October raid leads to child porn charges against two Applegate, Ore., men
Posted By: Jamie Parfitt, KDRV
RUCH, Ore. — Evidence gathered from search warrants served at several homes in the Ruch area in October has now resulted in child pornography charges against two men — one of whom was already in jail.
Detectives and a SWAT team served those warrants at two homes on Upper Applegate Road on October 24, leading to the arrest of 41-year-old Joaquin Amadeus Cowart.
"Cowart had felony warrants for absconding from parole, and for charges related to a domestic violence incident. He was lodged in the Jackson County jail without bail due to the State Parole Board warrant," the Jackson County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Monday.
Cowart is also a registered sex offender who had not updated his registration at the time of his arrest. He has remained in jail ever since.
On Monday, detectives added more charges against Cowart — one count of Encouraging Child Sexual Abuse in the First Degree and five counts of Encouraging Child Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree.
At the same time, detectives arrested another suspect in the ongoing investigation. 56-year-old Mark Daniel Root was found at his home in the first block of Upper Applegate Road, the Sheriff's Office said. His home was one of the two raided in October, along with Cowart's.
Root was lodged on Jackson County Jail on three counts of Encouraging Child Sexual Abuse in the First Degree and eight counts of Encouraging Child Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree.
Both Cowart and Root are being held on $1 million bail for the new charges, the Sheriff's Office said.
JCSO said that its detectives were assisted in this investigation by the Medford Police Department, Oregon State Police and Southern Oregon High Tech Crimes Task Force.
Another man who lived on Upper Applegate Road was arrested and accused of downloading child and animal pornography just last week.
Peoria man tells judge he needs more time to hire lawyer in Decatur, Ill., child sex case
Tony Reid, H&R
DECATUR — Jarquez A. Hobbs, facing home invasion and child sexual assault charges, told a Macon County Circuit Court Judge Monday that he needed more time to hire a lawyer to defend him and was given until Friday.
Hobbs, 23, from Peoria, was arrested in that city on Dec. 17 after a warrant was executed by U.S. Marshals and the Peoria Police Department. He was brought back to Decatur on charges of home invasion causing injury and three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault involving a girl under 13. The charges date to the early morning hours of Aug. 5 at a Decatur address.
Hobbs, who is being held in the Macon County Jail in lieu of posting bail set at $3 million and must deposit $300,000 to get out, was advised of the charges against him by Judge Phoebe Bowers. He asked Bowers for more time to hire a private attorney and said he needed the rest of the week to get that done.
Hobbs has yet to enter a plea on any of the charges and Bowers ordered him to be brought back to court at 10:30 a.m. Friday when his attorney is scheduled to make an appearance on his behalf.
California man pleads not guilty to child sex crimes
in Mount Zion and Decatur, Ill.
Tony Reid, H&R
DECATUR — Robert N. Meola, arrested where he now lives in California and brought back to face child sex crime charges stemming from incidents in the Mount Zion and Decatur area, is pleading not guilty on all counts.
Meola, 44, is charged with two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault involving a child aged under 13. He also is charged with two counts of criminal sexual assault and six counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
He appeared in Macon County Circuit Court on Dec. 18 and waived a formal hearing to see if there was probable cause to try him. The case was placed on the trial list of Judge Jeffrey Geisler and a pretrial hearing was scheduled for Feb. 6. Meola has retained private defense counsel and remains held in the Macon County Jail with bail set at $500,000, meaning he must post $50,000 to bond out.
The Mount Zion Police Department previously told the Herald & Review that the case came to light when a victim came forward in July to make a sexual assault complaint. Police were told the alleged assaults occurred between 2005 and 2008 while the victim lived in both Mount Zion and Decatur.
Mount Zion officers conducted numerous interviews in their investigation and also worked with law enforcement agencies in Texas and Utah. Mount Zion police Lt. Mike Foster said those agencies also interviewed the victim and other witnesses before Mount Zion officers obtained an arrest warrant on Oct. 24. Meola was taken into custody Nov. 4 in San Diego in an operation involving U.S. Marshals.
Ill. man pleads guilty to child sex assault
Victim says she hopes he can find happiness
BY HANA MUSLIC
MADISON COUNTY
A 39-year-old Cottage Hills man has admitted he solicited and sexually assaulted two young girls in January 2018.
Joshua P. Brown pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of indecent solicitation of a child and one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault, according to the Madison County State’s Attorney’s office.
Brown was charged on March 4 with intent to commit an act of sexual penetration on a 9-year-old girl. Upon investigation, the Bethalto Police Department discovered there was a second victim and charged Brown with the aggravated sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl on May 21, the Madison County State’s Attorney’s office stated.
Police determined during the investigation that Brown had been in a “position of trust and authority to the victims,” a news release stated. The abuse occurred in Brown’s home.
Amazing attitude for victim - God bless her!
The younger victim provided an impact statement at the plea hearing on Monday.
“Many may not agree with me, but I believe everyone in this world deserves happiness, even the people that have taken it away from others,” she said. “I hope all the evil thoughts that have clouded your mind can leave and I hope you can eventually leave prison with the intent to do nothing but good things for as long as you shall live.”
The plea agreement was reached after the state’s attorney’s office consulted the victims and their families.
“In cases of sexual assault, it is required that the children testify at trial, which can be difficult for young victims,” the release stated.
The Madison County courthouse dog, Fitz, provided therapy for the victims during court proceedings, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Brown will be sentenced to serve 15 years for the solicitation charge and 7 years for the aggravated sex assault charge in the Illinois Department of Corrections, the release stated. He must also serve a mandated two-year probation period after his release and register as a sex offender for life.
