Former Pasco Co., Fla., assistant principal
gets 35 years for child porn, sexual abuse
By Dan Sullivan
TAMPA — A federal judge sentenced a former Pasco County assistant school principal to 35 years in prison Tuesday, capping a horrifying criminal case that also ensnared a school transportation manager.
Kyle Dale Ritsema admitted to sexually abusing and possessing pornographic images of a teenage boy. His sentence came shortly after it was revealed in court that he suffers from HIV and may have exposed others to the infection.
“I am incredibly ashamed of my behavior and I will carry that shame as long as I live,” Ritsema said. He wept as he listened to the testimony of his family members, and later tried to explain that his actions arose from a desire for acceptance and love.
“I don’t know completely why I did this,” he said. “I am anything but a monster.”
Ritsema, 37, was arrested in February 2018 after his name surfaced during a child exploitation investigation involving William Napolitano, who was a school bus manager for Pasco County.
Homeland Security agents had found hundreds of images of child pornography in Napolitano’s home and on his computer and phone, along with saved chats and text messages with other pedophiles. One of the people he chatted with was Ritsema, who at the time was an assistant principal at Cypress Creek Middle-High School in Wesley Chapel. The pair had discussions about their shared interest in sexually abusing children, prosecutors said.
When agents investigated further, they found evidence that Ritsema had met a boy through Grindr, a gay dating application. The boy was about 14 or 15 years old. They engaged in sexual activity five times over the course of a year, prosecutors said. During one encounter, Ritsema took pornographic pictures of the boy, which he later shared with Napolitano.
Although he was not charged with any other offenses, prosecutors identified at least two other young boys they suspect Ritsema victimized.
Pasco Co., Fla.
Somerset child sex abuse case: Man gets 12 years
A 44-year-old man was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison in a child sex abuse case, the Somerset County State's Attorney's Office said Tuesday.
On Sept.10, Cornelius Brennecke was convicted of sex abuse of a minor in the Circuit Court for Somerset County. On Nov. 4, a Somerset County Circuit Court judge sentenced Brennecke to 12 years of active incarceration in the division of corrections.
Prosecutors said in spring 2016, Brennecke lived with a family in Somerset County. It revealed that Brennecke engaged in sexual acts with a 15-year-old with whom he resided, according to a state's attorney's office news release.
Somerset Co., Md.
Ohio ex-missionary sentenced to 9 years in prison
in child sex abuse cases
PETER SMITH AND SHELLY BRADBURY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
MILLERSBURG, Ohio — A former missionary for a large Ohio-based international aid ministry was sentenced to nine years in prison Tuesday for sexually abusing two boys in Holmes County, Ohio.
Jeriah Mast, of Millersburg, did not show emotion when Judge Robert D. Rinfret levied the sentence before a packed courtroom. He was immediately taken into custody and led away in handcuffs.
Judge Rinfret said during the sentencing that Mast had confessed to abusing more than 30 boys in Haiti and said that was part of the reason he decided on the nine-year sentence. The defense and prosecution had previously, as part of a plea agreement, recommended that Mast serve no more than five years in prison.
Mast has not been charged with the cases in Haiti; but authorities there are investigating. Mast gave a statement to the court that said he was sorry for what he had done and that he was trying to take responsibility for his actions. His wife and pastor also spoke on his behalf.
Jeriah Mast enters the court room with his wife, Marian, at the Holmes County Courthouse Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019 in Millersburg, Ohio.
Shelly Bradbury
Mast was charged in July with 14 counts alleging he abused five minors between 1999 and 2008. In October, 12 counts were dismissed as part of a plea agreement and Mast pleaded guilty to two felony counts of gross sexual imposition in connection with molesting two boys.
The Ohio charges were filed after Mast confessed to the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office in May that he abused boys over a period of about 15 years in both Ohio and Haiti, where he was working for Christian Aid Ministries, a Berlin, Ohio, organization supported by various Mennonite, Amish and related groups.
Mast told authorities that he abused four victims in Holmes County; a fifth victim — a victim Mast denies abusing but pleaded guilty to — later came forward.
