Thursday, January 31, 2008

Corey Deen Saunders - Repeat Sex Offender - Molested child in Library

A Level 3 sex offender who just recently returned to the city has been arrested after police say he molested a 6-year-old boy in the children’s room of the New Bedford Public Library yesterday.



A Level 3 sex offender who just recently returned to the city has been arrested after police say he molested a 6-year-old boy in the children’s room of the New Bedford Public Library yesterday.

Corey Deen Saunders, staying at the Mariner's Home at 15 Johnny Cake Hill, was charged with indecent assault and battery on a child under 14; rape of a child under 16 (second offense); and enticing a child under 16.

He is being held at the Bristol County House of Corrections pending a dangerousness hearing slated for Feb. 7.

New Bedford Police have called a 3:45 p.m. press conference at headquarters on Rockdale Avenue.

Police said Mr. Saunders moved to the city in the past week or two and registered as a Level 3 sex offender, the most serious designation, given to offenders deemed a high risk to re-offend.

The incident unfolded Wednesday between 5 and 6 p.m. when Mr. Saunders was in the children’s room at the downtown library, police say.

Police say he lured a 6-year-old boy to a secluded corner, fondled the boy and then performed oral sex on him.

While the boy’s pants were pulled down, Mr. Sauders allegedly asked the child for his address, police say. When the child gave it to him, he said he would be back the next day.

Meanwhile, the boy’s mother was in another section of the library working on a computer. She never knew her son was being attacked, police say.

Following the attack, a librarian became suspicious when she spotted the boy with the man. She told police she went to a database to look up sex offenders and spotted Mr. Saunders’ photograph.

Once she learned he was a sex offender, the librarian went in search of the mother. She informed the mother her son was with a sex offender.

Mr. Saunders left the library before the pair could question the boy. However, once his mother and the librarian learned what took place, they called police.

By 6 p.m. police issued a warning over the police radio and Mr. Saunders was arrested near the library.

In 2000, Mr. Saunders -- then 17 of New Bedford -- had been placed in a foster home in Attleboro, where within seven hours of arriving had been was arrested for assault with intent to rape; indecent assault and battery on a child under 14; and attempting to commit unnatural intercourse.

At the time, he had been in DSS custody since he was 12, and had twice been removed from institutions for “putting other kids at risk,” according to Assistant District Attorney John Mahoney.

Mr. Saunders arrived at the foster home at midnight and within seven hours of his emergency placement, his foster mother said she caught Mr. Saunders sexually assaulting her 7-year-old son.

Monte Whitehead - Every child's worst nightmare - Pleads Guilty

A former Carlsbad veterinarian was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday for multiple sex crimes involving a young female family member.

Monte Whitehead, 37, of Comanche Road, earlier agreed to a plea agreement with the district attorney's office under which he admitted to one count of criminal sexual contact and four counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor. He was originally charged with 53 separate sex crimes. The remaining charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Whitehead was placed under a suicide watch later Friday at the Eddy County Detention Center after a short-lived escape from the facility.

District Judge Don Maddox sentenced Whitehead to 15 years on the first count and 15 years each for the remaining four counts for a total of 75 years, before suspending all but 25 years.

Deputy District Attorney D'Ann Read said she supported Maddox's decision.

"I am glad the court gave him the 25 years," she said. "We felt the 25 years was sufficient."

During her statements to the court at the sentencing, the victim, now a teenager, said Whitehead was every child's worst nightmare.

"He began conditioning me when I was 8 years old," she said. "He would leave porn around for me to see, have videos playing when my mom left the house."

She said that during a four-year period, starting when she was 12, he began to have sex with her every day.

"He picked me up from school every day, and he would threaten me if I wanted to stop," she said.

The victim also said that Whitehead tried to control every part of her life. At one point a microphone was found under her bed. She said Whitehead had been using it to tape all the phone conversations she had.

Capt. Jim Ballard, who led the investigation for the Eddy County Sheriff's Department, said in his 19 years with the department this was the worse case he had seen that did not end in someone's death.

"What is overlooked because of a sexual crime is the imprisonment of this child," he said. "She was imprisoned in her own house, and her windows were screwed shut. It is unspeakable. There is not a word out of her mouth today that I don't believe."

After the victim and several others spoke, Whitehead then stood and apologized to his family and the victim for the shame he had caused them, while the victim looked on, shaking her head in the negative.

"We obviously would have liked less time in jail than the judge gave, but he reviewed the case extensively and I appreciate that," said Whitehead's attorney, Gary Mitchell.

Whitehead has been incarcerated at the county jail for the last two years while he was awaiting his trial and sentencing. He was held on a $1 million cash only bond.

Anthony Kroeger - Absconder Child Molester - Captured


A Southern Tier man faces a new charge after he was found on the run from sexual abuse charges.

Police say 48-year old Anthony Kroeger faces a bail jumping charge, after he was found earlier this month in Georgia. He was wanted on 20 counts of child sexual abuse.

Police say he failed to appear in Steuben County Court on charges including production of child pornography and use of children for sexual performance.

Kroeger is behind bars without bail. He'll be in court February 8. If he's convicted of all the charges he could face 33 to 165 years in prison.

William Irey - Guilty Child Pornography Production

An Orlando man has been sentenced to 17 ½ years in federal prison and supervised release for life for producing child pornography.

William Irey, 50, a former building contractor for Walt Disney World, pleaded guilty in July, 2006, admitting that he had traveled to Cambodia and took digital photos of himself having sex with children as young as four years old.

Agents seized over 1,200 images of child pornography from his computer. The pictures taken by the defendant were of numerous children performing sex acts with and on him and other children in front of a pink wall. The series of pictures of abuse became known as the “Pink Wall Series” as they were distributed worldwide over the Internet by the defendant.

The defendant victimized over 50 children over the past six years,
according to court records.

Junior Carrion - Repeat Sex Offender - WANTED


A 28-year-old registered sex offender is wanted by New Castle County police for allegedly assaulting a pregnant woman and then stealing her cell phone and ripping a phone cord from the wall to prevent her from calling 9-1-1.

Junior Carrion, of the first block of Norway Avenue in the Richardson Park community, has been charged with felony assault to a pregnant woman, failure to re-register as a sex offender, theft, two counts of criminal mischief and malicious interference with a 9-1-1 call.

Officers responded to the Carrion's residence at about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, where the victim told police that Carrion had just assaulted her, then ripped the phone cord from the wall and stole her cell phone, said county police spokesman Cpl. Trinidad Navarro.

Carrion also allegedly threw a chair against the wall, putting a large hole in the drywall, before fleeingNavarro said.

The victim had an injury to her eye, which was bruised and swollen, Navarro said.

Investigators learned during the course of the investigation that Carrion had been living at the Norway Avenue address for several weeks, but failed to register his new address; he had previously lived in Newark, Navarro said.

Anyone with information about Carrion's whereabouts is asked to contact New Castle County police at 395-8171 or www.nccpd.com or Crimestoppers at (800) TIP-3333.

John David Hatch, III - Repeat Sex Offender - SCUMBAG


A convicted sex offender was arrested by Sioux Falls police Thursday afternoon after he was allegedly caught exposing his genitals to a young girl, police spokesman Loren McManus said.

John David Hatch, III, 54, on Thursday afternoon was arrested at a home in the 800 block of South Spring Avenue, after the grandfather of a 2-year-old girl allegedly found Hatch on Saturday exposing himself to the girl, who was holding a sex toy, in a shed near the home, McManus said.

The grandfather lives at the home with Hatch, who is the boyfriend of the homeowner, McManus said. The grandfather’s 2-year-old granddaughter and 7-year-old grandson were over visiting on Saturday, he said. Those three, along with Hatch, were watercolor painting in the shed, when the grandfather left to cook food, McManus said.

