Justice Department Honors New Jersey Human Trafficking Victim Advocate

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, April 13, 2018

Today, the Department of Justice recognized Dawne Lomangino-DiMauro, co-chair of the Anti-Trafficking Task force of All Counties (New Jersey), with the Crimes Victims’ Rights Award. This honor is awarded to individuals whose efforts to advance or enforce victims’ rights have benefitted victims at the state, tribal, or national levels. She was honored during the annual National Crime Victims’ Service Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

“Human trafficking is a violent and abhorrent crime, and its victims deserve our highest levels of our support,” said Attorney General Sessions.  “Throughout her career, Dawne Lomangino-DiMauro has consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty to support trafficking survivors.  Her advocacy has led to clear improvements in New Jersey’s response to the criminal sex trade as well as greater awareness of its victims.  I am grateful for her courageous service.”

Lomangino-DiMauro has been an active member of the anti-trafficking movement in New Jersey for 12 years. She is the co-chair of the Anti-Trafficking Taskforce of All Counties; she has promoted passage of legislation to help victims, including the New Jersey Prevention, Protection, and Treatment Act; and she implemented DreamCatcher, New Jersey’s first state-funded victim service program devoted solely to raising awareness and networking services for identified victims.

Lomangino-DiMauro successfully advocated for new arrest policies in New Jersey, and was instrumental in developing a partnership with the New Jersey Department of Children and Families supporting mandatory human trafficking training for all staff.

“Through her tireless efforts to enhance victims’ rights, Ms. Lomangino-DiMauro has changed the way trafficking victims are treated in the state of New Jersey,” said Director Darlene Hutchinson of the Office for Victims of Crime. “The Department of Justice is proud to honor her for her remarkable contributions and for her commitment to justice for all individuals victimized by crime.”

During today’s ceremony, the Justice Department recognized a dozen individuals and organizations for their outstanding efforts on behalf of victims of crime. Awardees were selected from public nominations in ten categories.

Each year in April, the Department of Justice observes National Crime Victims’ Rights Week by taking time to honor victims of crime and those who advocate on their behalf. In addition, the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney’s Offices organize events to honor the victims and advocates, as well as bring awareness to services available to victims of crime. This year’s observance takes place April 8-14, with the theme Expand the Circle: Reach All Victims.

The Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, within the Office of Justice Programs, leads communities across the country in observing National Crime Victims’ Rights Week each year. President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the first National Crime Victims’ Rights Week in 1981 to bring greater sensitivity to the needs and rights of victims of crime.

The Office of Justice Programs provides innovative leadership to federal, state, local, and tribal justice systems, by disseminating state-of-the art knowledge and practices across America, and providing grants for the implementation of these crime fighting strategies. Because most of the responsibility for crime control and prevention falls to law enforcement officers in states, cities, and neighborhoods, the federal government can be effective in these areas only to the extent that it can enter into partnerships with these officers. More information about the Office of Justice Programs and its components can be found atwww.ojp.gov. More information about Crime Victim’s Rights Week can be found at https://ovc.ncjrs.gov/ncvrw/

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FOOD ALLERGIES LINKED TO ‘PERFECT STORM’ OF BABY WIPES AND GENETICS

Northwestern University researchers have discovered a link between food allergies, baby wipes and genetics.

Author: Sonja Haller, All the Moms

Food allergies in kids range from annoying to a terrifying, time-consuming life or death condition for parents.

Now Northwestern University researchers have discovered a link between food allergies, baby wipes and genetics.

‘PERFECT STORM’ OF FACTORS

Researchers found from working with mice that food allergies developed if:

they possessed genetics that alter skin absorbency,baby wipes that left soap on the skin were used,they were exposed to dust allergens,and they were in contact with problem foods like peanuts and eggs.

Joan Cook-Mills, a professor of allergy-immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, called it the “perfect storm” for triggering a food allergy in a news release.

“This is a recipe for developing food allergy. It’s a major advance in our understanding of how food allergy starts in early life.”

The research was published in the April issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

THE BABY WIPES CONNECTION

Cook-Mills found exposing mice with a genetic mutation to something like peanuts alone had no effect when exposed to the skin. She considered all the other things babies are exposed to including environmental allergens. Cook-Mills then read about research studies that delivered compounds through the skin by using soap.

“I thought oh my gosh! That’s infant wipes!”

Northwestern’s research says that a baby’s skin is made up of lipids — fats — that can be disrupted by the soap in baby wipes and in certain babies, with a genetic disposition, this can increase the risk of their exposure to food allergens.

The research doesn’t say that wipes cause food allergies, but it does suggest ways to minimize a baby’s exposure to food allergens.

WHAT PARENTS CAN DO

Researchers do have some common-sense, basic suggestions to reduce baby’s skin exposure to food allergens:

Wash your hands before handling the baby.Limit use of baby wipes.Rinse soap off with water.

Original Article

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Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography Depicting Victims in the Philippines

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, April 9, 2018

A Manassas, Virginia man pleaded guilty today to using the Internet to pay women to sexually abuse children as young as six years old in the Philippines while he produced numerous images of the abuse.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick for the Eastern District of Virginia and Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement.

According to court documents, from at least October 2011 until February 2012, Dwayne Stinson, 53, used an electronic payment service to pay women in the Philippines he was chatting with to sexually abuse children while he directed the abuse. He admitted that some of the children were as young as six or seven years old. The defendant contemporaneously produced numerous screenshot images of the abuse and stored them on his computer.

Stinson pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography before U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady. His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 24, 2018.

The Prince William County Police Department and Northern Virginia/District of Columbia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (NOVA/DC ICAC) assisted in the investigation. CEOS Trial Attorney James E. Burke IV and Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Russell for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Trinity Mount Ministries

Meet The Group Of Volunteers Who Rescue Children From Sex Traffickers

by Mark Baker

Though human sex trafficking continues to be a major issue that plagues the entire globe, the battle against it rarely gets the attention that it deserves. Last year, theNational Human Trafficking Hotline saw 4,460 cases of human trafficking, many of which involved children being trafficked for sex. Making matters even worse, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimates that one in sex endangered runaways are victims of sex trafficking.

Thankfully, a group of volunteers have come together to take on the human trafficking crisis head-on. The volunteers have started a San Diego-based non profit called Saved in America, which is made up of former law enforcement officers, Navy SEALs and other former military members.

Thanks to this group, countless children have been saved from the clutches of sex traffickers. One such girl was 15-year-old Seraphine Bustillos, who went missing from her California home in July of 2017. Saved in America teamed up with the local police force and helped law enforcement find her three months later. She was with a much older man with a lengthy criminal record when she was found.

Joseph Travers, a chaplain and private investigator, is one of the cofounders of Saved in America. He said he was inspired to start the group when he heard the story of Brittanee Drexel, who disappeared in 2009. She is believed to have been kidnapped, raped, and murdered by traffickers.

“I knew that street gangs, prison gangs and cartels took over drug trafficking in the 1980s and then they took over sex trafficking at the turn of the century,” Travers told People. “When I read about Brittanee Drexel, who disappeared off the face of the planet, I just knew gangs were involved.”

Saved in America has assisted in 60 successful child recoveries in the last three years, and they hope to add to this number in 2018, as the work they are doing is more important now than ever before. In the video below this story, Saved in America volunteers estimate that there are between 3,400 and 8,100 victims of commercial exploitation, including child sex trafficking, in San Diego alone every year. The FBI officially considers San Diego to be one of the 13 highest areas of child sex trafficking in this country.

“The public has got to know what’s going on,” said Sean Murphy, a retired San Diego police lieutenant and member of Saved in America. “It’s happening right here in San Diego, California.”

“All we want to see is, we want to see the recovery of that child and it brought back to where its childhood is not stolen from him or her,” added Master Chief Kirby Horrell, a retired Navy SEAL.

Find out more about Saved In America [in the video on YouTube], and SHARE this story so we can spread the word about the amazing work this group is doing!

Original Article w/ Video

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Kansas Man Pleads Guilty to Charges Related to the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Southeast Asia

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, April 6, 2018

Kansas Man Pleads Guilty to Charges Related to the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Southeast Asia

A 71-year-old Kansas native who was residing in Panama pleaded guilty today to use of sexually explicit depictions of a minor for importation into the United States, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas.

Jebediah Dishman, of Fredonia, Kansas, pleaded guilty to an information charging him with use of sexually explicit depictions of a minor for importation into the United States before U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. of the Southern District of Texas.  Sentencing is set for July 6.

