Featured NV News Stories:
Carson man arraigned on child Internet sex charge
William Ferchland
07 Sep 2006 12:00 am
A 58-year-old Carson City man was arraigned Wednesday in federal court on charges of attempting to have sex with a minor he thought lived in South Lake Tahoe.
[The accused], a retired Nevada corrections officer, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to commit lewd acts with a girl and traveling in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a girl.
Prosecutors said [he] used the Internet and the telephone to contact a person he thought was a 13-year-old South Lake Tahoe girl and attempted to persuade her to have sex. Instead, he was communicating with an undercover officer, said Mary Wenger, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.
[He] also traveled to South Lake Tahoe from Nevada in an attempt to have sex with the girl, according to the charges.
[He] had a motel room and was talking on the cell phone to the "girl" in a Ford Focus when he was confronted by authorities.
[The accused] and the girl, a decoy from Perverted Justice, a watch dog group devoted to identifying sexual predators, talked for six months online before his arrest near the end of April, authorities stated.
Fugitive polygamist leader Jeffs caught
KEN RITTER
29 Aug 2006 7:57 am
A polygamist Mormon sect leader who was on the FBI's Most Wanted List has been arrested and faces sexual misconduct charges for allegedly arranging marriages between underage girls and older men, authorities said Tuesday.
Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, was taken into custody after he and two other people were pulled over late Monday by a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper on Interstate 15 just north of Las Vegas, FBI spokesman David Staretz said.
Jeffs was indicted in June on an Arizona charge of arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and a married man, and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. He is charged in Utah with two felony counts of rape as an accomplice, for allegedly arranging the marriage of a teenage girl to an older man in Nevada.
ON TRIAL: FAMILY COURT
MARTHA BELLISLE
13 Aug 2006 12:00 am
The shooting of a judge handling the contentious divorce of a woman murdered that same morning is shining a spotlight on the region's family court system and on the judge.
Some praise Washoe District Family Court Judge Chuck Weller as a new judge doing a thankless, stressful and dangerous job in a highly emotional arena. The sniper-style shooting of Weller as he stood in his third-floor chambers has traumatized the community, they say, and hurts the independence of judges by creating fear and intimidation.
Others, including blog writers, say the family court needs an overhaul. Many say judges are not accountable and the system offers no remedies for people who feel they've been wronged.
Laws on sex offenders should be even tighter for our children's sake
John DiMambro
06 Aug 2006 12:00 am
I am certain that many of you noticed the Nevada Appeal published an article informing readers of the release of a tier 3 sex offender in Carson City. A tier 3 classification is like a yearbook honor roll dedicated exclusively to sex offenders who are most likely to succeed - most likely to succeed at sadistically raping our children, again, and again, and again.
Last year, I wrote a series of columns about these modern day black plague vermin. Sen. Dina Titus used those columns as reference in her pursuit of legislation that would tighten the reins on sex offenders in Nevada. She was one of the few who had the bravery to impose her will on the Legislature to pass such a bill (SB 341) of restraint.
High-risk sex offender being sought in Reno area
Police are seeking a high-risk sex offender in the Reno area to answer questions about his registration, officials said Tuesday.
Timothy James Reynolds, 49, is registered as a sex offender with the Regional Sex Offender Notification Unit. Police said he may be in the downtown Reno area.
Child Molester Gets Probation
Another miscarriage of justice occurred in Judge Don Mosley's courtroom when another child molester walked out on probation after admitting to the crime.
