Taylor Swift Proving to be Quite a Handful
Judge dismisses DJ's suit against Taylor Swift
Case dismissed before jurors hear closing arguments
in dueling lawsuits
Thomson Reuters
Pop star Taylor Swift has won a preliminary round in a federal court trial stemming from her allegation that she was groped by a Colorado DJ, as the judge dismissed the DJ's rival claim accusing the singer of wrongfully getting him fired.
Friday's ruling by U.S. District Judge William Martinez left intact Swift's assault and battery countersuit against David Mueller, who had asserted he was falsely accused by Swift and ousted from his $150,000-a-year job at radio station KYGO-FM under pressure from her.
Mueller denies groping Swift during a 2013 meet-and-greet and was suing Swift, her mother and her radio liaison for up to $3 million US. Swift is countersuing for a symbolic $1 US and what she says is a chance to stand up for other women.
With jurors outside the courtroom Friday afternoon, attorneys on both sides argued over whether Mueller had presented enough evidence to send his full case to the jury. Those statements and the judge's questions focused on whether Swift herself had done anything to get Mueller fired.
That left open the possibility that the judge would throw out the claims against her but let Mueller press ahead with his allegations against her mother, Andrea Swift, and Frank Bell, their pointman with radio stations. Swift's lawsuit alleging assault and battery by Mueller was not discussed.
Jurors are to return Monday to hear closing arguments about whichever claims remain.
'Despicable and horrifying and shocking'
Earlier Friday, Swift's former bodyguard testified that he saw Mueller reach under her skirt a moment before a photographer snapped their picture during the pre-concert meet-and-greet at Denver's Pepsi Center.
Security guard Greg Dent, who no longer works for Swift, said he was standing a few steps away but did not intervene because he generally took his cues from the pop star, and she gave him no signals during the encounter.
Seated at her legal team's table in a federal courtroom, Swift chuckled when Dent testified that, after the photo was taken, he suspected that Mueller would be at the bar of the arena — and another guard found him there.
A day earlier, Swift spent an hour on the witness stand herself defiantly recounting what she called a "despicable and horrifying and shocking" encounter.
"He stayed attached to my bare ass-cheek as I lurched away from him," Swift testified. "It was a definite grab. A very long grab," she added in her testimony.
Swift's testy exchange with Mueller's attorney occasionally elicited chuckles — even from the six-woman, two-man jury. She got a laugh when she said Dent saw Mueller "lift my skirt" but someone would have had to have been underneath her to see the actual groping — "and we didn't have anyone positioned there."
Image shows hand behind Swift, below waist
Swift testified that after the photo was taken, she tried to get as far away Mueller as she could. She said she told him and his girlfriend, who was also in the photo, "thank you for coming" in a monotone voice before they left.
She also said she was stunned and did not say anything to Mueller or halt the event after he left because she did not want to disappoint several dozen people waiting in line for photos with her.
In the image, shown to jurors during opening statements but not publicly released, Mueller's hand is behind Swift, just below her waist. Mueller's then-girlfriend, Shannon Melcher, is on the other side of Swift. All three are smiling.
Melcher testified Friday that she saw nothing happen during the brief encounter and that she and Mueller were rudely confronted and escorted out of the arena that evening. Melcher testified Mueller was devastated by the accusation.
She said she and Mueller started out as co-workers at country station KYGO-FM and became romantically involved in February 2013, a few months before the concert. They drifted apart late in 2013, but Melcher says they remained friends.
Man gets nine years in prison for
sexually abusing 9-year-old girl
BY KARA BERG
After molesting and sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl, a St. Clair County man will spend nine years in prison.
Travis E. Linders pleaded guilty but mentally ill Thursday to one count of predatory criminal sexual abuse of a child. Three other charges — one predatory criminal sex abuse and two aggrevated criminal sex abuse with a victim under 13 — were dismissed as a part of a plea deal. Linders has no prior criminal history.
He’ll now be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, along with his jail time.
The victim told her mother about the abuse, court documents say.
St Clair Co., Ill
Convicted child sex offender attempts to
kidnap 4-year-old boy in Woodstock
By NORTHWEST HERALD
WOODSTOCK – A convicted child sexual offender who police said pulled a 4-year-old boy off his bike near Olson Play Park in Woodstock and tried to run off with him was arrested Thursday.
Kevin A. Sorensen, 39, of 212 Meadow Lane, Woodstock, was charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and unlawful restraint in connection with the incident, according to a news release from Woodstock police. If convicted of his most serious charge, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
Woodstock police were called to Clay and Bagley streets for reports of a fight in progress about 12:43 p.m. Thursday.
After Sorensen picked the boy off his bicycle and tried to run off, the boy and his friends began screaming, police said. The screaming alerted adults to the situation, and two people freed the 4-year-old from Sorensen and held Sorensen until police arrived.
The child was not injured in the incident, police said.
Sorensen will be taken to the McHenry County Jail. His next court appearance had not been set as of Friday afternoon.
Sorensen is a convicted child sexual offender, who is no longer required to register as such, police said.
He was charged in 1993 with luring an 8-year-old boy into the woods in the 700 block of St. Johns Road, Woodstock, and raping him, according to Northwest Herald archives.
Sorensen, who was 15 years old at the time, pleaded innocent in the case and faced up to 30 years in prison, records show.
The outcome of the case was not immediately clear. Woodstock Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Parsons said at the time of Sorensen’s 1993 charge, he would have only had to register as a sexual offender for 10 years.
In 2000, Sorensen was indicted on charges of failure to register as a sex offender, records show.
