Trinity Mount Ministries - DOJ - PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD - Justice News

Project Safe Childhood is 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 the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.

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June 17, 2019

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Pierre Man Sentenced to Fifty Years in Federal Prison for Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Child, Interstate Travel With Intent to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct, and Child Pornography Charges

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RESOURCES

Amber Alert

iKeepSafe

INOBTR ("I Know Better")

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Office of Educational Technology Internet Safety

Read the Project Safe Childhood Fact Sheet »

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Operation Southern Impact III: 17 children recovered, 82 arrested in child sex sting

Operation Southern Impact III child sex sting mug shots

A 4-month long investigation spanned eight southeastern states including both North and South Carolina.
Author: Phillip Kish

A firefighter. A business owner. A dishwasher. They were among 82 people arrested as part of a massive, multi-state child exploitation operation conducted across eight southeastern states, including Georgia.

Seventeen children were recovered in the operation, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

"It's not uncommon at all for us to find children in the homes of people who are collecting and viewing child pornography and it's not uncommon for them to be victims of that person," said GBI Special Agent in Charge Debbie Garner.

The operation began four months ago and culminated in three days of investigative actions to include search warrant executions, undercover operations, arrests and sex offender compliance verification visits in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.

In Georgia, 31 people were arrested during the sting, which was dubbed "Operation Southern Impact III." Seven of those arrested had traveled to meeting a minor to have sex, the GBI said.

Investigators in Georgia "targeted those seeking out and distributing the most violent sexual abuse material involving infants and toddlers," according to the GBI news release.

A total of 56 search warrants were executed and 41 knock and talks were conducted in Georgia during Operation Southern Impact III.

During the operation, four registered sex offenders were encountered and arrested in Georgia on charges related to child pornography. One of the registered sex offenders arrested during Operation Southern Impact III was initially arrested by the GBI during a very similar operation in 2015.

The GBI said 972 digital media and devices were seized as evidence and illegal drugs and firearms were also found.

Those in custody and charged in Georgia as part of Operation Southern Impact III are:

Operation Southern Impact III child sex sting mug shots

Jimmy Abadio Lopez
1/10

James Barfield IV, 51, Atlanta, GA, home improvement store employee

Dillan M. Bell, 26, Allenhurst, GA, unemployed

Gerald Chamberlain, 34, Rome, GA, golf course maintenance worker

Carol Chellew, 56, Jefferson, GA, county employee

Doug Chellew, 56, Jefferson, GA, department store employee

Timothy Wayne Diggs, 39, Metter, GA, information technology specialist

Keith James Diver, 37, Norcross, GA, restaurant employee

Erick Noe Gonzalez, 26, Buford, GA, landscaper

Erik Gordon, 30, Morrow, GA, shipping company employee

Desmond Lemond Hasley, 27, Douglasville, GA, staffing company employee

Keidron Jayquan Isham, 23, Rome, GA, unemployed

Claude Martin Johnson IV, 21, Augusta, GA, unemployed

Andrew Kim, 30, Suwanee, GA, business owner

Jordan Logan, 33, Grovetown, GA, painter

Jonathan Craig Manning, 28, Rome, GA, railroad worker

Andrew J. Martz, 30, Tyrone, GA, student

Matthew James McDurmond, 26, Cedartown, unknown

Terry Menard, 61, Roswell, GA, multimedia designer

Daniel Joseph Mullinax, 35, Auburn, GA, unemployed

Justin Lee Myers, 22, Cleveland, GA, unknown

Andrew Benjamin Nelson, 42, Marietta, GA, construction worker

Michael David Quinn, 44, Roswell, GA, unknown

Matthew Steven Ramski, 37, Cumming, GA, graphic design artist

Arlen Lemuel Riddle, 46, Muscadine, AL, fireman

Malchijah Robinson, 40, Decatur, GA, unemployed

David Chris Sammons, 33, Eatonton, GA, factory worker

Omar S. Sanchez-Viera, 40, Jonesboro, GA, health supplement company employee

Chad Sitzwohl, 35, Dawsonville, GA, factory worker

Wille D. Slaughter, 33, Valdosta, GA, military veteran

Wan Yeung Tang, 45, Cumming, GA, dishwasher

Tyler Wooten, 21, Sharpsburg, GA, student

Boy Scout Child Sex Abuse: Here's How Many Accused In CT

The Boy Scout logo is displayed in a store on July 27, 2015 in San Rafael, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

More than 100 former Boy Scout leaders who appeared in the so-called "Perversion Files" were being singled out Tuesday. The law firms of Greg Gianforcaro and Jeff Anderson & Associates named leaders in New York and New Jersey at a livestreamed press conference where sex abuse survivors were to share their stories.

More than 7,800 Boy Scouts of America leaders nationwide were accused by the lawyers of child sex abuse. Many of the former Scout leaders appeared in a sweeping Los Angeles Times database dating to October 2012 that tracked thousands of men and women who were kicked out of the organization between 1947 and January 2005 due to suspected sex abuse.

Jeff Anderson said he planned to file multiple lawsuits against the Boy Scouts on behalf of many victims.

"When we got this information, we had to sound this alarm," he said.

There are about 35 Boy Scout leaders from Connecticut who appeared in the "Perversion Files." Patch is not naming the individuals as many were not charged. The Times noted that an unknown number of files were purged by the organization before the 1990s and an un­known num­ber of ad­di­tion­al cases were cre­ated after 2005. The most recent Connecticut file is from 2004 and the oldest dates back to 1956. All but four of around 80 files are from before 2000.

There are more than 100,000 scouting units nationwide, the organization wrote on its website.

The Boy Scouts said in a statement to media outlets Monday night that it cares "deeply about all victims of child sex abuse" and sincerely apologizes to "anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting." The organization stressed that it has enacted "strong youth protection policies" to prevent future abuses. This includes mandatory youth protection trainings and a formal leader-selection process that includes criminal background checks.

"We believe victims, we support them, and we have paid for unlimited counseling by a provider of their choice," the BSA said. "Nothing is more important than the safety and protection of children in Scouting, and we are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to abuse innocent children."

The BSA added that it never knowingly allowed people accused of abuse to work with kids. All leaders, volunteers and staff members are required to immediately report abuse allegations to law enforcement.

The cases in the "Perversion Files" database originated from secret Scouting files submitted in court cases, The Times wrote. Specifically, the cases originated from a 1992 Cali­for­nia law­suit, a release order by the Ore­gon Su­preme Court and sum­mary data on ad­di­tion­al files.

On Tuesday, the law firms said they'd demand identifying and background information in every BSA leader accused of child sex abuse in New Jersey and New York.

The "Perversion Files" documented horrific sex abuse allegations. In some states, Scouts were stripped naked and rubbed with ice cubes. Others were forced to have oral sex with their troop leaders and molested on camping trips, according to the report.

Patch staffers Noah Manskar, Tom Davis and Dan Hampton contributed reporting.

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THORN - We can eliminate child sexual abuse from the internet:

Reports of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online have increased 10,000% since 2004.

Our response to this epidemic must be redesigned for the digital age. It won’t be easy, but it is possible.

When we don’t talk about it, abuse and injustice thrive.

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How Catholic Church used treatment centers to protect priests accused of child abuse

Monsignor William Lynn was the first U.S. Catholic Church official to be convicted of covering up clergy sex abuse.  After Pennsylvania's Supreme Court vacated Lynn’s conviction, he faces another trial this year.  (AP file photo)

In 1995, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned an internal church study on child abuse. The two-volume study surveyed bishops in more than 100 dioceses nationwide about their use of treatment centers to assess and care for priests believed to be sexually abusing children.

The result: 87% of bishops (127 out of 145 dioceses surveyed) reported using treatment centers for clergy accused of child abuse.

Two decades later, following the August release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church — one of three released by the state attorney general since early 2000  — dioceses in multiple states and at least one state attorney general have disclosed their own lists of credibly accused priests.

