges before the case went to a jury. One conviction, sexual abuse in the first degree, was allowed to stand.
Vickers, 47, was found guilty in Genesee County in 2014 of sexually abusing five boys and sentenced to 50 years in prison.
After that conviction, he pleaded guilty in Niagara County to sexually abusing three of those boys in that jurisdiction, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. That conviction was independent of the Genesee case and is unaffected by the ruling.
The judges of the Appellate Division, Fourth Department reversed the convictions without prejudice, which means the Genesee County District Attorney’s Office can present the evidence again to a grand jury for consideration. The judges also wrote in their decision that the guilty verdicts were supported by the evidence.
In a unanimous decision, the judges ruled that prosecutors erred during the trial when, after all evidence was presented, they asked for and were granted a motion to change several counts in the indictment against Vickers.
The judge agreed to replace two counts of course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree with two counts of sodomy in the first degree, according to the appellate ruling. The judge also replaced two counts of predatory sexual assault against a child with two counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree.
Vickers was convicted on all counts.
However, the Appellate judges said indictments cannot be amended after the fact in any way that does not reflect the evidence that was presented to it.
In this case, indictments alleging ongoing and repeated sexual acts were replaced with sodomy charges that refer to single sexual acts.
The court maintained that every defendant “has a fundamental and nonwaivable right to be tried only on the crimes charged’ ”
District Attorney Lawrence Friedman said he disagrees with the appellate ruling.
“Our intention is to seek leave to appeal the decision" to the Court of Appeals, Friedman said.
He added that, should the reversal be upheld, his office would take the case back to a grand jury for a new indictment.
The appeal was filed on Vickers’s behalf by attorney Benjamin L. Nelson of the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo. Nelson said he believes the ruling will be upheld and that the case will have to be reindicted to move forward again.
According to Nelson, the decision to change the charges after testimony had concluded but before the jury began deliberations in the original trial was unfair to Vickers. Attorneys built a defense based on the charges the prosecution was trying to prove, not the charges that eventually were considered.
He pointed out that a “course of conduct” charge does not have to be particularly precise, but it does have to be recurring within a specific time frame. “The district attorney wanted to change them to a single offense, and it was allowed,” he said.
Nelson also noted that the ruling has no immediate effect on Vickers’s status.
“He still has a seven year sentence (from Genesee County,) and this has no effect on Niagara County,” Nelson said.
Judge Robert C. Noonan, sentenced Vickers’ to 107 years in prison. By law, that sentence was converted to the maximum possible of 50 years in prison.
In a related case, Vickers's brother David Vickers was convicted in federal court of sexually abusing the same boys, plus one other.
Marion County man sentenced to 22.5 years for
sex abuse, child porn
Whitney M. Woodworth , Statesman Journal
A Marion County man was sentenced to 22 years and six months in prison after he pleaded guilty to seven child pornography and sexual abuse charges.
Ronald Heigh, 50, was arrested by Silverton police in September on seven counts of encouraging child sexual abuse. He was later indicted by a Marion County jury on additional charges.
A warrant was issued for his arrest in September, and he was detained by Silverton police the next day, taken to Marion County jail and held on $120,000 bail.
His arrest came almost 18 months after Silverton police began investigating him, officials said. According to court records, agents with the Oregon Department of Justice were also involved in the investigation.
According to court records, Heigh was accused of sexually abusing and sodomizing a boy under the age of 12 between 2008 and 2009. He also allegedly sexually abused a girl under the age of 14 between 2011 and 2013.
Heigh pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse, second-degree sodomy and three counts of first-degree sexual abuse. In his plea petition, he admitted to sexually abusing and assaulting two children as well as "duplicating at least three visual recordings of sexually explicit conduct involving a child and child abuse."
On Monday, Heigh was sentenced to 75 months each for the sexual abuse and sodomy charges and 45 months each for the child pornography charges. Some sentences will run concurrently, giving Heigh a total prison sentence of 22 years and six months. He will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
Butte man charged with child sex abuse
Mike Smith
A 61-year-old Butte man is being held with bond set at $75,000 after an 11-year-old girl told police she thought she was being secretly filmed while showering at a residence.
Police say they arrested Patrick William Shea on Wednesday after interviewing him and finding child pornography websites on his cell phone. He was formally charged and arraigned Wednesday on a felony count of sexual abuse of children and remained jailed Thursday pending bond.
The girl and her mother came to the station Tuesday and she told officers she believed she was being filmed in the shower of a residence. Police declined to name the residence while an investigation continues.
The allegations were given to a female detective with the Sexual Abuse of Children Task Force and officers obtained a warrant to get Shea’s cell phone. They found the web sites had been visited and sent the phone to the state crime lab for further analysis, police said.
