235 Criminal Aliens Arrested in Four States, Many for Child Sex Abuse

Donald Trump must be beaming

Breitbart
Immigration officials arrested 235 criminal aliens across four western states in a multi-day enforcement sweep that took place last week, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The enforcement action targeted immigrants convicted of serious offenses and living in communities across Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana. According to ICE many of the foreign nationals apprehended had been convicted of child sex crimes and assault.

Most of the arrests took place in Utah, where ICE officials apprehended 111 potentially deportable criminals. Nevada yielded 89 arrests, Idaho had 34 and one foreign national was arrested in Montana.

The vast majority if foreign nationals arrested Utah were from Mexico (95), however seven other countries nationals were represented in the arrests, including Guatemala (4); Honduras (4); El Salvador (2); Peru (2); Samoa (2); Brazil (1); and Tonga (1).

The individuals arrested in the six-day sweep are expected to be processed for removal from the U.S. Those who already have removal orders are subject to immediate deportation, according to ICE, and those without final orders will stay in ICE custody while they await deportation hearings.

“ICE’s immigration enforcement efforts are focused on apprehending and removing convicted criminals and individuals who pose a threat to public safety,” Daniel Bible, the director of Enforcement and Removal Operations in Salt Lake City, said in a statement. “Owing to the tireless efforts and teamwork of ICE officers – aided by our federal, state and local partners – there are 111 fewer criminals on the streets of our communities in Utah.”

Immigration and ICE officers involved in this sweep are my heroes today. God bless you!

ICE released the details of six of the aliens arrested in Utah and the crimes they committed in the U.S.

A 31-year-old man from Mexico was arrested by ERO officers in West Valley City, Utah, Oct. 24. He had been convicted for attempted unlawful sexual conduct, a felony, for which he was sentenced to three years’ probation. He remains in ICE custody and pending immigration removal proceedings.

A 58-year-old man from Guatemala was arrested in Salt Lake City Oct. 24. He had been convicted of assault-committed with unlawful force to cause bodily injury, a class B misdemeanor, for which he was sentenced to 180 days in jail. He was also convicted for sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor and was sentenced 345 days in jail. He remains in ICE custody and pending immigration removal proceedings.

A 52-year-old man from Mexico was arrested by ERO officers in Springville, Utah, Oct. 25. He had been convicted of continuous sexual abuse, a felony, and was sentenced to a term of 365 days in jail. He was also convicted of illegal re-entry of a previously deported alien. He remains in ICE custody pending his removal.

A 32-year-old man from Mexico was arrested by ERO officers in Ogden, Utah, Oct. 27. He had been convicted of attempted unlawful sex activity with a minor, a class A misdemeanor, and sentenced to 365 days in jail. He is a registered sex offender. He remains in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings.

A 52-year-old man from Samoa was arrested by ERO officers in Salt Lake City Oct. 27. He had been convicted of sexual abusing a child, a second-degree felony, and was sentenced to 1 to 15 years in the Utah State Prison. He is a registered sex offender. He remains in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings.

A 32-year-old man from Mexico was arrested by ERO officers in Salt Lake City Oct. 27. He has twice been convicted of sexually exploiting a minor, a second-degree felony, and was sentenced to a term of 1 to 15 years in the Utah State Prison. He is a registered sex offender. He remains in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings.

Child Sex Abuser Gets Incredible Break After Lawyer's Mishandling of Evidence

By: Lena Tillett
WOWT News

A Sarpy County, Nebraska man convicted and sentenced to at least 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting two children, received a new sentence Tuesday after a retrial, and it does not include more jail time.

Deputy Sarpy County Attorney Jennifer Jessig told WOWT 6 News, Philip Armstrong, 73, pled to two felony counts of intentional child abuse. Each count carries a maximum sentence of up to five years, one per victim. Armstrong was sentenced immediately to four to five years on each count to run concurrent. However, because Armstrong has already served time for the initial conviction in 2009, he will not face more jail time.

Why concurrent sentences? Why? They are so stupid!

Armstrong was initially sentenced to 15 to 30 years in 2009. After an appeal, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled his attorney, Steve Delaney, made major errors in the case and that it might have affected the outcome of the trial.

