..
Child Sexual Abuse Case Warrants Resentencing, 8th Cir. Says
Emily Garcia
Bloomberg Law
May 12, 2023, 1:56 PM
Lower court relied on unproven facts during sentencing
Proper objections were raised during trial, judges say
A man convicted of sexually abusing his stepdaughter was sentenced too harshly, the Eighth Circuit decided in granting his bid for resentencing on Friday.
Kyle Ira Litson Sr. pleaded guilty to one count of abusive sexual contact with a minor, admitting that he abused his stepdaughter on one occasion. According to court documents, Litson’s stepdaughter told federal investigators that she was abused on at least four occasions over the course of several months.
Litson received an enhancement to his sentence for a pattern of prohibited sexual conduct based on a report that included those other instances of abuse, though he ....
What pervert, once he has crossed that line of sexually abusing his stepdaughter, will settle for only doing it once? Sin gets easier the more often it is practiced.
=====================================================================================
Lawsuit filed against Sacramento City Unified after teacher accused in child sex abuse case
KCRA - Updated: 4:03 PM PDT May 12, 2023
Lysée Mitri, Reporter
Family of one of the victims
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
A little more than a week away from his criminal trial, a former third-grade teacher in Sacramento accused of sexually abusing more than a dozen students is now at the center of a civil lawsuit as well.
The family of a former student is suing Enrique Rodriguez Valladares and the Sacramento City Unified School District, claiming they failed to report the sexual misconduct.
In attendance in Thursday's news conference was the family of one of the victims. The family stood, solemn and silent, alongside their attorneys during a news conference on Thursday.
“The family had a right to trust that when they sent their beloved child off to school, that she would be safe,” Attorney Paul Hoybjerg said. “That trust has been shattered.”
Their child is one of 17 young students that Valladares is accused of sexually abusing between 2015 and 2019 while he was a bilingual third-grade teacher at Bowling Green - Chacon Language and Science Academy, according to court documents.
Valladares is charged with 22 counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child younger than 14 years old.
“Our client was sexually harassed, abused and molested while she was a student in his class approximately two to three times per week during the 2018 and 2019 school year,” said Attorney Vince Finaldi.
While the criminal case is set to go to trial on May 22, now the Sacramento City Unified School District, where Valladares worked, is facing a civil lawsuit.
“That’s going to be one of the focuses of the litigation is finding out what this district knew, when they knew it and how it was this teacher was able to be there for so long and sexually assault so many different kids,” Finaldi said.
The district said as soon as allegations of inappropriate conduct were brought to their attention in September 2020, they notified law enforcement and put Valladares on paid leave. He never returned to a classroom setting in the district.
Where was their attention between 2015 and 2020? How could you possibly not know something was going on - kids talk? You almost have to try to ignore the situation. In so many schools, teachers are protected more than children.
When criminal charges against him followed in December 2021, he was put on mandatory unpaid leave and SCUSD said it reported it to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Then, SCUSD said Valladares resigned in January 2023. He had previously taught for more than 20 years in Sacramento.
“It doesn't happen without warning signs. It doesn't happen without major failures by the school district,” Finaldi said.
While the district did not comment specifically on the lawsuit, they released the following statement:
"Sac City Unified puts the safety and well-being of students above all else and continues to offer appropriate support services to students throughout the district."
The defense attorney for Valladares said he and his client would not comment on the civil or criminal case.
Valladares is not behind bars while he awaits his upcoming trial. Court documents show he was released on pretrial supervision, which includes GPS monitoring and prevents him from being within 100 yards of any elementary, middle or high schools.
Albert Lea man sentenced to 25 1/2 years for sexual abuse of child
Sarah Stultz, Albert Lea Tribune, Minn.
Fri, May 12, 2023 at 11:19 AM PDT·3 min read
May 12—A Freeborn County District Court judge sentenced an area man to 25 1/2 years in prison Friday for sexually abusing a family member on multiple occasions in 2016.
Berryman will serve two-thirds of his sentence in prison with the remainder on supervised release. He will receive credit for 401 days already served in the Freeborn County jail.
According to court documents, the victim stated the assaults, which included both sexual touching and penetration, occurred when Berryman was 18.
"Your actions have consequences," Judge Christy Hormann said upon announcing the sentence.
Berryman in March pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a victim under 13 while the defendant was more than 36 months older.
Berryman's lawyer, Scott Cody, asked the judge to consider a dispositional departure from sentencing guidelines and to instead place his client on probation so he could attend an intensive sex offender treatment program. He referenced his client's age, remorse and lack of criminal history and said
Berryman was not a threat to the public.
Cody said what the public needed more was for Berryman to become a contributing member of society.
IDK - seems to me he has contributed more than enough.