Cottage Hills, Ill
Continuous CSA among charges Edinburg, Tx., police listed before triple homicide
Mark Reagan, The Monitor
The first page of a police report generated after 19-year-old Rebecca Lee Cantu complained to police that 57-year-old Saul Ramon Avila had been sexually assaulting her for five years contains six different sex charges.
Edinburg police believe Avila took his own life after murdering Rebecca Lee and her mother, Magdalena Cantu, 48, along with home healthcare provider Aaron Cortez, 30, four days after Rebecca Lee reported the allegations to police.
Avila was Magdalena’s boyfriend.
The first page of the report states the crimes started on Sept. 1, 2014, and lasted through Dec. 1, a little more than a week before the brutal murders at 301 W. Kuhn St.
Mom knew!
The report doesn’t include any suspect names, but Police Chief Cesar Torres said last week that Rebecca Lee reported Avila’s alleged sexual abuse and that the young woman’s mother knew about the abuse and allowed it.
The charges on the report include continuous sexual abuse of a child, sexual assault, possession or promotion of lewd visual material of a child, sexual performance by child, possession of child pornography, indecency with a child by contact and failure to report a felony.
The Monitor requested the report in its entirety, but the city of Edinburg only released the first page of the report, stating that it relied on a previous attorney general ruling prohibiting the release of information that would interfere with the detection, investigation or prosecution of a crime.
Weird! Everyone's dead, so who are they going to prosecute?
The newspaper has filed a second request, which will require the city of Edinburg to seek an attorney general’s ruling.
The additional charges had not been mentioned by authorities when Torres named Avila as the suspect and provided more information about what transpired between Dec. 6, when Rebecca Lee went to the police department, and Dec. 11, when Rebecca Lee, Magdalena and Cortez’s bodies were discovered.
A toddler was also found unharmed that day. Torres said that the boy belonged to Rebecca Lee and that Avila is the father, though confirmation is pending a DNA test.
Torres also said that Rebecca Lee did not want to press charges against Avila.
“On that same date (Dec. 6) after she left the police department an officer calls Magdalena to ask her (Rebecca) to return to the police department so that we can continue the investigation and fill out a complaint so we can make an arrest,” Torres said.
Later that day, police reached Rebecca, who agreed to come back to the police department by 5 p.m., Torres said. “We waited for Rebecca a few minutes after 5 o’ clock and she never returned and she never called us back,” Torres said.
“On Monday, our Criminal Investigations Division persisted on calling her several times and it appears that her cellphone was off and there was no answer,” Torres said. “We were not able to leave voicemail messages. Her mailbox was full, and the very next day was when this occurred.”
How Avila found out about the allegations Rebecca Lee made isn’t immediately clear. “We are not sure if Magdalena or Rebecca told someone else or told him. We don’t know that. We don’t have that information,” Torres said.
The chief added that Avila made an irate call to Magdalena’s sister about the allegations and also called his sister about the police report.
Torres said no one from his department contacted Avila about the accusations.
Rebecca Lee died from a gunshot wound to the head and a stab wound to the neck.
Magdalena died from stab wounds to the neck.
Cortez died from gunshot wounds to his head and neck.
Arizona man arrested for child porn after uploading image to Tumblr
Author: 12 News
SURPRISE, Ariz. — A 25-year-old Arizona was arrested on child porn charges after he admitted to possessing child sexual abuse material in the form of photos and videos, according to documents filed in the Maricopa County Superior Court.
Samuel Angel Salgado, Jr., of Surprise faces 10 felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
The social media platform Tumblr reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in April 2018 that a user uploaded an image containing child sexual abuse material, court docs say. The IP address was eventually traced back to an address in Surprise, Arizona.
Detectives noted that the contents of the Tumblr blog were "multiple images and images depicting [children in various stages of undress and in positions performing sexual acts]," according to court documents.
Investigators allege that Salgado Jr. also discussed in messages that he raped a 9-year-old child that he had babysat in the past, detectives wrote. Salgado Jr. denied that to police, saying he had "never" babysat anyone.
A search warrant was executed at the home in Surprise on Dec. 5 where Salgado Jr. lives with other family members. In a subsequent conversation, he admitted to possessing the Tumblr account police were investigating. He told police that his "preferred age range of children was 9-13 years of age," according to court documents.
Salgado Jr. told detectives he kept child sexual abuse material on his iPhone 5s, which was obtained by police.
Detectives found 33 images and 170 videos on the phone, 10 of which were noted for charging purposes in the case as they allegedly contained child sexual abuse material.
The child sexual abuse material on his phone showed children below the ages of 15, 5 and 2 being sexually abused.
Other family members interviewed denied having any knowledge about child sexual abuse material.
Ex-pastor of Medford, NJ church can’t withdraw
guilty plea in child sex abuse case
by Associated Press
A former pastor who co-founded a Christian music festival has lost his bid to withdraw his guilty plea in a child sex abuse case.
Harry Thomas, 76, had argued that his plea was invalid because his testimony had not established an adequate factual basis for four charges against him.
However, an appellate court rejected those arguments in a ruling issued Friday, saying they were satisfied that Thomas’ testimony “sufficiently established (his) guilt."
The panel also upheld the 18-year sentence he received. The panel found Thomas, who must serve his full term before he can be freed, had reached the plea agreement “freely, knowingly and voluntarily.”
Thomas is the former pastor of Come Alive New Testament Church in Medford and co-founder of the Creation Festival, billed as the country’s largest Christian music festival. He had acknowledged sexually assaulting a 9-year-old, having sexual contact with three girls ages 7 to 9 and exposing himself to a girl.
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