Former Tate Football Coach, Sunday School Teacher Arrested For Child Sex Abuse
Warning, graphic details below
By Hayley Minogue and J.B. Biunno
ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FL (WKRG) — A former high school football coach and Sunday school teacher has been arrested for prolonged sexual abuse of multiple young boys.
Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies say Charlie Mabern Hamrick, 54, is charged with 36 counts of capital sexual assault on a victim under the age of 12, providing obscene material to minors, and lewd and lascivious behavior on victims under the age of 12 and victims ranging in age from 12 to 16.
Hamrick is the former football coach at Tate High School and the director of a local boy’s group at a church in Cantonment.
According to the arrest report obtained by News 5, Hamrick is accused of engaging in sexual acts with young boys at his home — sometimes with his wife present — and on the boat at his beach house in Pensacola.
One victim, a boy 8 to 11 years-old at the time of the abuse, told deputies that Hamrick was his Sunday school teacher at Pine Forest United Methodist Church. The boy was invited to Hamrick’s home to spend time with Hamrick’s children, who were around the same age as him.
When the two were alone, the victim alleges Hamrick would perform oral sex on him, and then he would perform the act on Hamrick in the living room or den. The victim says Hamrick encouraged him to touch his genitals, sometimes under a blanket in the living room with Hamrick’s wife present.
The young victim says they would never talk during or after the sexual abuse. It allegedly happened about once a month for three to four years, from 1997 to 2000.
In one later incident, the victim was visiting Hamrick’s beach house in Pensacola with his mother. On Hamrick’s boat, the victim says Hamrick began touching his genitals. When the victim’s mother returned, she saw Hamrick’s hand down her son’s pants. Hamrick was reportedly extremely apologetic, saying it only happened that one time.
Deputies say the mother went to Hamrick’s church and spoke to a pastor who ensured that Hamrick would never work with children again. However when the victim began hearing of more stories that Hamrick was sexually abusing young children, he came forward to police. That happened on March 21, 2017, about 17 years after the alleged abuse took place.
Another victim stated that he would go to Hamrick’s home to go fishing and ride four-wheelers. When on the back of the four-wheelers and Hamrick in the driver’s seat, Hamrick allegedly pushed the boys hands downwards into his crotch. Hamrick allegedly told the boy to grab his erect penis, saying it was the safest way to ride. This story was corroborated by other victims who visited Hamrick on his property.
Other instances took place at Tate High School, Hamrick’s former place of employment. Hamrick sought permission to show a group of young boys “educational videos” having to do with puberty. However, after showing the boys the educational video, he would play additional videos showing explicit sexual acts between men and women, and men masturbating.
Hamrick faces capital felonies that carry a possible sentence of life behind bars.
Man wanted for child sex abuse arrested after tip from Chicago authorities
By Ben Lockhart
A fugitive accused of aggravated sexual abuse of a child in Illinois was arrested Wednesday in Salt Lake, federal authorities said.
SALT LAKE CITY — A fugitive accused of aggravated sexual abuse of a child in Illinois was arrested Wednesday in Salt Lake, federal authorities said.
Ivan Michael Faunce, 38, was arrested hours after authorities in Chicago indicated he may be in Utah, said Derryl Spencer, U.S. Marshal supervisory deputy.
Following surveillance and other tracking efforts, Faunce was located near 1030 South and 4800 West, Spencer said. He said Faunce barricaded himself in an RV he had been staying in and threatened to fatally shoot himself at first, but was calmed down and arrested after 30 to 45 minutes of negotiation around 4:30 p.m.
Faunce was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail.
A gun was later recovered from the RV, Spencer said.
Faunce was wanted for aggravated sexual abuse of a child, according to Spencer. The details of that case were not clear Wednesday. He had been hired by a local farmer, who didn't know his background, for help on the property, Spencer said.
Salt Lake City, UT
Other possible victims step forward in hockey coach
child sex abuse case
By Matt Gray | For NJ.com
WOODBURY -- Authorities say additional potential victims have come forward in the investigation of a youth hockey coach accused of sexually abusing kids.
Walter W. "Tracy" Ferinden, 55, of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, is accused of sexual contact involving three victims, including one in Gloucester County and two in Delaware.
Ferinden coached youth hockey and held skating clinics in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Vermont during the 1990s and up until 2010.
He is charged with two second-degree counts of sexual contact involving a 12-year-old boy on various dates during the summer of 1994 in Deptford, the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office announced in a press conference on Friday.
Delaware authorities have charged Ferinden with nine counts of second-degree unlawful sexual contact with two minors there in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Other possible victims have come forward since a Friday press conference announcing the charges, prosecutor's office spokesman Bernie Weisenfeld confirmed Wednesday. He did not disclose how many had come forward or when and where the alleged crimes may have occurred.
"Interviews are pending and statutes have to be checked to determine whether cases can still be prosecuted," Weisenfeld said.