According to the mistrial ruling, the major error was how video evidence was used. Delaney showed Armstrong a recording of the victims' interview with investigators and Armstrong then showed the video to members of his family. The family members were initially going to be witnesses for the defense, but after seeing the video they were not allowed to testify.

Seriously, Delaney gave Armstrong a copy of the victims' interview? Is the Nebraska bar looking into Delaney's conduct? He should not go unpunished for such a careless act.

The mother of the victims sent WOWT 6 News reporter Lena Tillett the following statement:

"In 2008, Project Harmony did everything they promised to maintain the privacy and safety of my children. For this I am deeply grateful. Everyone that came in contact with my children, treated them with the greatest amount of respect.

Mr. Steve Delaney, Mr. Philip Armstrong and the members of his family were the ones who mishandled the video evidence in this hearing, that ultimately resulted in Mr. Armstrong winning his appeal. Although no felony charges were ever filed against Delaney or the members of the Armstrong family, they tampered with evidence.

It is my hope, that this will NEVER happen again to another victim. It is my hope that this will not hinder victims from coming forward in crime cases like this. This was a unique situation where one incompetent lawyer, and a family that was desperate to find some way to dispute my girls' testimonies resulted in the failure of the judicial system.

Although Mr. Armstrong will not be on the sex offender registry, we know what he did. He knows what he did. Our neighbors know what he did. His family knows what he did. It is he who will have to carry this guilt with him forever. As for my girls, they are strong, beautiful and intelligent young women who will not allow Mr. Armstrong's actions define them."

And, so, why is he not on the sex offender registry when he admitted two felony counts of intentional child abuse? I don't get it.

Sarpy County, Nebraska

Alabama Man and Wife Each Get 119-year Sentence for Child Sex Abuse

Kent Faulk
AL.com

Toni Jo Minot, left, and Lyndon Minot

A registered sex offender from Chilton County last week got the same prison sentence his wife had gotten weeks earlier for the same crime - 119 years in prison for sodomy and sexual abuse of a 9-year-old boy.

Lyndon Minot, 56, was sentenced on Oct. 26 by Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff Circuit Judge David Hobdy to the maximum allowed – 99 years for sodomy and 20 years for sexual abuse, according to court records.

Minot had been convicted Sept. 18 on the charges.

Minot's wife, Toni Jo Minot, 40, of Verbena, was also sentenced by Hobdy on Sept. 30 to 119 years in prison. She had been convicted by a Bessemer Cutoff jury on Aug. 19.

It is not clear how Toni Jo Minot committed sodomy, and I don't really want to think about it, but we can assume she did, hence the sentence. She is appealing the verdict.

The Minots, who had maintained their innocence, will not be eligible for parole because the victim was under 12 when the crimes happened.

The victim in both cases was the same 9-year old boy. The incidents the Minots were convicted of occurred in the Bessemer Cutoff of Jefferson County in 2008 and 2009.

Lyndon Minot has been a registered sex offender since he pleaded guilty in 1999 to first-degree sexual abuse, court records show. The victim in that case was an 8-year-old boy, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency's Community Information Center.

Assistant District Attorney Leslie Schiffman, after Ms. Minot's sentencing, had called  the Minots' marriage "a marriage made in hell."

Georgia GOP Consultant Forced Boys to Perform Sex Acts in Church

David Edwards
Rawstory.com 

Jim Collins (WSAV/screen grab)

A Republican political consultant from Georgia was sued this week for allegedly forcing boys to perform sex acts and videotaping it.

WSAV reported that attorneys for Matt Stanley filed a lawsuit against Jim Collins for abuse that occurred between from 1996 and 2002 while attending First Baptist Church Vidalia, where Collins was a youth volunteer.

Collins is accused of instructing boys to perform “individual sexual acts, both privately and in a group setting.” The lawsuit alleges that he recorded the boys performing the acts at least once while at church. The “highly inappropriate, sexualized physical contact with many of the boys” continued while Collins was chaperoning out-of-town trips, the lawsuit says.

Stanley said that he was abused “more than a hundred times” from the age of 11 until he was 18 years old.