Dishman was arrested in Houston on Nov. 8, 2016, on a criminal complaint.  On Feb. 1, 2017, a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas indicted him on one count each of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in a foreign country, production of child pornography, sex trafficking of children, and obtaining custody and control of a minor for the purpose of producing sexually explicit visual depictions of the minor.

According to admissions made in conjunction with a plea agreement, in September 2014, Dishman began an approximately six-month trip to several countries in Southeast Asia.  During his trip to Indonesia, another tourist observed Dishman engaging in suspicious interactions with minors, masturbating while watching minors, and using a tablet to take photographs of a three-year-old German child.  The tourist confronted Dishman, seized his tablet, and turned it over to local authorities.  U.S. authorities later reviewed the tablet pursuant to a search warrant and discovered sexually explicit images of minors, including of the German child, as well as Internet searches indicating an interest in the sex trafficking of minors in Southeast Asia.

The FBI is investigating this case with the cooperation of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.  Trial Attorneys James E. Burke IV and William M. Grady of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Zack of the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly Peirson of the Central District of Illinois, previously on detail at CEOS, also served as a vital member of the prosecution team at earlier stages of the litigation.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. 

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Trinity Mount Ministries

Deputy Principal Among Men Charged After Child Porn Raid

Catholic secondary school has been charged with child porn offences following raids across Melbourne that allegedly uncovered abuse material featuring victims as young as newborns.

The man appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court last week charged with a string of offences including accessing child abuse ­material and knowingly possessing material.

Police confirmed on Wednesday that a 48-year-old man from Richmond who had been charged after recent raids had appeared in court last week and was due to appear again on July 6.

It is understood that he has been handed an interim suspension from teaching by the Victorian Institute of Teaching.

Another one of the men charged was a primary school teacher working in a non-classroom role as an administrator in a school office.

In a major operation, Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police raided homes across 19 suburbs and one country town over several days in March.

They discovered horrific child abuse material, child sex dolls, weapons and drugs.

“The material that we're talking about here that's been seized relates to images of children as young as newborn children to the age of 17 years," Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton told reporters on Wednesday.

"It involves them in sexually provocative poses, it involves them being subject to violence, it involves them being in degraded acts and it also involves torture."

The joint task force is now trying to identify the children in the thousands of videos and photos. No Australian children were in need of rescue at this stage.

Mr Patton warned people accessing "millions" of child abuse videos and photos monthly in Australia that they were "onto them."

original article

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Man Sentenced to 480 Months in Federal Prison for Sexually Abusing Boys and/or Producing Child Pornography

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Northern District of Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Forney Man Sentenced to 480 Months in Federal Prison for Sexually Abusing Boys and/or Producing Child Pornography of at Least Ten Boys

DALLAS — Kevin Scott Morris, 45, of Forney, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade to 480 months in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release, following his guilty plea in December 2017 to one count of enticement of a minor, announced U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox of the Northern District of Texas.   

According to the factual resume and criminal complaint filed in the case, from at least 2009 through the time of Morris’ arrest in this case in 2016, Morris held himself out to parents and children as a member of law enforcement, a photographer, and a film director.  In so doing, he convinced at least ten children and their parents to allow him to photograph the children, film the children, and even travel with Morris for the purpose of film and photography sessions that his victims thought would lead to modeling or acting careers.  During these “sessions,” Morris built up the trust of, and groomed, several boys who he then sexually abused and/or used to create child pornography.

Law enforcement learned of Morris’ abuse when one of his victims made an outcry that Morris had sexually abused him when he was thirteen years old.  When Morris was arrested, law enforcement uncovered numerous videos and images of Morris sexually abusing several other children.  In addition, Morris possessed child pornography that he did not produce, including videos of toddlers being sexually abused and a video of a prepubescent boy being raped with his hands tied behind his back.

Morris and the government entered into a plea agreement, in which both parties agreed to the term of imprisonment. 

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood leverages federal, state and local resources to better investigate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children.  Project Safe Childhood also prioritizes identifying and rescuing victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

The FBI, the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cypress Police Department in California investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie L. Hoxie prosecuted.

Department of Justice

Project Safe Childhood

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