..
Man Used Internet Registry to Track down and Beat up Pedophiles
Julie Hambleton
Posted: December 30, 2021
In 2016, a man that some refer to as the “Alaskan Avenger” wound up in jail after violently attacking and robbing three men on the Alaskan sex offenders registry. Five years later, he’s speaking out for victims of sexual abuse not to seek revenge the way he did.
Jason Vukovich was born to a single mother in Anchorage, Alaska in 1975. His mom met and married Larry Lee Fulton, who officially adopted Jason and his brother Joel. Rather than becoming the father that the boys had been missing, he became a trauma-inducing abuser. (1)
“Both of my parents were dedicated Christians and had us in every church service available, two or three each week,” Jason later wrote in a letter to the Anchorage Daily News. “So you can imagine the horror and confusion I experienced when this man who adopted me began using late, late night ‘prayer’ sessions to molest me.”
He was also physically abusive against the two boys. Fulton would beat them with belts and pieces of wood. Authorities charged Fulton with second-degree abuse of a minor in 1989, however, he served no prison time. Additionally, no one ever came to check on the family afterward, so the abuse continued. Finally, when Jason turned 16, he and his brother ran away.
Jason Vukovich
A Life Of Crime
An underage citizen with no financial means or identification, he had nothing else to do but steal to survive. He also admits that this fit into the cycle of self-loathing that his adoptive father instilled in him during his childhood. Jason said that his quiet understanding was that he was a useless, worthless, throwaway. Over time, he built up a criminal record for himself that spanned more than half the country.
Finally, he moved back to Alaska. Unfortunately, his life of crime followed him and he racked up several criminal charges in his home state as well. Having never received any psychological counseling or treatment for the trauma he sustained as a child, he finally reached a breaking point. That’s when he began reading the registered sex offenders list of Alaska.
The Assaults
In June 2016, Jason went on a “justice” spree, seeking out three men he’d found on the list: Charles Albee, Andres Barbosa, and Wesley Demarest. He looked up their addresses and off he went.
Jason first arrived at 68-year-old Albee’s door. After Albee answered the door, Jason forced his way in, slapped, and robbed the man. Two days later, he arrived at 25-year-old Barbosa’s house, repeating the crime. This time, he punched the man and had two female accomplices, one of which filmed the scene. Finally, he broke into the third man’s home. Demarest was less cooperative and there was a struggle. Jason then got violent, hitting Demarest in the face with a hammer. He robbed the unconscious man and left.
When Demarest woke up, he immediately called the police. It didn’t take them long to track down Jason. Though he initially denied the charges, he soon fessed up. The court charged him with 18 accounts of assault, robbery, burglary, and theft. In 2018, the court sentenced him to 28 years in prison, with five years suspended and another five on probation.
His Letter To Alaska
In 2017, Jason wrote a letter to the people of Alaska that was published in The Anchorage Daily News. In his letter, he explained how regretful he was of what he had done. His goal was to express his remorse and also encourage other trauma survivors to get help instead of seeking justice on their own.
“If you have already lost your youth, like me, due to a child abuser, please do not throw away your present and your future by committing acts of violence. There is no place for vigilante justice in an ordered society. I thought back to my experiences as a child and felt the overwhelming desire to act. I took matters into my own hands and assaulted three pedophiles,” he wrote. “I began my life sentence many, many years ago, it was handed down to me by an ignorant, hateful, poor substitute for a father. I now face losing most of the rest of my life due to a decision to lash out at people like him. To all those who have suffered like I have, love yourself and those around you, this is truly the only way forward.”
Demarest, now 70 years old, lost his job due to a brain injury that he sustained from Jason’s attack. He now struggles to form complete sentences. In 2020, Jason appealed his sentence on the grounds of PTSD, however, the judge denied him. Demarest has been quoted saying that he prefers that Jason remain behind bars while he is still alive. In an article written about this quote, the author questioned whether Demarest’s victim feels the same way about him. Jason, for his part, does not wish to be seen as a hero by anyone. Rather, he hopes others learn from his mistakes.