At a press conference on Monday, attorney Jameson Carroll praised Stanley for coming forward to file the lawsuit.

“Matt could have sued under a pseudonym, he could have sued and asked this case be filed under seal but he didn’t, and I think it’s very brave,” Carroll noted.

The case was filed under Georgia’s updated Georgia Hidden Predator Act, which gives accusers a longer period of time to file complaints.

1st Baptist Church, Vidalia, GA

Although the lawsuit names 50 other organizations which were “negligent” by not protecting the boys, Georgia’s laws do not allow churches or businesses to be sued.

OK, churches I can see, maybe, but businesses? You can't sue a business? How crazy is that?

According to his LinkedIn profile, Collins is currently employed at CSG International, a software and consulting firm. A bio provided by his previous employer, iSquared Communications, calls Collins “a top political advisor and strategist for new Senate Majority Leader Tommy Williams.” It also indicates that he “managed the campaigns for several of the Capitol’s new South Georgia incumbents.”

In a statement, the leadership of First Baptist Church said that it was “deeply saddened” by the allegations against Collins.

However, the statement insisted that “First Baptist Church, Vidalia did absolutely nothing wrong.”

Great! That's taking responsibility. How could hundreds of depraved acts occurring in your building not be, at least, somewhat your responsibility?

“Mr. Stanley failed to come forward to Church leadership, or anyone else, with any allegations until nearly a decade after the alleged abuse ended,” the statement continued. “Despite Mr. Stanley’s decision not to report the alleged abuse to the police, the Church has cooperated fully with the authorities as they have investigated claims against Mr. Collins.

This is not the least bit unusual in child sex abuse cases. You should know that!

Despite the lack of any criminal prosecution against the accused, the Church forced him to resign from any volunteer position with the Church and forbade him from having any contact with any youth member of the Church.”

So, the question is, why? If you don't believe Mr Stanley, why force Collins to resign? Are you all about 'appearance'? Are you more concerned about the collection plate than the alleged innocence of a long-term volunteer?

Hundreds of Child Abuse and Neglect Deaths Hushed up in Texas

This is simply unacceptable!

AFP Photo/Dmitry Kostyukov

Over the last five years Texas’ Child Protective Services underreported 655 deaths of children from abuse or neglect by their parents, said the Austin American-Statesman. Caseworkers used loopholes to omit cases of indirect maltreatment.

In an investigative report published on Sunday, Austin American-Statesman claims that practically half of the underreported deaths happened in problem families, which had frequently been investigated for child abuse.

Over a quarter of families (144 of them) where a child died had been investigated by the CPS at least 3 times. In one case, the CPS had contacted a family more than 20 times, but still the child in this family died.

Having analyzed nearly 300 child homicides and suspected homicides, the newspaper reported that most of the children’s deaths were the result of beatings or strangulation. One child homicide case out of five remains unsolved, while some cases are “unaccountably dragged out for years,” the investigative report claims.

Sometimes a family simply falls off CPS radar, and this can have deadly consequences. According to the American-Statesman investigative report, 15 children died between 2009 and 2014, after the state agency lost track of their families.

Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the Family and Protective Services, stated the agency has always complied with state and federal laws and is not trying to hide any information.

The child fatalities missing from official statistics took place between 2010 and 2014. This was possible because of a law adopted in 2009, obliging Family and Protective Services’ caseworkers to publicly report any maltreatment that led to a child death. But the law has a loophole: it doesn’t require reporting a child’s death when abuse did not contribute to death directly.

John H. Winters Human Services Center includes the headquarters for
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (Photo wikipedia.org)

This get-out was used by dozens of child welfare workers to evade culpability and keep the crimes under the radar.

In the course of the six-month investigation, the newspaper discovered that over 50 CPS employees had falsified official records, obstructed law enforcement investigations, flouted court orders or had simply lied to prosecutors. 

Four former CPS employees are currently facing criminal charges for alleged misconduct.

Texas’ Child Protective Services employ over 3,400 foster care workers and investigators, and maintains that these employees represent just a small fraction of the personnel.