Berryman, when given the chance to speak himself, said there was no way forward unless he was honest with himself and said he had spent a long time denying what had happened.
He said there is an infinite debt he can't pay back but hoped his plea and the sentence could give his family member a sense of justice and of being heard.
I'm sure that was not written by his lawyer!
Assistant Freeborn County Attorney Abigail Lambert said Berryman's psychosexual evaluation referenced Berryman abusing the boy 14 to 16 times and referenced the sexual fantasies he had, including of nonconsensual sex, and that he had admitted to viewing child pornography.
Charges: American Fork man sexually abused child
while awaiting trial for enticing a minor
By Pat Reavy, KSL.com |
Posted - May 12, 2023 at 10:34 a.m.
An American Fork man charged with soliciting an undercover agent posing as a young girl online is
now facing new charges accusing him of sexually abusing a 13-year-old while he was out of jail.
(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
LEHI — A Utah man already facing criminal charges accusing him of soliciting an undercover agent posing as a teenage girl online is now charged with sexually abusing an actual teenage girl he met online while he was out of jail for his first case.
Which makes a good case for the stupidity of letting him out in the first place.
Richard Paul Healey, 34, of American Fork, was charged Friday in 4th District Court with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, and enticing a minor, a second-degree felony.
Healey already faces charges of enticing a minor, dealing in harmful materials to a minor, and 13 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, all second-degree felonies, that were filed in 3rd District Court in November.
In that case, investigators say Healey was a member of an online social media group titled "Utah Teens 13-19." A member of the FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking task force posed as a 12-year-old girl on that group, and Healey reached out to "her," according to charging documents.
The undercover agent told Healey she was a girl in the seventh grade, but Healey "told her that age didn't matter and "asked if the girl wanted to date him even though he is older," the charges state.
Healey was arrested on Nov. 11, 2022, and then released from jail to pretrial services. After he was released, investigators received the results of a search on Healey's phone and found 950 child pornography images, according to court documents. On Jan. 23, prosecutors successfully petitioned to have Healey's bail revoked and he was taken into custody again.
But according to his new charges, Healey was on the Spotafriend app on Jan. 14. The app bills itself as "a Tinder alternative for people ages 13-19."
"(Healey) started chatting with the victim, who is 13 years old, and convinced her to meet late at night near a grocery store in Lehi. The victim met the defendant around 4 a.m. and they walked down the street and went behind another business that was closed," the charges state.
Police say Healey inappropriately touched the girl. Then on Jan. 18, Healey picked up the girl from her junior high school, took her to his house and inappropriately touched her again, the charges allege. He then drove her back to school.
When police became aware of what was happening, the girl said she did not know Healey's name but was able to pick him out of a photo lineup, according to the charging documents.
"(Healey) was a stranger to the victim and made contact with her for the purpose of meeting and engaging sexual acts," the charges say.
It's curious that I had to find this story on a website from India...
US: Man convicted for running four dark web child sexual abuse websites
India Blooms News Service | @indiablooms |
12 May 2023, 04:18 pm
A federal jury convicted a Missouri man yesterday for running four websites dedicated to sharing images of child sexual abuse.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Clint Robert Schram, 54, of Kansas City, hosted, managed, and maintained four different websites from his home.
Each of these websites operated over the “dark web,” and each was devoted to advertising, distributing, and exchanging images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.
One of the websites allowed members to post images of children as young as 2 years old, and another had no restrictions on the types of child sexual abuse images that could be shared.
Schram advertised and distributed child sexual abuse images over these websites, and he recruited, managed, and directed different tiers of “staff” members who helped run the websites.
Schram was convicted of one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and four counts each of advertisement of child pornography and conspiracy to advertise child pornography. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 12 and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Teresa A. Moore for the Western District of Missouri, Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, and Special Agent in Charge Charles A. Dayoub of the FBI Kansas City Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit and Kansas City Field Office investigated the case.
Trial Attorney Kyle P. Reynolds of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alison D. Dunning and David Luna for the Western District of Missouri are prosecuting the case.
No mention of drugs in this story but I suspect the sheer madness involved had its source in illicit drugs. At any rate, there is adult madness and children who suffer the consequences, as usual.
Doomsday plot: Idaho jury convicts woman in murders of
2 children, romantic rival
By REBECCA BOONE
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho mother Lori Vallow Daybell was convicted Friday in the murders of her two youngest children and a romantic rival, a verdict that culminates a three-year investigation that included bizarre claims that her son and daughter were zombies and she was a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.
For the victims’ family members, the verdict is only a temporary balm: Vallow Daybell must be sentenced, and her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, is awaiting trial on the same murder charges. Vallow Daybell herself is also facing another murder trial in Arizona — this one on a charge of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.