“I’m far from perfect — a flawed and imperfect individual like everyone else,” said Jason. “However, it’s important to me that someone else who was born and raised in Alaska who had a similar upbringing doesn’t end up with this outcome because quite candidly, it sucks,”
‘Momma, Stop!’: Woman Allegedly Smothered
8-Year-Old Daughter to Death with Plastic Bag
ALBERTO LUPERON
May 29th, 2022, 7:05 pm
A woman smothered her 8-year-old daughter to death with a plastic bag, say prosecutors in Chicago, Illinois. Andreal R. Hagler, 38, was charged Friday with first-degree murder. She allegedly killed young Amaria Osby on Tuesday night at their apartment on the 4600 block of North Winthrop Avenue.
Hagler’s brother checked in on her Wednesday after she did not pick up when he called, prosecutors said in court documents obtained by CBS News. He found mother and daughter unresponsive inside, and later directed responding officers to the bedroom. Officers said they found defendant Hagler lying face down on a bed with a plastic bag over her head. Osby was under a comforter with her legs peeking out. She was dead. Blood under her nose and on her thigh. She also had froth on her mouth, authorities said.
Meanwhile, her mother was still alive. Hagler stiffened up and held onto the mattress when cops tried to get her out of bed, authorities said. She shut her eyes and did not speak before the ambulance arrived to take her away, but she later allegedly admitted the murder.
She said that on the previous night of Tuesday, May 24, she and her daughter said their prayers before bed, prosecutors claimed. She said she allegedly did PCP. At some point she allegedly drank bleach. Osby refused to have any. Hagler allegedly smothered the girl to death using a plastic bag.
“Momma, stop!” Osby screamed, according to prosecutors.
Hagler allegedly said she believed her daughter did not love her anymore.
Authorities said a toxicology report showed Hagler had PCP in her system.
The 8-year-old sustained injuries include brain bleed and asphyxiation. Meanwhile, Hagler’s attorney reportedly said that his client was still almost comatose and a suicide risk. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services were reportedly at the apartment earlier Tuesday, but they said they only made contact with the family regarding the adults, not the children, and that was related to substance abuse and domestic violence allegations.
Seriously! Substance abuse and domestic violence - and there was no reason for concern for the child?
Neighbor Dave Dolinski called Osby an angel.
“Always smiled and said, ‘Hello, hi Dave,'” he said. “I mean, I held her when she was months old. We did barbecues together. Just a great girl.”
How Portland Filmmakers Discovered Sexual Abuse Unchecked
in the Boy Scouts of America
A documentary premiering this week spotlights survivors’ quest for justice as they seek acknowledgment from the Scouts for shattering their lives.
Scouts' Honor.
By Natalie O'Neill
June 15, 2022 at 5:57 am PDT
Not long before the pandemic, Portlander Irene Taylor met a friend for drinks downtown and heard a story that blew her mind. The friend knew someone whose full-time job was to take calls from men who were sexually abused as kids in the Boy Scouts.
There were so many victims, she said, a Pearl District law firm had hired a social worker to help with the deluge of calls from broken men.
“I really thought about that—40 hours a week, all you do is field phone calls about men who were once boys, who were abused by one organization,” Taylor says. “How does that keep you busy for months and years at a time, full time?”
Taylor is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and she had to know more about the strange and awful job. She met the woman, Michele Limpens, who works for the law firm Crew Janci, and Taylor was soon chasing her next project: a riveting documentary that premiered nationally last week at the Tribeca Film Festival and debuts June 16 on Hulu.
Leave No Trace centers on the Boy Scouts of America’s centurylong cover-up of sexual abuse and the Oregon case that blew it wide open.
It reveals how an institution that’s as American as a Norman Rockwell painting became a playground for pedophiles, with a record of abuse that surpasses that of the Catholic Church but has received much less attention.
The film spotlights survivors’ quest for justice as they seek acknowledgment from the Scouts for shattering their lives. It prominently features WW reporter Nigel Jaquiss, who was a producer on the film and acts as the movie’s narrator from the dual perspective of a former Boy Scout and an investigative reporter.
The movie got made by a dream team of local journalists after weeks of reading disturbing documents, taking red-eye flights to tearful interviews, and receiving a dash of good luck.
“It was clear the Boy Scouts wanted the world to believe that most of the abuse happened a long time ago and the problem was taken care of,” Taylor says. “But the numbers told a different story—a darker narrative about American boyhood.”
There is much, much more on this story on Willamette Week.
