Olympic gymnasts unload at sex abuse sentencing for ex-doctor Larry Nassar
LANSING, Michigan -- A medal-winning Olympic gymnast said Thursday that sexual assault by a Michigan sports doctor "left scars" in her mind that may never fade as a judge heard a third day of testimony from victims.
Larry Nassar could be sentenced Friday in Lansing, Michigan. Since Tuesday, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina has been listening to dozens of young women who were molested after seeking his help for injuries.
Aquilina started the hearing Thursday by saying Nassar had written a letter fearing that his mental health wasn't strong enough to sit and listen to a parade of victims. The judge dismissed it as "mumbo jumbo."
"Spending four or five days listening to them is minor, considering the hours of pleasure you've had at their expense, ruining their lives," Aquilina said.
Nassar, 54, faces a minimum sentence of 25 to 40 years in prison for molesting girls at Michigan State University and his home. He also was a team doctor at USA Gymnastics, based in Indianapolis, which trains Olympians. He's already been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison for child pornography crimes.
"Dr. Nassar was not a doctor," 2012 Olympian McKayla Maroney said in a statement read by a prosecutor. "He left scars on my psyche that may never go away."
USA Gymnastics in 2016 reached a financial settlement with Maroney that barred her from making disparaging remarks. But the organization this week said it would not seek any money for her "brave statements."
A 2000 Olympian, Jamie Dantzscher, looked at Nassar and said, "How dare you ask any of us for forgiveness. Your days of manipulation are over," she said. "We have a voice. We have the power now."
Nassar wasn't the only target. Victims also criticized Michigan State and USA Gymnastics. Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon attended part of the session Wednesday. The school is being sued by dozens of women, who say campus officials wrote off complaints about the popular doctor.
"Guess what? You're a coward, too," current student and former gymnast Lindsey Lemke said Thursday, referring to Simon.
The judge has been praising each speaker and criticizing Nassar.
It's "about their control over other human beings and feeling like God and they can do anything," Aquilina said of sex offenders.
On Jan. 31, Nassar will get another sentence for sexual assaults at a Lansing-area gymnastics club in a different county.
'You are pretty disgusting':
Man sentenced for child sex abuse
Christopher Haxel, Lansing State Journal
MASON, MI - A Dansville man will spend at least 14 years in prison for sexually abusing children.
Danny Dowdy, 59, pleaded no contest last month to three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop four other counts of the same crime and to set Dowdy's sentence at a fixed range of 14 to 30 years, to be served concurrently on each charge.
Sweet! Good deal for the pervert!
At a sentencing hearing Wednesday in Ingham County Circuit Court, Judge William Collette told Dowdy he's lucky his attorney negotiated the deal, because, if given the choice, he would have sent Dowdy to prison for life.
"You are pretty disgusting," Collette said. "You're right down there with the worst of them."
When asked if he'd like to speak, Dowdy responded simply: "No sir."
Dansville, in Ingham Township, is about 15 miles southeast of Lansing. The Mason Police Department investigated the case.
Two victims — both now adults — spoke at the hearing.
"I've hated myself for very many years... you robbed me of my innocence," said one. "I stand here today as a new woman. I will no longer be a victim to you."
So, with that kind of attitude, why did the DA agree to such a sweetheart deal with the pedophile?
While Dowdy was charged in August, the abuse dates as far back as 1996, court records show.
"You are reaping what you've sown," another victim said. "I wish every day this never happened."
The State Journal does not typically identify victims of sexual assault.
Dowdy will be subject to lifetime electronic monitoring upon his release from prison.
Former school head pleads guilty
to felony child sex abuse
Bonnie Bolden, bbolden@thenewsstar.com
David H. "Dave" DeRousse, 70, of West Monroe pleaded guilty to seven counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in St. Clair County, Illinois.
DeRousse was sentenced Wednesday to four years of special condition probation. He must pay $1,200 in fines by Jan. 17, 2022 and he was ordered to pay $1,667 on Wednesday.
In January 2017, a grand jury indicted DeRousse on seven charges (2nd story on link) after hearing testimony about aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving a 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl that happened between August 2014 and August 2016. The Mascoutah Police Department investigated the case.
A representative of the state attorney's office said the FBI originated the investigation and the only tie the Illinois county has to the crimes is that they were reportedly committed there. Neither DeRousse nor the victims live there.
DeRousse served as president of St. Frederick Catholic High School in Monroe from 1996 to 1999. DeRousse coached locally, including a stint as the assistant varsity basketball coach at then-Northeast Louisiana University in the 1970s.
No jail time for 7 counts of aggravated child sexual abuse of 2 under 13 year olds. Good grief! Did he get a gold watch for good measure?
