June, 2006 News, Page 1
Justice focuses on drug abuse, ignores child predators
Neal R. Peirce
12 Jun 2006 1:04 am
In 30 years and 1,600 columns, I never once wrote on the issue of sex crimes against children. Until today.
The man whose powerful pitch convinced me is Christopher Largen, a Texas-based freelance journalist and social activist who was a victim of repeated sexual assaults from age 5 through 14.
Largen recently created a nonprofit to gather allies — fellow survivors, police officers, therapists and others — in the push against violence to children. It's called "Building BLOCK — Building Better Lives for Our Communities and Kids" (www.building-block.org).
The American criminal justice system needs radical, basic reform. Some people say the system should, first and foremost, punish wrongdoers. I say OK — maybe for some especially heinous crimes. But the critical questions should be: Does the system (1) protect us — and our children — against harm? And (2), since the vast number of prisoners will eventually be released, does it make every effort, use every modern psychological tool, to rehabilitate where rehabilitation is possible?
On the child abuse issue, it's clearly failing us on both critical counts.
Child molester gets 21 years in prison
BETH HUNDSDORFER
12 Jun 2006 12:00 am
Jeremy Thurman offered to help care for the children of a stressed coworker, but police said he used the opportunity to repeatedly rape and molest the friend's 5-year-old daughter.
On Monday, Thurman, 25, received a 21-year prison sentence for aggravated criminal sexual assault.
"He was supposed to be helping us with our children," said the victim's father in a written statement. "Instead, he used the situation to force vile and disgusting acts on our little girl."
TV report sought in MySpace case
KIM NORRIS
12 Jun 2006 12:00 am
The FBI is interested in getting a copy of a phone interview a Saginaw TV station did with a man it says was planning to rendezvous in Israel with a teenager from rural Michigan's Thumb.
In the interview, the man professed his love for Lester, whom agents intercepted in Amman on Thursday and persuaded to return home. She returned to Bishop Airport in Flint on Friday.
"I love her. She's mine, only mine," the man said in the interview.
His artistic, goth-style My-Space page shows a photo of him with his head down and face hidden. The site says: "I give you my heart, Kath" and includes a photo of Lester, who's listed as a friend on his page.
MySpace forbids those under 14 from joining and provides special protections for those 14 and 15 by allowing only people on their list of friends to access their profiles. Older users also have the option of restricting certain personal data to only those identified as friends.
FBI reports biggest violent crime jump in 15 years
James Vicini
12 Jun 2006 5:31 pm
U.S. violent crimes last year increased by the highest percentage in 15 years, the FBI said on Monday, but Justice Department officials rejected any suggestion that an anti-terrorism emphasis and federal funding cuts were to blame.
The FBI said nearly 12,500 law enforcement agencies across the country reported an increase in the number of violent crimes of 2.5 percent last year, led by more murders, robberies and aggravated assaults.
While violent crimes went up last year, the number of property crime offenses, like burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft, dropped 1.6 percent.
The FBI report did not give any explanation why the violent crime numbers and murders went up last year, but Justice Department officials said during a news briefing that the government's policies were not to blame.
Ex-convict found guilty in 1996 rapes
SAMUEL MAULL
12 Jun 2006 11:51 am
An ex-convict who raped a celebrity nearly 25 years ago and who once threatened to kill two former U.S. presidents was found guilty Monday of raping and robbing two young women in their home in 1996.
The jury convicted Leroy Johnson, 39, on all eight counts. He faces up to 25 years in prison on each of the two rape counts when state Supreme Court Justice Renee White sentences him on June 27.
Unspoken Injustice; overcoming tragedy for a better future
Stephen Webster
09 Jun 2006 12:00 am
Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series. This story contains some graphic details.
Many young victims of sexual abuse go on to lead lives just as troubled as their lost childhoods. At the core of Building Block, the child safety activist group The News Connection has partnered with for this series of reports, lays a story of abuse, despair, loss and redemption. One of the group’s founders, Christopher Largen, endured repeated, horrific childhood abuse at the hands of predators. He went through much of his life carrying the shame of thinking that he alone was made to bear that burden. Until, that is, he met his wife Gynni.
Foster mother confesses to boy's sex abuse
SHANNON PRATHER
08 Jun 2006 12:00 am
She was supposed to be a mother figure for a troubled 15-year-old boy.
Instead, foster parent Jennifer Diane Anderson admitted in court Wednesday to sexually abusing him.
Anderson, 29, and her husband took the St. Paul boy into their spacious Elk River, Minn., home in September 2003. She gave him new clothes, his own bedroom and pocket money.
"I was so grateful," said the victim's mother, Paula, about when Anderson took in her son. "She set him up with nice clothes and a beautiful home. Someone was giving my son a second chance."
Police say Anderson's generosity came at a steep price and became the ultimate abuse of power.
Republicans Sell Fish Oil, Not Good Health
08 Jun 2006 6:00 am
The other big announcement about the special session slated for next week was that we have a compromise on how to punish people who rape children.
The compromise most favored by the electorate would have been to allow sex offenders cigarettes and blindfolds before the imposition of their sentences, but getting legislators to agree that 25 years is an appropriate penalty for forcible sodomy on a 12-year-old is kind of a big deal.
