Featured AZ News Stories:
Adult sexual behavior with minors inexcusable
Michele Schubert, Virginia Yrun, Sarah Jones and Kent Burbank
23 Oct 2006 12:00 am
Over the past few weeks, our community has learned of several incidents of inappropriate sexual behavior between adults and youth. These stories have reached us from the national level, as in the case of former Congressman Mark Foley's sexually explicit e-mail communication with a 16-year-old page. Other stories have occurred locally, as in the case of Veronica Bullock, who sexually molested a 12-year-old boy.
Our community has also been subjected to a barrage of excuses, justifications and finger-pointing by the perpetrators, their lawyers and even politicians wanting to shift blame in an election year. We are deeply troubled by these cases, primarily because of the damage they inflict upon the young people who are the victims of these assaults. Additionally, they send mixed messages to our community.
There is one and only one clear message: Sexualized language or conduct between an adult and a minor is an assault and is always wrong. It is always the fault of the adult perpetrator, and is never justified, defensible or excusable.
We were appalled that Bullock, the perpetrator of sexual assault against a 12-year-old boy, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and given six years' probation. The message that this sentence sends is that sexual abuse of a child is not taken seriously.
The Arizona Daily Star and other media outlets provided the perpetrator and her lawyer an unwarranted amount of space to justify her crime. Bullock's excuse was that "she had an unstable childhood," had been in "abusive relationships" and was "heavily intoxicated at the time."
While we encourage adult survivors of abuse to seek services and support to resolve the impact of abuse, there is absolutely no excuse for perpetrating violence against another human being.
Authorities search for serial rapist on Ariz. reservation who poses as police officer
Associated Press
05 Oct 2006 9:22 am
At least 10 girls and women have been raped on the Fort Apache Reservation by a man who poses as a police officer, federal authorities said.
Since March, nine girls and one young woman - all American Indian - have been attacked on a trail between two housing projects between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., said officials with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The attacks began in March, but the bureau became aware of them only in August. The agency formed a task force of 10 agents to investigate.
The panel found victims who did not come forward because they thought their attacker was a police officer, Youngman said.
"It has created an atmosphere of fear," Youngman said. "When we did our neighborhood canvassing, we had people afraid of our officers."
The attacker is believed to be American Indian, 20 to 40-years-old and of medium height and build.
According to victims, the attacker wears a dark shirt and a dark baseball cap, both bearing "police." White Mountain tribal police officers' uniforms do include black shirts, but the shirts should show a badge above the left breast pocket and a U.S. flag above the right breast pocket, Youngman said.
There is a $10,000 reward in the case, Youngman said.
On The Cover: When love hurts
Megan Salisbury
05 Oct 2006 12:00 am
We've all seen the images on the 5 o'clock news - women and children, beaten and bruised, living in shelters to escape their violent boyfriends and husbands. They're horrible, but they're also a stereotype. Men aren't the only ones who abuse.
On a night that she will never forget, Christina Castillejo took a knife out of the kitchen cabinet and contemplated committing suicide.
Trapped in her abusive relationship, the now 20-year-old secondary education major felt scared, worthless and alone. When her partner woke her up and threw her out of her bedroom in the middle of the night more than a year and a half ago, Castillejo reached her breaking point.
"It seemed like the only way out at the time," Castillejo says.
She had never thought about killing herself before. She didn't make the fatal choice that night, either.
From her sparkling smile and attempts to make everyone around her laugh, it's hard to imagine the pain that Castillejo suffered from this and a previous abusive relationship. But what's even harder for some people to understand is that Castillejo suffered her abuse not at the hands of a jealous boyfriend or an angry husband.
Her abuser was female. Her girlfriend.
Alleged online predator's arrest should be warning to parents
Frank Camacho
13 Sep 2006 5:48 pm
One of the men accused of using the Internet to lure a young girl in Mesa faces 20 years in prison.
His arrest is a warning for all parents.
Some people may find the content of the story offensive, but it is a reality today as so-called child predators surf the Web searching for new victims.
Often, they frequent chat rooms designed especially for teenagers.
Just as they are sending their child out into the real world, they need to know what their child is doing online and in an online world.
As we all know, the Internet can be a rich source of knowledge. But as we are finding out, it can also be a sinkhole of perversion where children are preyed upon.
"If they get on the Internet in a chat room, they are going to get solicited for sex."
Give our soldiers protection in battle, not courtroom
Lindsay Gay
05 Sep 2006 12:00 am
In his Aug. 31 column, "Favoring a free ride for DUI defendant who has earned it," Montini argues that Michael Savage, a captain in the Air Force Reserve, should not be sent to Tent City for his recent offense.
Before tackling special treatment, we should conquer reasonable treatment. For example, equipping our soldiers with better armor would have a huge impact upon the death toll.
A secret Pentagon study reported in The New York Times at the beginning of the year found that "at least 80 percent of the Marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor."