Rutland, Vt., man accused of long-term
sexual abuse of child
By Patrick Mcardle Rutland Herald
A local man was arraigned on Monday after being accused of sexually assaulting a girl over a course of a number of years, a charge for which, if he’s convicted, he would face a mandatory minimum jail sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison.
Ryan A. Morris, 26, of Rutland, pleaded not guilty on Monday to three felonies, one count of aggravated sexual assault on someone younger than 13, one count of second-degree unlawful restraint and one count of lewd and lascivious conduct.
Morris was released on a $10,000 unsecured appearance bond but ordered not to have contact with girls younger than 16.
In an affidavit, Trooper Steven Gelder, of the Vermont State Police, said he became involved in the case on Aug. 20 after learning from a report from the Vermont Department for Children and Families that a girl, now 17, had told a Rutland City Police detective that Morris had sexually assaulted her multiple times over the past several years.
Gelder said he met with the girl at the Child First Advocacy Center on Aug. 21 to conduct an interview along with DCF investigator Hannah Messer.
Gelder noted that Morris is “eight years, nine months and 16 days older” than the girl who knew Morris before the alleged abuse began. The girl said that because she had known Morris for an extended period “she would frequently see him as she grew up” and at times they lived in the same home.
The girl said she had disagreements with her parents and accused Morris of blackmailing her for sexual favors to avoid further problems with her parents. The girl described several alleged incidents of Morris touching her inappropriately from times when she estimated she was 7 or 8, to the age of 13.
Gelder said there was a second interview with the girl on Sept. 23 when the girl “clarified there was no sexual intercourse between Ryan Morris and she but there was constant grabbing and fear.”
The affidavit said investigators spoke with a 27-year-old woman and a 54-year-old woman, both on Oct. 7, because the girl had told them about the alleged abuse. The women confirmed the girl had told her last year that Morris molested her.
Gelder said he arranged to interview Morris at the Rutland barracks of the Vermont State Police on Oct. 22. According to the affidavit, Morris said the allegations were based on something that happened 16 years ago when he was 10.
Gelder said he went to Morris’ home on Friday and arrested him. Morris denied sexually assaulting the girl, the affidavit said.
“Ryan said he recalled being in the kitchen with (the girl) and that they would talk and make food together but he did not touch her. He said they were never alone together in the house,” Gelder wrote in the affidavit.
During Morris’ arraignment on Monday, attorney T. Lamar Enzor, who represented Morris, said his client did not have an extensive record and had never failed to appear in court.
Those two phrases sound mutually exclusive, don't they?
Judge David Howard agreed to the state’s request for an unsecured appearance bond which he called a “minor burden” in comparison to the serious charges Morris faced, especially the count of aggravated sexual assault on someone younger than 16.
Modesto couple sexually abused kids and infant,
produced child porn, prosecutors say
BY ROSALIO AHUMADA, Modesto Bee
A Modesto couple has been convicted and sentenced to prison for sexually abusing three children, which included an infant. The conviction included charges of producing child pornography.
Authorities arrested Terry William Bush and his then girlfriend Tiffany Dawn McGuire in July 2015 after Modesto police investigators found incriminating photos and messages at the couple’s home, prosecutors said.
Bush on Sept. 6 pleaded no contest to three counts of committing lewd acts on a child younger than 14 years old, one count of oral copulation of a child younger than 10, and one count of committing a lewd act with a 14-year-old child, the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday in a news release.
Prosecutors also said that Bush admitted to committing sexual assault crimes against victims younger than 14 in three special allegations, which lengthened his prison sentence. Several other sexual abuse charges were dropped after the no contest plea.
Also on Sept. 6, McGuire pleaded no contest to one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child younger than 14, one count of committing a lewd act with a child younger than 14, two counts of using a child to create child porn, and one count of possession of child porn, according to prosecutors.
The title to this article mentions an infant, but the charges don't reflect that. There is a big difference between a 12 y/o and a 1 or 2 y/o. Why don't we see that in the charges?