It would be nice, Bonnie Bolden, to know what those special conditions are! Next time!
St Clair Co., Ill
Washington State man found guilty on eight counts of child sexual abuse
A jury found Milford “Bear” Butcher, 68, guilty of two counts of child rape and six counts of child molestation on Tuesday.
Butcher, a Medical Lake man who was charged in 2015, sexually abused two young girls and a boy at his home on the 3700 block of North Brooks Road, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Butcher is scheduled for sentencing March 1.
Sheriff's Office, OSP make arrest in Oregon
child sex abuse investigation
by Mike Marut
GLENDALE, Ore. — Douglas County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested George Ervin Ray, 48, of Glendale on child sex crimes.
He has been lodged in the Douglas County Jail on two charges of Sexual Abuse in the First Degree and two charges of Sexual Penetration in the First Degree.
The investigation into Ray started back in December of 2017 after DCSO received a report of possible sex abuse involving a minor. A week after the initial report, investigators determined the child had been assaulted by somebody who knew the child.
Ray was initially lodged in the jail as of Friday. Bail is set at $150,000.
Utah County Sheriff's Office terminates employment of deputy charged with child sex abuse
Braley Dodson Daily Herald
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office has terminated the employment of a deputy who was arrested for a child sexual abuse case in Arizona, according to a tweet from a sheriff’s office spokesman Tuesday.
Gerald Salcido was arrested by Orem police officers earlier this month (9th story on link) and booked into a jail outside of Utah County after a warrant was issued for the 63-year-old’s arrest.
Charges against Salcido filed in Arizona include multiple counts of sexual conduct with a minor and at least one charge of molestation of a child. An Arizona court set bail at $75,000.
The charges are based on reported conduct that took place before Salcido was employed by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.
Salcido reportedly molested two juveniles in Mesa, Arizona and the case was dropped in 1995 because there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward. A new witness came forward in September that allowed the case to be reopened.
Salcido had been a deputy in Utah County for 14 years.
Utah Co., Utah
Wyoming city councilor arrested for
sexually abusing a young boy
NICK LEARNED
A councilman of the City of Green River has been arrested based on allegations that he repeatedly sexually abused a young boy.
Allan Wilson is charged with second-degree sexual abuse of a minor in Sweetwater County, as well as first-degree sexual abuse of a minor in Lincoln County. He could face up to 70 years imprisonment if convicted on both counts.
Court documents say the same boy -- a family member -- was victimized in each county. The charges specify that the alleged abuse occurred when the victim was as young as seven years old.
Wilson allegedly abused the victim during a 2011 trip to property near Commissary Ridge, in the Kemmerer area. Wilson and the victim stayed in a camper during such trips.
The Sweetwater County charges stem from an alleged incident in which Wilson reportedly molested the victim while driving through Green River in a silver pickup truck in 2013.
The victim reported the alleged abuse after his behavior changed drastically, prompting his parents to ask if someone had molested him.
The Sweetwater County Detention Center on Thursday confirmed Wilson was in custody, but declined to release further information.
Louisiana TV's 'Mr. Wonder' Gets 5 Years
for Child Sex Crime
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A man once known as "Mr. Wonder" to viewers of his children's television show was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison, nearly four decades after he vanished amid allegations he sexually abused children on a camping trip.
Frank John Selas III, 78, pleaded guilty to one count of indecent behavior with a child before a judge in Alexandria sentenced him, Assistant District Attorney Brian Mosley said in a statement.
With credit for time served since his January 2016 arrest in California, Selas could be eligible for parole as soon as July, his attorney said.
Selas had faced the possibility of life in prison if convicted of two counts of aggravated rape, three counts of sexual battery and eight counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile. All of those charges related to one child who had been on the 1979 camping trip, according to defense attorney J. Michael Small.
Small said the plea deal was a "no-brainer" for Selas, given the potential consequences if he went to trial on Feb. 5.
No kidding! And I think we know who has the 'no-brain'! Was there a gold watch in the deal?
Mosley said authorities consulted the victim before determining that a plea deal was in the "best interest" of the man and his family, due to the "sensitive nature of this case." Resolving the case this way also spared them a grueling trial that would have been covered by "countless media outlets," the prosecutor added.
Small said he believes "justice was ultimately served." Pfft!
"While not everyone will agree with the outcome in this case, it is the result of countless hours of meetings and negotiations between prosecution and defense attorneys, all of whom were intimately familiar with the enormous amount of evidence generated during the years long investigation of this case," Small said in a statement.
And yet, it seems like it was all a waste. 5 years! He could have gotten that for shoplifting.