Two Arrests in Child Sexual Abuse Charge
WESTMORLAND – Two Santee residents were recently arrested and charged with incidents of child sexual abuse that occurred in this small community of 2,200.
56-year-old Ruben Vizcarra and 35-year-old Edward Florentino Vizcarra were booked on Tuesday.
Both were charged with touching a person against their will for sexual arousal. Edward Vizcarro was also charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child and sexual penetration with a foreign object of someone under 14 years old.
The pair were detained in Santee on Monday night. They were then extradited from San Diego County Jail.
Bail for Edward is $200,00 and bail for Ruben is $100,000.
Father and son tag team of perverts?
Santee, CA
Tucson woman faces additional
child sex abuse charges in California
Caitlin Schmidt Arizona Daily Star
A Tucson woman arrested in May on child sex abuse charges out of California is facing additional charges in connection with the crime.
Emily Joy Stephens, 30, was previously facing six felony child-abuse charges involving three children under the age of 10 and three children under the age of 14 in Santa Cruz County Superior Court.
On August 4, she was charged with two additional counts of oral copulation or penetration on a child under 10, according to Santa Cruz County Superior Court records.
Stephens is being held without bond in Pima County jail awaiting extradition to California.
Also accused in the case is California neurosurgeon James Kohut, 57, who is facing multiple counts of sexually abusing children younger than 14.
Santa Cruz Co., AR
Hilo man indicted on child sex abuse charges
By Tiffany DeMasters West Hawaii Today
KAILUA-KONA — A grand jury indicted a Hilo man accused of sexually abusing three different children over various periods of time.
The indictment against Rudolpho Gomoban Rios Jr., 49, was filed in 3rd Circuit Court in Kailua-Kona Tuesday. A bench warrant was issued Thursday with a bail set at $110,000. The court document indicates he abused victims starting as early as 2004 with last reports in 2012.
Rios was charged with two counts of continuous sexual assault of a minor under the age of 14; sexual assault in the first degree; and sexual assault in the third degree.
Court documents indicate that sometime between August 2005 and August 2006, Rios “knowingly subjected to sexual contact or caused to have sexual contact with a minor” under the age of 14 at the time.
According to the indictment, Rios started abusing another victim in 2004. Sometime between April 2004 through November 2006, Rios “knowingly engaged in sexual penetration.”
Alleged abuse continued with the same victim between November 2006 through November 2012.
The indictment indicates a third victim was abused from November 2006 through September 2010.
According to the online court database, E-Court Kokua, Rios has no record besides the recently filed indictment.
St. Helens man arrested for child sex abuse
KGW
ST. HELENS, Ore. -- A young girl provided a tip to police that led to the arrest of a St. Helens man for first-degree sexual abuse.
Anthony W. Dewey, 56, was arrested last week and indicted by a grand jury Thursday. The investigation continues and police say more charges are expected. There may be more victims, said Chief Terry Moss.
The girl, now 11, told investigators that she was six and living in Longview, Wash., when Dewey allegedly touched her inappropriately.
Police went to Dewey's business on Aug. 4 to interview him. He refused to come to the door and police returned with a search warrant, Moss said.
Dewey was arrested after investigators went into the building. They found photos and videos of criminal sexual abuse, he said, along with "numerous pieces of underwear, swimsuits, and costumes that would belong to unidentified girls from five to twelve years old."
Dewey remains in custody at the Columbia County jail on $170,000 bail.
Anyone with information should contact Officer Dustin King by email or at (503) 397-3333 extension 254.
Grand Junction babysitter arrested on
child sex abuse charges
Kurt Sevits
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – A Grand Junction man has been arrested on accusations that he sexually abused children who were left in his care.
Mothers - please don't use male babysitters! PLEASE!
According to an arrest affidavit, Collin Jensen, 41, abused at least three different children between May 2014 and July 2017.
Jensen also used a cell phone to take photos and videos, the affidavit states.
He faces five counts of sexual assault on a child in a pattern of abuse, five counts of sexual assault on a child in a position of trust pattern of abuse, two counts of sexual assault on a child and two counts of sexual assault on a child in a position of trust.
Jensen is being held without bond at the Mesa County Detention Facility.
The investigation into this case is ongoing and investigators are looking into whether there may be more victims. Anyone with information on this case should contact the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office at 970-244-3526.
Man pleads guilty to sexual abuse of boys
WOOD/WCMH
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A Sparta man who admitted to sexually abusing two boys and recording it has pleaded guilty to several of the charges against him.
Tyler Lowis, 23, was in a Kent County court Tuesday for a scheduled status conference when he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a count of child sexually abusive commercial activity and a count of using a computer to commit a crime.
WZZM-TV reports Lowis dressed one of the boys in a diaper and gave him a pacifier to muffle his cries. Also according to court records, Lowis called himself “daddy” and referred to his victim as “baby boy.”
Lowis was arrested in November 2016 after Michigan State Police got a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about child pornography. When police searched his house, they found video files of child porn, some of which showed Lowis and underage boys, according to court documents. Investigators say Lowis then admitted to having sexually abused the boys since 2015.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, several other charges against Lowis were dismissed Tuesday, including a third count of first-degree CSC, two counts of child sexually abusive commercial activity and two counts of using a computer to commit a crime.
Prosecutors also recommended his sentences run concurrently. Still, two of the counts to which he pleaded guilty are punishable by up to life in prison.
Concurrent life sentences I can live with. Anything shorter is just a disgrace to justice.
Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 7.
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