Terry William Bush, left, and Tiffany McGuire, both of Modesto, were arrested in July 2015 in a molestation case. STANISLAUS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT
On Oct. 21, Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Thomas Zeff sentenced Bush, 43, to 40 years to life in prison for his sexual abuse crimes. But prosecutors said Bush could become eligible for “elderly parole” after spending 25 years behind bars because of changes in state law.
Zeff on the same day last month sentenced McGuire, 35, to 20 years in prison. Bush and McGuire will be required to register as convicted sex offenders with the nearest local law enforcement agency once they are released from prison.
Bush on Tuesday was serving his sentence at North Kern State Prison in Delano, and McGuire was serving hers at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. Bush will be eligible for parole in November 2046, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. McGuire’s potential parole date was not available.
Deputy District Attorney Merrill Hoult prosecuted the case. The prosecution has said the sexual abuse dated back to June 2005 with one of the children and continued with the others through June 2015, according to an amended criminal complaint filed in July 2015.
Bush and McGuire lived together at the time of their arrest, and some of the victims lived there, too. At least one of the children was related to Bush, Modesto Police Department officials have said.
The investigation began when a 14-year-old girl told police that Bush had sexually assaulted her, authorities say. Bush initially was arrested on suspicion of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, and was released from jail on $50,000 bail.
Detectives then served a search warrant at the home where Bush and McGuire lived. Investigators found at the home cell phones and other electronic devices that contained images and text messages that showed Bush and McGuire sexually abusing the other children.
Nanticoke, Pa., man found guilty of child sex charges
Times Leader
By Patrick Kernan
WILKES-BARRE — A Nanticoke man who was accused of repeatedly raping a minor for years was found guilty of the charges against him by a jury on Friday.
Jason Buchanan, 38, was on trial last week, accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl for years, between the time when she was 8 and 15 years old. It was when she was 15 that she came forward to police to report the abuse.
It took jurors only three hours of deliberation Friday to determine Buchanan was guilty of eight felony counts and one misdemeanor, including charges of rape of a child, aggravated indecent assault, statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors.
Buchanan’s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 6, 2020, before Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough. He’ll remain locked up pending sentencing.
Buchanan’s wife, Evalynn Buchanan, was originally set to go to trial this week on charges of endangering the welfare of children, after she allegedly ignored multiple phone calls from police and packed up the couple’s belongings and fleeing before charges were filed. They were later found at a relative’s home in Dushore, Sullivan County.
However, online court records say sentencing for Evalynn Buchanan has been set for Dec. 16, seemingly indicating that she had pleaded guilty to charges against her on Monday. However, the online court records had not been updated to indicate to what she had pleaded guilty.
40-year sentence for kidnapping, child sex assault
for Beaumont, Tx., man
By Beaumont Enterprise
A Beaumont man has pleaded guilty to 10 felony charges involving the sexual abuse of two children.
Alfred Smith, 43, was accused of violently kidnapping two sisters, ages 10 and 14, from their home and sexually assaulting them on Sept. 3, 2018. He was indicted for aggravated sexual assault of a child, aggravated kidnapping and indecency with a child.
Smith will serve 40 years in prison under the terms of the plea agreement. State District Judge John B. Stevens Jr. formally sentenced him Monday.
Smith previously served 15 years for an earlier first-degree felony conviction for injury to a child.
The case was investigated by Beaumont police Detective Chuck Duchamp and prosecuted by Assistant Jefferson County District Attorney Tatiana Zelezniak.
Smith will not be eligible for parole, and would be 82 years old upon release. He will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
I can live with that plea deal!
Queensbury, NY, man pleads guilty to child sexual abuse
Post-Star
QUEENSBURY — A 49-year-old Queensbury man is headed to jail after he pleaded guilty Wednesday to having sexual contact with a child.
Michael Elmore pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse, a felony, in connection with his arrest in September by State Police.
The charge was brought because he had sexual contact with a child under the age of 11. State Police said he was familiar with the victim.
Elmore agreed to a plea deal that will include 16 weekends in Warren County Jail and 10 years on probation when he is sentenced Jan. 20 by Warren County Judge John Hall.