Details of the scandal were published at the weekend on the eve of a new legislative session of Texan lawmakers, which starts on Tuesday. It will be headed by the newly elected Governor Greg Abbott. The state’s lawmakers have already called for the Department of Family Services to be heavily scrutinized.

“I want to know who these kids are. Every one of these kids has a name and has a story and would have had a life ahead of them,” said Democratic Senator Carlos Uresti, one of the authors of the 2009 law that obliged caseworkers at the Family and Protective Services to publicize detailed reports on maltreatment cases that preceded the death of children.

Texas flag - Ronald Martinez/Getty Images/AFP

The Austin American-Statesman’s new investigation raises concerns over the authenticity of similar statistics published less than a month ago by the Associated Press. In December, AP reported that at least 786 children – many of them younger than four – in the US had died of abuse or neglect at the hands of their parents or carers, even as child protection agencies were investigating these cases over the period of six years.

READ MORE: Over 750 American kids ‘beaten, starved or left alone’ over 6-yr period

The AP report found there is no general statistic for child abuse deaths in the US.

“The data collection system on child deaths is so flawed that no one can even say with accuracy how many children overall die from abuse or neglect every year,” AP revealed.

“The federal government estimates an average of about 1,650 deaths annually in recent years; many believe the actual number is twice as high,” AP said, stressing that among many states that struggled to provide child abuse numbers, “Secrecy often prevailed.”

Navajo Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Child Sexual Abuse Charges in New Mexico

Plea Agreement Requires 10-Year Prison Sentence

U.S. Attorney’s Office 
District of New Mexico
FBI, NND

ALBUQUERQUE—Aaron Hubbard, 34, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Fort Defiance, Ariz., pled guilty this morning in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to a felony information charging him with abusive sexual contact of a minor child. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Hubbard will be sentenced to ten years in prison followed by not less than three years of supervised release. Hubbard will be required to register as a sex offender after completing his prison sentence.

Hubbard was arrested on Feb. 25, 2015, on an indictment alleging that he sexually abused the child victim from Sept. 1, 2011 through May 30, 2012, in the Navajo Indian Reservation in McKinley County, N.M.

McKinley Co., New Mexico

During today’s change of plea hearing, Hubbard entered a guilty plea to an abusive sexual contact with a child charge. In entering his guilty plea, Hubbard admitted sexually molesting a Navajo child who was less than 12 years old from Sept. 1, 2011 through May 30, 2012. Hubbard committed the crime within the Navajo Indian Reservation.

Hubbard has been in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest and will remain detained pending his sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.

This case was investigated by the Albuquerque office of the FBI and the Crownpoint office of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Raquel Ruiz-Velez as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

"Why Can't You Just Get Over It?"

What Every Survivor of Sexual Trauma Needs to Know

Jennifer Rollin 
Mental Health Therapist, Social Worker, Body Image Activist and Wellness Enthusiast
Huff Post

"I feel like what happened was my fault. Like I did something to deserve it," is a statement that I have heard frequently in my work as a therapist who specializes in helping survivors of trauma. I have spoken with numerous survivors whose families and friends asked them, "Why can't you just get over it?"

Awareness of the impact that trauma can have on an individual is spreading, however there is still a lot of misinformation and stigma that many survivors experience. Although everyone copes with trauma and the healing process differently, the following are some universal truths that I wish every survivor of sexual trauma could hear.

1. What happened to you was not your fault.

I know you may have heard this before, but that it might be difficult for you to believe. You may think to yourself, "If only I hadn't gone to that party, this wouldn't have happened" or "I didn't tell anyone what was happening, so I must have wanted it."

First off, I want you to know that this is a common reaction to sexual trauma. Your mind wants to make sense of a situation that ultimately was out of your control. Therefore, many people wrongly believe that they must have been responsible for what happened to them.

When someone is sexually abused, the only person who is to blame is the perpetrator. You did the best that you could, with the coping skills that you had at the time. No matter what party you went to, if you had a drink, if you didn't fight the person off, if you were dating the person, if you were aroused and regardless of any other circumstance -- it was not your fault. You were not responsible for this and you certainly did not deserve it.

