Dyer, IN man caught after fleeing authorities in rape case

A 24 year former resident of Dyer, IN, wanted on a charge of rape from July 2003, was caught after DNA taken from an arrest in Utah was used by New England states to arrest him. Jeffery Cameron was arrested in NW Connecticut for fleeing from justice regarding a rape which occurred 5 years ago.

The victim was attacked by a man who showed up at her front door with a rifle and hatchet. When he asked for money, she offered him her ATM and car keys. The man, who came back because the card would not work, bound her feet, waist, and fact with duct tape and raped her. After the rape, he tossed her his T-shirt and left. Cameron was identified in a photo lineup.

Five days after the rape, Cameron was arrested in Utah on an unrelated charge. While Cameron spent 45 days in jail on that charge, Utah police collected his DNA and entered it into their database.As police across the country merge their DNA databases, Cameron's DNA that was collected in Utah matched the DNA recovered from the 2003 Dyer rape, Foley said.

The U.S. marshal's office in Vermont found out that Cameron was in Connecticut. Marshals contacted Connecticut state police, who arrested him."They did a wonderful job," Foley said. "From the time we had the warrant until he was found was less than a week."

The US marshals office in Vermont found out that Cameron was in Connecticut. Marshals contacted Connecticut state police, who arrested him. Lake County, IN, is currently working to extradite him back to Indiana, something which should occur by June 4. Cameron, a native of Korea, is being held on $200,000 bond in the New Haven, CT jail.

KC man convicted of rape he committed while still teenage - 18 year DNA storage cracks case

Harry McNeal, now 33, will spend more time in prison because of rape due to DNA evidence kept for the last 18 years. Jackson County jurors convicted him of an attack on a then 29 year old woman in 1990 as she slept with her then 6 year old son. The then 15 year old assailant pointed a handgun at her, raped her in front of her son, then stole $75 from her. Jurors acquitted McNeal of an armed robbery charge because it was unclear if the gun was out when he stole the money.

After the verdict, the victim, now 47, and her son, now 24, discussed the case in the courthouse hallway. Science closed the case, they said, and protected others from McNeal.

Police matched semen from the 1990 rape to McNeal last year and charged him as he was about to finish a 17-year sentence for another rape. He went to prison for that crime in 1991 as part of a plea deal.

The trial this week also demonstrated how sure DNA is compared to eyewitness evidence, which is a leading cause of false convictions.

Police matched semen from the rape to McNeal last year and charged him just before he would have finished a 17 year sentence for another rape. In 1991, the victim pointed to another man as part of a lineup, not McNeal. At trial, defense attorney Molly Hastings noted than and tried to blame the other man for the rape, but prosecutors countered with the evidence that there was a 1 in 7.3 quadrillion (1 with 15 zeros after it) that anyone but McNeal was the rapist.

Repeat offender charged with raping, beating prostitute

Daryl Norris, who police said shared consensual sex and crack cocaine with a 35 year old woman recently convicted of prostitution, has now been charged with kidnapping, two counts of second degree sexual assault and one count of second degree reckless endangerment for raping, beating, and offering her services to another man.

The 35-year-old victim was repeatedly beaten and kicked by Norris and thrown down a flight of stairs, the complaint says.

The complaint quotes Madison Police Detective Lisa Wing as saying "she has never seen an adult with such extensive bruising," as the victim had. "She had extensive bruising, swelling and abrasions on her entire head and body," the complaint says.

Eventually, when Norris fell asleep, the victim was able to escape at about 4:30 a.m. on May 17 through the front door after removing a make-shift barricade made out of a chair, table, hand weights and a piece of wood.

The victim fled nude to the nearby Lake Point Road area where she pounded on windows to attract attention and gained the help of residents there.

According to the complaint, the victim agreed to go with Norris to share crack cocaine and when they got to his house they had consensual sex, the woman said, and then smoked some crack Norris had bought. The victim would later tell police Norris acted strangely after ingesting the crack.

"He made growling noises and talked about the bible while he smoked the crack cocaine," the complaint says.

The woman wanted to leave, but Norris persuaded her to stay with the promise of more crack, according to the complaint. He then forced her to have sex with him, dragged her around the basement of his house, and beat and kicked her. He also offered her services to another man who declined.

The victim said she was knocked out during the beatings and doesn't remember some of it "because the defendant beat her viciously and repeatedly about her head and face," according to the complaint.

Norris, who is charged as an repeat offender, faces 152 years of both prison and extended supervision for all charges.

Man indicted in I-71 off ramp rape pleads guilty, sentenced to 10 years in prison

Dexter Ford, 53, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and lifetime Tier 3 sex offender registration as punishment for charges of rape and felonious assault Tuesday, May 27. He faced a second charge of rape and other charges of kidnapping and attempted rape.

The incident occurred November 8, when a then 23 year old Coryville, OH woman suffered an epileptic seizure on the Interstate 71 on-ramp. Prosecutors originally claimed that the victim sleepwalked before the attack, but clarified it to say she suffered from epilepsy.

But in court on Tuesday, prosecutors clarified that the victim has a seizure disorder which causes a loss of consciousness, followed by several minutes of confusion.

"She's had two brain surgeries and there's a confusion after your seizure, and she wanders off. It was during one of these confused periods that this happened," prosecutor Seth Tieger said.

During the sentencing hearing, the victim spoke in court about her nightmare, as Ford was also HIV positive, and her hope that people know more about epilepsy and other seizure disorders.

"As a 24-year-old woman, I would have never imagined that I would have had to learn so much about epilepsy, and the law, and the horror of HIV. The past six months have been a never ending nightmare of worries about my HIV test results, worries about seizures, and the constant question of 'Why me?' - I hope the answer to 'Why me' is that people will be made more aware of epilepsy and other seizure disorders."

Repeat offender convicted on rape and kidnapping in NJ - paroled from VA on same charges

After a jury found a Lakewood, NJ man guilty of an abduction which occurred back in 2004, Executive Assistant State’s Attorney Ocean County Prosecutor Michel A. Paulhus filed papers seeking a life sentence based on the rapist’s prior record.

James L. Calhoun’s trial in the courtroom of Superior Court Wendel E. Daniels began on May 14, and continued until 3:30 PM Tuesday, when after two days of deliberation, a jury returned a guilty verdict on multiple counts. Calhoun commited the crimes while absconding from Virginia parole supervision for the same crimes - kidnapping and sex assault.

The jury found Calhoun, 30, of Lakewood, NJ was found guilty carjacking, aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, robbery and sexual assault. The panel, however, acquitted Calhoun of possessing a knife for an unlawful purpose and unlawfully possessing the knife.
Calhoun was on parole in Virginia from a 10-year prison term imposed in 2002 for sexual battery and abduction, according to the court papers. Calhoun also has prior convictions in New Jersey for burglary and theft.

The victim in the Lakewood case testified at trial that Calhoun abducted her at knifepoint from the Seagull Square shopping plaza on Route 9 in Lakewood on Oct. 3, 2004. He forced her into her car and drove to Vine Street in Lakewood, where he repeatedly raped her, she said. Then, he drove to a series of three ATMs, where he forced her to tell him her personal identification number so that he could withdraw $700 from her accounts, she said.

The victim also testified Calhoun drove around Lakewood and South Toms River to buy marijuana and other drugs. She said she smoked marijuana with him in hopes of gaining his trust and her eventual release.

Defense attorney Paul Zager contended that the victim had consensual sex with Calhoun, although prosecutor’s Investigator Kenneth Hess testified that Calhoun confessed to the rape.

In the confession, Calhoun told Hess he placed a knife to a woman’s throat at the shopping plaza, forced her into the back seat of her car, drove her around, tied her up with socks and raped her. After that, he demanded the victim’s ATM card and drove to several cash machines to withdraw money he later used to buy marijuana, heroin and cocaine.

After almost five hours of holding the woman captive, Calhoun apologized to her and told her to drop him off, according to Hess. Another state witness, Sgt. Eugene Thatcher of the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office, testified at the trial that Calhoun’s fingerprint was recovered from inside the victim’s car.

Calhoun will undergo a pre sentencing sex offender evaluation at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenal, NJ to determine if his sex offending is repetitive and compulsive.

Because Calhoun is a repeat offender, he faces life in prison on either the carjacking or sexual assault charge, and Paulhaus intends to seek such a sentence. If the judge does not sentence him to life, he faces 10 to 20 years in prison for each offense. For the other crimes, Calhoun faces 5 to 10 years.

Chaparrel, NM man charged with wife rape

Armando Quezada, a 32 year old Chaparrel, NM man, was arrested after attempting to flee from deputies after the alleged rape of his estranged wife in front of their 18 month old daugter in the kitchen of their home, according to Dona Ana Sheriff's Office (DASO) investigator Bo Nevarez. Quezada was arrested after an hour long chase.

It was a sharp-eyed deputy who spotted Quezada just inside Doña Ana County and launched a pursuit that crossed over into Otero County, Nevarez said. Quezada was spotted driving in Chaparral with a 17-year-old female passenger.

Because deputies hold law enforcement authority across county lines, the DASO deputy attempted to radio Otero officials, but none were able to respond before Quezada was likely to hit the Texas state line, Nevarez said.

Nevarez said the arrest is a perfect example of why the counties cooperate on law enforcement. If the DASO deputy had to break off pursuit at the Otero County line, Quezada might have avoided arrest.

Quezada, a felon recently released from a Texas prison, was found with a loaded shotgun and ammunition between the seats of the floor.

Quezada is charged with forcible confinement, criminal sexual penetration, and false imprisonment. He is also charged with being a felon inposession of a firearm, and is being held on $30,000 bond.

Loophole in Oklahoma rape statutes closed

A rape law loophole in Oklahoma which defines cases where a victim is drunk, unconscious or drugged as second degree rape instead of 1st degree rape has been closed by Oklahoma legislators. Representative Pam Peterson of Tulsa authored the bill to close the loophole after prosecutors in her city had to prosecute rape committed after a victim was drugged as second, not first degree rape. The difference in penalties regarding first degree versus second degree rape can be huge - life in prison versus a fifteen year maximum.

Current law authorizes a first-degree rape charge "where the victim was incapable through mental illness or any other unsoundness of mind, whether temporary or permanent, of giving legal consent."

Tulsa prosecutors used that definition to file a first-degree rape charge against a former nurse who was accused of raping a drugged patient at a Tulsa hospital. But the defendant's defense attorney argued that "unsoundness of mind" does not qualify when an alleged victim is drugged and unconscious. A judge ordered the man bound over for trial on a second-degree rape charge in April, and prosecutors decided not to appeal the ruling.

"I think it was an oversight in state law," Peterson said.

In a similar case in Coyle, a teenage girl recently attended a party and was given a drink she now believes contained a "date rape" drug. After passing out, the girl says she was raped and woke up with six men in the room. The only person charged in the case, a 24-year old Coyle man, is accused of second-degree rape by intoxication.

The new legislation updates state statutes to authorize a first-degree rape charge when the act is "accomplished where the victim is intoxicated by a narcotic or anesthetic agent" or in instances "where the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act and this fact is known to the accused."

Peterson's bill passes with bipartisan support, and she said the new legislation would make convicted rapist pay the full price for what they have done.

"It's encouraging. We can work in a bipartisan way to get good legislation passed. It can be done....This legislation will make it easier to subject rapists to the full punishment allowed under the law."

The bill is expected to be signed by Oklahoma's governor next week.

Chicago foot doctor convicted of sexual abuse in bench trial

(Original Story 3-29-08)
A prominent South Side (of Chicago) foot doctor, Dr. Anthony Overton, is facing trial in a sexual abuse case involving inappropriate touching of female patients before foot surgeries. Thursday's testimony involved a 52 year old woman not involved in the charging complaint, but who testified the doctor molested her in connection with bunion surgery many times in 2005, culminating when Overton asked her to drop her pants to her knees during a post operation checkup.

Overton is charged with two counts of criminal sexual assault and a count of criminal sexual abuse of a 76 year old woman. He is currently undergoing a bench trial (without a jury) in the courtroom of Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Toomin.

The charges stem from the alleged sexual assault of the 76-year-old, but others came forward and were allowed to testify at the trial, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office.

The woman who testified Thursday said she heard about the allegations on the radio while she was at work and decided to tell authorities.She alleged that the abuse began in August 2005 when she went to Overton's office for an initial visit before bunions were to be removed from her feet.Even though she told the podiatrist that she had a pre-surgical examination with her primary-care physician, Overton insisted on doing another physical, she testified. He touched her inappropriately, she said.

On the day of her surgery at Jackson Park Hospital, Overton walked over to her in the surgical waiting area, pulled the curtain around the bed, checked her heart rate and then inappropriately touched her, the woman testified."I was shocked," the woman said.

"He checked my feet and had me pull my pants down to my knees," the woman said.

Overton against asked the woman to drop her pants, and in this incident in December 2005, she finally confronted him.