A few minutes later, he said, the grandfather saw the 7-year-old boy come in to use the bathroom. The grandfather, who told officers he knew Hatch was a registered sex offender, went out to check on his granddaughter, McManus said.

“He goes out to the shed, opens the door, and finds the 2-year-old standing there holding a sex toy and the suspect has his pants down and is exposing his genitals to the 2-year-old,” he said.

The girl and her brother were interviewed, but the girl’s age makes it difficult to determine what exactly happened while she was alone with Hatch in the shed, McManus said.

“At this point we don’t know --- and probably will never know --- if he actually touched the 2-year-old,” he said. “Because of her young age, she is not able to articulate what may or may not have happened.”

Hatch was arrested for indecent exposure to a child less than 13-years-old, which is a felony, and punishable by two years in prison and a $4,000 fine.

Hatch was convicted in Minnehaha County in 1991 for sexual contact with a 9-year-old girl, McManus said.

It is unclear why the grandfather waited to report the incident, but was speaking with parole services officials and finally reported this incident, McManus said.

Legal Victory for sexually abused children

Legal victory for child abuse man

Sex abuser Neville Husband
Sex abuser Neville Husband was jailed for his offences
A North Yorkshire man who suffered sexual abuse as a child has won the right to sue his tormentors in a landmark ruling by Law Lords.

Kevin Young, now 46, claims he was abused at a Catholic boarding school and then by Neville Husband when he was in a Medomsley detention unit in 1977.

Husband was subsequently jailed for brutal sex attacks on teenage boys.

Mr Young's lawyers said they will now pursue civil claims against Catholic Care and the Home Office.

Solicitor David Greenwood, who specialises in child abuse cases, and is representing Mr Young, issued a statement after Wednesday's Law Lords' ruling.

He said: "We pursued the case of Kevin Young who claimed he was sexually assaulted at a Catholic boarding school and by Neville Husband while Mr Young was serving a short sentence at Medomsley detention centre in 1977.

"Husband, who became a church minister after quitting the prison service, was jailed in 2003 after admitting a string of horrific sex attacks on teenage boys."

The abuse itself is the reason why so many victims do not come forward until years after the event.
Law Lord Baroness Hale

Jordan's Solicitors are acting for 10 former inmates at the Medomsley detention centre.

Mr Greenwood added: "Kevin Young was one of the boys most brutally targeted by Husband and in April 2003 lodged a compensation claim against Catholic Care and the Home Office who ran the institutions.

"They tried to block the claim on the grounds that too much time had passed since the attacks took place."

Law Lord Baroness Hale said that victims of child abuse were often reluctant to report it at the time.

She said: "Until the 1970s people were reluctant to believe that child sexual abuse took place at all.

"The abuse itself is the reason why so many victims do not come forward until years after the event.

"This presents a challenge to a legal system which resists stale claims.

"Six years, let alone three, from reaching the age of majority is not long enough, especially since the age of majority was reduced from 21 to 18."

Ronald McDade - Repeat Sex Offender


An accused child rapist is in a Montgomery County courtroom today. Police say 43-year-old Ronald McDade raped a 13 year old girl while he was out on bail. Investigators say the rape happened while the girl was visiting a friend. McDade now faces a slew of charges. He's being held at Montgomery County Correctional Facility without bail.

Stephane Pizzera - Trucker - Guilty Child Pornography

A Quebec trucker driver who pleaded guilty to possessing and importing child pornography has been jailed for eight months.

Stephane Pizzera, 33, of St. Polycarpe, west of Montreal, brought a laptop computer containing at least 10 video clips of child pornography into Canada via the Blue Water Bridge on July 4, 2006.

The computer was discovered during an inspection at the border crossing.

Though he didn't participate in producing the material, Pizzera played a role in the exploitation of children that's become a scourge on society, Justice Ann McFadyen said in Sarnia court.

Child pornography degrades and debases the most vulnerable for the selfish pleasure of adults, she added, and "the children . . . are forever scarred."

A pre-sentence report stated Pizzera couldn't explain what was wrong with child pornography.

Defence lawyer David Stoesser said the report indicated Pizzera has psychological, emotional and sexual development deficiencies. Any probation order should have a therapeutic aspect to it, Stoesser said.

McFadyen placed Pizzera on probation for three years, with the condition he receive psychological or psychiatric assessment and treatment.

During the probation, Pizzera cannot use a computer or access the Internet unless it's work-related and supervised by his employer. The computer use must also be approved by his probation officer.

McFadyen also imposed a 20-year order prohibiting Pizzera from attending any playground, schoolyard or community centre used by children. He also cannot work or volunteer for any activity that puts him in a position of authority over children.

He must also supply an DNA sample and be placed on the national sex offender registry for 10 years.

Geoffrey Hulbrut - Former Teacher - Child Pornography


An Elmira man pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to possessing child pornography. Thirty-two year old Geoffrey Hulbrut is a former teacher in the Waverly School District.

Tuesday he admitted to possessing more than 600 images of child pornography on his home computer. Hulbrut told the judge he received the images over the internet.

He’ll be sentenced in May. The U.S. District Attorney said Hulbrut could face a maximum of ten years behind bars.

Willoughby W. Colonna IV - Child Pornography charges

A search of the computer files uncovered 400 videos depicting prepubescent children in sexually explicit scenes, including children younger than 5, according to an indictment against Colonna. The FBI said he downloaded files and advertised some on the Internet.

Federal prosecutors have come up with a novel approach to overcome an appeals court decision that threw out an alleged confession in a child pornography case.

Even though the prosecutors now cannot use the statements of the defendant, Willoughby W. Colonna IV, in a new trial on pornography charges, they have filed perjury charges and plan to use those statements to try to show that Colonna lied on the witness stand.

Legal experts say prosecutors might have difficulty persuading the courts to allow the alleged confession in the perjury case when they won’t be able to use it to retry Colonna on pornography charges.

One defense attorney called the prosecutors’ tactic “oppressive.”

Bill Colonna, as he is known, is an heir to Colonna’s Shipyard, a 132-year-old Norfolk company founded by his great-great-grandfather. He was arrested in June 2004 when two dozen FBI agents swarmed his Chesapeake home, kicked open his bedroom door and ordered him at gunpoint to come outside. Agents had a warrant to search his home based on what they said was evidence that a computer there was used to view child pornography.

A search of the computer files uncovered 400 videos depicting prepubescent children in sexually explicit scenes, including children younger than 5, according to an indictment against Colonna. The FBI said he downloaded files and advertised some on the Internet.

At his house that day in 2004, Colonna told agents the child pornography was his, according to a statement the FBI said he made. But at his trial in August 2006, he testified that the agents fabricated the confession.

“Did you ever admit to the agent that you were involved in the transmission of child pornography?” a federal prosecutor asked Colonna at the trial.

“There is no possible way I would have told a federal agent that I was transmitting child pornography,” Colonna replied.

“Did you ever tell the agent that you had advertised for 10-to 16-year-old girls?” Colonna was asked next.

“Absolutely not,” he replied.

The jury in the case believed the agents, and Colonna was convicted of 10 child pornography charges. U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar sentenced him to 17½ years in federal prison.

But on appeal, Colonna won a partial victory. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month granted him a new trial after ruling that the FBI violated his constitutional rights that day in 2004 and that his statements should have been suppressed at trial. The court found that the FBI, before questioning Colonna, should have given him his Miranda warnings, which advise suspects of the right to counsel and the right against self-incrimination.

Suspects are supposed to be given their Miranda rights upon arrest or if they are detained long enough to believe their freedom to leave is curtailed. The FBI interrogated Colonna for more than three hours in the back of an agent’s car but never told him he was under arrest.

“A reasonable man in Colonna’s position would have felt that his freedom was curtailed to a degree associated with formal arrest,” the appeals court said.