In the late 1970s, Selas hosted the "Mr. Wonder" show on KNOE-TV in north Louisiana. He allegedly fled to Brazil in 1979 after parents complained to authorities that he abused their children during a retreat in central Louisiana. By 1985, he had settled in the San Diego area, where he legally changed his name to Frank Szeles. Selas initially claimed that authorities had arrested the wrong person, but a San Diego judge ruled he was the fugitive who had been wanted in Louisiana since 1979.
Selas briefly worked as a news anchor at Monroe-based KNOE-TV, but it was his children's show that turned him into a local celebrity. It started as a weekly program but went daily as its popularity grew. Often wearing a top hat and tuxedo coat, Selas presided over contests between teams of children bused to the station from local schools.
In San Diego, the man known to neighbors as Frank Szeles was a Cub Scouts leader who advertised swim lessons and other activities for young children from his suburban home in Bonita. Federal marshals found a Cub Scouts cap in his house when they arrested him
The Boy Scouts of America has said Selas was removed from his position several years before his arrest for failing to comply with the organization's "youth protection policies and procedures," after a parent made an unspecified complaint that didn't relate to scouting. Selas also belonged to a Mormon congregation in San Diego, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has said it removed him from "all positions related to children" for failing to comply with the church's child protection policies.
And yet, by July he could well be at it again. Good grief!
Investigators in Louisiana believe Selas lived in other places — including Chicago; Darien, Connecticut; South Royalton, Vermont; and Sheffield, Massachusetts — after he returned from South America in the early 1980s.
Jury selection begins in West Virginia
Mormon Church child sexual abuse trial
Matthew Umstead
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Jury selection began Thursday morning for a trial in Berkeley County (W.Va.) Circuit Court on a lawsuit claiming Mormon church leaders covered up the sexual abuse of several children by a member who since has been excommunicated and imprisoned.
The selection of the jury was moved to the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department’s training facility to accommodate the 100 prospective jurors who were summoned to hear evidence in the civil case.
Because of projections that the trial could last six to eight weeks, prospective jurors first were advised to fill out a court-generated questionnaire to allow 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes to determine whether individuals had a hardship claim that could relieve them of jury service.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has adamantly denied the claims in the case, which are connected to criminal prosecutions of Christopher Michael Jensen dating to 2004 in Berkeley County and Provo, Utah.
Jensen, 26, is serving a 35- to 75-year prison sentence for his conviction in Berkeley County on two counts of sexual abuse and one count of sexual assault.
Jensen was convicted in February 2013 of sexually abusing two boys while babysitting them in 2007, but the children didn't report what occurred until 2012, attorneys said.
Mediation to possibly reach a settlement in the case has been unsuccessful, court officials said.
The courtroom that will be used for the trial already has been modified to accommodate more than a dozen attorneys who are involved in the case.
The lawsuit by nine minors and their parents alleges various negligence claims, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery and civil conspiracy related to Jensen’s known and alleged sexual abuse of the victims.
The lawsuit alleges that the church repeatedly was put on notice and/or had knowledge of Jensen’s predatory acts, but actively covered up the abuse and assisted him in committing further "unspeakable acts" by enabling him to babysit for and live with other church families with young children, court records said.
The lawsuit contends that Jensen first was charged with felony counts of sexual abuse of a child in late 2004 in Provo involving female victims who were 12 and 13 years old.
On both occasions, the defendant allegedly waited for his victim to exit a classroom before pinning her against a wall and grabbing her buttocks and breasts without her consent, court records said.
The lawsuit claims that the church influenced Jensen's criminal proceeding, which resulted in the two felony charges being reduced to misdemeanor sexual offenses.
The church contends that the plaintiffs have no evidence that it influenced Jensen's proceeding, and that affidavits and declarations from the prosecutors involved in the Utah proceeding refute the existence of any influence, court records said.
The families allege that although the church knew that Jensen had pleaded guilty to two sex offenses in Utah, "it did nothing to warn or protect," records said.
The Jensen family moved to Martinsburg in the summer of 2005, records said.
The lawsuit alleges that by April 2007, through her role as relief society president, Jensen's mother was arranging for him to babysit the children of area church families.
The lawsuit further alleges that there had been no disclosures concerning Jensen's previous sex offenses in Utah by his family or the church, setting the stage for subsequent abuse to occur.
Maine man arrested on child sexual abuse charges
in Massachusetts
WMTW
AUBURN, Maine —
David Hunt was wanted for allegations of sexual abuse that happened nearly 10 years ago in Auburn, according to Auburn Police.
Hunt was arrested following an unrelated court appearance in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, according to Yarmouth Police.
Hunt is facing two counts of gross sexual assault involving an underage child. He's currently being held in jail in Massachusetts on $10,000 bond. It is unknown when he will be transferred to Maine.
Auburne (Lewiston), Maine