Think about what you would tell a friend who shared with you the same experience. It is unlikely that you would tell your friend that what happened to them was their fault. You deserve to give yourself the same compassion that you would give to a friend or loved one who went through a trauma. If you are struggling with intense feelings of shame and guilt following trauma, it could be helpful to consider reaching out to a therapist-preferably one who specializes in trauma.

2. Your responses are normal reactions to an abnormal experience.

Some people who experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress feel that they are "going crazy." When someone experiences trauma his or her body naturally goes into "fight or flight" mode. This reaction to a stressor in the environment, developed as it was evolutionarily advantageous and protected our ancestors from imminent danger.

According to The National Institute of Mental Health,"This fight-or-flight response is a healthy reaction meant to protect a person from harm. But in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this reaction is changed or damaged. People who have PTSD may feel stressed or frightened even when they're no longer in danger."

Not everyone who experiences trauma will go on to develop PTSD. However, if you are experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress or have received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, it is important to note that you are not "crazy."

First off, I find it offensive to label any individual as "crazy." Secondly, you experienced something that no one should have to go through. Your body and mind may be trying desperately to make sense of what happened. No matter what symptoms you may be experiencing as a result of your trauma, you are certainly not alone in experiencing them.

3. Healing and recovery is possible.

There are numerous individuals whose lives serve as examples that healing and recovery following sexual trauma is possible. Erin Merryn is one woman who is an amazing example of resilience following sexual trauma. Erin is a mother, wife, author, activist, and Glamour Magazine 2012 Woman of the Year, who has been featured in numerous media outlets. She is also a survivor of childhood sexual assault and went on to create"Erin's Law," which "requires that all public schools in each state implement a prevention-oriented child sexual abuse program." In her book entitled, Living for Today: From Incest and Molestation to Fearlessness and Forgiveness, Merryn stated,

As I faced each tragedy in my life, I learned to reach into the depth of my soul for strength and determination. Through this healing process, I discovered perseverance and resilience. I could not go into the past and use White-Out to erase any events; instead, I had to find a way to use my pain to help me heal and grow. I had to stare darkness in the face and accept that I could not change the past, but I could build a better future.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence, it's not your fault. You are not alone. Help is available 24/7 through the National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-HOPE and online.rainn.org, y en español: rainn.org/es.

UGA Law School Alumnus Funds Nation’s First Child Sexual Abuse Victim Clinic

UGA Campus, Sanford Stadium

Contact: Peter B. "Bo" Rutledge 
UGA Today

Athens, Ga. - The University of Georgia School of Law will be the first in the nation to have an experiential learning opportunity dedicated solely to the assistance of victims of child sexual abuse.

The Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic will open January 2016. Initial funding for the clinic has been donated by Georgia Law alumnus Marlan B. Wilbanks, who received his Juris Doctor in 1986. It is expected that many of the clinic's first clients will be those now eligible to bring civil charges against their abusers as a result of the passage of House Bill 17, the "Hidden Predator Act," by the Georgia legislature.

"The act of sexually abusing a child is 

the attempted murder of a soul".

"The act of sexually abusing a child is the attempted murder of a soul. I can see no more important task than protecting those in our society who too often have no voice," said Wilbanks, a longtime advocate for child protection issues. "The underlying goal of this clinic will be to educate, prepare and sensitize the next generation of lawyers as to the ways victims can be protected. On behalf of the children and families who would otherwise not be able to avail themselves of legal assistance, I applaud the University of Georgia School of Law for its willingness to be the first law school in the nation to draw a line in the sand against child sexual abuse."

So do I; UGA and Mr Wilbanks, you are my heroes today. God bless you.

Marlan B. Wilbanks

Wilbanks, who was recognized by the Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund as the 2014 Lawyer of the Year, is the second Georgia Law alumnus involved in the DaVita Healthcare Partners false claims settlement agreement earlier this year who has chosen to make a significant investment in training for future attorneys.

Professor Marci A. Hamilton of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, a nationally recognized expert on the subject of child protections and author of "Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children" on the need for child sexual abuse statute of limitations reform, confirmed both the uniqueness and need for such a program. "This will be the first law school clinic that responds to statute of limitations reform for child sex abuse and offers assistance to victims," Hamilton said. "When reforms such as those recently enacted in Georgia are advanced, victims typically come forward who need advice and injunctive relief but whose case would not otherwise be picked up by an attorney in private practice. The University of Georgia School of Law is doing a great public service by assisting these victims and making it more likely that the public will learn the identities of even more hidden predators." 

