Monday, February 23, 2009

Darrin Eugene Sanford - Repeat Sex Offender - Kidnapped and Murdered girl


A transient sex offender was arrested Monday afternoon in connection with the murder of a teenage girl whose body was discovered in an overgrown field over the weekend.

Darrin Eugene Sanford, 30, faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of 13-year-old Alycia D. Nipp (pictured below), a Thomas Jefferson Middle School student.

Nipp's stepfather discovered her body around 2:30 a.m. Sunday while he was out searching for her after she had been reported missing. Nipp had been stabbed multiple times and police believe her body was dragged to a wooded area and left there. All of her clothing was found intact.

According to the Clark County Sheriff's Office, Sanford is one of a number of transient sex offenders living in the Hazel Dell area and was known to frequent an abandoned house in the vicinity of the murder. Other details connecting him to the murder were not released.

Sanford is a Level III registered sex offender, which means he was identified as a sex offender who could pose a potential high risk to the community and who might re-offend.

Sanford was convicted in 1998 for communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and two counts of luring with sexual motivation. Details about that case can be found on Sanford's Registered Sex Offender Detail Sheet.

Police would like to hear from anyone who knows of Sanford's whereabouts over the weekend. If you have information, call the Clark County Sheriff's Office tip line at 1-877-274-6311.

Sanford has been booked into the Clark County Jail and is scheduled to make his first court appearance Tuesday morning.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Daniel Carl Sherwin - Repeat Sex Offender - 60 year sentence


An Elizabeth City man was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison Monday after pleading guilty in November to two counts of manufacturing child pornography.

Daniel Carl Sherwin, 30, was sentenced to the term by U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle in U.S. District Court in Raleigh, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding.

Sherwin, a registered sex offender with a previous history of sex crimes against minors, came to federal law enforcement officials’ attention, Holding said, after FBI agents based in Philadelphia learned that child pornography was being posted on Flickr, the online photo-sharing site.

An investigation revealed that Sherwin was participating in an online group that posted sexually explicit photos of children, the release states. FBI agents later found at least 22 images of child pornography, including images that depicted young children engaged in sexual acts, on Sherwin’s computer.

Investigators also found evidence that Sherwin himself had taken sexually explicit photos of two infant children.

Sherwin was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2008 and he pleaded guilty to two charges of manufacturing pornography three months later, the release states.

Prior to moving to Elizabeth City, Sherwin had been convicted in Utah in 2003 of eight counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.

Sherwin was prosecuted under the federal Project Safe Childhood program, the release states. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Exum prosecuted the case for the government.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Alan Hesketh - Convicted Viagra producer forced to pay Child Porn Victim restitution

A federal judge on Monday ordered a man convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography to pay about $200,000 in restitution to a woman who was photographed being sexually abused when she was a child.

Senior U.S. District Judge Warren W. Eginton said his ruling was the first in a criminal case in which someone convicted of possessing illegal images _ but not creating them _ is required to pay restitution.

"We're dealing with a frontier here," Eginton said, but he said judges have discretion with criminal restitution orders.

The case involves Alan Hesketh
, a British citizen who was sentenced in October to 78 months in prison for possessing and distributing nearly 2,000 photographs of child pornography. The resident of Stonington, Conn., was a vice president of New York-based Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker.

Pictures of the victim as a child being subjected to sexual abuse turned up in Hesketh's collection, according to prosecutors.

"There is a feeling of revulsion about this type of conduct," the judge said.

Hesketh's attorney, Jonathan Einhorn, said he would appeal the restitution order, calling it unreasonable and predicting it would lead to similar claims by other child pornography victims. He said his client had no contact with the woman and argued that defendants should pay restitution only to victims whose injuries they directly caused.

Einhorn said people in other cases who participated in creating pornography have been ordered to pay less restitution than his client.

The woman's attorney, James Marsh, said there is no distinction between Hesketh and people who produce the pornography.

"The victim is a victim of sexual exploitation caused by this defendant," Marsh said.


Authorities said that from June 2006 to May 2007, Hesketh used the Internet to exchange hundreds of images of child pornography and to engage in online "chats" about the sexual molestation of children. Prosecutors said many of the images showed minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct with adults and with other minors.

Hesketh was arrested in March 2008 and was fired from his job in New London as a Pfizer vice president and global patent director.

Prosecutors said they submitted images in the case to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has a database to help authorities identify victims.

Prosecutors then notified the woman, now 19. She said she was 8 or 9 when she was subjected to sexual abuse by a relative for the purpose of producing child pornography that was requested by a pedophile in another state, according to court papers filed by prosecutors.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Sal Inghilleri - Baby Raper - Cures recidivism problem - Good job


A convicted sex offender linked to the notorious case of a girl who was kidnapped and hidden in a dungeon more than a decade ago collapsed and died Saturday at a jail after refusing medical treatment, officials said.

Sal Inghilleri, 55, collapsed at a jail in Riverhead but refused treatment, the Suffolk County sheriff's office told Newsday. Emergency workers revived Inghilleri, who was later pronounced dead at Peconic Bay Medical Center.

The medical examiner will determine a cause of death.

Inghilleri was convicted of two counts of sexual abuse and served 12 years for molesting Katie Beers, who at the age of 9 was kidnapped and stashed in a dungeon for 16 days in 1991 at a Long Island home by John Esposito. During the investigation into the kidnapping, authorities discovered that Inghilleri had sexually abused the girl before she was abducted.

His attorney, Thomas Kenniff, said Inghilleri had a history of medical problems including diabetes and a severe heart condition, and that an arraignment had to be done from a hospital.

"It has been a frustrating case in a lot of ways," Kenniff said. "I felt we were winning most of the battles, but the clock has unfortunately run out for him before it could be finished."

Inghilleri was paroled in 2006 but was arrested again and faced federal charges of violating the rules of his release by failing to notify authorities that he had moved from his Bay Shore home. He had been held on bail in the Riverhead jail since October 2007.

Esposito was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1994 after prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain to spare the victim the pain of testifying.

Ordinarily, sex abuse victims are not publicly identified, but Beers was already well known because of the high-profile search for her while she was held captive.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Joseph Von Britton - Repeat Sex Offender - Warehoused

“Mr. Von Britton, I don’t mean to insult you,” Judge Richard Damiani responded after Von Britton finished speaking, “but I don’t think you’re ever going to be a better person.”




A repeat sex offender was sentenced Friday to serve 16 years in jail for trying to rape an 82-year-old woman last year in North Branford.

Before the sentence was handed down, Joseph Von Britton, 50, apologized to the victim, who attended the hearing, and said he hoped that he would come out of prison a better person.

“Mr. Von Britton, I don’t mean to insult you,” Judge Richard Damiani responded after Von Britton finished speaking, “but I don’t think you’re ever going to be a better person.”

Calling the defendant a “predator,” Damiani said all he could do as a judge is protect society from people like him by warehousing them in jail.


He then imposed a 25-year sentence, suspended after 16 years served, with 10 years of probation.

The 82-year-old victim knew Von Britton, the prosecutor said. Adding to the betrayal was that she knew that Von Britton had a criminal history but still was willing to assist him, “giving him the benefit of the doubt” that he had paid his debt to society, said Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney James Clark.


She apparently didn’t know the nature of his previous crimes, however. Von Britton already was on the state sex offender registry in connection a similar incident in the 1990s.

North Branford police arrested him on May 7, 2008, in connection with the April 2008 attack, according to court records, and he has been jailed since then in lieu of $850,000 bail.

Von Britton pleaded no contest to attempted first-degree assault, first-degree burglary and third-degree assault.

In a letter read in court by a victim advocate, the victim described how the attack has changed her life. A new widow and living alone, she used to enjoy going out with friends and socializing. Now, as soon as the sun goes down, she closes herself inside the house with windows and door locked, the burglar alarm engaged and lights on in every room.

“Why this person who knew I was 82 years old and alone would want to do this to me I will never know, but he doesn’t deserve to be free,” she said in the letter.

In 1989, Von Britton, then 30, was arrested in New Haven and charged with three counts of sexual assault and criminal attempt to commit assault after he allegedly attacked a woman who thought he was interested in renting an apartment she had in the Edgewood neighborhood. The disposition of that case could not be determined Friday.

The state sex offender registry shows three convictions for first-, third- and fourth-degree sexual assault in the mid-1990s.

Von Britton was linked to last year’s attack by DNA.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Miguel Navarro - Repeat Sex Offender - Habitual Child Predator


A convicted child molester who was sentenced on Thursday to 35 years in prison is now accused in another crime.

Two new indictments have been handed up against Miguel Navarro.

He's accused of seeking out and kidnapping a 15-year-old girl while she was outside Woonsocket High School last March.

The alleged victim did manage to escape.

One month later, police say Navarro used a knife to abduct an 11-year-old girl and assaulted her in an abandoned apartment.

Both alleged crimes happened while Navarro was out on bail for the first attack, which he was sentenced for on Thursday.

Police say Navarro's imprisonment means peace on the streets.

There's no word on when Navarro will appear in court on the new charges.

At Thursday's sentencing, Navarro was ordered to register as a sex offender and to stay away from females under the age of 16 once he is released from the A-C-I

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Marcus Blanchard - Repeat Sex Offender - Babysitter Molester


A convicted murderer and child molester is being held without bond on charges he sexually molested five young girls.

Deputies say 54-year old Marcus Blanchard's longtime girlfriend babysat the children in her home. Blanchard was arrested and convicted of molesting his own daughters in 1980.


Then in 1988, Blanchard was convicted of killing another man in a fight over drug money in the mid-eighties. Blanchard remains at the Palm Beach County Jail.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Chester Arthur Stiles - Baby Raper Trial to begin

He refers to himself as "a monster" with "no defense" facing "forever" in prison "for a crime that happened once."

"No weapon was used; no drugs, no violence, no blood, no tears, no threats," he said in one of his letters, with an apparent reference to the younger girl having "no memory of it."

"Coercion used for some touching, and they have turned it into the crime of the century," he wrote.



The same graphic video that helped end a frantic manhunt for a man accused of taping himself while he molested a 2-year-old girl will be the key piece of evidence in his trial.

Chester Arthur Stiles, who also is accused of molesting a 6-year-old, faces 22 felony charges, including 21 that carry a life sentence.

The haunting video hasn't been shown publicly, but authorities took photo images of the girl and a man's face from it and distributed them to the media to help find the child and her attacker during a two-week nationwide search.

"You like that? Feel good?" Stiles asks the toddler in the video, according to a Las Vegas police report filed after Stiles was arrested on Oct. 15, 2007, in Henderson. Police said Stiles can be seen adjusting the camera as he sexually assaults the child.

Stiles, 38, is on trial in Las Vegas on charges he sexually assaulted the two girls in 2003. Jury selection began Tuesday and is expected to take several days.

Stiles has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of sexual assault with a minor under 14 years of age, 10 counts of lewdness with a child under 14, and one charge of attempted sexual assault with a minor under 14.

"I'm done," Stiles wrote in letters to his girlfriend from the Clark County jail, where he has been held for the past 16 months. He refers to himself as "a monster" with "no defense" facing "forever" in prison "for a crime that happened once."

"No weapon was used; no drugs, no violence, no blood, no tears, no threats," he said in one of his letters, with an apparent reference to the younger girl having "no memory of it."

"Coercion used for some touching, and they have turned it into the crime of the century," he wrote.

Stiles waived a preliminary hearing, which spared the young girls from having to testify. But after he pleaded not guilty, his defense lawyers fought to edit the letters before they are shown to the jury.

His lawyers also plan to challenge the authenticity of the videotape and raise questions about the way it came into the hands of sheriff's deputies in the nearby desert town of Pahrump.

"This is by no means an open-and-shut case," insisted Stacey Roundtree, a deputy public defender who represents Stiles. "The jury will find that they really cannot trust what they see."

No decision has been made about whether Stiles will testify, Roundtree said.

His lawyers also plan to challenge the memory of the older girl, who now lives with her mother in Washington state and is due to take the witness stand. There is no video of her alleged attack.

The case burst onto the public scene in late summer 2007 when sheriff's deputies say 26-year-old Darren Tuck gave them a videotape that he said he found about five months earlier, wrapped in a plastic bag beneath a piece of wood in a desert lot about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. Tuck later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a public officer.

Sheriff's investigators say they were initially unable to identify the man or the child pictured in the video.

"We were getting kind of desperate. We didn't know where she was, or whether she was alive," Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said, recalling why he made the unusual decision to distribute images of a sexual assault victim.

"We felt she was still in danger," DeMeo said.

It didn't take long before a Las Vegas woman saw the image of the child on television and called the girl's mother. The child was found safe in Las Vegas, and police say the mother identified the bedroom where the video was filmed. She told police that she and her daughter had moved from the apartment in late 2003.

Authorities don't plan to call the little girl to testify. Prosecutors say the images will speak for themselves.

A lawyer for the girl's mother says the child, now 8, doesn't remember the alleged assault.

"She's just a normal, happy kid -- a rambunctious kid at that," lawyer Jerry Donahue said. "She can't testify. She's got nothing really to say."

The mother has not spoken publicly about the case. Donahue said she was "trying to remain as anonymous as she can for as long as she can" and was trying to protect her daughter's identity.

"She knows she's going to have to testify," Donahue said of the single mother. "She's not looking forward to it. They've told her to expect a pretty thorough and difficult cross examination."

After Stiles was identified as the man in the video, authorities said he also was sought on a warrant issued in April 2006 on a charge of lewdness with a child under age 14.

That case stemmed from a 6-year-old girl's report in December 2003 that Stiles kissed and fondled her while he was staying the night at her home. The girl referred to Stiles as her boyfriend, police said.

Stiles was in the home visiting his girlfriend, who had been given shelter by the 6-year-old's parents after losing a job, police said.

No Remorse = No Mercy

Scumbag Judges allow Pedophiles to create more victims

A SUPREME Court judge has allowed a prominent Territory sportsman who groped his eight-year-old stepdaughter in front of his own sons to go free.

Friends of the girl's father now want the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal.

One of the friends said: "This is outrageous. This bloke should have gone to prison."

He said the victim - who was forced to give evidence because the man pleaded not guilty - was confused that her attacker had escaped with a two-year suspended jail sentence. The maximum penalty was 14 years.

The friend said the father - who separated from the girl's mother several years ago and has had children with his second wife - was shocked when his daughter told him about the abuse and had wanted to rush to the man's house and kill him.

"I talked him out of it - I told him he had to stay out of prison himself for the sake of his kids.

"So he went to the police instead."

The man's wife was in court when Justice Angel sentenced him eight days ago and said she would stand by him despite him having twice indecently dealt with her daughter. The couple have two children together.

Both offences took place at the family home in July last year while the mother was at work, the Supreme Court trial heard.

The unemployed man took the girl's hand and placed it on his bare penis "asking her to play with it", Justice Angel said in his sentencing remarks.

A day or two later, the man gave the girl a French kiss and put his hand up her dress and rubbed her near her vagina.

The man's children were in the room on both occasions.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, told the girl not to tell her mother because it would make her jealous.

He also told her the abuse was a "secret" between the two of them.

Justice Angel said the assaults were a "gross breach of trust" - but were "uncharacteristic" and did not think there was a risk the man would commit a similar offence again.

The judge urged the man to find a job - "rather than stay home all the time with your children".

Justice Angel did not order that the man not see the girl again. But the Northern Territory News understands she has gone to live with her father.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Saturday, February 21, 2009

William E. Huck Sr. - Pleads Guilty to Serial Day Care Child Molesting

The husband of a Ste. Genevieve home-based daycare operator has pleaded guilty to seven sex-related charges, and in doing so admitted to 30 alleged sexual acts involving seven children.

William E. Huck Sr., 62, will be sentenced April 17.

Before the plea hearing Friday, Huck’s attorney, Joseph M. Hadican of St. Louis,and the Ste. Genevieve County Prosecutor Tim Inman agreed that Huck would plead guilty as a predatory sexual offender. As part of that plea, Huck admitted that he committed numerous acts, including all 30 alleged sexual acts involving seven children.

This increased the range of punishment for Circuit Court Judge Kenneth W. Pratte.

Huck pleaded guilty to two counts of statutory sodomy and five counts of child molestation. The victims involved five boys and two girls, ranging in age from infant to 5 years old. The incidents occurred between 1998 and 2007.


Huck, speaking softly, gave brief details of each of the seven incidents. The statutory sodomy charge alleged deviate sexual intercourse and the child molestation charges alleged touching.

One of Huck’s cases had been set for trial next month in St. Francois County on a change of venue from Ste. Genevieve County.

Huck was arrested in March 2007 and is alleged to have confessed to molesting 40 children over the past three decades.


According to police reports, the abuse happened during times when Huck’s wife was away from the center. Authorities have said Huck’s wife was unaware of the abuse. He used fear to manipulate at least one child, according to police.

Huck, a retired railroad worker, had no previous criminal record.

Inman said that Huck’s wife was cooperative in the investigation and was not charged.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Michael Assaad Lahoud - Repeat Sex Offender - Held on $5 million bond


A convicted sex offender is back behind bars, accused of attempted rape and indecent liberties.

Michael Assaad Lahoud, 52, has been indicted by a Wake County grand jury and was arrested Wednesday, records show. His bond was set at $5 million, according to the arrest order.

Lahoud, of 1905 Grove Point Court, was indicted on one count each of attempted second-degree rape and indecent liberties with a child, the order shows.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

John Malcolm Groff - Repeat Sex Offender - Receives 45 year sentence

Alaska State Troopers arrested John Malcolm Groff in July of 2008 and charged him with two dozen counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree.

He later admitted he abused three girls: two 12-year-olds and a 7-year-old.

"He offended against these children in a remote cabin. There was nowhere for them to run, there was nowhere for them to hide," Judge Vanessa White said at sentencing.

One of the girls told her mother, who then reported the case to troopers.

Groff is a repeat sex offender. One of the victims from his first offense testified against him.
"A lot of the people who do what he does (do) not admit, they deny it and they make the kids go through trials and everything else, which is what I went through years ago," the victim said.
He received 45 years behind bars Thursday.

Palmer Superior Court Judge Vanessa White handed down the sentence to 67-year-old John Malcolm Groff Sr.

Groff told the court he regrets what he did.

"Had I had the opportunity to walk out of this court, I doubt seriously that I'd ever do this again in my life," he said. "It has done more damage than even here in the court can possibly consider."

White wasn't buying it.
"His statement to me today that if he walked out of here he seriously doubts that he would do this again is either dishonest or a reflection of an absolute lack of insight into the nature of the offense and what causes him to do it," she said.
Groff's prior history came into play at the sentencing -- this is his second conviction of sexual abuse of a minor. According to court records, he was charged in 1999 with failing to register as a sex offender.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Franklin A. DeCapua - Repeat Sex Offender - Child Predator


A Rochester man has been arrested on several child pornography charges.

On Thursday, the New York State Police arrested Franklin A. DeCapua, 33, for the use of a child in a sexual performance, two counts of promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child, and disseminating indecent material to minors.

All of these charges are felonies.

The investigation began in January when DeCapua tried to lure a 12-year-old Nebraska girl over the Internet, and discussed plans to travel to Nebraska.

Both DeCapua and the girl sent obscene images to each other.

DeCapua also asked a 13-year-old Nebraska girl to send him sexual images of herself.

He is a registered sex offender, and has previously been convicted of sexual abuse.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Chadren Heston - Serial child raping Pedophile arrested


Police said they have arrested a man who they believe has committed sex crimes against children dating back 22 years.

Chadren Heston was arrested earlier this week and is in custody at the Richland County Jail after a judge set bond at $500,000.

Heston, who currently faces five counts of rape involving a child under the age of 13, will likely face additional charges, police said.

"He has consistently abused children from the time he was 10 years old until Tuesday when he was arrested," said Mansfield police Det. Jeff Shook.

According to Shook, investigators have identified eight boys and girls who Heston sexually abused.

"This person preys on young children, prepubescent children," Shook said. "He's a pedophile; truly a pedophile."

Investigators believe that Heston silenced his victims by threatening to harm their mothers, McEntyre reported.

Authorities said they began investigating Heston after a woman in South Carolina came forward last October with claims that Heston had raped her 18-year-old daughter years earlier.

The woman said she questioned her three other children, and they also said they were abused by Heston, McEntyre reported.

Robert Duskin - Repeat Sex Offender


A 57-year-old homeless man who is classified as a sex offender was charged Thursday with having sex with a 15-year-old girl in 2007.

Robert Duskin was arrested at the Drop-Inn Center, 217 W. 12th St., Cincinnati police said.

He was booked into the Hamilton County jail about 2 p.m. on four counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and with parole violations.

When police interviewed him, Duskin admitted to having sex with the girl on four separate occasions in August, November and December 2007, court records show. A police report says the girl was 8 years old.


Duskin was classified as a sex offender after a 2002 conviction for having sexual contact with a girl younger than 13, according to court records.

Hamilton County Municipal Judge David Stockdale set bond for Duskin at $40,000.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Randall Boss - Child Predator - BUSTED




A south suburban man already accused of molesting one child has been charged with molesting others, the Cook County sheriff's office said today.

The office had investigated multiple claims of molestation against Randall Boss, 45, of Crete.

On Feb 5, Boss was charged with predatory criminal sexual assault.

Today, he appeared in bond court on additional charges of predatory criminal sexual assault, as well as aggravated criminal sexual abuse, according to the sheriff's office.

Each of the counts against Boss, upon conviction, is punishable by 6 to 30 years in prison.

The sheriff's office said the abuse of these victims has taken place over the last five years, though detectives said they are investigating cases involving other victims over several years.


"It took an incredible amount of courage for these victims to come forward and stand up to someone who made their life hell," Sheriff Tom Dart said in a news release. "Without their strength, we wouldn't have been able to present such a solid case against him."

Boss was already being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, the sheriff's office said. That was increased today to $2.5 million. He is scheduled to appear in court on Mar. 11.

The investigation against Boss remains open, and anyone with further information about him should call sheriff's police at 708-865-4896.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Sex Offenders continue to victimize even while civilly confined

The KING 5 Investigators have uncovered a type of crime being committed using a simple, everyday device inside the state's center for the most violent sex offenders.

The Special Commitment Center, known as the SCC, on McNeil Island, near Tacoma, is supposed to keep the community safe by locking up predatory sex offenders after they've served their time.

But some on the inside have found a way to keep preying on unsuspecting victims.

Troy Scott Peterson

Tami Jordan of Wenatchee is one of those victims. Thirteen years ago her cousin, convicted sex offender Troy Scott Peterson, tried to rape her during a violent assault.

"He grabbed me and dragged me in my room and proceeded to try to molest me,” Jordan said. "The more I fought, the more I fought the more I got hit in the head.”

Jordan finally got away by hitting Peterson with a spoon she grabbed from her kitchen.

Through tears, Jordan said the experience has traumatized her.

“Yeah, it's changed every aspect of my life, A to Z," she said.

Peterson served 10 years for the crime. After that he was transported to the SCC. It’s a treatment center for those deemed sexually violent predators.

The 290 men and one woman living there are called residents, not inmates, because they’ve already served their prison sentences. The residents have been deemed too dangerous to be let out by juries in civil commitment trials.

The place is surrounded by razor wire, cameras and high-tech surveillance. But with one seemingly harmless device - the telephone - security breaks down.

Last year, out of the blue, Tami Jordan got two phone calls from her attacker.

"I answered the phone and it was Troy. It's just like the whole day lived over again, again and again," Jordan said. “It just brings everything flooding back to you.”

That’s just the beginning of the problems with the phones at the SCC uncovered by the KING 5 Investigators.

The Investigators studied hundreds of public records and found residents using the phones to harass, threaten and prey on women and children.

The worst case they found involves a convicted rapist named Lawrence Williams.

He's suspected of threatening women using SCC phones many times over. One of many allegations is that he called a woman from the SCC and lied to her by saying he was out of prison.

According to court documents obtained by KING 5, he allegedly threatened that if she didn’t comply with demands for phone sex he would “rape, kidnap, and kill her.”

“That's extortion and it's sexually motivated extortion, and that's the kind of sexually violent activity we're trying to prevent by putting them on McNeil Island,” said David Hackett, head of the Sexually Violent Predator Unit at the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

Hackett’s job is to prosecute sex offenders, but he says he couldn't do anything about the Lawrence Williams allegations because at the SCC there's no tracking of who's doing the calling.

"We were not able to adequately investigate or prosecute that kind of behavior, which is very serious because the phones are wide open," Hackett said.

They're so open one resident was caught talking to children about their underwear.

Another called a woman to say he was raping her daughter.

Resident Darren Strong established a romantic phone relationship with a 13-year-old girl he met on a chat-line. The girl sent letters to him at the center in which she wrote she loved him and couldn’t wait to marry him.

The KING 5 Investigators found that convicted rapist Kevin Ambers is looking for love on livechat.com's phone dating system.

We obtained his voice greeting from the service. He describes himself as a Gemini who runs his own business and lives in the Tacoma area.

A portion of the taped greeting states: "Hi, my name is Kevin. I 'm a 49-year-old African American male. Very single. I live in the Tacoma area."

Ambers wasn’t innocently flirting with the women he met on the phone. According to one document he allegedly threatened to "cut up" one woman he met on the system if she ended the relationship.

The SCC residents are able make these kinds of calls because currently there are no restrictions on phone usage. SCC Superintendent Dr. Henry Richards says he would like to see some record-keeping of calls, but right now he has no legal authority.

“Because the law is written that they have all rights except those required to contain them here in the center and to provide for their treatment," Richards said.

Current law says residents have unfettered access to phones, unless they're caught abusing them. Without a tracking system, it’s difficult to find the offenders.

“Essentially now it's impossible," Richards said.

Representative Troy Kelley of Tacoma wants to change that. He's proposed legislation to keep a log of all outgoing calls from the center to deter abuse. The bill doesn’t call for monitoring or recording of calls. It mandates that logs would be generated by an outside company. If there were a problem, the logs could be checked to figure out who made the call.

KING 5 showed their findings to the representative before an interview this month. He said he thought the information would help his bill.

"My first reaction is that the committee needs to see this right away,” Kelley said. “If we can get that to them, I think it will be important in crafting this law."

Residents we talked to at the center said they'd fight any kind of tracking system because they're supposed to have all their constitutional rights.

"Any chipping away of our constitution, whether it be in here or out there, is totally wrong," Carrie Benjamin said.

“It's an invasion of your privacy,” Tommie Coleman said. “Not only my privacy but who ever am I talking to, my lawyer, my wife, my kids."

Tami Jordan thinks the state blew it. She believes some safeguards should have been placed on phones at the center years ago, before she got those haunting calls.

"It's not only him, but you're getting victimized again by the state,” Jordan said. “Your own state and it's just not right."

THE CONSTITUTION
DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT
TO VICTIMIZE OTHERS

BUT IT DOES GIVE SOCIETY THE RIGHT TO MONITOR YOU
AND RESTRICT THAT BEHAVIOR

Brent Atatise - Repeat Sex Offender - Proves need for Registry

A Winnipeg woman says she was horrified to learn her new boyfriend was actually a high-risk convicted pedophile who allegedly abused her eight-year-old son during a family outing at the Red River Exhibition last summer.

"My heart broke. I felt like a really bad mother, like I wasn't there for my son," the woman said through tears while testifying in court Wednesday.

She thought she'd met the perfect match in the spring of 2008, believing Brent Atatise would be a good partner for her and good role model for her son and younger daughter. But the woman said their relationship began to deteriorate as Atatise hit the bottle.

"When he's intoxicated he's a completely different person," she said.

Atatise, 30, has pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing the boy, who told court Tuesday he was molested on three occasions in one day. The alleged victim claims Atatise also threatened to kill his entire family if he told anyone what happened inside a teepee and washroom at the Ex, as well as a bathroom at Portage Place Shopping Centre.

The mother had no clue Atatise is a repeat sex offender with a record dating back to 1994, who had been the subject of an earlier police warning following his release from Stony Mountain in 2005.

Atatise was on probation at the time of the alleged attack, despite having been charged at least 10 times for breaching conditions of a court order after serving his entire three-year sentence for a sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl in 2002. The parole board said previously Atatise had refused sexual-offender treatment while an inmate and that it didn't believe there were programs in the community that could help him control his "violent and sexual impulses."

The mother met Atatise in March 2008 while they were taking a welding class together at the Aboriginal Centre. The woman said she invited Atatise to come along with her and the children to the carnival one day last June but soon regretted the decision when he began drinking heavily from the beer he'd packed inside a bag and brought with him. Atatise became increasingly drunk and belligerent and even threatened to kill her in front of the children, she said.

Defence lawyer Mark Wasyliw suggested the over-protective woman may have planted the sexual-abuse claim in her son's head because Atatise had threatened and embarrassed her, ruining what should have been a fun "family day."

The trial is being heard by a judge alone and is scheduled to last all week.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Albert Bath - Repeat Sex Offender - Gets a break with a 10 year sentence

Bath was convicted in 1989 for molesting two girls, ages 9 and 10, while he was baby-sitting them. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail and 15 years probation.

Bath was convicted in 1992 for having sexual contact with two 4-year-old girls. He was sentenced to 4½ years in prison.

Why was he only given 10 years?


A Grand Forks man already registered as a high-risk sex offender was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison on a charge of sexually assaulting a young girl.

Albert Bath, also known as Albert Fleur, had entered an Alford plea on the gross sexual imposition charge, a Class AA felony. In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit to committing the charge but acknowledges that the prosecution could likely prove it.

Bath, 40, was accused of engaging in a sexual act with a girl who was 5 to 7 years old. The incident, reported to police in February 2008, occurred between December 2003 and March 2006 in Grand Forks, court records state.

According to North Dakota’s sex offender Web site, Bath was convicted in 1989 in Polk County (Minn.) District Court of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for molesting two girls, ages 9 and 10, while he was baby-sitting them. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail and 15 years probation.

The site also says Bath was convicted in 1992 in the same court on the same charge for having sexual contact with two 4-year-old girls. He was sentenced to 4½ years in prison.

When Bath was charged with GSI in Grand Forks County District Court last June, he was already serving a five-year term from another case.

On Wednesday, Bath was ordered to follow sex offender treatment guidelines while in prison. Upon his release, he must serve 10 years of supervised probation, register as an offender and have no contact with the victim or her family.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte

Cecil Creek Jr. - Repeat Sex Offender - Grooming Pedophile


A convicted sex offender has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting three Beatrice girls.

Cecil Creek Jr. of Beatrice is suspected of 3 counts of third-degree sexual assault of a child. He was arrested on Wednesday.

Beatrice police say the 72-year-old man gave cigarettes to three girls, ages 11 to 13, in exchange for hugs. That led to the inappropriate contact, which reportedly happened between Dec. 1 and Feb. 13.
Creek was convicted of sexual assault of a child in 1999. He's registered as a Level 3 sex offender, meaning he's considered a high risk to re-offend.
If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Kenneth Voytac - Child Molesting Pedophile argues semantics before the Supreme Court

"Once they become victims of child sexual abuse," he said, "what is reasonable? There is no more reasonable."

In a case closely watched by advocates for child sex abuse victims, the state Supreme Court heard arguments today over whether a man can pursue a lawsuit filed 14 years after alleged abuse by his stepfather.

A state child sex abuse law enacted in 1992 allows victims to sue their abusers, but requires that legal action be taken within two years of the victims' "reasonable discovery" they have been harmed by the abuse.

The justices must weigh whether, as the victim claims, a recent event spurred his awareness that his depression, gender confusion and cross-dressing were allegedly caused by the sexual abuse years earlier.

Gregory Gianforcaro, a Phillipsburg lawyer who represents several victims of clergy sex abuse, said the case could have widespread implications for victims of childhood sex abuse who do not come forward until later in life.

"This is the most important case on childhood sex abuse ever in New Jersey," he said. "This is a landmark case."

Many accused clergy sex abusers in the scandal that rocked the Catholic Church in 2002 escaped prosecution because the criminal statute of limitations had expired. In the future, the case heard today could allow victims in similar circumstances to pursue a civil remedy in the courts when they fail to associate problems as adults to the earlier abuse until later in life.

A trial court judge had ruled the victim, identified only as "R.L.," became aware in September 1999 when at age 19 he had a flashback of the abuse while having sex with his girlfriend. He discussed the incident with his mother the next day and she told him there was "no way this hasn't affected you" and "we need to deal with it," but R.L tried to reassure her it was not a "big deal."

Last September, an appeals court reversed the trial judge, concluding the man did not become aware he had been harmed by the abuse until he and a coworker had a conversation about his sexual identity issues on Feb. 28, 2002. The coworker testified at the trial that the man "sat back, was very pensive and had a shocked look on his face, 'like a kind of lightbulb look.'"

The man filed his lawsuit on Feb. 13, 2004, which was within two years of the 2002 conversation with the coworker, but more than two years after the 1999 talk with his mother.

His lawyer, Victor Rotolo, said the man never associated his sexual identity crisis with the earlier abuse until that "lighbulb" moment in 2002 with the coworker.

"That triggered the avalanche of awareness," Rotolo said.

But Justice Barry T. Albin asked why the 1999 conversation with his mother shouldn't have made the man aware he had been harmed by the sexual abuse.

"What that shows is the mother gets it. It does not show the victim gets it," said R.L.'s other lawyer, said Marci Hamilton, who specializes in child sex abuse cases.

While denying the abuse occurred, William G. Johnson, who represented the man's stepfather, Kenneth Voytac, argued the trial judge was correct in ruling the two-year time clock for the lawsuit began in 1999, not 2002.

R.L. had claimed the abuse began in 1987 when he was 9 years old and lasted several years. Voytac and the man's mother later divorced.

During high school, he started cross-dressing and was treated for depression. He never mentioned the sexual abuse. Also in those years, he increasingly experienced gender confusion, used drugs and got in trouble with the law for stealing.

Mark Crawford, state director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, sat in on today's high court argument and wondered how the justices would clarify when sex abuse victims "reasonably" discover they have been harmed.

"Once they become victims of child sexual abuse," he said, "what is reasonable? There is no more reasonable."

As usual, the Supreme Court reserved decision.

Michael Anthony Tyson - Repeat Sex Offender - In less than 3 months even!


He spent nearly 10 years in prison for indecency with an 11-year-old girl in Dallas before his release in November. Then Michael Anthony Tyson, 48, moved back to Dallas as a sex offender.
It took him just over three months to get caught in another obscene encounter with a young girl, according to Dallas Area Rapid Transit police. Officers arrested Tyson on Tuesday on a charge of indecency with a child.

DART police say he approached a 15-year-old girl while she waited for a train at Union Station downtown on Houston Street. He started masturbating and wiggling his tongue at her, police say, though he did not touch her. He was booked into the Dallas County jail Tuesday about 8:30 p.m.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Odell Fisher Sr - State seeks civil confinement for Repeat Sex Offender


The state is seeking a sexual predator commitment for a Kenosha man, who is facing charges for allegedly molesting a 6-year-old girl in Racine.
Odell Fisher Sr., 58, has been on the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry since 1995, when he was convicted of second-degree sexual assault of a child and child enticement in Kenosha County. Since then, he has been charged in Racine County with first-degree sexual assault of child without great bodily harm and violating the state’s Sex Offender Registry. He was also convicted in Racine County of battery by prisoners in 1995.
Fisher’s Racine County charges stem from an August 2007 incident. A 6-year-old girl playing outside was reportedly sent into a home to use the bathroom. Fisher was inside the house, and allegedly forced the girl to touch his genitals, offered her money and told her not to tell anyone about it. The girl reported the incident to her mother.

Fisher’s jury trial on the sexual assault charge was scheduled to begin last month, but has been taken off the calendar. His sentence for his 1995 conviction was due to end in January, but the filing of the commitment petition will keep him in jail or prison until it is resolved. He also has a $10,000 cash bond that is keeping him in custody on the Racine County charge.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a petition for commitment Jan. 26, under the sexually violent person statute. On Feb. 3 a Kenosha judge found there was probable cause to continue with the proceedings.
People are subject to civil commitments when they have been convicted of a sexually violent offense, have a mental disorder and are dangerous to others because the disorder makes it likely that they will commit further acts of sexual violence. Once committed, people remain in the custody and care of the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services until no longer considered sexually violent.
Assistant Attorney General Don Latorraca said the law that allows these commitments is set up to “provide care and treatment in a secure setting for individuals that are identified as sexually violent persons.”

The state does not seek commitment for every sex offender, Latorraca said.

“Only a very small number of offenders who go through corrections have been referred to for the filing of a court case,” he said.

If committed, people are sent to one of two state facilities for treatment where they

receive treatment and, if they are deemed to no longer be a danger, they can be released.

“There are people who are moving through the system,” Latorraca said. “The person who’s committed gets a new evaluation every year. That evaluator is determining do they still have the disorder, are they still a risk. They may make a recommendation that they no longer meet the criteria, or they might say the person could be adequately treated in the community.”

There have been about 400 commitments under the law since the 1990s, Latorraca said.

There are about 80 cases that are pending.

In about 160 cases, commitment proceedings were dismissed or denied.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Johnny Lee Gibson - Repeat Sex Offender - Claimed he was homeless


A Norman man and registered sex offender faces several felony charges, after Norman police discovered the man had been living in a local apartment -- and was not "homeless" as he'd previously reported.
Johnny Lee Gibson, 36, was charged Tuesday with sexual battery; providing false or misleading registration information; and unlawful registration within a prohibited area.
Department of Corrections records show Gibson was released on parole Aug. 26, after having served 10 months in prison.

Police said they found Gibson in an apartment in the 400 block of 24th Avenue, where he said he'd been living the past five months, despite having told police he was homeless when he registered as a sex offender.
Officers interviewed an 18-year-old woman at the apartment, who said she'd been molested by Gibson about a month earlier. Gibson allegedly fondled the woman while she was sleeping, police said.

Gibson has prior convictions for failing to register as a sex offender; sex offender living within 2,000 feet of a school and providing false or misleading registration information.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

ENABLER - Pastor Todd Thomas - Hired convicted sex offender to work in nursery school

Thomas defended his hire saying
he didn't believe Buffington was a threat.



Would you hire a registered sex offender to work at a nursery school? One local pastor did and is defending his decision.

Five parents pulled their children from Bethesda Cooperative Nursery School after learning the hired maintenance man, Travis Buffington, is a registered sex offender.

Ellen Burgess, the school's director, says she did not hire Buffington -- Pastor Todd Thomas did. Thomas apparently did so knowing Buffington, 33, had served time for possession of child pornography.

"We have heard and understood the parents' fears and concerns and are going to be working quickly to show our respect for their feelings and to resolve our current situation," Thomas tells WTOP in an email.

Buffington, who served time for possession of child pornography in Michigan, was allowed to live on church property in January. After learning of his status as a sex offender this week, five parents pulled their children from the program.

Burgess says she didn't know about Buffington's background until recently and would never have hired him.

"We've made it very clear that this is unacceptable and we're working towards a resolution."

At a recent meeting with parents, Thomas defended his hire saying he didn't believe Buffington was a threat.

Burgess explains the independent school is affiliated with the Church of Bethesda, but that she does not have say on Buffington's hire.

Buffington was charged with possessing child pornography in 2005 and convicted in 2006.

Buffington has since resigned and moved after officials at the nursery school demanded his removal.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte


Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Curtis Thompson - Repeat Sex Offender - Cowardly rapist won't face the jury

Thompson was first convicted of rape in 1988, after a jury found he had attacked four Seattle women in a manner similar to that he used against M. He served 18 years of a 25-year sentence before being released in 2003.

At the time, prosecutors fought in court to have Thompson confined through a state program for sexually violent predators. A jury disagreed, voting to release Thompson into the community.



More than four years after she unwillingly joined the group of women raped by Curtis Thompson, a Seattle woman attacked during the convicted sex offender's violent 2004 spree got the news she'd been waiting for Friday.

After deliberating for little more than three hours, 12 King County jurors returned unanimous guilty verdicts in all three counts against Thompson. Though he already faces a mandatory life sentence in a later attack, the conviction further ensures Thompson will never be released from prison.

"Everybody has been waiting for this for four years," said the woman, who asked to be referred to publicly only as M.

At trial, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole led jurors through Thompson's attack on M. It began with the towering sex offender breaking into her Eastlake apartment. He raped her for hours as she fought him, then doused her with bleach to hide his crime and stole her car.

Through the two-week trial, M looked on from the gallery as an often-petulant Thompson glared at jurors and berated his own attorney. She was often joined by others attacked by Thompson, including several of the four women he was convicted of raping in 1985.

"I already fought him then, so this is just follow-through," M said after the verdict. "It was good to see him over there, sweating. ... You could just see the anger."

Thompson was first convicted of rape in 1988, after a jury found he had attacked four Seattle women in a manner similar to that he used against M. He served 18 years of a 25-year sentence before being released in 2003.

At the time, prosecutors fought in court to have Thompson confined through a state program for sexually violent predators. A jury disagreed, voting to release Thompson into the community.

Less than a year later, on the night of Aug. 17, 2004, Thompson attacked M. One week after that, prosecutors say, Thompson killed Ravenna neighborhood resident Deborah Byars before being arrested during an attack on two young women at a University District apartment building.

Thompson has been charged with first-degree murder in Byars' death. He is expected to stand trial on that charge later this year.

A separate jury previously convicted Thompson in the U District attack, finding him guilty of 10 counts. Though he has not yet been sentenced, Thompson likely will receive a life sentence in that attack under the state's two-strikes law for violent sex crimes.

As he has previously, Thompson refused to return to the courtroom Friday to hear the jury's verdict. Asked to explain his client's refusal, defense attorney John Hicks said it wouldn't be appropriate for him to comment on Thompson before adding, in candor, that he had "no idea."

To O'Toole, who has led the prosecution in all three cases, Thompson's actions reflected the 49-year-old's refusal to own up to his actions.

"He's a man who has avoided accountability and responsibility his whole life," O'Toole said. "He doesn't have the strength to face the jury."

Thompson is set to be sentenced in mid-March.


"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte

Vincent Tyrone "Caveman" Carter - Repeat Sex Offender - Perverted convicted child molester


Linton Police arrested a convicted sex offender after learning he was allegedly hosting parties for teens, supplying them alcohol and watching them have sex with each other.

Police charged 43-year-old Vincent Tyrone "Caveman" Carter with sexual misconduct with a minor and child solicitation.

"We had an adult male who was a convicted sex offender, hosting parties for juveniles there at his residence," Linton Police Chief Troy Jerrell said.

Authorities arrested Carter, a convicted child molester, on charges stemming from the parties. Police said the parties inside a mobile home on Glenburn Road involved drinking, strip card games, pornography and more.

"We believe he was hosting the parties for juveniles who were having sexual relationships with other juveniles and alcoholic beverages were being consumed as well," Jerrell said.

The investigation is ongoing. Police believe at least 20 kids, ranging in age from 12 to 17, took part in the parties.


For now, police said they have no reports that Carter molested any of the partygoers.

"This is one of them cases that bothers everyone, us as well as the public. We're not going to tolerate this type of activity," Jerrell said.

Carter is being held on $18,500 bond in the Greene County Jail.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte


Monday, February 16, 2009

WANTED - Robert James Tilton - Sex Offender


Authorities at the University of Maine Farmington are searching for a South Carolina sex offender who allegedly traveled nearly 1,200 miles to Maine by bus to meet a female student he met on-line.

Robert James Tilton, 19, is described at a white male, 6 feet to 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing between 170 and 190 pounds. He has several facial piercings and was last seen wearing jeans, a ski jacket, dark green winter hat and small beaded chains around his wrists and fingers.

Tilton gained access to a locked residence hall on Feb. 10 and later gave a false name to the on-duty public safety officer and said he was staying at a local motel. A check of area motels revealed that Tilton was not registered. Two large knives were later found hidden in the area of the residence hall where Tilton entered the building.
According to the South Carolina Sex Offender Registry, Tilton's last known address was Clarendon. He was convicted in February 2006 for first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a six-year-old.
Tilton is wanted for questioning at this time. Anyone who locates him is asked to call the UMF Department of Public Safety at (207) 778-7400.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Dwight David Watson - Repeat Sex Offender - As usual


A convicted sex offender has been charged with taking indecent liberties with two girls.

Dwight David Watson, 50, of 161 Lewis Lane in Thomasville, is charged with two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child, according to a news release today from the Davidson County Sheriff's Office. Watson was held in jail on a $100,000 bond.

In September, the sheriff's office received a report of the inappropriate touching of two female juveniles, according to the release. The offenses were to have occurred between January and December 2006. Watson later turned himself in to authorities on the charges. The sheriff's office did not state how Watson knew the girls.

Watson was convicted in Forsyth County in 1991 of attempted sexual offense and taking indecent liberties with a child, according to Department of Correction records. He was sentenced to a maximum 18 years in prison and later released in July 1997.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Sunday, February 15, 2009

James Dee Lemmon - Repeat Sex Offender gets only 13 years for brutal rape

A Calgary man was sentenced Thursday to 13 years in prison for his fourth sexual assault.

James Dee Lemmon, 46, must serve at least half of the time before being eligible for parole, then he will be monitored for another 10 years following his release as a long-term offender.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Marsha Erb said the March 28, 2007, attack on a 34-year-old acquaintance was horrific.

She said among the aggravating factors in Lemmon’s March, 2007, rape of his victim was “the brutal, degrading, disrespectful and abusive nature of the conduct.”

Erb noted that Lemmon choked or attempted to strangle at least three of his four sexual assault victims, and also has a conviction for aggravated assault.

One of the sexual assault victims was his 10-year-old niece, who reported the incident years later. Lemmon pleaded guilty.

"He has a pattern of sexual assault using force. He has a temper when sober and it escalates to violence when he's intoxicated."

Court heard that in the March 2007 incident, Lemmon and his boss had a drink in a bar where the victim worked. Lemmon asked the woman to come to the northeast auto-body shop where he worked for a drink.

The victim did, and Lemmon locked the shop door so she couldn't leave, and choked her into unconsciousness.

After she regained consciousness, Lemmon forced her to have sex with him repeatedly.

Crown prosecutor Sheena Cunningham, who had argued for a sentence of 12 to 15 years, originally sought to have Lemmon declared a dangerous offender, which would make him subject to an indefinite term of imprisonment.

But the judge ruled against that designation last November and sided with defence lawyer David Andrews' pitch for long-term offender status. Andrews then argued for a sentence of six to eight years.

Outside court, Andrews said his client had filed an appeal of his conviction and now wants to appeal his sentence.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Cleo D. Geiger - Repeat Sex Offender


A 32-year-old convicted sex offender is in the Lee County jail, accused of sexually abusing a reported runaway girl, who police say, was found in his home.

Cleo D. Geiger, 108 Monroe Ave., is charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, punishable by 3 to 7 years in prison. Bond had not been set as of Thursday.

A Dixon police officer said he spotted the girl, who is younger than 17, going into Geiger’s house Wednesday night. She had been reported earlier that day as a runaway, Sgt. Troy Morse said.

The officer called her mother to verify that she was not allowed to be in Geiger’s house, then spoke to the two and learned they had engaged in sexual activity, Morse said.
According to court records, Geiger was sentenced in 1996 to 5 years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for molesting a 9-year-old Whiteside County girl. He subsequently was convicted twice for failing to register as a sex offender, and once for failing to report a change of address.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Friday, February 13, 2009

Christopher Lawless - Repeat Sex Offender

  • Offender's age at conviction: 25
  • Victim Age: 9


Jackson County Sheriff’s Department deputies arrested Christopher Lawless about 6:30 a.m. Friday after a man and woman reported the registered sex offender had exposed himself to them at the Lake Murphysboro State Park.

Lawless, 30, is listed as being homeless. Police said in a release Friday that it is believed he spent the night in the park.

The victims were walking on Lake Murphysboro Road when they allege Lawless inappropriately exposed himself to them. Deputies arrested Lawless shortly after the complaint was filed. He was picked up and charged with disorderly conduct and public indecency.

Lawless is mandated to register his address with the sheriff’s department every seven days because he is listed as homeless. He was in compliance with registration at the time the offence occurred. Deputies with the sheriff’s department said they were uncertain if Lawless had listed the state park as the location he was sleeping. Lawless last registered the Illinois 13 bridge as a squatting address.

Lawless is currently being held at the Jackson County Jail in Murphysboro.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Ricky Nelson France - Repeat Sex Offender - Persistent Felony Offender


A multiple sex offender is convicted on new charges and now faces years behind bars.

A Warren County Circuit Court jury convicted 49-year-old Ricky Nelson France for failure to comply with sex offender registration, and for being a first-degree persistent felony offender.

The jury recommend a three-year sentence on the underlying charge, and after hearing testimony concerning France's prior convictions, which included three sex offenses, recommended a sentence of 20 years on the persistent offender enhancement.

France is also currently under indictment for rape first degree.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Anthony Flye - Meets Judge Moses


Accused rapist Anthony Flye’s defense attorneys won a motion Tuesday that will allow Flye to have three separate trials for his charges.

Flye, of 18 Rowley St. in Swansea and 9 Brinda Lane of Nantucket, is currently being held at the Plymouth House of Correction on $1 million bail while facing charges of rape, indecent assault and battery on a disabled person, assault and battery on a disabled person, rape of a child under the age of 16, enticing a child under the age of 16, incest, aggravated rape and indecent assault and battery.

Flye also faces charges in Rhode Island, which will be dealt with only after his Massachusetts trials are complete, A Rhode Island grand jury indicted him last year on four counts of first-degree child molestation and two counts of second-degree child molestation.
Flye, who worked in the construction trade and had a criminal record dating back to his juvenile days, gained national attention for his March 26, 2008, escape from a hospital’s emergency room bathroom while a court officer waited outside. Featured on the Web site of Fox's hit series “America’s Most Wanted,” Flye was on the loose for 13 days before being found on Route 6 in Westport with $800 in cash.

The new motion to sever cases, which Superior Court Judge Richard Moses approved, will allow three separate trials for the rape and indecent assault and battery on a disabled person, rape of a child under the age of 16 and escape charges.

When contacted about the reasoning behind the motion to sever, Flye’s defense attorney, Louis M. Badwey, of New Bedford, said “he does not discuss any of his cases with the media.”

District Attorney spokesman Gregg Miliote said that while the defense request to sever the trials isn’t a common practice, it does happen periodically.

Flye is next due in court Feb. 23 for a pre-trial hearing on the escape charges and a final pre-trial hearing March 23 for his other charges.