On Friday, the U.S. attorney’s office obtained a new indictment against Colonna, charging him with obstruction of justice and four counts of perjury. He could face up to 10 years in prison on the obstruction charge and up to five years on each perjury count. Prosecutors say in court papers that they plan to use Colonna’s alleged confession against him in the perjury case to try to show that he lied at his child pornography trial.

Colonna appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday for a bond hearing. Doumar granted him a $250,000 bond pending trial on the perjury case, scheduled for April 29, and retrial on the child porn case, set for June 3.

The judge ordered Colonna to live with his grandfather, Willoughby Colonna Jr., the shipyard owner. He also ordered Colonna to wear an electronic monitoring device, not to go near any computers, and to travel only to and from work at the shipyard.

Three legal experts say they have not heard of a perjury case like this.

William Van Alstyne, a law professor at the College of William and Mary who specializes in constitutional issues, said the perjury indictment is “a step beyond what’s been accepted.” However, he added that “it’s possible they may be able to do this.”

Virginia Beach attorney L. Steven Emmert, who tracks appeals issues, said prosecutors “went way too far.”

“Can evidence taken illegally in one crime be used in the prosecution of a separate crime? My sense is the answer to that question is going to be no,” he said. “If it’s illegally taken in one purpose, it’s illegal to use in another.”

Like Van Alstyne and Emmert, Charlottesville civil-rights attorney Steven Rosenfield said he would expect the appeals court to again suppress Colonna’s statements, if the case gets that far.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Moore, the prosecutor, declined to comment outside of court but told Doumar that the perjury case is based on “almost incontrovertible” case law. Colonna’s attorney, James Broccoletti, declined to comment.

Anthony Fletcher - Repeat Sex Offender

A Bloomington man was convicted in federal court on child pornography charges relating to incidents in McLean County.

Anthony Fletcher, 44, faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced May 9 on the federal charges.

Federal prosecutors argued that Fletcher “employed and used minors under the age of 18 to engage in sexually explicit conduct to produce pictures and video clips of child pornography” in April 2006 in Bloomington.

The charges also accused Fletcher of attempting to use minors to produce child pornography from 2005 through April 2006 in Decatur and Bloomington and similar conduct in 2002 in Mattoon.

Evidence presented in the eight-day jury trial alleged that Fletcher, who was arrested in May 2006, possessed hundreds of pornographic images of children on his computer and other digital storage devices. He was convicted Tuesday.

Earlier conviction

The federal case against Fletcher follows a conviction in McLean County last year for child pornography and aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Fletcher, who worked as a graphic artist before his arrest, was sentenced to 29 years in prison for pornography and an additional 12 years on the molestation conviction.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas Keith and Bradley Murphy handled the Peoria trial. Police agencies assisting with the investigation of Fletcher’s case included the Bloomington and Peoria police, the FBI and the Central Illinois Cybercrime Unit.

Fletcher was indicted on the federal charges in March 2007 and has been in federal custody since he was sentenced in July in McLean County.

Robert Ashkewe - School Bus Driver - Child Porn Possession


A 37-year-old man who worked as a school bus driver has been charged with possession of child pornography, Cornwall police said.

Police were called after pictures and videos downloaded from the Internet were allegedly found on a computer. After an investigation, they charged Robert Ashkewe on Jan. 25.

Mr. Ashkewe was a school bus driver for Delaney Bus Lines and transported children to St. Lawrence Intermediate School and East Front Public School within the past two years, according to police, who released his photograph because he may have been in a supervisory position with children.

Mr. Ashkewe appeared in court on Jan. 25 and was released to appear on March 17.

Alan B. Corbin - Child Molester

MOUNT PLEASANT -- A Mount Pleasant man is staring at a lengthy prison term under sentencing guidelines prescribed under Michigan's version of "Jessica's Law."

A jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning guilty verdicts against Alan B. Corbin, the 46-year-old Mount Pleasant man charged with sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl.

The jury convicted Corbin on all five counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and five counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct related to abuse that occurred in 2006 and 2007, said Isabella County Prosecutor Larry J. Burdick.

First-degree sexual abuse involves penetration while second-degree involves touching.
"During the three-day trial, the prosecution presented not only the testimony of the victim, but that of three other witnesses who testified as to sexual assaults by Corbin against them," Burdick said. "These assaults began as long as 26 years ago in Tennessee."

Burdick brought in witnesses from Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

"Jurors also heard a videotaped statement made by Corbin to police, in which he admitted sexual contact with the victims," the prosecutor said. "He indicated that he knew it was wrong but that the victims, in his opinion, initiated the contact."

Corbin's victims were 6 to 10 years old at the time of the attacks.


Corbin, formerly a physician's assistant in Mount Pleasant and a Central Michigan University faculty member, must return to Isabella County Trial Court for sentencing at 10:15 a.m. Thursday, March 7.

Each first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges carries a penalty of up to life in prison. Each second-degree charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 15 years behind bars.

"Because several of the convictions for first-degree criminal sexual conduct involve assaults which occurred in 2007, the penalty to be applied to those convictions mandate a minimum sentence of at least 25 years in prison," Burdick said.

The mandatory minimum sentence results from the passage of Public Act 169 in 2006, which was part of a nationwide legislative response to serious crimes committed against children, commonly known as Jessica's Law.

To date, 33 states have enacted some form of the law named for Jessica Marie Lundsford, the 9-year-old Florida girl whom John Evander Couey, a 46-year-old convicted sex offender, abducted and killed in 2005.

In commenting on the verdict, Burdick acknowledged the courage of the victims "who endured the daunting experience of testifying in court about their abuse."

He also mentioned the hard work of Sheriff's Detective Dan Denslow, who launched the investigation in June, and Senior Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Risa Scully, who supervised the case and prosecuted Corbin.

Michael Leigh Stephens - child molester guilty of attempted murder


It didn’t take a Delaware Circuit Court 4 jury long on Wednesday — 12 minutes, to be exact — to find a Muncie man guilty of attempted murder in the stabbing of his former girlfriend.

Michael Leigh Stephens, 31 — already serving a 12-year prison term for a 2007 child molesting conviction — will face up to 50 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge John Feick on Feb. 25.

In addition to attempted murder, a class A felony carrying a standard 30-year prison term, the jury also found Stephens guilty of aggravated battery, a class B felony with a standard 10-year sentence at the conclusion of the three-day trial.

On the witness stand, Stephens insisted he never intended to kill the mother of his children despite repeatedly stabbing her with a pocket knife after he had been drinking.

The attack occurred at the couple’s home in the 1800 block of East 15th Street last June 1 when the victim came home from work after Stephens, a stay-at-home dad, had been taking care of their two children, ages two year and three months, respectively.

Stephens told jurors that he “just could not take it any more” when a frustrating day of caring for his “fussy, crying” baby was followed by an argument with his girlfriend.

In September 2006, the Muncie man had been arrested for having sex with a 12-year-old girl. Stephens told police he thought the child was as old as 17.

He later pleaded guilty to child molesting, a class B felony, and was sentenced last October to 12 years in prison by Circuit Court 2 Judge Richard Dailey.

Stephens was out on bond in the molesting case when the stabbing occurred. Jurors in this week’s trial did not hear about Stephens’ criminal history, which also includes convictions for driving while intoxicated in 2004 and 1998, along with battery and possession of marijuana, both in 1998.

When arrested, Stephens told police he had blacked out during his argument with his girlfriend due to drinking several beers, and claimed he had little memory of the assault.

Luis Sanchez - Guilty verdict in child molestation case


Lawton_A Comanche County man was convicted Wednesday on charges of lewd molestation of a minor. Luis Sanchez was accused of molesting his stepdaughter in December, 2006. The state said Sanchez molested the young girl in his home multiple times. The jury deliberated just over two hours before returning the guilty verdict.

According to police reports, the alleged victim and her mother reported the allegations to authorities December 5, and a warrant issued for Sanchez's arrest. According to deputies, Sanchez barricaded himself in their Sterling home, and it was then that the TAC team shot bean bags and mace at him. He later surrendered.