“This isn’t the end. Ninety days from today, we will be in Fremont County” for Vallow Daybell’s sentencing, said Larry Woodcock, the grandfather of the youngest victim. “And I will say, ‘Why, Lori? Why?’”
Prosecutors in the case described Vallow Daybell as a power-hungry manipulator who would kill her two youngest children for money, while the defense team said she was a normally protective mother who fell under the romantic sway of a wannabe cult leader.
The jurors sided with the prosecution, convicting Vallow Daybell of conspiring to commit the murders of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and Tammy Daybell. She was also convicted of grand theft as well as first-degree murder of the two children, a charge that indicates a more direct role in the crimes.
JJ’s grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock, held an emotional news conference after the conviction. When they first stepped outside court, the crowd of onlookers who had gathered to support the family and watch the verdict cheered. Some began singing, “We Will Rock You” — JJ’s favorite song.
“JJ, I love you. Papa wishes you were here,” Larry Woodcock said, choking up as he used the name JJ used to call him. “Tylee, Papa loves you. Tammy, I never met you, but you are part of our life. I am sorry for what happened.”
Asked if he had a message for Vallow Daybell, Woodcock recited the lyrics to a Willie Nelson song.
“Turn off the lights, the party’s over. They say that all good things must end,” he sang, before returning to speaking. “Lori, it ended.”
He also thanked the jurors, noting that the graphic evidence they had to view was “mindboggling,” and something that could never be unseen.
The Tammy Douglas Daybell Foundation, created by her family members a year after her death, wrote in a press release that the verdict would bring “some measure of closure” for everyone. Tammy Daybell was a school librarian, and the foundation works to raise money for libraries and literacy programs in Idaho and Utah.
“We love you Tammy. You will never be forgotten,” the foundation wrote in a Twitter post. “The road is long, but we’re grateful this chapter is closed.”
Prosecutors said they were not able to comment on the verdict because of pending charges against Chad Daybell. In a statement, they thanked jurors for their service and said they “remain committed to pursuing justice for Tylee Ryan, JJ Vallow and Tammy Daybell.”
Vallow Daybell wanted the victims’ money, so she used sex and power to manipulate her brother and her lover into carrying out the crimes, Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood told jurors during closing arguments.
“ Money, power and sex,” Wood said, reprising the arguments his team made at the start of the trial. He claimed Vallow Daybell considered the three victims nothing more than obstacles to her goals.
“What does justice for these victims require? It requires a conviction on each and every count,” Wood said.
Defense attorney Jim Archibald countered that there was no evidence tying his client to the killings, but plenty showing she was a loving, protective mother whose life took a sharp turn when she met her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, and fell for the “weird” apocalyptic religious claims of a cult leader. He suggested that Daybell and Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, were responsible for the deaths.
Daybell told her they had been married in several previous lives and she was a “sexual goddess” who was supposed to help him save the world by gathering 144,000 followers so Jesus could return, Archibald said.
At times, the testimony in the case has been heartbreaking — such as when Vallow Daybell’s only surviving child, Colby Ryan, accused her of murdering his siblings in a recorded jailhouse phone call.
Other testimony has been strange, such as when Vallow Daybell’s former friend Melanie Gibb testified that Vallow Daybell believed people in her life had been taken over by evil spirits and turned into “zombies” — including JJ and Tylee. Four of the people the defendant described as “zombies” were later killed or shot at, according to the testimony.
It has also been gruesome, such as when law enforcement officers testified about finding JJ and Tylee’s remains buried in Chad Daybell’s yard.
“Tylee’s body was burned beyond recognition. Her body was dismembered in such a grotesque and extreme manner,” that the medical examiner couldn’t determine the cause of death, Wood said.
“JJ Vallow’s voice was silenced forever by a strip of duct tape over his mouth,” Wood said. “A white plastic bag was placed over his head, and secured with duct tape around and around from his forehead to his chin.”
Tammy Daybell’s death was first reported as being from natural causes, after Chad Daybell told authorities she died in her sleep and had recently been coughing, vomiting and suffering occasional shaking fits. Investigators grew suspicious when Chad Daybell married Vallow Daybell just two weeks later, and eventually they had Tammy Daybell’s remains exhumed. An autopsy showed she was asphyxiated.
The case began in July 2019, when Vallow Daybell’s then-husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed by her brother, Alex Cox, at his home in a Phoenix suburb. The husband and wife were estranged, and Cox told police he acted in self defense. He was never charged in the case and died later that year of what authorities determined were natural causes.
Vallow Daybell was already in a relationship with Chad Daybell, and so moved to Idaho with her kids and brother to be closer to him.
The children were last seen alive in September of 2019. Police discovered they were missing a month later after an extended family member became worried. Their bodies were found the following summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment