Talk to your kids today about sexual abuse:

By

Observer-Dispatch

Posted Nov 19, 2012 @ 03:01 AM

The growing number of child sexual abuse cases is frightening. And it sends a strong message that we all need to remain vigilant in raising awareness to this horrendous crime so that more children will come forward if they have been victimized.

Parents or other caregivers, don’t put off addressing this issue. Have an age-appropriate discussion with your child today. It’s one of the most important things you’ll ever do.

Scandals abound. The latest comes from Britain, where police said last week that a renowned BBC TV host who died last year was one of the nation’s worst pedophiles, possibly abusing several hundred children. Meanwhile, the Penn State scandal percolates a year later, with former president Graham Spanier facing charges that he lied about and concealed child sex abuse allegations involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky is serving up to 60 years in prison after being convicted of abusing young boys over a 15-year period.

Also last week, Trenton Town Supervisor Mark Scheidelman was charged with felony sex abuse, accused of abusing a 7-year-old boy. Police say Scheidelman, 52, might have abused others over the past three decades, and are asking alleged victims to come forward.

Earlier this year, it was announced that reports of sexual abuse against children in Oneida County steadily increased between 2005 and 2009. If there’s any ray of hope in this, it’s that more children are coming forward to report abuse because of heightened awareness.

Talking about such things with our kids can be uncomfortable. But there are many agencies such as the YWCA Mohawk Valley, Oneida County Child Advocacy Center or Mohawk Valley office of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that can provide information for discussing this with your child.

Don’t put it off. Begin a dialogue now and help your child understand that they must come to you if they are uncomfortable with anything. And by all means, if you suspect abuse, report it by calling the YWCA’s 24-hour confidential hotlines: 866-4120 in Herkimer County; 797-7740 in Oneida County. You can also call the Oneida County Child Advocacy Center at 732-3990.

Tips for parents, caregivers

-- Talk. Maintain a dialogue with children identifying good touch versus bad touch and helping them understand that their bodies belong to them.

-- Tone down the stranger danger. While children need to be aware of strangers and how to keep themselves safe, the vast majority of child sexual abusers are individuals the child knows, such as a parent or other relative, a teacher, coach, clergy, neighbor or family friend.

-- Break the silence. Child sexual abuse thrives on secrecy. Children need to be able to tell a trusted adult if someone tries to hurt or touch them inappropriately.

-- Get educated. Encourage professional prevention programs in the local school system and throughout the community.

— YWCA Mohawk Valley

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Missing boy found after 15 years:

Missing boy found after 15 years

By: LIZ BUCKTHORPE | via AP 
Published: October 25, 2012

ATLANTA, Ga. --  A father's search for his biological son ended when a Georgia detective called to tell him about a teenage boy police say was confined to his bedroom for years with little food.

In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the AP reports that Tony Wawrzynski said he hadn't seen his son, now 18-year-old Mitch Comer, since the child was 3 year old.

After learning from a detective that police believe Comer was abused for years in his suburban Atlanta home, Wawrzynski can't hold back tears. He says he had no idea where the boy was since his girlfriend and the child left the Arizona home they shared 15 years ago.

A grand jury has indicted the teen's stepfather, Paul, and mother, Sheila Comer, on charges of cruelty to children, false imprisonment and kidnapping.

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            NEWS

Boy Scout files reveal long history of child sex abuse cases:

The Scouts are bracing for a wave of increased scrutiny about the past handling of abuse allegations.

NEW YORK/PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - A popular Colorado Boy Scout leader named Floyd Slusher allegedly had a strategy when it came to molesting boys: He first plied his victims with alcohol, then abused them and threatened to kill anyone who talked.

On one occasion in 1976, according to police, Slusher told a Scout as he undressed the child that "what I'm going to do now, if I get arrested, after I get out of jail, I'll come after you and your family."

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It wasn't the first time that he had been accused of abusing a Scout - an investigator later concluded there were too many victims to interview - nor was it the first time that Boy Scouts of America leaders had been told about the alleged assaults.

They had placed Slusher on "probation" four years earlier after he was accused of molesting Scouts at a camp in Germany.

Slusher, who was convicted of sexually abusing a child in 1977, is among those named in 1,247 files on suspected and convicted pedophiles that the Boy Scouts kept from public view until Thursday, when they were released under a judge's order.

The roughly 20,000 pages of files lay bare disturbing incidents of child sexual abuse within one of America's most respected organizations between 1965 and 1985 and illustrate its long struggle to keep pedophiles out of its ranks.

"We failed some of our kids and we have to say we're sorry," Boy Scouts of America President Wayne Perry told Reuters. "There are cases where we failed to live up to our standards, failed to properly document cases, and fell short in other ways."

KEEPING INCIDENTS QUIET

Since at least 1919, the Boy Scouts has maintained the internal files to keep suspected pedophiles from re-entering the organization. But in a number of cases, the files show, the organization failed to take proper steps in suspected cases of abuse.

The organization currently requires even suspected cases of child molestation to be reported immediately to law enforcement officials, conducts criminal background checks, and prohibits one-on-one contact between an adult and a Scout. The group now rigorously trains volunteers and leaders to spot signs of abuse.

Local police were involved in nearly two-thirds of the 1965-1985 cases, according to a recently-released analysis by the Boy Scouts.

But in scores of other cases, local Boy Scout leaders urged accused and admitted pedophiles to quietly resign without notifying authorities, or allowed them to return to scouting after being treated by doctors or clergy.

In one case, the files show that after a volunteer in Texas was expelled when he confessed to molesting Scouts in 1965, a local Scouting official wrote to the national office and said a minister that knew the man "is doing his best to protect Boy Scouting and trying to keep this incident as quiet as possible.

"However, if some parents file charges, of course it will come out into the public."

In 1980, the files show, another Colorado Scout leader was accused of sexually molesting three Scout brothers. He was arrested and charged with sex abuse after the boys' father went to police. Months later, the father learned the man - out on bail - had been allowed to return to Scouting.

"I know that you are concerned about (him) filing a defamation of character suit," the father wrote. But "in my opinion, (the abuse arrest) should be evidence enough to remove a man from Scouting."

In the mid-1970s, an Indiana Scout leader admitted to molesting Scouts and agreed to be treated by a psychiatrist, according to the files. He was allowed to return to Scouting after his psychiatrist and minister said he was "cured."

Years later he admitted to molesting two more Scouts and resigned, according to the files.

Boy Scout officials and attorneys have said the files represent only a tiny fraction of the 1.1 million adult volunteers and leaders who mentor more than three million Scouts annually.

Still, they represent a black eye for the Boy Scouts.

They played a key evidentiary role in a 2010 civil case in which an Oregon jury found the organization liable for $18.5 million for failing to protect a Scout from a pedophile in the 1980s.

An Oregon circuit judge ordered the files released. The state's highest court upheld that order in June, over objections by the Boy Scouts. A similar court fight is unfolding in Texas over Boy Scouts files created from 1985 to 2010.

(Reporting By Chris Francescani and Tereesa Carson; Editing by Paul Thomasch)

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Louisiana Man Sentenced - Abuse of a Minor Girl:

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Louisiana Man Sentenced in Virginia to 25 Years in Prison for Filming His Sexual Abuse of a Minor Girl

WASHINGTON – A Louisiana man was sentenced to 25 years in prison this morning in Lynchburg, Va., federal court, after previously pleading guilty to recording his sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl and related offenses, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia Timothy J. Heaphy.
Gregory Thomas Miller, 57, of Deville, La., pleaded guilty on April 27, 2012, to a 10-count indictment charging him with seven counts of production of child pornography, one count of transporting child pornography, one count of possessing child pornography and one count of marijuana possession.  Today’s sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon.

According to court documents, Miller repeatedly sexually abused a 14-year-old girl and filmed numerous incidents of the abuse during a several month period in 2008.  In October 2010, the defendant’s car was stopped by National Park Service (NPS) rangers at a DUI checkpoint in Virginia.  The defendant was in the car with the girl he had abused.  NPS Rangers quickly determined that a missing persons/runaway report for her had been recorded with the National Crime Information Center.

A search of the car revealed, among other things, a laptop computer, a digital camera and marijuana.  Forensic examination of the laptop revealed video clips of the 2008 abuse.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Moon sentenced Miller to serve a lifetime of supervised release.  Miller will also be required to register as a sex offender.

This case was investigated by the NPS and the FBI, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy S. Healey and Trial Attorney Darcy Katzin of the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

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Help The PENN STATE Victims:

NCAA Penalty Establishes Fund for Victim Services and Prevention | Stop It Now

Husband doesn't blame wife for killing son: (California)

CBS NEWS (AP) 
ORANGE, Calif. - The husband of a woman accused of tossing her disabled 7-month-old son off the fourth story of a hospital parking structure said Wednesday that his wife suffered from postpartum depression and he doesn't blame her for her actions.
The baby, Noe Medina Jr., died of his injuries earlier in the day at the University of California, Irvine, Medical Center, the same day that his mother was charged with murder and felony child abuse.

This image provided by the Orange Police Department shows Sonia Hermosillo who was arrested Monday Aug. 22, 2011 on charges after she allegedly tossing her 7-month-old son from the upper level of a parking structure. (AP)

Sonia Hermosillo, 31, made a brief court appearance but did not enter a plea. She is due back in court Thursday.
Prosecutors allege that Hermosillo removed a helmet that her son wore for a medical condition before tossing him from the parking structure at Children's Hospital of Orange County. She then went back inside the hospital to validate her parking before driving away late Monday, senior deputy district attorney Scott Simmons said.
Hermosillo's husband, Noe Medina, said in an emotional press conference that he didn't blame his wife and urged women to get treatment if they think they might have postpartum depression.
He previously told The Orange County Register that his wife was deeply distraught because their son was diagnosed with congenital muscular torticollis — a twisting of the neck to one side — and wore a helmet to help correct his plagiocephaly, also known as flat-head syndrome.
He had been receiving treatment at Children's Hospital but did not have an appointment the day of the incident.
"My wife was not in her five senses. She didn't know what she was doing," Medina said, choking back tears. "I don't know if many people know what postpartum depression is, but in reality it is something very serious and needs to be treated."

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Alaska mother convicted of abusing adopted Russian son:

Beagley said her adopted son had emotional problems

A US woman accused of using extreme methods to punish her adopted Russian son as a ploy to get on a TV programme has been convicted of child abuse.

The jury in Alaska was shown a video in which Jessica Beagley poured spicy sauce into her son's mouth.
Defence lawyers said she wanted to appear on the TV programme after normal punishments had failed.
Correspondents say the case has outraged many in Russia.
The court in Anchorage heard that Beagley recorded the video for an American TV show called Doctor Phil, in which parents seek help over child behaviour issues.
Ban lifted Prosecutors said Beagley asked her 10-year-old daughter to record footage, in which she confronts her adopted son about his behaviour, and then pours hot sauce into his mouth.
In the video, which Beagley recorded for a programme segment called "Mommy Confessions", she could also be seen forcing the screaming seven-year-old boy into a cold shower.
Defence lawyers said she was desperate to appear on the programme after normal punishments failed to work on the boy, who they said had emotional problems.
"It is our feeling Jessica was doing the best she could," said defence lawyer William Ingaldson. "This is a very good, loving family."
Beagley showed no emotion when the jury announced its verdict. (More)

CBP enforcement identifies 29 fugitives - man wanted for aggravated sexual assault of a child:

Brett Fletcher

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/local/08192011_3.xml

CBP enforcement activity identifies 29 fugitives including man wanted for aggravated sexual assault.

www.cbp.gov

(Friday, August 19, 2011) contacts for this news release

El Paso, Texas – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers working at ports of entry in El Paso, West Texas, and New Mexico identified 138 violations during the past week. CBP officers apprehended fugitives, identified immigration violations, seized drugs, and confiscated prohibited agriculture items during the last seven days.

 

CBP officers working at area ports identified 29 fugitives during the previous week including one man who was wanted in Houston on aggravated sexual assault on a child charges. The arrest was made Aug. 14 at the Paso Del Norte pedestrian crossing when 55-year-old Lucio Reyes Alvarez was identified as a wanted subject, as CBP officers processed his entry document. CBP officers confirmed the warrant and took custody of the subject without incident. He was turned over to the El Paso Police Department and booked into the El Paso County Jail where he is currently detained.

 

“The CBP inspection process routinely results in fugitives being identified and apprehended,” said CBP El Paso Director of Field Operations Ana B. Hinojosa. “El Paso is recognized as one of the safest large cities in the U.S. and we believe that the work being done by CBP personnel at area ports of entry have helped the city achieve that notable rank. In this case specifically, our officers prevented a person wanted for being a sexual predator against children, from being able to enter our city and our neighborhoods.” (More.)