The 15-year-old minor took the stand first. In her testimony, she claims that on December 2, 2006, Sanchez forced her to perform oral sex on him, and that her mother walked in on it. The minor's mother, who also testified Wednesday, corroborated the girl's story. Both mother and daughter claimed that after Sanchez was caught in the act, he pulled up his pants, threw up his hands, and "said he was sorry".

The alleged victim testified that she had been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Sanchez since she was eight-years-old.

The defense called their one and only witness to the stand - Luis Sanchez. The defendant testified that no sexual act of any kind occurred between him and his accuser. Sanchez testified that the minor child's mother told her to lie.

According to the prosecution, Sanchez kept a travel log to keep track of his day-to-day whereabouts while on the road. In it was an apology. It was written the day after he had been accused of molesting the girl. The prosecution wondered why Sanchez would have recorded an apology in that book. It would seem to be an admission of guilt since a warrant wasn't issued until two days after the alleged incident, when Sanchez barricaded himself in his home.

The jury recommended a ten-year prison term for Sanchez. The judge will issue the formal sentence in March.

Carl Skidmore - Repeat Sex Offender


Jurors on Tuesday convicted a Santa Rosa man, already a convicted child molester, of multiple counts of raping and molesting two girls.

Carl Skidmore, 56, faces multiple life prison terms when he is sentenced on March 19, Assistant Deputy District Attorney Joan Risse said.

Skidmore, who was convicted of child molestation in 1985 and is a registered sex offender, was arrested in March 2005 after the girls' brother reported the sexual abuse. The girls were 11 and 14 at the time.

In testimony during the past two weeks, jurors heard evidence about a towel investigators recovered that had DNA from Skidmore and one of the girls on it. Both of the girls testified against Skidmore.

At the March hearing, Skidmore also will be sentenced in a related conspiracy case. In that case, Skidmore, his aunt, sister and mother were convicted of trying to intimidate witnesses in the rape case.

Authorities said Skidmore hatched a plan in jail to hire a hitman to kill the victims' mother or beat up the brother to prevent the girls from testifying.

A former cellmate who was offered $270 to contact the witnesses instead went to police.

Skidmore's relatives pleaded guilty and were sentenced to probation and jail time.

Scott E. Ziegler - Repeat Sex Offender


Police executed a search warrant at the home of a registered sex offender only to find a 14-year-old girl under the covers in a locked bedroom wearing a dog collar, according to a probable cause document filed Wednesday in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

The same girl, wearing a dog collar and an attached leash, had been found with Scott E. Ziegler, 37, on Jan. 18 in a car after her mother reported her missing, the document says.

Court Commissioner Thomas Pieper found probable cause Wednesday to detain Ziegler, who is being held in the Waukesha County Jail on $100,000 bail. He has not been charged.

Ziegler is accused of harboring runaway girls and giving them drugs and alcohol in exchange for sex at his residence in the 2000 block of MacArthur Road since November.

Ziegler worked at or owned a retail store called Twisted in downtown Waukesha this past summer, Waukesha police Capt. Mike Babe said. The store attracted young people, and knowing he is a registered sex offender, police were watching the situation, Babe said. The business closed in the fall.

Police executed the search warrant Monday after learning that the girl had run away.

Derrick D. Hill - Repeat Sex Offender

A 20-year-old man faces allegations he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl.

Derrick D. Hill, last known address of 1825 Hillcrest Ave. SW, North Canton, was arrested Tuesday by the FBI Fugitive Task Force.

Hill is charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and assault, police said.

Detective Bobby Grizzard said Hill had a relationship with the girl, whom he met through an older woman.

Police learned about the relationship after Hill was suspected of physically abusing the girl, Grizzard said.

He said Hill is a registered sex offender. Hill, who hid from authorities for months, was caught Tuesday in Perry Township. It is a Massillon case.

"He was aware we were looking for him," Grizzard said.

Hill also faces a charge of failure to register address change as a sex offender, a felony. The woman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of child endangering in November. She is on probation.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The schoolhouse of heinous abuse

His trial was told that he had inflicted “unfathomable torture” on the two small boys entrusted to his care.

St John's National School on Temple Street in Sligo town where four former teachers have been convicted of indecently assaulting young boys during the 1970s and 1980s.

St John's National School on Temple Street in Sligo town where four former teachers have been convicted of indecently assaulting young boys during the 1970s and 1980s.


Four teachers from the same primary school have been convicted on hundreds of charges, in a horrific litany of child sexual abuse spanning three decades.

Gardai now believe that at least 50 boys, and probably many more, at St John’s boys’ primary school in Sligo were sexually abused by religious and lay teachers in a period stretching from the 1960s to the 1980s.

But, despite the first informal complaint being made as early as 1983, it took a further 16 years for a dedicated garda investigation team to be appointed.

Last night, victims’ support groups warned that what happened in Sligo could happen again, unless the law is changed to make the State take responsibility for child welfare in primary schools.

Yesterday, former Marist brother Martin Meaney (65) was jailed for two years on five sample abuse charges.

He denied that a paedophile ring was in operation at the primary school where he committed his crimes.

His victim, Paul Gordon (44), who claims to have been abused by three Marist brothers at the school, tried to spark an investigation in 1983, but was not believed because he was facing charges for the killing of his father.

Mr Gordon further claimed that one of the Marist brothers was paying his father for facilitating the abuse.

“He made the complaints in the context of being on remand for killing his father, so there was a credibility problem – but he never actually made a formal complaint until 1996,” a senior garda source said last night.

Pressure

Following the 1996 complaint, a small garda investigation was launched and a file went to the DPP, but no prosecution was recommended.

In 1999, after pressure exerted by Mr Gordon’s solicitor, Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty directed that an investigation team be set up, and the extent of the abuse was slowly uncovered by gardai .

Meaney, of Moyle Park, Clondalkin, was the fifth teacher and third religious brother to come before the courts.

Sentencing Meaney, formerly Brother Gregory, the judge expressed shock that so many teachers could be “debauching their pupils” in the same school.

“Any such ring would have been shocking ... to have (so many) teachers operating independently, separately, ignorant of each other’s criminal activity, and that the same victims were used, but not shared, is every bit as bizarre,” he said.

Another former Marist brother, who was jailed after being convicted of sexual abuse at the school, has had his conviction quashed and is facing a retrial later this year.

Despite having information, investigating gardai could find no evidence to support the existence of a paedophile ring.

When they questioned Meaney on whether he had been acting alone, he said: “I thought I was the only one.”

Last night, Deirdre Fitzpatrick, advocacy director of the One In Four support group for sexual abuse victims, said:

“The question has to be asked, who was managing this school during this reign of abuse? As the law currently stands, the boards of management have ultimate responsibility for child welfare and if something goes wrong, they are accountable.

“This loophole was highlighted in the High Court two years ago and we have been calling on the Department of Education to step in and take responsibilitysince then.”

Current chairman of the board of management of St John’s School, Father Tom Hever, said the school “thoroughly regretted” all that had happened in the past.

“What has occurred was terrible and the school acknowledges these terrible happenings, but we are making every effort since then, in terms of child protection, to ensure that such incidents would never happen again,” he said.

Meaney, who has already served a nine-year sentence for buggery, indecent assault and rape at a school in Castlerea where he taught between 1973 and 1991, went through the courts in an effort to stop the latest trial going ahead.

The judge praised investigating gardai, Detective Sergeant Dermot Flannery and Detective Andy Brennan, for their “hard work, tenacity and determination” which had taken up “a chunk of their lives” in bringing the cases to court.

In the course of that nineyear investigation, they interviewed hundreds of former pupils and brought over 1,000charges against five teachers.
Martin Meaney

Sentence: two years in prison

Former Brother Christopher, Martin Meaney yesterday received a two-year jail sentence on five sample counts of indecent assault against one victim, Paul Gordon.