New Jersey no longer has a statute of limitations on sexual contact offenses, but the law changed in 1996 with a stipulation that any crime must have occurred within five years of that change. Therefore, crimes committed since (before???) 1991 would not be subject to a statute of limitations.
Investigators acknowledged last week that they were aware of at least one alleged incident involving Ferinden that occurred prior to 1991.
Delaware has no statute of limitations in these cases.
Ferinden was charged in Delaware last week and released after posting bail. He surrendered to Gloucester County authorities on Friday and was being held in Salem County Correctional Facility without bail pending a detention hearing.
Prosecutors sought to keep Ferinden in jail under "preventative detention," but Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson ruled Wednesday that he be released from jail and placed on home electronic monitoring. He is ordered to have no unsupervised contact with minors and to perform no coaching, according to the prosecutor's office.
In the New Jersey case, the victim played in a junior hockey league where Ferinden was a coach in Washington Township. The alleged crimes occurred in Ferinden's Deptford apartment.
In announcing the charges last week, officials said they believed there were other victims.
Another reason for a Congressional inquiry into child sex abuse. I'm quite sure Ferinden is not the only junior hockey coach who molested his players.
Anyone else with knowledge relevant to the investigation is asked to contact GCPO Detective Gregory Malesich at 856-384-5626 or New Castle County Police Detective Jen Escheman at (302) 395-2745 or via email at JCEscheman@nccde.org.
Woodbury, NJ
Oronogo Man To Stand Trial On Child Sex Abuse Charges
An Oronogo man will stand trial next month, accused of sexually abusing a young girl.
26-year-old Maxwell Purvis has been charged with deviate sexual intercourse, stemming from an incident involving a 7-year-old girl earlier this year after she disclosed the information to investigators following an interview at the Children’s Center in Joplin.
Purvis’ court date has been set for April 10th in Jasper County.
Oronogo, MO
Long Island foster father faces trial in sex abuse case
By FRANK ELTMAN
RIVERHEAD, Long Island -- A foster father who took in more than 100 troubled boys over 20 years is set to go on trial on charges he sexually abused eight of the children. In addition to the alleged abuse of the boys, prosecutors also said the man sexually abused a dog in front of a child.
The case against Cesar Gonzales-Mugaburu sparked an investigation into New York's foster care system that found "abysmal" communication among the child welfare agencies involved. The suspect's lawyer disputes that any abuse took place at his client's suburban Long Island home. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Wednesday.
Gonzales-Mugaburu, 60, of Ridge, New York, was arrested in January 2016, after authorities said two boys in his care reported alleged abuse to a caseworker. Prosecutors said that prompted a wider investigation, which led to additional charges involving other alleged victims. Gonzales-Mugaburu has pleaded not guilty to child endangerment, sexual misconduct and other charges, and remains jailed on $1 million bond.
Prosecutors said Gonzales-Mugaburu earned more than $1.5 million over two decades as a foster parent, caring for particularly troubled boys, which entitled him to a higher income than a traditional foster parent. He cared for as many as six to eight children at a time since at least 1996.
An 83-page report released by Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota last month outlined a remarkable series of failures that allowed Gonzales-Mugaburu to take in more than 100 children over 20 years, despite being the subject of 18 separate child abuse investigations. None of those investigations led to criminal charges.
The report said rules intended to protect the reputations of falsely accused foster parents were partly to blame. Substandard abuse investigations were another issue. But the biggest problem, the report said, was the simple failure of four governmental and one nonprofit child welfare agencies to share information.
Gonzales-Mugaburu's attorney, Donald Mates, said he disagreed with the findings in the report. There never was any reason for the agencies to fail to uncover abuse, because, he said, it never happened. Mates also said that at least some of the alleged victims have a financial reason to see Gonzales-Mugaburu convicted because they have filed lawsuits against an agency that placed them in his home.
A spokeswoman for SCO Family of Services, one of the state's largest foster home providers which placed dozens of children with Gonzales-Mugaburu, has said it never uncovered any evidence of abuse prior to his arrest.
SCO said since the scandal erupted, it has worked with the state, the Administration for Children's Services and Suffolk County "to diligently address each and every concern about the quality of care provided in this home."
Ridge, NY
Man charged in child sex abuse investigation
TORONTO — Police say they've charged a 42-year-old man in a child sexual abuse investigation.
Toronto police allege a 14-year-old boy met a man on a social media platform and that the boy believed, at the time, that the man was actually a boy his age.
They allege that the man sent the boy nude images over social media, met the boy in person and sexually assaulted him.
Investigators say officers searched a downtown Toronto home last week and arrested Najeeb Saad.
They say Saad is charged with two counts each of sexual interference and sexual assault, and one count of luring a child under the age of 16.
Police allege the accused used the online profiles of "AJ S", "AjSaad123", "asaad942" on the social media applications Grindr, Snapchat and Kik.
No comments:
Post a Comment