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Sex Predator Sentencing
13 Sep 2006 12:00 am
A man busted during a TODAY'S TMJ4 I-Team sex sting operation will learn his sentence.
Miguel Miranda will appear in a Waukesha County Courtroom after pleading guilty to child enticement and using a computer to commit a sex crime.
TMJ4's John Mercure first caught up with Miranda earlier this year. During an Internet sex sting, detectives and producers teamed up and posed as young teenage girls, flirting online. After talking online, the men were invited to a home the I-Team set up. Miranda came knocking.
Reports: 11-year-old girl is victim of repeated sex assaults
Associated Press
07 Sep 2006 12:00 am
An 11-year old girl was the victim of repeated sexual assaults by as many as 15 boys as a 16-year old girl watched and told her what sex acts to perform, court records allege.
Details of the alleged incident at the older girl's home Monday were contained in criminal complaints filed Wednesday in Milwaukee County Children's Court.
The records stated that a 40-year-old man related to the older girl took part in sex acts, although he had not yet been formally charged.
Matt Torbenson, an assistant district attorney, said police were looking for suspects and had executed a search warrant at the house. He said investigators recovered condoms and a video camera.
The girl identified about six possible suspects.
In the charges filed Wednesday, the 16-year old girl was charged with four counts of being party to first-degree sexual assault, and a 15-year old boy was charged with two counts of the same offense.
Grant County case could inspire necrophilia law
Andrew Beckett
06 Sep 2006 3:43 pm
An attempted grave robbery and necrophilia case in Grant County could lead to a new state law. Three men face charges in Grant County for trying to steal the body of a 20-year-old woman from a Cassville cemetery. One of them allegedly planned to have sex with the woman's corpse, although State Senator Dale Schultz says the man can't currently be charged with necrophilia since Wisconsin does not have a law on the books against that specific offense. The men have been charged with attempted third degree sexual assault and attempted misdemeanor theft.
Schultz (R-Richland Center) plans to develop legislation allowing such charges to be filed in the future. While the crime doesn't occur often, Schultz believes it does happen more frequently than people realize. The Richland Center Republican has not spoken directly with the family about the planned assault on their daughter's body, but Schultz says the Grant County Sheriff has echoed their support for such legislation. Schultz hopes to have a bill ready to go in the next legislative session.
Editorial: Justice won't be served by Paulus' conviction alone
03 Sep 2006 12:00 am
Public attention has largely focused on Paulus' crimes as laid out in the state and federal cases against him — taking bribes to influence cases. We know the former Winnebago County district attorney took money from defense attorney and friend Milton Schierland for reduced or dropped charges.
But that is only one part of the crime committed against the people of Winnebago County. Paulus abused power on a level unseen, perhaps, in the history of Wisconsin, using the power of his office to intimidate and harass anyone who disagreed with him.
That's why justice needs to be served beyond Joe Paulus spending a piece of his life behind bars. The black eye on Blind Lady Justice isn't Winnebago's alone to bear because all 72 counties in Wisconsin are vulnerable to another corrupt district attorney.
Our state gives district attorneys a massive amount of discretion in the pursuit of justice. They can issue criminal charges, not issue charges or reduce charges at will. Paulus took advantage of that to crush political opponents, bully attorneys who were not his favorites and intimidate those who stood in his way.
The system failed.
Why did it take two then-rookie Assistant District Attorneys to blow the whistle on Paulus with the help of a police officer who had been fired from the District Attorney's office? The FBI singled out former Assistant District Attorneys Edmund Jelinski and Thomas Chalchoff and Menasha officer Ann Gollner for praise when their case against Paulus resulted in a 58-month federal prison sentence.
Where were the other attorneys and political insiders who now say they knew Paulus was bad apples? Why didn't they stick their necks out?
Wisconsin needs to add layers of accountability and oversight to the powers of district attorneys.
History will not judge us kindly if we treat the conviction and sentencing of Joe Paulus as the final act of a terrible chapter in Wisconsin history.
We have much more difficult work ahead: Fix the system.
A woman's fight
RAQUEL RUTLEDGE
12 Aug 2006 12:00 am
As the fastest growing population of veterans, women often return from war with different problems and less support.
More than 1,500 women have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan and sought some type of help from veterans hospitals in Wisconsin, northern Illinois and Iron Mountain, Mich., ranking the region third-highest in the country. Milwaukee's Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center alone has seen more than 200 women since March 2003.
"Women are the fastest growing veteran population in the nation," said Gundel Metz, coordinator for female veterans' issues with the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.
Some deal with problems that parallel those of their male counterparts. They've lost limbs, eyesight and hearing. They have digestive disorders, nightmares, anger and relationship problems.
But female veterans returning from war face ailments and traumas of other sorts.
More than 400 military women working in Iraq, Afghanistan and the region have reported they were victims of sexual assault from 2003 through May, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Records sought in rape case
Jim Collar
03 Aug 2006 12:00 am
A Winnebago County judge will review the local records of a runaway teen to determine if they're relevant as evidence in the case of a man accused of raping and torturing her.
Defense lawyer Timothy Blank is seeking human services records dealing with the teen's return from the area to Indiana. Blank noted that the teen claimed she wasn't a drug user to local hospital nurses before drug tests showed the contrary.