Wow! That's a good deal. Doesn't even have to lose his job!
Amish mom gets probation for not protecting daughters from husband's sexual abuse
Shelly Bradbury
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An Amish woman in Clearfield County was fined Tuesday and sentenced to probation for not protecting four of her daughters from being molested by her husband.
Sarah Schmucker, 52, pleaded guilty in September to four misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of children. Her husband, Wallace Schmucker, 55, pleaded guilty to molesting four of his daughters over the course of a dozen years.
Mrs. Schmucker admitted to police she knew her husband was molesting their daughters but did not report it. She and her husband agreed at one point they would “pray that he could control himself in the future.” At another point, she told a daughter that if her father attempted to molest her again, she was to tell the church elders, according to the arrest affidavit.
The case was one of numerous ones documented by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in its recent series, “Coverings,” on the growing outcry about cases of sexual abuse among Amish, Mennonite and related groups.
Common Pleas President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman sentenced Mrs. Schmucker to three years of probation on each count, to be served concurrently. Chip Bell, Clearfield County’s court administrator, said that Mrs. Schmucker was also fined $100 for each count plus court costs.
Mr. Schmucker is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 10 on charges including aggravated indecent assault of someone under 16, endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors and indecent exposure..
The case arose after the couple’s Amish bishop reported the allegations to the state’s ChildLine child abuse hotline last year, according to the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, which prosecuted the case.
Mr. Bell said that the maximum sentence for a first-class misdemeanor is five years incarceration and a $10,000 fine for each count.
In Mrs. Schmucker’s case, she had no prior criminal history, and standard-range sentencing guidelines called for probation to up to nine months incarceration.
'It was hush, hush. It made me sick.' Dozens accuse ex-Boy Scout leader of sex abuse. Are there more victims?
The Boy Scouts has listed thousands of men as ineligible to volunteer
because of sex abuse allegations. William Sheehan of SW Florida's
Camp Miles was one of them.
Patricia Borns, Fort Myers News-Press
Note to readers: This story includes graphic details of alleged child sex abuse. If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
Keith Briggs will never forget the knock on his cabin door at Camp Miles, a Boy Scouts of America camp in the swamp and pine flatwoods of Punta Gorda.
The year was 1989. There stood one of his counselors with a young Aaron Averhart in tow.
"'Mr. Briggs, you've got a problem,'" the former camp director recalled his counselor's words. "'Sheehan's going into his tent every night and abusing him sexually."
For 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America has kept a list of men, today numbering in the thousands, who have been banned from scouting for real or alleged sexual misconduct.
William Sheehan was one in Southwest Florida.
From Foxborough, Massachusetts, the teacher and scout leader came in 1981 to direct water sports at Camp Miles, where each year children from five counties attend by the hundreds. They called him "Uncle Bill."
The Boy Scouts' Southwest Florida Council, which runs the camp, quietly suspended Sheehan after that 1989 visit.
There the matter seemed to end. In reality, it was just beginning.
Over the next 10 years, first one man, then many, began coming forward in Foxborough, alleging Sheehan had raped or molested them when they were Boy Scouts in the 1960s and 1970s.
Here's what we know now:
1962: William Sheehan, 24, begins his teaching career in Foxborough.
1963: Volunteers as scout master of Foxborough’s Troop 70.
1981: Moves with his family to Fort Myers. Teaches at San Carlos Park Elementary. Oversees water sports at the Boy Scouts' Camp Miles.
1989: Aaron Avehart alleges Sheehan is sexually molesting him at Camp Miles, but Charlotte County Sheriff's Office investigators find no grounds to pursue the case.
1990: Sheehan resigns from the school district, his teaching license revoked.
1998: A Foxborough man alleges Sheehan sexually molested him in the 1970s. More complaints follow, with striking similarities.
2012: Massachusetts detectives travel to Fort Myers to arrest Sheehan but find him in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
2016: Averhart and other Sheehan accusers in Foxborough discover one another for the first time.
2017: Sheehan dies in a Fort Myers nursing home from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, never arrested or convicted of a crime.
There is much more to this story available at News Press.
Madera County, Ca., Woman Sentenced For Her Part in Production of Child Porn
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Madera County woman was sentenced Monday to 16 years and 8 months in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release, for aiding and abetting the doj logoproduction of child pornography, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott.
Ashley Maddox, 32, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd, after pleading guilty on May 24 to one count of aiding and abetting the production of child pornography. Maddox came to the attention of law enforcement during an investigation of an offender in Fort Pierce, Florida. The investigation revealed that between Nov. 2015 and April 2016, Maddox had communicated with that offender, via the internet and on cellphone apps, about their mutual sexual interest in minors. Maddox requested that this individual send her images and video recordings in which he sexually abused a minor victim in his care. To encourage this individual to produce such images, Maddox requested that he commit specific acts, and indicated that the images she had received from him had aroused her. Maddox also created and sent him nude images of a minor to whom she had access.
This case is the product of an investigation by the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, a federally and state-funded task force with agents from federal, state, and local agencies. The Central California ICAC investigates online child exploitation crimes, including child pornography, enticement, and sex trafficking. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents in Fresno, California and Fort Pierce, Florida investigated this case. The Madera County Sheriff’s Office assisted early in the investigation. Trial Attorney Nadia C. Prinz of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Gappa of the Eastern District of California prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about internet safety education.
Pa. Superior Court affirms sentence for State College man convicted of child sex abuse
BY BRET PALLOTTO, Centre Daily Times
A State College man convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a child had his at least 28-year state prison sentence affirmed Tuesday by the state Superior Court.
State College police in May 2017 accused Joseph Neff of molesting a then-8-year-old girl from 2009 to 2016. A jury convicted him seven months later of more than 700 counts of sexual assault.
Neff, 38, admitted to the allegations before the trial, but later argued the Centre County district attorney’s office wrongly showed jurors photos of the girl and whether county Judge Katherine Oliver erroneously allowed testimony from one of Neff’s previous romantic partners.
The three-judge panel was not swayed by either argument.
The photos were “harmless” and “would not have affected the outcome of the trial,” Senior Superior Court Judge John Musmanno wrote.
He also ruled the testimony was not intentionally elicited by prosecutors. The statement was in response to an unrelated question, Musmanno wrote.
“The trial court thoroughly and immediately instructed the jury that (the woman’s) prohibited testimony should be disregarded, and that it was the sole purview of the jury to assess the credibility of witnesses,” Musmanno wrote. “Neff is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect one.”
Neff was sent to Albion state prison in Erie County after Oliver handed down the sentence in May 2018. His maximum sentence is 56 years.
The Centre County district attorney’s office did not immediately respond Tuesday to request for comment. Defense lawyer Karen Muir has not yet had time to review the ruling with Neff, she said Tuesday.
“However, I will do so quickly so that he and I can explore his options and decide on the next steps,” she said.
Sentencing delayed for Montana man who
plead guilty to sexual exploitation of a child
By: MTN News
Sentencing was delayed Tuesday for Virgil Allen Wolfe, a former Lewis & Clark County Sheriff's deputy who pleaded guilty in May to sexual exploitation of a child.
During a Tuesday hearing at the federal courthouse in Helena, Wolfe requested that he no longer be represented by his attorney.
Wolfe says he believes his counsel has been ineffective and has left him exposed to a stiffer prison sentence.
Judge Charles Lovell ordered a new public defender for Wolfe.
Wolfe was arrested in February in Cascade County and initially charged in state court with 80 counts of sexual abuse of a child. The Cascade County Sheriff’s Office started investigating in June of 2017 after the victim disclosed the alleged abuse to a counselor.
The victim said the abuse started when she was a young child (9th story on link) living in Helena. In court documents, the victim said the abuse continued into her teens and while she was living in Cascade County. The victim said Wolfe told her not to tell anyone.
During the investigation, deputies discovered Wolfe was a deputy for Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office in the late 1990s. They also sent several electronic items to the Department of Homeland Security for forensic analysis. According to court documents, agents found hundreds of photographs of children in various stages of undress on the electronic items.
The new sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
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