This compromise is particularly telling because the old guard thought it had killed the issue but still was forced to accept reform.
The senseless death of a child spurred a family and a community to demand results. They made some lawmakers, mostly Republican lawmakers, see the insanity of the fact that while our jails are full of crackheads and meth makers, people who molest neighborhood kids are getting home confinement in their neighborhoods.
Man Arrested in Death of Clemson Student
JACOB JORDAN
07 Jun 2006 2:56 am
A registered sex offender wanted in the death of a Clemson University student who was strangled with her bikini top was captured.
Jerry Buck Inman, who was wanted on arrest warrants for murder, rape and kidnapping, was taken into custody without resistance during a traffic stop about a mile from his parents' home in Dandridge, Tenn., Sheriff David Davenport said.
The 35-year-old construction worker was registered as a sex offender in Florida in September after he was released from prison for kidnapping and sexual battery. He also was registered in North Carolina. His last address is listed as Dandridge, Tenn.
Science teacher sentenced for molesting in lab
07 Jun 2006 12:00 am
A teacher from Oxford Township man who admitted molesting four students at a Morris County high school received a suspended five-year sentence Tuesday.
Robert Fuller, 36, had sexual contact with four of his students during the biology lab class he taught at West Morris Central High School.
Shelter plan might not work out
The Associated Press
06 Jun 2006 12:00 am
The Salem YWCA hopes to expand its shelter for homeless people, many of them women and children, by moving into a former nursing home. But the site is across the street from a halfway house for former convicts, most of them sex offenders.
That leaves officials of both organizations wondering whether the two populations can make for good neighbors.
36 years in prison for molester Hawes
Lauren Keene
04 Jun 2006 12:00 am
Nearly a year after his conviction on multiple child-molest charges, Davis resident James Lyons Hawes was sentenced Friday to 36 years, four months in prison for the sexual abuse of his teenage stepson.
After an emotional four-week trial that saw testimony about child rape, pornography and bestiality, a Yolo County jury convicted Hawes on July 29, 2005, of eight felony charges stemming from the case — including one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of lewd and lascivious acts with a child and one count of unlawful oral copulation.
Hawes also was found guilty of three charges related to a threat of harm he reportedly made against the victim from inside the Yolo County Jail.
Advocates seek more say in court for crime victims
ASHBEL S. GREEN
04 Jun 2006 12:00 am
The judge listened respectfully to the testimony of the victim's mother, who wanted prison time for a former Sheridan High School teacher who repeatedly sexually abused a 15-year-old student.
Instead, Yamhill County Circuit Judge John L. Collins followed the recommendation of the prosecutor and defense attorney and sentenced the 39-year-old woman -- Adrienne Lee Raymond -- to four months in jail and five years probation.
In many ways, the Raymond case is a model for Oregon's victims' rights laws, which allow crime victims to attend court appearances and speak -- but not legally challenge sentences. Yet, some crime victims' advocates say the case also illustrates flaws in a system that relies on the good will of judges and prosecutors.
Obtaining Justice A Tall Order For Child Victim Of Short Molester
Doug Wrenn
02 Jun 2006 11:40 am
You would think that a judge would know something about the criminal justice system. Cheyenne County (Nebraska) District Judge Kristine Cecava sentenced Richard W. Thompson to ten years probation for his two felony counts of sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl. Of those ten months, Thompson will only be electronically monitored for the first four months. Cecava expressed concerns that Thompson was not a “hunter,” in the manner which he carried out his crimes, and that she feared for Thompson’s safety, as the 50-year-old sex offender is only 5 feet 1 inch tall. (I wonder how tall his 12-year-old victim was!) Perhaps Judge Cecava should learn a little more about the terminals in which she deposits society’s worst elements.
Unspoken Injustice; Denton County judge breaks the silence
Stephen Webster
02 Jun 2006 12:00 am
Part Three in a Series
After reading the first two articles in The News Connection’s Building Block series covering the various injustices associated with the criminal justice system, specifically those pertaining to convicted child molesters, Denton County Judge Bruce McFarling contacted our offices to help break the silence. On May 27, Building Block founder and published author Christopher Largen accompanied TNC to the home of Judge McFarling for an interview. The following is transcribed from recordings of the conversation.
Redmond teacher is accused of soliciting sex
PATRICK O'NEILL and MATTHEW PREUSCH
01 Jun 2006 12:00 am
A Redmond High School health teacher is accused of using the Internet to solicit sex from a minor.
The arrest followed a two-month investigation by a member of the FBI's Innocent Images Task Force, a sting operation. An FBI statement released Wednesday said an agent had held "multiple conversations" online with a person identifying himself with the Yahoo! screen name of "daddyforyoubend."
The FBI began the Innocent Images program in 1995. It targets people who are willing to travel across state lines to engage in sexual activity with a minor and producers and distributors of child pornography. The program also helps identify children who have been victims of sexual predators.
FBI officials say that one in five children ages 10 to 17 receives a sexual solicitation over the Internet. One in three children is threatened online by predators or bullies. Of middle school students surveyed, 85 percent spent at least one hour a week on the Internet. Of those, 60 percent received messages from strangers, and two-thirds of those who got messages responded.