The Pennsylvania report focuses on many small towns throughout the state.  One of those towns — mentioned more than a dozen times — is an outlier. It’s a town you wouldn’t think to look for unless, like me, you were born and raised there.

In 2002, around the same time the Boston Globe published its bombshell report on sexual abuse of children in Archdiocese of Boston, I was a freshman at Bishop Shanahan, a Catholic high school in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

I don’t remember paying much attention to the Boston Globe report. Nor was I aware that, during this same time, multiple priests accused of child abuse were being sent to a clergy treatment center directly across the street from my high school.

Downingtown is home to the longest-running behavioral health facility in North America still in use by the Catholic Church. It’s a place where  —  according to the reports  —  at least 50 priests accused of molesting children in Pennsylvania were referred for evaluation and treatment.

That treatment time was often referred to in their employment history as “sick leave,” and many priests were inevitably discharged and permitted to return to active ministry. Others were transferred to church-run retirement homes where they received fully paid benefits. The church commonly called that retreat a “life of prayer and penance.”

St. John Vianney Center
Founded in 1946, the St. John Vianney Center in Downingtown is staffed by clergy, psychologists, and nurses. It offers inpatient and outpatient services for behavioral and emotional issues, addiction, compulsive behaviors, and weight management. It is fully funded and administered under the purview of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

In detail, the grand jury report  — much like the 1995 USCCB study  — offers rare insight into the church’s use of “treatment” centers, the psychiatric facilities for clergy with addiction, depression, and sexual disorders, among other conditions. According to the grand jury report, the Catholic Church used these treatment centers to “launder accused priests, provide plausible deniability, and permit hundreds of known offenders to return to ministry.”

The report goes on further to state that Catholic bishops relied on three treatment centers in particular: Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs, New Mexico; St. Luke’s in Suitland, Maryland; and St. John
Vianney Center. All three remain open.

Downingtown, less than an hour south of Philadelphia, is no stranger to scandal involving the church. Most recently, in 2017, a pastor at the nondenominational Calvary Fellowship Church, across the street from Downingtown East High School, pleaded guilty to institutional sex assault, corruption of minors, and child
endangerment after sexually assaulting and impregnating a teenage girl. He was sentenced to up to six years in prison.

Five years earlier,  Monsignor William Lynn  —  who was serving at St. Joseph’s parish across the street from Downingtown West High School  —  became the first high-ranking U.S. Catholic Church official to be convicted of covering up clergy sex abuse. In addition to three priests and a parochial school teacher, Lynn was
charged and convicted of one count of endangering the welfare of a child. He is now free after serving nearly three years of his three- to six-year sentence. He may face another trial on the charges this year.

St. Joseph’s Church in Downingtown remains the second largest parish in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The recently renovated facade, with its towering white steeple, sits just off Route 322. Every Sunday, parishioners fill the parking lot before Mass. Every summer, the same lot is transformed into the annual Community Festival: a five-day carnival that is a hallmark of the small suburb.

On the opposite side of town is St. John Vianney Center. Unlike St. Joseph’s parish, on display as a beacon to area Catholics, the treatment center is hidden from public view. It sits at the end of a long driveway at the top of a hill, surrounded by trees and nestled between a country club and Bishop Shanahan High School across the street.

The only clue toward its existence is a small sign outside the entrance. It’s a fitting appearance for a place shrouded in a culture of secrecy characteristic of the church itself.

 A look at two cases
One of the four men charged along with Lynn  in 2012 was the Rev. Edward Avery, who  received treatment at St. John Vianney over the course of four days from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, 1992. Following his evaluation, the treatment center recommended further in-patient care. Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who had allowed Avery to remain in active ministry for nearly 11 months after his victim first reported the abuse to the archdiocese, approved the recommendation.

Avery was discharged from St. John Vianney on Oct. 22, 1993. In a memo to the church, Lynn shared the treatment center’s recommendations for Avery, which included a ministry excluding adolescents and with a population other than vulnerable minorities. The treatment center also advised that an aftercare team supervise Avery.