Georgia's Hidden Predator Act created a two-year window of relief from the statute of limitations for bringing civil charges in the case of child sexual abuse. Regardless of when the abuse occurred, victims can bring suit against their abusers until the window closes on July 1, 2017. After that time, the law requires suits to be brought forward before the victim reaches 23 years of age or within two years of the time the victim makes the connection that sexual abuse caused current problems such as substance abuse or relationship difficulties.

This law has to be changed, and hopefully the Wilbanks Clinic will work towards that. I honestly think that most victims of child sex abuse aren't even aware they are victims until 20 or 30 years after it happened.

"The passage of the Hidden Predator Act signaled a desire by our state's elected leaders to open the doors of justice to the victims of child sexual abuse," Georgia Law Dean Peter B. "Bo" Rutledge said. "We are honored to expand our public service footprint and help those in society who too often remain voiceless. In addition, this opportunity gives our students the chance to serve as advocates for those in our state without access to adequate legal resources. The generosity of Marlan Wilbanks will not only fund the initial phase of this transformative clinic, it will change the lives of the families touched by these crimes and shape the paths of bright aspiring attorneys."

A nationwide search was launched last week to identify a director for the new clinic. 

UGA School of Law
Consistently regarded as one of the nation's top public law schools, Georgia Law was established in 1859. Its accomplished faculty includes authors of some of the country's leading legal scholarship. The school offers three degrees-the Juris Doctor, the Master of Laws and the Master in the Study of Law-and is home to the Dean Rusk International Law Center. Georgia Law is proud of its long tradition of providing first-rate legal training for future leaders who will serve state and nation in both the public and private sectors. For more information, see www.law.uga.edu.

Some 1,000 US Police Officers Lost Badges Over ‘Sexual Misconduct'

More than a third for child sex abuse

The last thing police need is more bad press, but it's going to happen as long as they sexually abuse children.

© Mark Makela / AFP

Around 1,000 policemen across the US had their licenses revoked and lost their jobs over the last six years on account of numerous sexual offenses that included rape and possession of child pornography, an AP investigation based on official data revealed.

The probe involved examining records from 41 states to see how many police officers’ licenses were revoked in 2009-2014 and for which offenses. Police desertification data was not provided by nine states and the District of Columbia. The investigation included examining the records of state and local police, sheriff's deputies, prison guards and school resource officers. However no federal officers were included in the investigation.

The probe revealed that 550 officers were decertified for various sexual assaults, including rape. Some were dismissed for sodomy or sexual shakedowns, where victims were forced to perform sexual acts to avoid arrest.

NYPD officer who sexually assaulted teacher beats rape conviction
(AFP Photo / Spencer Platt)

A further 440 officers lost their jobs for other sex-related offenses, such as possessing child pornography, being a peeping Tom, sending sexually charged messages to underage teens or having sex while on duty.

About one-third of the officers lost their jobs for committing sexual offenses with juveniles.

Those who fall prey to police are often young, poor, drug abusing individuals who don't report their cases to the authorities. Victims included motorists, schoolchildren who were patted down in searches for illegal drugs, or women forced to perform sexual favors to avoid legal troubles. Prison inmates were also forced to have sex with guards.

The real number of sexual offenses could however be much higher, as AP only looked into registered cases where an officer lost their badge because of an offense. Lawyers and police chiefs acknowledged that some departments let the sexual assaults slide to limit their liability, allowing their staff to quietly resign or transfer to other duty stations or departments.

Oklahoma cop faces 32 charges of sex crimes committed on duty
Reuters / Larry Papke 

Furthermore the probe notes that not all decertified officers faced criminal charges as some policemen surrendered their badges voluntarily to avoid a potential scandal.

“It's happening probably in every law enforcement agency across the country,” said Chief Bernadette DiPino of the Sarasota Police Department in Florida, who helped study the problem for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “It's so underreported and people are scared that if they call and complain about a police officer, they think every other police officer is going to be then out to get them.”