"I asked him, 'What does that have to do with my feet?' " the woman said. "He said, 'You can have a nurse in here the next time.' "

Bill Hooks, Overton's defense attorney, cross examined the victim and got her to admit that she never took her complaints to authorities, either regulatory or law enforcement, and got her to acknowledged that she checked a form citing excessive bleeding. The defense attorney implied that Overton's touching was to check for bleeding.

(Update 4-3-08) Overton's ruling will be declared on April 21. Prosecutors in closing arguments Wednedsay April 2 said that Overton had no legitimate reason to give anthing other than foot exams to patients.

Isn't this just common sense?" said Asst. State's Atty. Cheryl Galvin. "Does it make any sense to go to a proctologist to have your teeth cleaned?"Overton, 64, of Olympia Fields is on trial in Cook County Criminal Court for allegedly fondling an elderly woman and giving her a vaginal and rectal examination. The woman had sought treatment for a sprained ankle in 2006. She was 75 at the time.

Overton has said he frequently gave full-body physicals to patients to diagnose other problems that may affect his patients' feet. He said it was sometimes necessary to conduct breast, vaginal and rectal exams to check for other ailments.

(Update 4-21-08) Overton was convicted of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault following the bench trial (trial by a judge alone) by Circuit Judge Michael P. Toomin. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years in prison.

Aggravated criminal sexual assault is a felony punishable by 6 to 30 years in prison per count in Illinois, and if a sex offender is convicted on more than one count, the counts must be served consecutively. Unlike most crimes, where 50% remission is granted, if someone sentenced to prison for aggravated criminal sexual assault is on their best behavior, they can only get 15% remission. Assuming Overton is sentenced to the minimum 12 years, he'll serve at least 10.2 years.

(Update 5-29-08) Overton was sentenced to 6 years in prison, meaning that the minimum sentence will be 5.1 years, assuming good behavior. Speaking of which, Judge Toomin cited Overton's formerly impeccable behavior in the community as the reason that he had the sentences run concurrently, not consecutively.

In explaining his leniency, Circuit Court Judge Michael Toomin said in his 28 years as a judge he had never seen a defendant with a more impeccable background. He noted that Overton, a doctor with four advanced degrees, had never been charged with a crime previously. He added that he had received dozens of letters in support of the podiatrist.

Prosecutors were miffed and Judge Toomin expects an appeal.

"I would have liked to have seen a bigger sentence. The mandatory minimum is 12 years," Assistant States Attorney Cheryl Galvin said.

Woman prison guard charged with sexual assault of inmate

Questions about cell phone use by a teenage inmate at an Arkansas juvenile detention facility have led to charges of 3rd degree sexual assault against a nurse who started work at the center in February. Krista Moser, 38, was arrested after officials at the Alexander youth center in Bryant, AR discovered an alleged sexual relationship.

Any professional or custodial sexual relationship between a professional and an adult patient is defined as 3rd degree sexual assault in Arkansas. (If the victim is a minor, the crime rises to 1st degree sexual assault.)

"This is a very serious crime. These inmates are out there being rehabilitated. Then you throw something like this on top of it. It causes more issues with the inmates," said Sgt. Harold Edmonson with the Bryant Police Department.

According to the police report, the center started an investigation when the inmate was found with a cell phone. The inmate told investigators Moser gave it to him. During that interview he also told him the two had a relationship that started back in March."They had bonded. She had been having problems at home apparently and she was exchanging that with him and they became close friends," said Edmonson.

According to the inmate, the activity led to “consensual” sexual activity between himself and Moser on May 4th. Because no force was used, Moser isn’t being charged with rape. 3rd degree sexual assault in Arkansas carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Last year, an Arkansas prison psychologist who had violated rules against being overly familiar with patients was sentenced to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine for sex with an inmate.

5-14-126. Sexual assault in the third degree.

(a)(1) A person commits sexual assault in the third degree if the person engages in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity with another person, not the person's spouse, and the person:

(A) Is employed with the Department of Correction, Department of Community Correction, Department of Human Services, or any city or county jail, and the victim is in the custody of the Department of Correction, Department of Community Correction, Department of Health and Human Services, or any city or county jail; or

(B) Is a professional under § 12-12-507(b) or a member of the clergy and is in a position of trust or authority over the victim and uses the position to engage in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity.

(2)(A) A person commits sexual assault in the third degree if the person being under eighteen (18) years of age engages in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity with another person not the person's spouse who is less than fourteen (14) years of age.

