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T-shirt order: 'I am a registered sex offender'
SEAN O'SULLIVAN
04 Nov 2006 12:00 am
The judge did not specify that the color had to be scarlet, but she did order the words on a shirt to be worn by Russell Teeter to be prominent and bold: "I am a registered sex offender."
On Friday, Superior Court Judge Jan R. Jurden also sentenced Teeter, 69, to two months in jail for repeatedly exposing himself at his Newark-area business to a 10-year-old girl this year.
Jurden handed down the sentence at the suggestion of Deputy Attorney General Donald R. Roberts, who was alarmed by the defendant's record.
Teeter had more than 10 convictions, dating back to 1976, and has been through treatment at Johns Hopkins for being a compulsive exhibitionist.
None of that appeared to work, so Roberts told the judge that perhaps the shirt and jail time will "teach him to keep his zipper up."
Teeter will have to provide and wear the shirt when he is at work at his horticulture business in the 900 block of New London Road outside Newark -- where he committed the offenses -- for 22 months after he gets out of jail.
Man pleads guilty to killing man he believed molested his daughter
Associated Press
04 Oct 2006 3:38 pm
A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminally negligent homicide for beating to death a 77-year-old man he believed had molested his young daughter.
Robert Fontanez Jr., 27, had faced the more serious charge of second-degree murder in the April death of Bismark Vasquez before agreeing to the plea. He faces up to five years in prison at sentencing, expected early next year.
According to police, Fontanez became enraged when his 5-year-old daughter told him that Vasquez had touched her inappropriately.
He went to Vasquez's home and punched him so hard that the older man went through the back door, police said. Investigators said Fontanez continued to beat Vasquez as he lay bleeding on the concrete outside. Vasquez died in a hospital three days later.
Police detective Scott Chaffin said there was no physical evidence to support the molestation allegation, though he said the child's comments to police were consistent with what she had told her mother.
In a similar case in Fairfield, Conn., a man was charged with stabbing to death a 58-year-old neighbor in August whom he had suspected of molesting his 2-year-old daughter. Jonathon Edington, 29, is free on $1 million bond and due back in court next week. Police have said they do not know if the abuse claim against the neighbor was true.
Second suspect sought in rape investigation
TERRI SANGINITI
06 Sep 2006 12:00 am
A 54-year-old Middletown man was arrested and a second suspect is being sought in a rape and kidnapping early Monday in Middletown.
New Castle County police spokesman Cpl. Trinidad Navarro said the 23-year-old victim was found unconscious about 2:42 a.m. Monday at a home in the 300 block of New St. She had suffered a blow to the head and vaginal injuries.
According to court records, a friend of the woman's dropped by her apartment with two men. The woman later left the men there to go out and buy some crack cocaine. When the victim was alone with the two men, she said, they started making sexual advances, which she rebuked, ordering them out of her home.
Police said in court records that after an altercation, the victim was struck with a chair, tire iron and shovel before being carried to the assailants' car.
The men then drove to a remote area near the Del. 301 truck plaza, where they raped her. The assailants then drove her back to Lake Street near New Street, where they let her go; the victim says she collapsed shortly afterward.
Navarro said the second man is described as being between 40 and 50 years old, with a goatee and indentations in his face. He was last seen wearing a red sweat shirt or jacket and blue jeans.
Anyone with information on his identity is asked to call police at 395-8171.
Police arrest man "seeking justice" in nephew's murder
Phil Scott
11 Aug 2006 2:37 am
He's now wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, but police say Anthony Taylor was sporting a bullet-proof vest late Tuesday night and hiding a 40-caliber semiautomatic pistol, when he was pulled over for speeding.
"I'd been out. I'm not going to lie," Taylor said, "I'd been out looking for him, ever since it happened. (I) pulled his picture off the Internet. (It) came out in the newspaper, I cut the clipping out. And I been out looking for him."
Taylor admits he was looking for Cortez Cunningham, a man police have named in connection with a retaliatory double murder early Saturday.
The homicides, which took place a the gas station at 9th and Delaware, were possibly payback, police say, for another man's death outside a Market Street nightclub a few minutes earlier. One of those killed on Delaware Street, was Taylor's 18-year-old nephew, Richard.
Frustrated that police seemed to be moving too slowly, Taylor says he only planned to make a citizen's arrest, not take the law into his own hands.
Foes spar on predator plan, Candidates for attorney general differ on proposal
Joe Rogalsky
01 Aug 2006 12:00 am
There’s no doubt computers and the Internet touch Delawareans’ lives in more ways seemingly every day.
As with any advancement, the Internet age has a dark side.
The technology has also made it easier for child molesters to contact potential victims.
The changes computers have brought to society are evident in the race to be the next Delaware attorney general.
Trapped in despair
Lee Williams
30 Jul 2006 12:00 am
Wilmington Housing Authority buildings are crawling with crime, drugs and prostitutes. The executive director knows it. The mayor knows it. Lawmakers know it. But the problems persist.
The Wilmington Housing Authority uses untrained, unlicensed and uninsured workers from temporary employment agencies to safeguard the thousands of vulnerable residents, including the elderly and handicapped, in its six high-rises -- a practice residents say isn't working, and state police say is illegal.
Some of the workers, called monitors, have criminal records. Three years after one monitor pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact, he was working in the high-rises under the supervision of his uncle -- WHA's security chief James Berrien.
From the street, the WHA high-rises appear well maintained, but like a Potemkin village, all is not as it seems, a News Journal investigation found.
Inside, the residents often live in fear, clinging to their dignity. They are black, white and Latino. One thing they have in common is being poor.
Changes for DE's Jessica's Law
Associated Press
28 Apr 2006 12:00 am
State House Speaker Terry Spence is making changes to his legislation targeting sex offenders.
He's introducing an amendment that he says addresses some of his colleagues' concerns about his original bill. The revised bill could get a floor vote in the House next week.
State House Speaker Terry Spence says he wants to send a clear message to sex offenders.
The bill is Delaware's version of Jessica's Law, named for a nine-year-old Florida girl who was raped and killed last year by a repeat sex offender.
If approved, sex offenders who prey on children could be eligible for a life sentence after a first offense and would get an automatic life sentence after a second offense. The repeat offender would not be eligible for parole.
Scout leader charged with raping two boys
A former Boy Scout leader who spent 20 years volunteering for the organization was charged with raping two boys, authorities said.
[He] was arrested on child pornography charges after he took his home computer to a repair shop and a technician found images of child pornography.
Police found 844 files of child pornography photographs and seven video files.
Human trafficking a growing global problem
Human trafficking -- the modern version of slavery -- is a multibillion-dollar-a-year criminal enterprise, ranking behind drug trafficking in global crime statistics.
"Human trafficking is a multibillion-dollar growth industry because, unlike drugs, which are gone as soon as they are used, humans can be recycled," Coonan said. "Because they can continue to be exploited, they're a better investment for the traffickers."