It's not just in the US; it's in Canada and probably every country in the world. Power corrupts and corruption, like sin, is progressive.

AP points out that their findings, together with other research and interviews with experts, suggest that sexual misconduct is one of the main problems facing police departments across the US. Citing news articles and research undertaken by Phil Stinson of Bowling Green State University who looked at the period 2005 to 2011, the agency reports that his findings discovered 6,724 arrests involving more than 5,500 officers.

Out of almost 7,000 arrests, sex-related cases were the third-most common. Police violence and profit-motivated crimes topped the list. According to another study, the Cato Institute's investigation discovered that in 2009 and 2010 sex misconduct was the second most reported offense against officers, after the use of excessive force.

Haiti Officials Looking into New Abuse Allegations Against U.S. Orphanage Founder

A Haitian national flag flies at half-mast on the front lawn of the former
National Palace in this 2013 file photo. (AP)

David McFadden, 
The Associated Press 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haitian investigators are looking into new allegations of child sex abuse against a U.S. man who founded an orphanage for boys in Haiti's capital decades ago.

Police with an arrest warrant searched unsuccessfully Friday for Michael Geilenfeld at a modest private residence in a mountainside community above Port-au-Prince and the nearby Wings of Hope home for about 30 physically and mentally disabled children and young adults. On its website, the facility says it is a "critical part" of Geilenfeld's charitable organization.

The American is already the subject of another criminal case in Haiti that accused him of sexually abusing boys in his care. He spent 237 days in detention before being released in April by a Haitian judge who dismissed the charges in a brief trial that was not attended by the accusers, now adults. But the justice minister granted a re-examination of the case and it is now in court again on appeal.

Geilenfeld had also filed a separate civil case in the U.S. in which a jury in late July ordered a Maine activist to pay $14.5 million in damages to him and North Carolina-based Hearts with Haiti after finding he defamed them by leading an email blitz accusing the American man of sexually abusing Haitian children. The activist, Paul Kendrick, has requested a new trial.

Wings of Hope front gates

In the trial of his U.S. civil case in Maine, Geilenfeld testified that he believed the accusations of sexual abuse lingered against him in impoverished Haiti because he was a gay man in what he described as a homophobic country.

Geilenfeld, an Iowa native and former Catholic brother, founded the St. Joseph Home for Boys in Haiti's capital in the 1980s. At the defamation court case in Maine, which saw seven Haitian men testify they were molested as youngsters by the U.S. man, Geilenfeld said he was inspired by Mother Teresa's missionary work to do good works in Haiti. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

During the Friday search at the Wings of Hope facility in Fermathe, a government official who accompanied police showed reporters an arrest warrant for Geilenfeld signed Thursday by General Prosecutor Jean Abner Emile. Geilenfeld returned to Haiti after the U.S. jury in the civil case returned its verdict in late July.

Haitian authorities questioned staff members about Geilenfeld's whereabouts. Communications director Renee Dietrich told them she had spoken to him several days ago but didn't know where he was. She also showed them unanswered calls she made to him on her cellphone.

Dietrich declined to speak to Associated Press journalists who witnessed the Friday police searches, referring all queries to Geilenfeld's U.S. lawyer, Peter DeTroy. He did not respond to an email seeking comment and has previously said he has no involvement with legal matters in Haiti.

Alain Lemithe, Geilenfeld's Haitian lawyer, said he was confident his client would prevail in Haiti's appeals court in the coming weeks and said the timing of new allegations appeared to be "very suspicious."

Haitian investigators were accompanied Friday by Valerie Dirksen, a real estate agent from the Atlanta metropolitan area who asserts Geilenfeld is a serial abuser of children. She sponsors two young Haitian men who grew up in Geilenfeld's care and she insists there are many alleged victims who passed through the orphanage.

According to Dirksen, the new arrest warrant for Geilenfeld was issued after a magistrate judge visited the St. Joseph Home for Boys and found three youngsters residing there with him, a violation of an earlier mandate by Haiti's child welfare authority.

"I will stay here in Haiti until he is arrested," she said outside the Wings of Hope home.