Upstate man facing 10 child sex abuse charges
Posted:
PICKENS, S.C. (WSPA) – An Upstate man has been charged with 10 counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.
The SC Attorney General’s Office announced Monday that 22-year-old Dallon Christopher Barnwell, of Pickens, was arrested in connection with a child sex abuse investigation.
The investigation was initiated when investigators received a Cybertip report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The tip led authorities to Barnwell, who officials said had files of child sex abuse material.
Barnwell was arrested on Thursday, July 3, by the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office. Each offense he faces is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment, according to authorities.
His case will be prosecuted by the SC Attorney General’s Office.
‘We blew that whistle, but nobody heard it’:
Why was a youth coach allowed to keep abusing
children after a 12-year-old reported him?
Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN
The young boys played video games, billiards, air hockey and Nerf basketball in their coach’s basement in Brooklyn Center. He gave them pizza, burgers, chips and soda.
Sports memorabilia decorated the walls alongside trophies, medals and plaques from tournaments. A poster was inscribed with the boys’ basketball team name: “Kings of the Court.” They slept over the night before games. He took them to Timberwolves games, picked them up from school or home in a van for basketball practice.
One of those boys was Jazz, who was an 11-year-old sixth grader when the abuse started during the 2014-2015 school year.
He spent the night at Hjermstad’s home after a group trip to a Timberwolves game in 2014. Hjermstad told him that night that he should sleep in his room. The boy awoke in the middle of the night to find his hand forcibly placed on Hjermstad’s genitals.
A few months later, he woke up to find Hjermstad looking up his shorts with the light from a cell phone. Hjermstad was on the floor. When Jazz asked why, he said he had heard a noise and wanted to keep the boys safe. Jazz and other teammates stayed up all night that evening, fearing Hjermstad would touch them.
“I didn’t go to sleep because I thought of what happened last time,” Jazz, then 12, told a forensic interviewer who spoke with him in 2015 as part of a police investigation into the incident. “I stayed awake.”
Jazz did what he felt was right, what he thought would put a stop to the abuse — he told a trusted adult at his school, Excell Academy, a charter school in Brooklyn Park. The police investigated.
Then the unthinkable happened: Hjermstad, now 46, wasn’t charged. He got a new job at another charter school. He kept coaching and abusing children.
Please continue reading at Sahan Journal:
Jazz, now 22, still has difficulty...
Bullard man gets 25 years for sexually assaulting children
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A Bullard man has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two young children and accepted a 25-year prison sentence.
Raywin Robert Lyons, 66, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in Judge Kerry Russell’s courtroom on Monday.
Lyons and Melissa Branch were arrested in December after two girls made an outcry of sexual abuse in July 2024.
Branch was deemed incompetent to stand trial on June 24.
Beaumont man sentenced to 50 years for assault of missing teen that he helped search for
BEAUMONT, Texas — A Beaumont man who helped distribute fliers during the search for a missing 14-year-old girl in 2022 was sentenced to 50 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a child.
John David Allen III, 47, appeared before Judge John Stevens in Criminal District Court, where he entered guilty pleas to the charges. Allen had been arrested in December 2022 after police found him harboring the missing Vidor teenager in a Beaumont home.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The above video first aired in December 2022.)
Because Allen pleaded guilty, he has no right to appeal the sentence. Defense attorney Norman Reynolds represented Allen, while prosecutor Sonny Eckhart handled the case for the state.
The teenaged girl had been missing for more than three weeks before being found with Allen on Dec. 8, 2022. Police discovered the pair at a residence in the 3500 block of 10th Street in Beaumont after acting on a tip.
"Allen helped hand out missing person fliers, told them during the search that he did not know where she was," according to police reports from the initial investigation.
Allen faced enhanced punishment as a habitual offender due to prior convictions, including a 2001 burglary conviction in Orange County and a 2018 failure to register as a sex offender conviction in Dallas County. As a repeat offender, he could have received a sentence of life in prison or 25 to 99 years if found guilty at trial.
The plea agreement resulted in three charges being dropped: two additional counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of possession of child pornography. Allen received concurrent 50-year sentences on the two remaining charges.
Allen was initially arrested with help from Orange and Jefferson County deputies and Child Protective Services at approximately 11:15 a.m. on the day the girl was found. He was initially held on a charge of harboring a runaway with bond set at $50,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment