SEXUAL ABUSE AGAINST CHILDREN

Buffalo County man sentenced for sexually abusing child

Posted: Thursday, March 24, 2011

An Eleva, Wis., man was sentenced to six more months in jail and 10 years on probation after taking a plea agreement that kept him out of prison. Buffalo County Circuit Judge James Duvall sentenced 49-year-old John T. Kincheloe Friday afternoon after Kincheloe pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of felony second-degree sexual assault of a child.

Investigators said Kincheloe sexually abused a child for seven years. The girl was 10 or younger when Kincheloe was arrested four months ago.

Buffalo County District Attorney Tom Clark said a plea agreement was reached because Kincheloe had no prior criminal history.

The agreement also spared the girl and other children the agony of going through a trial, Clark explained.

Kincheloe said mental health issues led him to abuse prescription pain pills and other medicine for years.

Kincheloe said he hoped it wasn't too late to move on with life and try to make amends.

The judge said Kincheloe's repeated sexual abuse of the girl for years was a vicious and aggravated crime.

Duvall warned Kincheloe he would end up in prison if he committed another crime or violated other rules and restrictions of his probation.

Kincheloe now becomes a registered sex offender under control of state probation and parole to move him into treatment and counseling programs.

Social workers from Buffalo County also are involved in the case for child services and protection.

Kincheloe will not be allowed to have contact with children younger than 16 without advance consent and supervision by social workers.

Duvall said Kincheloe could have jail release privileges for employment, counseling and up to four hours a week for family visitation if approved by counselors.

Misdemeanor charges of theft and possession of THC were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

The theft charge involved stealing syringes, according to court records.

Carl F. Essig will be a registered sex offender under Megan's Law for at least 10 years.


A Warminster man pleaded guilty in Bucks County Court in Doylestown on Monday to downloading child pornography from the Internet.

April 19, 2011

Carl F. Essig, 42, will be sentenced in about 90 days following a Megan's Law assessment and could serve more than a year in prison. He pleaded guilty before county Judge Albert Cepparulo to charges of possessing child pornography and criminal use of a communications device.

Essig of Glazer Road was arrested in July following an undercover investigation. Officers from New Britain Township and the Pennsylvania State Police tracked activity on websites frequented by child porn collectors to Essig's computer.

Essig's home was searched, and officers found 33 video files depicting children being sexually abused. Essig also admitted to transferring some of the images to a video disk, court records say.

Standing next to his attorney, Richard Fink, Essig answered "yes" when asked if he admitted to the crime. He did not testify further.

Essig, an accountant who works for the Internal Revenue Service, remains free on $100,000 bail while awaiting sentencing. As conditions of bail, Cepparulo ordered that Essig may not have Internet access at home and may go online only at his job at the IRS for work-related purposes.

As a convicted sex offender, Essig's name, photo and other identifying information will be posted on the state Megan's Law website for at least 10 years. If he's found to meet the criteria to be labeled a sexually violent predator, he'll face lifetime monitoring and community notification.

Essig left the courtroom with several supporters after the hearing.

Fink said that his client is undergoing sex offender therapy and is "making progress."

Experts: Church erred in Brock sex case

Church leaders held back key details, officials say

by Laurie Merrill - Apr. 24, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Law-enforcement authorities said local leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints never
reported information to police that could have protected a teenager
abused by Susan Brock, wife of Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock.
Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said leaders did report the abuse, but
she declined to provide details on who was told and when. The LDS
church, based in Salt Lake City, would let Farah be quoted only for this
story. Farah said the actions of the church were appropriate.
Susan Brock, 49, was arrested after the victim's parents reported to
Chandler police on Oct. 22 that their son told them he had been abused
for three years. Brock was sentenced on April 8 to 13 years in prison
after pleading guilty to three counts of attempted sexual conduct with a
minor.

The parents initially expressed their concerns in October 2009 during
a meeting with the Brocks and Chandler Stake East President Mitch
Jones, police records show. The stake president is a lay leader at an
intermediate level of the church, representing a group of congregations.
Armed with an order of protection against Susan, the parents said she
was having an inappropriate relationship with their son, giving him
expensive presents, texting and phoning him and bringing him lunch at
school. During the meeting, the father asked Susan, "Are you having
sexual relations with my son?" She replied, "No, I am not."
Police and court records say that Susan had been sexually abusing the
boy for two years at that point and that the abuse continued for
another year.
In October, Susan Brock admitted to Bishop Matthew Meyers that she
had molested the teen three times, the records show. The bishop is the
lay leader of the local ward, or congregation.
Still, the bishop did not go to police, Deputy Pinal County Attorney
Jason Holmberg said during Susan Brock's April 7 presentence hearing.
On Oct. 19, the father and his son went to Bishop Troy Hansen and
told him the abuse was far worse and extensive than Susan Brock had
acknowledged, the records show. But the crimes were not reported until
Oct. 22, when the father, "tired of waiting," took his son to the
Chandler Police Department, Holmberg said.

October '09 meeting

The victim's parents suspected something was wrong in October 2009
and expressed their concerns to Jones and the Brocks, police records
show. At this point, scholars and church members said, Jones had the
option of bringing the boy in for questioning.
"Missing . . . is any indication that (the boy's parents), or the
stake president, or anyone else, actually confronted (the victim) in
October 2009 with a suspicion that he had been intimately involved with
Susan," said Armand Mauss, in response to a description of events.
"The boy might well have admitted the relationship then and there,
saving a year's time in the arrest of Susan," said Mauss, a sociologist
known for his expertise on the Mormon Church.
For six years, Mauss has taught courses in Mormon studies as adjunct
faculty in the School of Religion of Claremont Graduate University in
California.
Barbara Dorris, outreach director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, based in Chicago, concurred.
"What is missing here is nobody put the needs of the child first,"
Dorris said. "This is not a normal relationship (the boy and Susan's). I
have six kids and I have never brought lunch to any kid any day.
"Then there was the secret cellphone," she said, referring to a phone
Susan had given the teen that the boy's mother returned to her in
October 2009. "All those red flags are there."
Former U.S. Attorney Mel McDonald of Phoenix, who has worked on
church-sex cases, disagreed, saying he doesn't think the stake president
had a duty to report.
Whether the president should have interviewed the boy is a judgment
call, said Lisa Davis, an investigative journalist and author of "The
Sins of Brother Curtis: A Story of Betrayal, Conviction and the Mormon
Church." Church leaders in such situations "are not required to," said
Davis, who lives in the San Francisco area.

October 2010

Police say Susan committed her last act with the victim on Oct 5.
On Oct. 8, she gave the boy's cellphone to his girlfriend and asked
her to give it to him. Instead, the girlfriend was "shocked," according
to reports, by sexually explicit texts and videos Susan sent the boy.
The girl told her mother, who told the boy's mother.
On Oct. 9-10, Susan told Bishop Meyers she molested the teen but did
not admit the dozens of acts on which she would later be indicted nor
discuss the longevity of the abuse.
This meeting likely would be deemed a "confession," protecting Susan
with the clergy-penitent relationship, said several of those
interviewed. But the exemption does not apply to the evidence provided
outside of confession, such as comments from the boy's father.
"The bishops should have said, 'You call police or we will immediately,' " said Dorris, of the priest-abuse survivors group.
Davis agreed that when the father of a victim comes to a religious
leader and says someone has been harming his child, it is not a
protected conversation.
"The question is, what happened between the 19th and 22nd (when the
boy and his dad reported the crime to Chandler police)?" Davis said.
"Was the bishop counseling the father to go to police? If so, he is
pretty much in the clear."
Holmberg said the bishop did not contact police.

Protecting the victim

A basic principle of the Mormon Church is to protect any victim, said
Lavina Fielding Anderson, described as a Latter-day Saint scholar,
writer, editor and feminist.
"The Church's position is that abuse cannot be tolerated in any form," according to "Handbook 1: Stake Presidents and Bishops."
"Those who abuse or are cruel to their spouse, children, other family members or anyone else violates the laws of God and man."
Churches and the state give great discretion to the clergy,
especially if the information is presented during a confession. Arizona
law says clergy "may withhold" information, even child abuse, learned
during confession. Without the clergy-penitent privilege, talking to the
clergy would be akin to talking to police.
But Jan Shipps, described as a U.S. historian specializing in Mormon
history, said "the issue is whether there was a defined responsibility
or not."
"Otherwise, it is left to the discretion of the church," said
Shipps, a professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The role of clergy

The Brock case is the latest in a long-running debate over the role of clergy in sexual-abuse cases.
In July, two Valley pastors were arrested on suspicion of failing to
report reputed sex crimes against two girls in a case that highlighted
the state's mandatory reporting rules for crimes against children. That
case, involving a church in Glendale, is pending in Maricopa County
Superior Court.
In 2003, Bishop Thomas O'Brien, head of the Phoenix Diocese of the
Catholic Church, acknowledged that for decades, he had covered up
allegations of sexual abuse by priests. O'Brien previously had revealed
that at least 50 priests, former priests and church employees had been
accused of sexual misconduct with children in the Phoenix Diocese.
Authorities say they are continuing to investigate the Brock case.
They have declined to say whether they are considering any legal action
involving LDS church leaders.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2011/04/24/20110424brock-molestation-case-church-reports.html#ixzz1KbBDo56X

'Operation FrostyLime Squeeze' leads to Utah's largest child porn bust

April 28. 2011 3:06PM

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Utah’s largest investigation operation into child pornography has ended with
38 arrests and the seizure of a staggering amount of images of children
being sexually abused. Operation FrostyLime Squeeze was overseen by the
Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force with extensive
participation from 37 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.


"What Operation FrostyLime Squeeze seized in terms of volume and depravity is
simply mind-blowing," says Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. "If a
stack of documents was made with each child pornography image seized,
the stack would be 1,909 miles high or the height of 347 Mount
Everests."
Operation
FrostyLime Squeeze lasted from February 28 until March 31 but some of
the investigations began before the arrests were made.

Here
is the operation by the numbers:• 39 individuals arrested, 31
additional investigation and 114 people notified they are under
investigation.• 52 home and 39 computer search warrants executed.• 124
computers, 118 external hard drives, 31 cell phones, 5 Xbox game
consoles and more than 1,000 CDs/DVDs seized.

"If a person spent eight hours a day, in chunks of 15 seconds downloading
and viewing each image seized during this operation, the person would be
viewing child pornography non-stop for 55 years," says Ken Wallentine,
Director of Law Enforcement for the Attorney General’s Office. "We could
probably add a few more years for all of the images found on cell
phones and Xboxes."
Here are a few examples of the individuals arrested during the operation:•
Jeremy Hanks is a convicted serial rapist who was released November
2010 after serving about 15 years in prison. Hanks is now facing federal
charges after investigators seized four computers, three cell phones,
four hard drives and ten memory storage devices with child pornography
at his Pleasant Grove home. Two other adults were arrested for drugs and
child endangerment.

• Brian Christensen is serving a federal prison sentence for production and possession of child
pornography. He is now charged with five counts of object rape of a
child and three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child---all first
degree felonies.

• D. Chris Robertson was charged with possession of child
pornography and sentenced to federal prison but he only received two
days in jail and six months home confinement. Robertson is now facing 20
state felony counts of possession of child pornography. If convicted,
prosecutors will request a substantial amount of incarceration.

•Brendon Morrey was allegedly downloading and manufacturing child
pornography for others to see. Morrey is accused of sexually abusing at
least one child and he is being held in the Utah County Jail with a cash
bail of $110,000.Investigations took place in Beaver, Box
Elder, Cache, Carbon, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, Grand, Iron, Kane, Salt
Lake, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Washington and Weber
counties.

This was the first statewide ICAC operation and
it was made possible by donations from Operation Kids. The funding
covered over-time shifts by ICAC task force agents and affiliates to
handle a large backlog of investigations.

"The Operation Kids donations also was used to train and assist law enforcement
agencies that have not worked on ICAC investigations so children in
those areas are better protected," says Utah ICAC Commander Jessica
Farnsworth.

The following agencies are part of the Utah
ICAC Task Force and took part in the operation: Adult Probation &
Parole, Attorney General’s Office, Cache County Sheriff's Office, Carbon
County Sheriff's Office, Davis County Sheriff's Office, Duchesne County
Sheriff's Office, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Layton Police
Department, Price City Police Department, Roy City Police Department,
Salt Lake City Police Department, Sevier County Sheriff's Office, South
Jordan Police Department, Summit County Sheriff's Office, Syracuse
Police Department, Tooele City Police Department, Unified Police of
Greater Salt Lake Department, Utah County Sheriff’s Office, Vernal City
Police Department, Weber County Sheriff’s Office and West Valley City
Police Department.

The following agencies also assisted in
Operation FrostyLime Squeeze: Beaver County Sheriff's Office, Brigham
City Police Department, Brigham Young University Police Department,
Cedar City Police Department, Emery County Sheriff's Office, Kane County
Sheriff's Office, Iron County Sheriff's Office, Moab Police Department,
Ogden Police Department, Orem Police Department, Payson Police
Department, Pleasant Grove Police Department, Provo Police Department,
Riverdale Police Department, Spanish Fork Police Department and
Tremonton Police Department.

Members of the Utah ICAC Task
Force submitted potential names for the operation and voted for
Operation FrostyLime Squeeze. The winning entry used themes of
springtime, peer-to-peer software names and the idea that ICAC wants to
squeeze out offenders from the community. The operation has been
completed but more arrests and charges are expected. All suspects are
innocent unless found guilty in a court of law.

Sex-offender sweep: 26 arrested in Panhandle

February 8, 2011


LYNN HAVEN, Fla. (AP) — Officials say 26 people were arrested during a weeklong, multi-agency sex offender sweep in Bay County.

Between Jan. 31 and Feb. 4, officials paid unofficial visits to 307 sexual offenders in this Florida Panhandle county.

Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen said the objective of 'Operation Safe Child' was to make sure everyone was following the rules. He said the most common charge was failure to register as a sex offender, but pornography was discovered on the computers of several subjects.

Authorities also found three weapons, a mobile meth lab and marijuana during the sweep.

The sheriff said warrants were issued for eight sex offenders who were not living at their listed address.

New Child Porn Charges Against Hotel Manager

February 8, 2011

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The manager of a notorious Daytona Beach hotel was in federal court Tuesday facing new child pornography charges. WFTV found out, with those new charges, Dennis Devlin will not be allowed to bond out of jail, at least not yet.

The manager of the Desert Inn was arrested last week for allegedly producing child porn at the hotel. The state dropped child porn charges against Devlin on Monday, but it was to pave the way for what happened Tuesday in federal court.

If Devlin is convicted, it could put him away for up to 40 years.

The striped shirt and dark pants Devlin was wearing during his arrest six days ago were the same things he wore in front of a federal judge in Orlando on Tuesday. The U.S. attorney charged Devlin with producing child porn and possessing it. With the FBI still afraid Devlin might run if he got out on bail, a judge ordered him to stay behind bars until another hearing next week.

"The factors will come out in the criminal case and the family wants to leave it up to the U.S. Attorney's Office, in their capable hands, to see that justice is done," attorney for the victims, Edward Donini, said in court Tuesday.

An attorney for the family of the 13-year-old victim wouldn't comment on the prospect of Devlin getting out of jail.

New details of what may have happened to the young boy though, and what was inside Devlin's private hotel suite, emerged from federal charging documents. The reports said Michael Ehmen, a 20-year-old also charged Tuesday with producing child porn, told investigators he had been meeting Devlin for three months and knew he would get money if he brought others with him.

The document also revealed investigators found a stack of photos by a sofa that included shots of teen boys with a website address on them, the age "16" written on one, and dates stamped back to October.

The U.S. attorney wouldn't comment on whether the evidence would lead to more charges against Devlin beyond what was handled Tuesday.

Devlin will be behind bars at least another five days. He has a new attorney who will be picking up the case.

Meanwhile, a local travel company told WFTV there's still interest in booking rooms at the Desert Inn, especially for spring break. The hotel was back open for business just one day after the FBI raid.

The hotel is now being run by a hotel manager and Devlin's mother, who owns the inn. The bookings come even after the Desert Inn gained notoriety last month when it was ranked the third dirtiest hotel in the nation by a travel website.

Posted at 07:52 AM ET, 08/04/2011
Md. man among 72 charged in international child porn network

By the Associated Press

BALTIMORE — A rural Baltimore County man is among the
72 people accused of participating in an international child pornography
network.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say Desmond
Meredeth is an alleged member of Dreamboard, an online bulletin board
where users traded tens of thousands of images and videos of sexually
abused children.


ICE agents executed a search and arrest warrant against Meredeth, who lives in Freeland.

Federal authorities said Wednesday that a 20-months law enforcement
effort called Operation Delego targeted more than 600 Dreamboard members
around the world.

The private, members-only Internet club was allegedly created to
promote pedophilia. Court documents show numerous participants sexually
abused children, produced images and video of the abuse and shared it
with other club members.

WTH didn't they publish his name?

Deputies: Child Porn Found On Sex Offender’s Phone

Posted: 4:00 pm EDT August 5, 2011
Updated: 10:45 pm EDT August 5, 2011

YORK COUNTY, S.C. -- A registered sex offender is back in jail after a man found his cellphone and discovered child pornography on it, deputies said.

Robert Joseph Norris, 37, is charged with seven counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. York County sheriff's deputies said someone reported finding his cellphone in a room at Porter's Motel on North Cherry Road.

That discovery led deputies to some apartments on Lesslie Highway, south of Rock Hill. Deputies confronted Norris, who admitted the phone was his.

They seized two cellphones and several DVDs from his room.

Donnie Smith lives right next door. He's seen Norris around but couldn't believe it when Channel 9 told him what had happened.

"I'm shocked. He just didn't look like that kind of a person. You wouldn't think it of him. He's quiet," Smith said.

Eyewitness News did some checking and learned why Norris is a registered sex offender in York County. He was convicted in 2002 of criminal sexual conduct with a minor under 11 years old. His victim was a 4-year-old girl.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/28780866/detail.html

Sex Offender On Lam After Removing Monitoring Bracelet

Deputies Say Man May Be In Titusville

POSTED: Friday, August 12, 2011

TITUSVILLE, Fla. -- State
and local agents are looking for a sex offender who removed his
monitoring bracelet after being released from jail this week.

Jeffrey
Allen Snead, 46, had been sentenced to community control after pleading
guilty to lewd and lascivious exhibition and exposure of sexual organs.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said he exposed himself to a group
of children in Cocoa Beach in March.

Snead was released from
jail Monday. The next day, agents said he entered a Marathon gas station
on U.S. 1 in Titusville, removed the GPS device that was tracking him
and complained that he was having a heart attack.

Paramedics
took the man to Parrish Medical Center, and he was released a short time
later, Local 6 partner Florida Today reported.

Agents from the
Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Corrections think Snead
could be in the area of Garden Street in Titusville.

The authorities said Snead has an extensive criminal history in Florida and Virginia.

"This
should be a wake-up call that GPS bracelets can give the community a
false sense of security," Brevard County Sheriff Jack Parker said in a
statement. "The safest place for a sex offender who continues to
threaten our community is in prison. I pray we can find this guy before
any more children are victimized."

Copyright 2011 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and ClickOrlando.com.

The worrying about children being harmed should have been done by the judge who should never have put this pervert back out on the streets. WTH is wrong with a system that lets a man like this walk the streets preying on children?

Once a judge is on the bench, it's almost impossible to do anything about his or her stupidity. Even the media protects them by not publishing their names.

Residents Upset Sex Offenders Are Moving In

Posted: 11:15 pm EDT August 17, 2011

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Some
Orange County residents are furious because they say registered sex
offenders are taking over their neighborhood. According to Florida's sex
offender registry, eight sexual predators are now living along one
short street off of Old Winter Garden Road, and residents can’t believe
it’s legal.

“We don’t think four men living in each house,
sexual predators, is good for the neighborhood,” said Gene Helms, who
lives on the street.

Sarah Turner also lives in the area and told Eyewitness News she’s worried about the neighborhood kids.

“You
have all these kids in this neighborhood. They don’t feel comfortable.
What if the man is staring out the window or comes out and says
something?” said Turner.

However, despite what residents
think, no laws are being broken. An investor bought two homes along Iona
Avenue from mortgage companies at a cheap price and rented them to the
offenders. Residents are worried that’ll mean more sex offenders will
move into the area.

WFTV tried to get a hold of the investor
who owns the properties but was unable to get in touch. None of the sex
offenders would talk to WFTV, either.

http://www.wftv.com/index.html