Meaney admitted he had selected his victim carefully because of his impoverished background and because he appeared weak and hungry looking. He groomed him for weeks before the abuse began.

He took advantage of his then seven-year-old victim’s need for attention and kept him back after school pretending it was to give him music lessons.
Michael Cunnane

Sentence: three years suspended

In October 1999, retired teacher Michael Cunnane received a three-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to 11 counts of indecently assaulting three boys between 1974 and 1981.

In May 2001, the same teacher was back before the courts.

That time, he received another suspended three-year sentence after admitting further counts of indecent assaults against five boys.

The abuse occurred under the pretence of giving horse riding lessons.
Peter White

Sentence: three years in prison

In June 2005, Peter White (74) of Celbridge Abbey, Celbridge, Co Kildare, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to eight sample charges of indecent assault on two boys, in the 1970s.

His trial was told that he had inflicted “unfathomable torture” on the two small boys entrusted to his care.

White – formerly known as Brother Agnellus – followed the boys into the school toilets where he indecently assaulted them.

Trial Judge Miriam Reynolds said that he had used his cunning and his position as a teacher to terrorise these children in the classroom, where they should have felt protected and safe.
Patrick Curran

Sentence: 12 years in prison

In July 2005, Patrick Curran was found guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of indecently assaulting nine boys he taught at the Sligo school between 1966 and 1984.

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Described by the trial judge as a “determined paedophile”, Curran taught at St John’s National School from July 1966 until he was asked to leave when the allegations came to light in 1999.

Curran had denied an initial 237 counts of the indecent assault of 10 boys between September 1966 and June 1984.

At his trial, he described himself as a “gay person” with a sexual preference for old people over the age of 65.

Edward Dean Schuler - Repeat Sex Offender - Baby Raper

“I just want him to be where he isn’t going to hurt any other kids,” she said. “This is the second time around that he’s done this, and it’s got to stop.”


Just minutes before his two-day trial was expected to begin, a registered sex offender pleaded guilty Tuesday to raping a then 4-year-old girl in mid-2006 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Under the terms of the negotiated plea, Edward Dean Schuler, 41, of Dover, will serve a minimum of 70 percent of the total sentence — about 14 years — before he will be eligible for parole, 5th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons said Tuesday morning.
The girl’s mother, who spoke to a reporter after Schuler entered the guilty plea, said she was satisfied with the agreement.

“I just want him to be where he isn’t going to hurt any other kids,” she said. “This is the second time around that he’s done this, and it’s got to stop.”

Schuler was previously convicted of sexual assault on a child — the charge that led to his inclusion on a statewide sex offender registry maintained by the Arkansas Crime Information Center (ACIC).

Gibbons filed the rape charge March 7 after the girl, who is now living in Arizona, told authorities Schuler “poked her hard in her crotch area” while her mother was at the grocery store, according to a probable-cause statement filed in circuit court.

Schuler later failed a polygraph examination, according to the statement, which noted the child’s mother found traces of blood in the girl’s underwear after her daughter told her it hurt to use the restroom.

Mark Mandelbaum - Repeat Sex Offender - Assaults child in restroom


A convicted sex offender from Burlington County was arraigned today on charges he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy in the bathroom of a Garden State Parkway rest area in Monmouth County.

Mark Mandelbaum, 43, of Pemberton Township, is charged with sexual assault, child endangerment and lewdness stemming from an Aug. 4 incident at the Parkway rest area in Wall Township, Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin said.

The prosecutor said the boy was traveling with his family when they stopped to use the public restrooms. The boy went into the bathroom alone, but when his stepfather went in to check on him, he saw Mandelbaum sexually assaulting the boy, Valentin said.

The stepfather stopped the assault and Monmouth service area employees kept Mandelbaum at the scene until New Jersey State Police arrived, the prosecutor said.

Today was Mandelbaum's first court appearance since a grand jury indicted him on Dec. 21.

Mandelbaum was convicted in 1998 of child endangerment and ordered to register as a sex offender, according to the State Police sex offender registry.

The registry said his victim was a male under 13 years old and that Mandelbaum "follows juvenile males into public restrooms and peers over the stall." Released from the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Woodbridge in November 2004, Mandelbaum served two years of a four-year sentence for that offense.


If convicted of sexual assault, he faces up to 10 years in state prison or the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center. He has been in the Monmouth County jail in Freehold on $75,000 bail since his arrest.

Timothy Paul Green - Guilty sadistic child porn

The 4-year-old was screaming while being raped, she told the judge.

A federal judge sentenced a Kingsland man to serve seven years and four months in prison today for possessing child pornography including a video of a 4-year-old being raped.

Timothy Paul Green, 42, had the video and more than 100 other electronic images of child pornography on his laptop computer when he was arrested at a Camden County motel in October, 2006, an FBI investigation showed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Wade described the pornography to Senior U.S. District Judge Anthony Alaimo before he sentenced Green, who is unemployed.

Green’s large collection of pornography included digital photographs and more than 85 videos depicting young children engaged in sex acts with adult men, Wade told the judge.

The children appeared to be 12 years old and younger, Wade said.

The 4-year-old was screaming while being raped, she told the judge. Wade did not say whether the victim was a boy or girl.

Green’s attorney, Newell Hamilton Jr., had argued for leniency telling Alaimo that Green obtained the pornography while using cocaine heavily because of “great despair” over the death of his father.

Green also turned to cocaine and child pornography after he was injured while working on a dredge barge, Hamilton said.

“There is no evidence he [Green] is in [illicit] contact with children, and no evidence he was involved in distribution of child pornography,” Hamilton said.

Disabled and unable to work, Green spent his settlement money on cocaine and child pornography, Hamilton said.

Wade refuted that argument.
“The fact that the defendant [Green] had too much time and too much money on his hands doesn’t negate the severity of the child pornography,” Wade said.

Arresting officers found marijuana and other drugs in Green’s motel room, she said.
The investigation showed Green had the laptop computer containing the pornography before his father died, testified Scott Riggs, a federal probation officer.

Since his arrest, Green has cooperated with FBI agents who continue to investigate the source of the child pornography, Hamilton said.

That cooperation included Green pointing out a Jacksonville house where he said he obtained pornography, and identifying a man who may have been in one of the videos, Hamilton said.

Except to respond to Alaimo’s questions, Green said nothing before being sentenced.
Alaimo sentenced Green to a prison term in the middle of the penalty range recommended by federal sentencing guidelines in the case.

Green must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for release because there is no federal parole.

Green remains free on $50,000 bail but must continue wearing an electronic monitoring device until he reports to begin serving his sentence in 30 days, the judge ordered.

Green pleaded guilty Aug. 23 to one count of possession of child pornography.

The child pornography was discovered on Oct. 10, 2006 when Kingsland police and Camden County drug task force investigators searched a motel room rented by Green, FBI Special Agent Joshua Hayes previously testified.

Investigators were acting on a tip that Green had illegal drugs and weapons there, Hayes testified.

The government dismissed eight charges of receiving child pornography against Green, a plea agreement showed.

Phong Lu - Internet Predator - BUSTED

Phong Lu thought he was instant messaging a 14-year-old Milford girl when he sent her a streaming video of himself masturbating. The girl actually was an undercover FBI agent.

Now Lu, who lives in Danbury and is a native of Vietnam, is in custody for using the Internet to entice a minor into sexual activity, authorities said. The charge carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison.

An FBI inspection of his seized computer determined that Lu, of Sandpit Road, has 36 females listed as buddies. Of these, three are 14 and another three are 15.

Of the others, so far seven have been determined to be 16 and nine to be 17, according to an affidavit filed by Robert Nash, a Milford police officer assigned to the Connecticut Computer Crime Task Force.