(B) It is an affirmative defense under subdivision (a)(2) of this section that the person was not more than three (3) years older than the victim.

(b) It is no defense to prosecution under this section that the victim consented to the conduct.

(c) Sexual assault in the third degree is a Class C felony.

History. Acts 2001, No. 1738, § 4; 2003, No. 1324, § 1.

Minnesota man charged in rape of Uof M student

A suspect has been arrested in the sexual assault of a University of Minnesota student near the Minneapolis campus on May 4. Christopher Edward Karls, 24, has been charged with three counts of 1st degree criminal sexual conduct, three counts of burglary, and a count of kidnapping.
According to the criminal complaint, Karls entered the victim’s 15th Ave. SE apartment through a window. While investigating the crime scene, police found blood on the bent aluminum frame of a storm window. A blood sample was collected as evidence, which matched the DNA profile of Chris Karls.

The woman told police she heard someone in the apartment, but thought it was a roommate. When she went into her room, she saw a man, slammed the door and locked it. The man kicked down the door.

The woman hit the intruder with a curling knife but stopped after seeing his knife. When the man, asking for money, saw she did not have any, she tried to appease him by offering her computer and curling iron instead.

According to the complaint, the man put a knife to her throat and told her to take off her clothes. He ordered her to perform oral sex, put on a condom and sexually assaulted her in multiple ways.

When he finished assaulting her, the man told her to take a shower. The victim took a comforter from her bed, hiding a cell phone inside to call police. She dialed 911, but the man heard her, took the phone and removed the battery.

After the man left the bathroom, police say the woman, wearing only a towel, jumped from a second floor window to the deck below. She broke her ankle in the fall and had injuries on her body from the knife.

Christopher Edward Karls has several past burglary convictions in Stearns County and Dakota County. He is currently being held at the Hennepin County Jail for the Minneapolis rape charges.

A second assault involving a U of M student, at Pioneer Hall on the University of Minnesota campus, remains unsolved. Karls is not currently linked to that assault.

Suburban Toronto man convicted on manslaughter charge for beating girlfriend to death

(Original Post 3-8-08)

A man who admitted killing his girlfriend by beating her to death was convicted of manslaughter, not 2nd degree murder by an Ontario court, the same sentence his lawyer tried to have him plead guilty to before his trial.

Audrey Cote, 21, was killed when 28 year old Ryan Bucknor punched her in the face and stomped on her chest in Brampton, a northwest suburb of Toronto. Bucknor could have been convicted of 2nd degree (but not 1st degree) murder, which carries a life sentence with no parole from between 10 and 25 years.

Crown prosecutor Dave King rejected Bucknor's bid to plead guilty to manslaughter before the trial began. King was confident he could prove Bucknor knew what he was doing when he repeatedly punched Cote in the face, stomped on her chest and possibly tried to strangle her in her basement apartment on Fletcher's Creek Blvd. in Brampton.

Bucknor never denied killing Cote, who worked at a Brampton strip club.

Police investigators told how Cote was laying down at her apartment when Buckner beat her so viciously that blood flew up and reached the ceiling.

He told a Crown-appointed psychiatrist that he thought he was killing "a demon" when he was beating Cote. After beating her and leaving her dying, Bucknor left the apartment and tore off his clothes as he ran down the street, throwing money to passersby and shouting he was "a messenger from God." He was initially arrested under the Mental Health Act after he was found naked and sitting in the back seat of a stranger's car. He told a police officer he was God.

But King suggested to jurors that Bucknor faked his mental problems to get out of a murder charge. In a police interview after his arrest, Bucknor described how he punched and hit Cote and how the beating gave him a "rush." He also agreed it felt like a "thrill kill," although he admitted he felt it was as if he was "acting in a movie." A close friend testified that Bucknor acted strangely just days before the fatal attack.

Bucknor was hearing voices, the friend said, and thought people could read his thoughts. He had also moved all of his furniture to one side of the living room in his apartment.
Hall urged jurors to rely on the evidence of two forensic psychiatrists, who said Bucknor was suffering from a major mental illness, likely schizophrenia, which could have been triggered by his chronic marijuana use.

"If he's killing a demon, then he can't be seeing reality the way we do," Hall told jurors.
"This man was delusional ... he was not rational.

"At the time of the incident, this man was suffering from a mental illness, a psychotic illness. His thoughts, his emotions, his behaviour was impaired."