Yet Lynn recommended that Avery return to a parish with an elementary school, and Bevilacqua ultimately agreed. Avery would later testify before the grand jury that he continued to celebrate Mass, with altar servers, usually twice a weekend. He heard the confessions of children and was never told to restrict his activities with the youth of the parish.

The aftercare team that was supposed to be supervising Avery didn’t meet with him for more than a year after he ended treatment. Furthermore, the chaplain at St. John Vianney warned Lynn that Avery was “neglecting his duties” and instead “booking numerous disc jockey engagements” to gain access to children. Avery remained in active ministry until Dec. 5, 2003, a decade after first receiving treatment.

Avery’s case is one of many revealing exactly how the Catholic Church used St. John Vianney and other treatment centers to launder accused priests and, in some cases, return them to ministry in defiance of the treatment center’s own recommendations.

And while it’s worth noting that many of the allegations contained within the grand jury report are from decades ago, the case studies involving treatment centers cover allegations ranging from as early as the 1960s to as recent as 2004.

In a separate case, on April 22, 2004, diocesan documents show that Pennsylvania State Police searched the room of the Rev. Ronald Yarrosh  —  then assistant pastor at St. Ambrose in Schuylkill Haven  —  and found a “tremendous amount” of child pornography.

A week later, he was suspended from ministry and placed into treatment at St. John Vianney.

Across the street, I was just about to finish my sophomore year of high school.

On May 12, 2004, State Police filed charges: 110 counts of sexual abuse of children.  Yarrosh was sentenced pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement that included three to 23 months in prison. He was discharged from St. John Vianney on May 3, 2005, and was later incarcerated for nearly four months until his release on Dec. 6, 2005, as a convicted and registered sex offender.

According to the grand jury report, upon his release, Yarrosh remained a member of the priesthood and the diocese granted him residence at a retirement home for priests in Orwigsburg — only a few miles from St. Ambrose parish where he had been arrested two years earlier.

In 2006, according to the grand jury report, Yarrosh took trips to New York City with a 7-year-old. Yarrosh was also found to be in possession of pornography in violation of his court supervision. He was sentenced to
four to 10 years in state prison. In June 2007, the Yarrosh was finally dismissed from the priesthood.

The current president of St. John Vianney, David Shellenberger, did not return requests for an interview.

Time for a mea culpa:

I’ve driven past St. John Vianney hundreds of times in my life. I spent four years, every day, directly across the street. And yet, I never knew what that place was until I discovered it on my own, by accident, reading the grand jury report.

Much like the abusive priests written about in the reports, the truth was always hiding in plain sight. If the Catholic Church is serious about reform within the priesthood, it will do more than simply condemn the accused.

The church must acknowledge and recognize that bishops across the country have, for decades, institutionalized a culture that not only fosters abusive priests but also aims to protect the accused and silence victims. Simply put, the only reason child abuse has become an epidemic is because the Catholic Church has allowed it to happen.

What the #MeToo era revealed, beyond a litany of heinous acts committed by sexual predators, is that the allegations themselves rarely tell the full story. Instead — whether it be the Catholic Church or Michael Jackson or Jeffrey Epstein — the full story often involves those in power exploiting their influence and privilege to circumvent the criminal justice system and maintain the appearance of infallibility.

Perhaps the first step toward reform in the Catholic Church is a collective confirmation that members of the clergy are no more pious than anyone else. They are, in fact, only human — some of them deeply flawed — and all of them in need of self-reflection.

Perhaps, a life of prayer and penance is in order.

Trinity Mount Ministries - Project Safe Childhood - DOJ - Justice News

Project Safe Childhood is 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 the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.

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Federal collaboration produced real time results, 360 month sentence for production, transportation & possession of child porn

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April 11, 2019

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Tampa Man Sentenced To Twenty Years For Producing Child Pornography Of Minors He Met Online

RESOURCES

Amber Alert

iKeepSafe

INOBTR ("I Know Better")

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Office of Educational Technology Internet Safety

Read the Project Safe Childhood Fact Sheet »

Featured Videos