Nash's affidavit claims one of the girls on Lu's buddy list admitted having sexual relations with him. Another girl, a 14-year-old from Westport, told authorities his e-mails "frightened" her.

As a result, Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Wines filed a request with U.S. Magistrate Judge William I. Garfinkel in Bridgeport, urging him to keep Lu behind bars without bail until his trial.

She told the judge that Lu lives on a street in Danbury that is a pickup and drop-off point for a middle school bus.

"This is an age group that falls within the population of the victims the defendant targets for enticement," Wines told the judge.

Nash alleges Lu first communicated with the undercover agent on Aug. 4, 2005, and did so sporadically until last November, when the contact picked up.

According to the affadavit, on Dec. 6, he sent the masturbation video and asked if it turned her on. On one occasion, he asked if her mother would allow her to sleep over at someone's house so they could get together.

On Dec. 28, he arranged to meet her at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Westfield Connecticut Post mall, the affadavit states.

Leaton Richard Kingsly Sutcliffe - Repeat Sex Offender

A SERIAL intimidator of women attacked a nurse just a day after being released on bail for stalking two females on a train.

Leaton Richard Kingsly Sutcliffe, 38, appeared in Parramatta Bail Court in Sydney yesterday charged with indecently assaulting a female admission officer at Rozelle Mental Hospital on Saturday.

Police allege Sutcliffe forced his hand inside the hospital worker's blouse, fondled her breast and tried to rip off her jeans.

During the attack, Sutcliffe allegedly pushed the woman over a desk and forced his hand inside her pants.

Sutcliffe, a semi-permanent resident at Matthew Talbot Hostel, was granted bail at Parramatta Local Court on Friday. At that time he pleaded not guilty to a charge of stalking and intimidating two women on a train during the afternoon of November 15 last year.

Police noted Sutcliffe was a habitual offender who had been charged with similar offences in the past.

He was released on bail on condition he reside at Matthew Talbot Hostel and report to a Darlinghurst Health Service case officer within 24 hours.

Sutcliffe was also due to report to Surry Hills police station every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

But the following morning, police allege Sutcliffe entered the admissions area of Rozelle Mental Hospital.

He allegedly spoke with the admission officer who advised Sutcliffe to wait for a doctor about 11.40am.

Sutcliffe allegedly rushed towards her, grabbing her around the jaw and attempting to kiss her.

He allegedly threatened the woman and forced his hand under her blouse.

"He slid his left hand up under her bra," a police statement said.

The woman was then allegedly slammed over a desk as Sutcliffe tried to remove her jeans.

The woman struggled free and hit an emergency alarm button. She escaped from the hospital's reception area into the ward area where she told staff members of the attack.

Police prosecutor Frank Reitano argued for bail to be refused to protect the community.

"The facts are devastating. The prosecution would submit that there is a strong need for the protection and welfare of the alleged victim in this matter, and the community," he said.

In refusing bail, Magistrate Rosemary Davidson noted Sutcliffe's extensive criminal history.

Sutcliffe will face Central Local Court today. He is due in Parramatta Local Court on the November matters on March 18

Ramazan Ilter - Child Predator

Denying at first there had been any sex involved, Ilter said his contact with the girls had been in the interests of ‘bringing his own children up better’ – a claim declared ludicrous and laughable by the judge.

A KEBAB shop owner who took a 14-year-old girl to a Cardiff hotel after grooming her while she was living in a children’s home has been jailed for three years.

When police arrested sexual predator Ramazan Ilter, 42, they found he had pictures of the girl posing in underwear.

There was also a video of him performing a sex act on a 16-year-old girl he had also taken to the Blue Dragon Hotel on Newport Road.

Denying at first there had been any sex involved, Ilter said his contact with the girls had been in the interests of ‘bringing his own children up better’ – a claim declared ludicrous and laughable by the judge.

Judge Neil Bidder QC told Turkish-born Ilter whose own children are around the same age and who had also brought up step-children, that he had entrenched sexist views about women and still had no proper understanding of what he had done wrong.

Ilter had been due to stand trial earlier this month on allegations against the girls from a Rhondda Cynon Taf community home he befriended after meeting them in the city centre.

But on the trial day he pleaded guilty to two charges of meeting 14-year-old children following grooming, one of possessing indecent images and one of supplying cannabis to a 16-year-old. All the girls were said to have been vulnerable and to have been living in care.

Prosecutor Robert Buckland told Cardiff Crown Court: “Staff at the home became concerned about the association one girl of 14 had formed with a man called Charlie – this defendant.

“He would pick up her and her friend, the same age, and take them to a car park where they would sit talking and there would be vodka drunk.”

The grooming progressed to gifts and trips in his car for the children to Barry and Porthcawl – one of them saying he touched her leg as he drove – to dinner and a nightclub then a visit to the hotel for the other.

When he said he wanted to sleep with her, the girl refused, but on New Year’s Eve he was filming other girls dancing and singing in a room and was then showed indulging in sexual activity with a 16-year-old.

As well as being jailed for three years, Ilter, who lives in Mead Lane, Cwmbran, and runs a shop in Newport, was put on the sex offenders’ register for life and made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order.

Under that order he is banned for 10 years from going to playgrounds, swimming pools, arcades and cinema complexes or within 50 yards of schools and children’s care homes.

In addition, he can’t take children – apart from his own – into his home or car or offer them presents.

Judge Bidder told him: “Girls have to be protected from themselves as well as from predatory men like you.”

Christopher Malinak - Repeat Sex Offender


A registered sex offender from Whitehall who's accused of trying to lure two young children into his pickup truck on the North Side last week will have to wait to face the charges against him.

Authorities arrested Christopher Malinak, 23, at a movie theater in the Waterfront on Friday.

According to investigators, Malinak approached a 9- and 11-year-old as they walked home from school on Tuesday near the intersection of Campus Street and Stanford Road in Brighton Heights.

Police say Malinak tried to get the children into his truck by telling them they could make some money.

Fortunately, the kids took off and told their mother what had happened.

After getting a tip that the suspect looked like a registered sex offender on the Megan's Law website, detectives discovered that Malinak was convicted of trying to lure a child into his vehicle in 2006.

Though he was scheduled to face a preliminary hearing on the charges today, the hearing was postponed.

David Randall - Repeat Sex Offender

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A registered sex offender from Utica is facing up to 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges.

David Randall, 36, pleaded guilty in a Syracuse federal courtroom Wednesday. U.S. attorneys say Randall had more than 300 pictures and 200 videos of child pornography he got on the internet. Whitesboro Police say they arrested Randall after they got complaints of him taking pictures of young boys at a church event last May. Investigators seized five computers and hundreds of disks from his home.

Randall faces a minimum 15 years in prison when he is sentenced in June.

Jermaine Vaden - Repeat Sex Offender


An Aurora city employee pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy Wednesday.

Jermaine Vaden was sentenced to 29 years with 20 years of sex offender intensive probation, said spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh.

Vaden was hired in May as a seasonal worker for the Aurora city parks department. He was also working at the city-sponsored KidSpree event in mid-July. He was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy he met at the event.

Aurora police admitted in July that even though officers had contact with Vaden and knew he was a sex offender in another state, they did nothing with the information.

During two prior incidents, officers were aware that Vaden, 29, a sex offender in another state but there was no requirement to notify the Aurora sex crimes unit. Vaden is a sex offender who served time in Oklahoma but who failed to register when he moved to Aurora.

On April 29, Vaden was involved in a domestic dispute with his mother, but no charges were filed, Aurora police said. And on May 12, Vaden was the victim of a strong-arm robbery.

In both instances, a criminal history check was conducted that showed no outstanding warrants and no reason to arrest him. However, both checks showed that he was a registered sex offender in Oklahoma who had served his time.

Aurora's police chief said a new policy requires notification of any case when a sex offender is involved.

"A memo was issued today, to every member of the department, saying in every case in which you contact a sex offender for any reason, you will make a notification to the sex crimes unit just so that they can make sure that the sex offender is properly registered. And if he is not, track him down and get him registered," said Chief Daniel Oates.

Oates said the idea is to be upfront and to learn from lessons and the policy change.

"Had we been aware of this disconnect and had we gotten a hold of Mr. Vaden, he merely would have registered. He would not have been arrested. We would have compelled him to register. It would not, I believe, have affected the subsequent outcome," Oates said.

Because of this case, Aurora has announced it would do background checks on all future and current employees.

David Grantham - Repeat Sex Offender


A registered sex offender serving time in Hyde County has been accused of raping a 7-year-old girl at his Hope Mills home last year, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives say 55-year-old David Grantham, formerly of the 1300 block of Bill Drive, Hope Mills, forced a 7-year-old girl to perform sex acts while he was on probation for sexually assaulting another young person.

The violations occurred between Sept. 1 and 2 at his home in Hope Mills, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The child told detectives of numerous encounters which detailed Grantham’s inappropriate behavior toward her, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Grantham is charged with crimes against nature, first-degree rape, taking indecent liberties with a child, incest between near relatives and first-degree statutory sex offense. He is expected to be extradited to Cumberland County to face the charges.

Grantham is currently serving time at the Hyde County Correctional Institute for a probation violation related to similar crimes he committed against another young person, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Grantham was convicted in Cumberland County in February 2000 for taking indecent liberties with a minor and incest with near relatives. He was released by the state Department of Correction on Dec. 22, 2001, with a condition of probation. He has been a registered sex offender since then.

Grantham returned to jail in September after breaking conditions of his court-ordered probation.

Timothy L. Lantz - Repeat Sex Offender - WANTED

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A west side man was charged on Monday with 10 federal counts involving child pornography.

Timothy L. Lantz, a registered sexual offender, faces charges ranging from transportation of child pornography to advertising visual depictions, 10TV's Tanisha Mallett reported.

Lantz, 55 (pictured, right), remained elusive to authorities as of Monday evening.

According to the FBI, Lantz was found through an Internet-based child pornography ring. Agents monitored several chat rooms to find people who were advertising that they had child pornography and found Lantz.

More than 3,000 movies and images of children engaged in pornography were found on Lantz's computer, Mallett reported.

Investigators said they were working to identify who the children were in each of the photos found on the computer.

Lantz's neighbors, who are aware he is a registered sex offender, told Mallett that they hope authorities find him but keep him from returning to their neighborhood.

"I understand that people commit a crime and deserve a second chance, but when you keep hurting little kids - it's not right," said Martha Burgan, who lives near Lantz.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office said that agents have an idea about where Lantz might be hiding.

Oscar A. Corea- Repeat Sex Offender


A predator convicted of sexually assaulting female job seekers who believed he was an AT&T executive was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison.

Oscar A. Corea, 38, learned his fate in Los Angeles Superior Court shortly after Commissioner Ronald Rose found him guilty of violating his probation for a sentence imposed in November, authorities said.

El Segundo police arrested Corea on Dec. 20 when he met four women in a room at the Hacienda Hotel. The women believed they were interviewing for jobs, El Segundo police Lt. Bob Turnbull said.

The meetings occurred just 21 days after Corea pleaded no contest in Rose's courtroom to one count of assault with intent to commit rape.

Under the plea deal, Corea received a six-year suspended sentence and was placed on probation for five years. He also was given a strike on his record.

The sentence gave Corea credit for the 10 months he spent in county jail following his Jan. 31 arrest and allowed him to be released immediately.

Corea had faced four years in prison for sexually assaulting two women who were enticed with offers of high-wage jobs and company cars. He met one Jan. 8, 2007, in the Hacienda Hotel lobby and another four days earlier in North Hollywood.

When police learned last month that Corea was at it again, detectives intervened. Some of the women, however, said Corea had touched them inappropriately when he hugged them goodbye, Turnbull said.

Long before his arrest in 2007, Corea was listed as a registered sex offender in California for earlier crimes. The Megan's Law Web site listed his convictions as touching a person intimately against her will for sexual arousal and sexual battery.

Jimmy Brown - Repeat Sex Offender


A registered sex offender from Carteret County is accused of exposing himself to children between the ages of 3 and 12 years old.

Jimmy Brown was arrested today by sheriff deputies. Investigators say Brown knew all his victims and is also accused of other incidents of assault and indecent exposure that date back to last August.

Brown lived on Old Mill Road in the Mill Creek area of Carteret County.

The state's sex offender web site says the 46 year old man was arrested in 2006 for two counts of indecent liberties with a minor and served a year and two months in prison. He was released last February.

Brown's new charges include 14 counts of indecent liberties, 12 counts of assault on a child under twelve, 9 counts of simple assault, 7 counts of indecent exposure, and 18 counts of trespassing.

Deputies say Brown is also accused of breaking into a neighbor's vehicle and also trying to break into that neighbor's home.

He is in the Carteret County jail on a $207,500 secured bond.

David Bay - Cognitively Distorted Child Predator

WAUPACA — A 59-year-old man a prosecutor said was grooming a 15-year-old girl for sex — and who took several photos of her naked — will serve three years in prison.

The three years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision Waupaca County Circuit Judge Ray Huber ordered for David Bay is a fraction of the sentence of 30 years in prison and 20 years of extended supervision requested by Assistant Dist. Atty. Brenda Freeman.

However, it was more than the probation and counseling requested by Bay’s family.

Bay, of Glidden in Ashland County, was arrested lurking around the victim’s home in Clintonville. He was sentenced Tuesday on five counts of possession of child pornography.

He had faced up to 45 years in prison and 40 years of extended supervision, but 16 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of carrying a concealed weapon were dismissed and read into the record in a plea agreement.

Huber also sentenced Bay to 13 years of probation running at the same time as the prison sentence. He ordered Bay to register as a sex offender, participate in sex offender counseling and have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18.

“He has been, from all indications, a stable member of the community and a productive member of the community,” Huber said, but prison is warranted because of his “distorted thinking,” his “complete lack of understanding or the consequences” of the incident and his “lack of insight.”

Bay sobbed throughout the 75-minute hearing.

CRY BABY

“I made a wrong turn in the road and I apologize to everyone,” Bay said.

He has refused to accept blame for the acts, however, and laughed and joked with the writer of the presentence investigation and with a psychologist who interviewed him, Freeman said.


Freeman said Bay claimed he and the girl had an “ongoing sexual relationship.”
The only reason the relationship was not consummated, Freeman said, was “he got caught.”

Defense attorney Kevin Musolf said Bay had a good work record, has been married for nearly 37 years, was a good father and had no alcohol or drug abuse problems.

“There is nothing but positive things to say about Mr. Bay,” he said. “Everything is in his favor. There is no reason to put him in prison other than punishment.”

Blake R. Johnson - Repeat Sex Offender

A Bentonville man is in the Benton County Jail after police found child pornography on a computer.

In early January, the Bentonville Police Department received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children concerning two video clips depicting child sexual abuse, according to a news release from the Bentonville Police Department.

According to the tip, someone using a computer traced to 10860 Easy St., near the Talamore subdivision, uploaded two video clips to the Internet filing-sharing site badongo. com, which captured the videos and made the tip report. That address is the home of Blake R. Johnson's father.

Based on information provided in the tip, the Bentonville Police Department obtained a search warrant for the home. They served the warrant last week and seized two computers.

Police Chief James Allen said that it quickly became clear that Johnson's father was not the person who uploaded the videos. That led them to focus on the son, who officers determined had failed to register as a sex offender.

Johnson, 22, was not living there, Allen said. Rather, the man was living at a home in Bentonville; however, Allen did not know the address.

On Monday, Johnson turned himself in at the Bentonville Police Department, Allen said.