Another worthy cause is demanding improved care for our veterans. In 2005, there was a $1 billion shortage in the Department of Veteran Affairs budget, which led some clinics to shut down.
It's also easy to clobber Montini for his gross insensitivity to the victims of drinking-and-driving accidents. While Savage did not injure anyone, he certainly could have.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 492 people in Arizona were killed in alcohol-related traffic accidents in 2005. In comparison, 62 Arizona soldiers have been killed during the entire course of the Iraq war.
While I am in no way implying that 62 deaths are insignificant, I am saying that 492 is a statistic that should not be ignored.
Perhaps even more disturbing is Montini's complaint that the justice system is reacting blindly to the service Savage has done for his country. Like me, Mesa City Prosecutor John Pombier is skeptical of his logic.
It would be impossible for a judge to determine which offenders' professions should be valued above others. Nor would it be easy to choose which laws soldiers should be allowed to ignore. Drunken driving? Theft? Rape?
Should the soldiers accused of rape and murder in Haifa be excused from a trial just because they were serving their country?
I appreciate Montini's sentiment that our country owes something to the soldiers, but I prefer to rally for measures that slow the culture of death instead of perpetuating it.
Chuck Shepherd : News of the Weird
Chuck Shepherd
17 Aug 2006 12:00 am
"Man Once Convicted for Child Molestation Could Go Free Because Judge Accepted a Doughnut" (a July story on Northwest Cable News, Seattle, about a new trial ordered for a sex offender because the judge was too chummy with one juror).
Monsignor has right to jury trial, judge rules
Gary Grado
15 Aug 2006 12:00 am
A judge has granted a Mesa monsignor the right to a jury trial on seven sexually related misdemeanor offenses, overruling a lower court's decision.
Defendants in petty offenses don't have a right to jury trials in Arizona unless certain legal guidelines are met, including whether the offense carries "additional severe, direct, uniformly applied, statutory consequences," wrote Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Douglas Rayes.
Monsignor Dale Fushek met that guideline since he faces the possibility of registering as a sex offender if he is convicted on the five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, assault and indecent exposure for which he is charged, Rayes reasoned.
Registry law snags sex-crime fugitive
Dennis Wagner
10 Aug 2006 12:00 am
A Chandler sex-crime fugitive was nabbed by U.S. marshals while playing poker in a Mississippi casino Wednesday, becoming the first Arizona suspect captured under a new federal law designed to keep track of unregistered sex offenders.
Former preschool operator Gregory Edward Vernon, 46, was captured while playing Texas Hold'em, according to Josh Butout, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesman in Phoenix.
Vernon is under Arizona indictment for sexual exploitation of minors and other offenses in conjunction with his role as a director of Loving Hearts Preschool, an unlicensed day-care center operated out of his Chandler residence.
Vernon is the first Arizona fugitive arrested under the Adam Walsh Act, which gives the Marshals Service primary authority for tracking and apprehending sex offenders who fail to register. The measure was signed by President Bush on July 27, the 25th anniversary of the abduction-murder of a 6-year-old boy from a Florida shopping mall.
Court limits TV-sex-sting charges
Howard Fischer
25 May 2006 12:00 am
Reporters pretending to be teens on the Internet to lure adults may be great television. But the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Wednesday it isn't enough to get their targets arrested.
In a unanimous decision, the justices concluded people lured to meet with what they think are teen girls can't be charged if it turns out the person doing the luring is not a minor, but in fact a TV reporter or any other adult, for that matter. The court concluded charging someone with seeking out a minor for sexual purposes, by definition, requires an actual minor.
The only exception, they said, is if the person doing the luring is a police officer.
Police track down man, real identity
Senta Scarborough
03 May 2006 12:00 am
Jason initially told police he didn't have any identification on him. Police searched him and found a Washington state identification card with his real name, Jason James Hosmer. And they found out why he wanted to keep it a secret.
A check of national police records showed Hosmer is a registered sex offender in Washington. He had failed to register in Arizona as required by law. Hosmer told officers he was employed and had lived in Mesa for two weeks in the 600 block of South Hawes Road.
Hosmer was arrested on suspicion of violating sex offender registration, identity theft, providing false information and failure to stay at the scene of an accident.
Ex-corrections officer gets probation for sex with boy
A.J. FLICK
01 May 2006 12:00 am
A former Juvenile Department of Corrections officer was sentenced to five years of probation as a sex offender for having sexual relations with a 15-year-old boy.
The two began their relationship after the boy was sent to Catalina Mountain School for joyriding, according to attorneys.
Some sex offenders get to quit probation
In the past three years, 20 sex offenders went to court and successfully petitioned to be released from lifetime probation, according to Maricopa County's Adult Probation Department. Some say it's just the beginning of a push by sex offenders to ease the strict behavioral restrictions placed on them for more than a decade.