"I think there are other activities she wanted to hide in addition to that," he said.
In addition to local records, Blank sought the teen's juvenile records from Indiana. He questioned the teen's drug history and whether she had a history of prostitution.
Deputy District Attorney John Jorgensen characterized the records request as a "fishing expedition."
Judge Thomas Gritton denied the request to review the records from Indiana.
"You're trying to beat up on this victim," he said.
Halbach kin: Keep trial local
Kevin Braley
03 Aug 2006 12:00 am
Moving the Steven Avery trial to a remote Wisconsin county, as proposed by his attorneys, will create an undue hardship for Teresa Halbach's family, her brother said.
Tim Halbach said in an affidavit filed in Manitowoc County Circuit Court on Monday that the family prefers a jury be brought to Manitowoc rather than moving the entire trial.
Avery, 44, is accused with his nephew of sexually assaulting, torturing and killing Teresa Halbach last Oct. 31. Teresa Halbach, 25, of St. John, went to the Avery property just west of Mishicot to take pictures for Auto Trader Magazine of a car Avery was selling.
Avery spent 18 years in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit. However, the first six years of that sentence were for convictions of endangering safety regardless of life and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Sex Offender Passes Victim's Address Around Prison
Associated Press
08 May 2006 9:54 pm
A woman is angry that the man who is convicted of sexually assaulting her daughter has distributed her photo and address around the Dodge Correctional Institution.
One of the inmates who saw the photo -- Jeremy Mullock, 24, -- wrote her teenage daughter a letter last week.
Mullock, a Greendale native, was convicted of using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime.
"This is wrong. They're in prison. How can they do this?" the mother told The Chippewa Herald in Sunday's edition.
Mullock knows 29-year-old Donald Rusaw, who is serving at least 18 years in the Waupun prison on charges that include the 2002 sexual assault of the Chippewa Falls girl.
"I just met your guy Don in here and he showed me a picture of you. I thought you were looking good, so I asked him if you were cool and he said yeah," Mullock writes in the letter obtained by paper.
Judge takes stand against sex offender registry
Dan Wilson
04 May 2006 12:00 am
A Waupaca County judge has ordered convicted sex offender Sam Roloff's name to be added to the state's sex offender registry — but not until nearly 100 years have passed.
Circuit Judge Philip Kirk said the list, which now numbers more than 18,000 people, is rendered useless when it includes people like Roloff who engaged in consensual sex with underage parties.
"It's diluted," he said this week. "It has lost the purpose for which it was designed. It should apply to people like the David Spanbauers (who molested and killed children) or priests who abuse children, but it gets applied to consensual sex because it was outside the age requirement."
The law includes a "Romeo and Juliet" clause that allows a judge to exempt a defendant from registration if the defendant is 19 years old or younger and the victim is within four years of age. It does not recognize legal consent for underage people, even when they willingly engage in sex, because experts point out that juveniles don't have the maturity or judgment to consent.
That's the heart of the debate that has pitted Kirk against the state attorney general's office and a state appeals court, both of which are trying to force Kirk to put Roloff on the sex offender registry. Roloff was 20 when he had sex with four girls, all between the ages of 15 and 17.
Child molester who sparked legislation gets prison time
Mike Miller
29 Apr 2006 12:00 am
A convicted child molester whose failure to return to jail while on work release sparked the introduction of legislation on sex offenders was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison to be followed by 18 years of extended supervision.
[This case] caused two state lawmakers to introduce legislation to prevent courts from allowing sex offenders awaiting sentencing out on work release and to mandate a minimum 25-year sentence in child sex assault convictions. The legislation is pending.
Local suspects caught in sweep
Gazette staff and
Associated Press
28 Apr 2006 11:20 am
The federal operation, scheduled to coincide with National Victims Rights Week, concentrated on people wanted for federal, state and local crimes and "targeted the worst of the worst," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Thursday during a news conference.
Authorities arrested 9,037 people April 17 through Sunday. Among those apprehended were 1,102 people wanted for violent sex crimes or failure to register as sex offenders.
The operations in the past two years produced roughly 10 times the average number of weekly arrests, but even that barely dents the fugitive caseload. The FBI database contains names of a million fugitives. The director of the Marshals Service, John Clark, said Thursday there are a "few million fugitives" in the United States, most of them wanted on state and local charges.
Former deputy gets 18 months in sex sting
Gina Barton
28 Feb 2006 11:24 am
According to a complaint filed in July, Dominski sent an instant message to the detective in a Yahoo chat room, thinking he was contacting a 14-year-old girl. Dominski asked the "girl" to pose for nude and semi-nude photos and to perform a sex act on him. Through another instant message, Dominski arranged a meeting with the "girl" at a South Side convenience store. Dominski was arrested when he showed up for the meeting.
Sex Offender Who Gave Wrong Address Gets Jail Time
Convicted sex offenders who get out of prison and then fail to tell the state where they're living are looking for trouble.
A Crandon man received a six-month jail term this week after being charged with failing to properly report his place of residence to the state's Sex Offender Registry.
Mother wants Auburn child molester to do more time
Lehman, 38, whose father is the secretary of the state Department of Corrections, pleaded guilty last month to sexually molesting his girlfriend's 2-month-old infant daughter in December.