Officers charged Johnson for failure to register as a sex offender, a class C felony; and pandering or possessing visual or print medium depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, a class B felony for a subsequent offense. Johnson is in the Benton County Jail, where he is being held pending probable-cause and bond hearings.

Bentonville served the warrant outside the city, Allen said, because when the local investigation began, it was believed the source of the images was inside the city limits. When it was determined the location was outside the city, Bentonville officers served the warrant because they had done the work, Allen said.

In January 2005, Johnson was placed on eight years' probation after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

Johnson, 19 at the time, pleaded guilty to pandering or possessing visual or print medium depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, a class C felony, according to a story in the Jan. 5, 2005, issue of The Benton County Daily Record. Johnson admitted posting a pornographic image of a very young female and an adult male in a sexually graphic pose.

Senior Airman Robert E. Gorman - Guilty Child Porn

Military computer forensics experts scouring Gorman's computer hard drive found dozens of images and video clips of boys and girls being raped, molested and tortured.

Some of the victims are suspected of being as young as 3.

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany A Spangdahlem-based Air Force crew chief pleaded guilty Jan. 28 to possessing 121 images of child pornography on his personal laptop computer.

A military judge sentenced Senior Airman Robert E. Gorman, 23, to three years in prison, reduction to the lowest pay grade, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge at the court-martial Jan. 28.

The Air Force found out about the child pornography on Gorman's computer after a civilian investigator in Alabama tipped them off last year, Air Force prosecutor Capt. Aaron Maness said.

The investigator was searching for child pornography on peer-to-peer computer networks as part of an investigation and traced the images to Gorman's Internet protocol address.

Military computer forensics experts scouring Gorman's computer hard drive found dozens of images and video clips of boys and girls being raped, molested and tortured.

Some of the victims are suspected of being as young as 3.

Nineteen of the minors in the images were identified as known child abuse victims listed on a national registry.

Gorman, who is assigned to the 726th Air Mobility Squadron, said he downloaded the majority of the files while he was stationed at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.

He obtained the images and clips through the free file-sharing service called Frostwire between July 1, 2006, and Jan. 31, 2007.

During the court-martial, he told Col. Gordon Hammock, the military judge, that he did not believe downloading the material was illegal at the time and apologized to the victims.

The aircraft maintainer faced a maximum sentence that included 10 years in prison, but prosecutors argued for three years.

Gorman, a native of Chicago, enlisted in 2004 and is unmarried.

By federal law, Gorman must register as a sex offender.

Jamie Lloyd Wallin - Repeat Sex Offender

Within nine months of his release from prison, Wallin molested the three girls in the case that ended in the May conviction.

An Everett man who already is serving one life prison sentence for sex crimes against children went on trial Tuesday accused of four more crimes. A prosecutor hopes that a conviction will net Jamie Lloyd Wallin a second life term without possibility of release.

Wallin is accused of repeatedly having sexual contact with the 9-year-old daughter of a friend in 2002 and 2003. He's charged with two counts of first-degree child rape and two counts of first-degree child molestation.

In May, Wallin was convicted of 11 sex counts involving girls 7, 9 and 11. He and his girlfriend, Florena Aurelia Romero, 22, of Bothell took the children on a photo-shooting expedition at a park, swam in the nude, and later went to an apartment where they had sex in front of the children.

Romero was convicted of eight sex counts and is serving a 10-year prison term. Wallin was sentenced to life.

Outside court, Stemler said he's pursuing a second life term for Wallin because the defendant preys on young girls and he wants to do everything in his power to make sure Wallin is never released from prison.

Wallin has a sordid past.

He was convicted of child molestation in 1994 and served more than four years in prison after failing in a treatment program designed to help him control deviant urges.

In 2003, he was again charged with child molestation after state corrections officials searched his laptop computer and discovered "hundreds, if not thousands" of photographs of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

A judge in that case sentenced him to life without parole as a persistent offender, but the state Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and dismissed the case because of an improper search of the computer.

Within nine months of his release from prison, Wallin molested the three girls in the case that ended in the May conviction.

Brent A. Krum - Church youth group leader - Guilty Child Molestation

A former Redmond church youth-group leader has pleaded guilty to child-rape and child-molestation charges that date back nearly four years.

Brent A. Krum entered guilty pleas Friday to three counts of third-degree child rape and three counts of third-degree child molestation.

A former youth leader at the Summit View Church in Redmond, Krum acknowledged having sexual intercourse with girls who were then 15 years old, beginning in May 2004 and on other occasions through 2005.

According to a Redmond Police Department investigation, the sexual contacts took place at Krum's house in Redmond and at a Kirkland motel.

Krum, 37, faces up to five years in prison for the offenses under standard state sentencing guidelines. Sentencing is set for 1:45 p.m. Feb. 15 before King County Superior Court Judge Joan DuBuque.

Murnice Felton Chandler - Child Molester


A Sanford man who pleaded guilty to molesting his former girlfriend's daughter will spend ten years in prison and wear a GPS monitor for the rest of his life.

Murnice Felton Chandler, 44, of 111 Elliott Road, Sanford, pleaded guilty to 21 counts of indecent liberties with a child. Judge Allen Baddour sentenced him to 10 years in prison and ordered him to wear a Global Positioning System monitor for the rest of his life, according to assistant district attorney Kayley Taber.

The victim, who was molested at ages 8, 9 and 10, is now 20. She told prosecutors she had seen Chandler violently abuse her mother and was afraid to report the sexual abuse until she turned 18, which was two years ago.

Chandler has been in custody since August 2006 under a $575,000 bond.

Michael Gallagher - Interent Predator


An investigation of Internet-trafficked child pornography led to the arrest of a Glendale shipping clerk, Phoenix police said.

Michael Gallagher, 39, was arrested Friday after a two-month investigation by the Arizona Internet Crimes against Children Task Force. He is accused of contacting children over the Internet and trafficking in child pornography, according to KTAR-FM.

Police said Gallagher admitted to having sexual contact with minors.

He was booked into jail on charges of sex abuse, sexual conduct with a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Police said they've identified one of Gallagher's victims, but they believe there are more. Anyone with information is asked to call the Phoenix Police Crimes against Children Unit at 602-495-0681 or contact the Arizona ICAC Task force at azicac.org.

Russell Hunt - Child Predator BUSTED


Police have arrested 50-year-old Russell Hunt of Mifflin County after he traveled to Harrisburg to meet and have sex with who he believed were 14-year-old girls.

Hunt is also accused of using internet chat rooms to sexually proposition the girls and sending nude photos.

The "girls" were actually undercover agents from the child predator unit.

Hunt was arrested around Monday night when he arrived for his meeting in Dauphin County.

Investigator Wilson Carstaffin - Charged Child Molestation


A veteran Atlanta police officer was indicted Friday on charges that he molested a 12-year-old girl.

Atlanta Police Department officials said Investigator Wilson Carstaffin has been indicted on two counts of child molestation, two counts of sexual battery and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes.

Officials told WSB-TV Channel 2's Jodie Fleischer that Carstaffin met the girl while he was working an off-duty security job at Crawford Long Middle School. He is accused of taking the girl off school grounds and molesting her in his car.

The indictment was returned by a Fulton County grand jury Friday morning after evidence gathered by APD was turned over to the office of District Attorney Paul Howard.

He has been suspended with pay pending an emergency action hearing early next week.

"It disturbs me and every other police officer in Atlanta when such allegations arise", said Chief Richard J. Pennington. "Children are told to trust police officers. This is an apparent heinous abuse of that trust."

The officer, a 16-year veteran of the department, was assigned to the General Investigations Unit before being assigned to non-enforcement, administrative duties while the investigation took place.

The officer was not on duty, in uniform or in a police vehicle at the time of the incident, according to officials. Police said they believe the victim knew Carstaffin was a police officer.

A news conference is being held Friday afternoon to discuss the case. Please refresh this developing story for updates.