Psychiatrists conceded Bucknor wasn't suffering from any mental health problems at trial but jurors heard he was placed on anti-psychotic medicine during his first year while in custody awaiting trial.

Bucknor will be sentenced May 5.

(Update 5-29-08) Bucknor was sentenced to 10 years in prison, between the defense recommendation for 7.5 years and the prosecution's recommendation for between 12 and 15 years. Justice John Sproat said the "intentional application of force" overrode Bucknor's mental illiness, however, he also expressed the opinion that "I hope you are able to rehabilitate yourself and make something of your life."

Bucknor was given credit for 68 months in jail (Canada gives time served in jail before trial double time, so he has to serve 52 months more. Bucknor is barred for life from owning weapons, and must submit a sample to Canada's DNA database.

Port St. Lucie, FL man will spend year in jail, 9 years on SO probation

A Port St. Lucie, FL man will spend the next year in the Martin County jail and nine years on sex offender probation following being pleading no contest on charges that he groped two women and an 11 year old girl at a music festival last fall.

Richard Jones, 43, who had been living with his mother at 2685 S.E. Mariposa Street, pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious conduct on a child and two counts of misdemeanor battery.

His sentencing was delayed several days to give him time to move out of his mother's home, which is near Mariposa Elementary School. A condition of his probation when he is released from jail will be that Jones may not live near a school, day care center or any other place where children congregate.

Jones, who had been drinking, was arrested after a mother reported that her 11 year old daughter had been groped, and after the incident involving the child, two women also reported victimization.

Semen sex abuser sentenced to 30 days in jail, eviction from apartment complex

A man convicted of ejaculating on his (ex-) friend's sleeping wife was sentenced to 30 days in jail and ordered to move out of his apartment complex by Judge Fred Averas because that's where he victimized her. Adam Serafin, 26, was the first person to be convicted of 3rd degree sex abuse in Oregon without some type of skin to skin contact.

According to the judge's written ruling, Serafin slept over his friend's Dallas apartment after the two got drunk while watching a football game Dec. 3.


Serafin, his friend and the friend's wife all slept in the living room. The friend slept on a couch, while his wife and Serafin slept on recliners. A few hours later, the woman awoke to a wet feeling on her exposed leg. She looked up and saw Serafin at the foot of her recliner. Serafin zipped his pants and fled into the kitchen when the woman screamed.

Because of the husband's drunkenness, the victim had trouble waking him up, but the husband kicked Serafin out of their apartment and called Dallas police.

In cases of this type, the suspect usually is charged with only harassment or disorderly conduct, both of which are non-sexual offenses, Newton-Tapia said. But in arguments earlier this month, Newton-Tapia told Avera that Oregon law defines spitting on someone as offensive physical contact, and argued that semen should be considered an extension of the body.

NM State newspaper editor charged with sexual assault

The head on New Mexico State University's student newspaper was arrested Tuesday and charged with criminal sexual penetration, a third degree felony in the state of New Mexico, punishable by up to three years in prison, for performing a sex act on an unconscious woman.

[21 year old Richard] Reyes was recently elected as the editor of The Round Up, a twice weekly newspaper, for the upcoming 2008-09 school year. A board of the Associated Students of New Mexico State University elects the editor. Reyes also has done freelance work for the Sun-News.

Frank Thayer, head of the university's journalism department, said he was surprised to learn of Reyes' arrest.
"He is a top quality writer and has done some good work at The Round Up and in my classes," Thayer said. "I've known him for two and a half years and hate to see this happen."

According to a criminal complaint, the alleged victim is a 20-year-old NMSU student.

The complaint states that the victim was at a party at Reyes' home Monday night. She told investigators she had two glasses of wine but was not intoxicated when she decided to rest on Reyes' bed and expressed being tired from work.

She awoke to allegedly find that Reyes had taken off her clothing and was performing a sex act on her.

According to the complaint, Reyes admitted that he knew the woman was asleep when he had sex with her, and that the acts were not consensual. Reyes said he and other guests took part in drinking games.

Thayer said the arrest of a sitting editor at the school newspaper was unprecedented, and that while Reyes hasn't officially been charged with a crime, all options are on the table. Reyes is being held on $10,000 bond in the Doña Ana County Detention Center.

Female sub charged with seeting up relationship with 18 year old student

A 27 year old Oil City, LA woman was arrested for having sex with an 18 year old student while serving as his substitute teacher. She was also charged with having a 16 year old student set up the sexual relationship with the 18 year old and telling the teenage girl about the sexual acts.

Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator said Monica Michelle Martin, 27, of Oil City, was booked into Caddo Correctional Center for prohibited sexual conduct between an educator and a student and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Martin is accused of having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student whom she met while working as a substitute at North Caddo High School in Vivian. Their relationship started around March and continued until recently, said Detective Robert Greer, who investigated the case.

During the relationship, the two would meet at Martin's apartment, a Bossier City motel and at other locations. Martin also purchased the teenager a phone so they could communicate and paid a parking ticket issued to him, investigators said.

Martin was arrested and taken to the Caddo Correctional Center, but bonded out after posting $1641.50, according to desk personnel. According to officials, she did not realize she was committing a crime. According to Prator, "She said she thought it was ok because the person was eighteen."

It wasn't, because a law passed last year prohibits sex between High School students and teachers when the student is under 20. First-offense prohibited sexual conduct between an educator and a student is punishable by 6 months in jail and a $1000 fine, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor through a lewd or immoral act is 2 years in prison and a $1000 fine.

French serial killers sentenced to life, life without parole

From The Independant, UK

Michel Fourniret, the so-called "Ogre of the Ardennes", was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison yesterday after being convicted of a reign of terror on both sides of the French-Belgian border. At the end of a harrowing, and sometimes grotesque, two-month trial, his wife, Monique Olivier, was convicted of being his accomplice and ordered to spend a minimum of 28 years in jail.

Fourniret, 66, was found guilty of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering seven girls and young women, aged from 12 to 24, between 1987 and 2001. Olivier was convicted of being complicit in one murder and helping him to entrap four girls by posing as a mother in distress. Both received life sentences but in Fourniret's case it was ordered to be "incompressible" or "served in full": the highest possible sentence in the French penal code.

The trial, at Charleville-Mézières, was dominated to the end by Fourniret's pseudo-intellectual mind-games with the court and the families of his victims. His final statement consisted of a series of garbled jokes about his wife and the prosecution and defence lawyers, written in rhyming couplets which failed to rhyme properly.

Both Fourniret and Olivier refused to talk at length about their crimes. Neither showed much remorse, although Olivier said she "regretted" what had happened. As a result, the trial failed to dissolve many of the mysteries surrounding Fourniret's reign of terror, including a 10-year spell between 1991 and 2001 when he was apparently inactive.

A second trial is expected next year, in which Fourniret and Olivier will be accused of at least two other murders, including that of the English student, Joanna Parrish in 1990.

Experts who gave evidence said they believed there may have been many other victims of a murderous, "eternal" pact between Fourniret and Olivier.

Letters read to the court revealed a grotesque deal between the couple when he left prison in 1987 after serving a sentence for rape. He agreed to murder her first husband if she helped him to "hunt virgins". The first part of the pact was never carried out.

Fourniret, an inoffensive-looking man with glasses and a wispy beard, had ordered his defence lawyers to say nothing on his behalf. He refused to answer questions and often mocked the court.
The final exchanges between prosecution and defence turned largely on whether Fourniret should be called a "monster". The chief prosecutor, Francis Nachbar, insisted that the word was justified. The principal defence lawyer, appointed against Fourniret's wishes, Maître Pierre Blocquaux, said he was "part of the same humanity as the rest of us, alas, whatever the horrible nature of the crimes".

M. Blocquaux also raised in his final statement one of the other great scandals of the case. How could so many girls and young women have been murdered without the French and Belgian police even suspecting a serial killer was at work? And how did Fourniret, a man with several convictions, evade police attention for so long?

M. Blocquaux said both countries were guilty of a "tragic catalogue of missed opportunities, negligence and blunders".

He told the court that Fourniret had indicated that he would not exercise his right to appeal. That was his single act of consideration towards his victims' families during the trial.

Fourniret's known victims

11 December 1987: Isabelle Laville

The 17-year-old schoolgirl agreed to help a woman who was "lost" in her car near Auxerre in Burgundy. Minutes later, the woman, Monique Olivier, stopped for a man with a jerry-can – Michel Fourniret. Isabelle was raped and murdered and her body never found. The killing set the pattern for at least seven similar rapes and murders in the next 14 years.

3 August 1988: Fabienne Leroy, 20, in the Marne.

18 March 1989: Jeanne-Marie Desramault, 21, at Charleville in the French Ardennes.

20 December 1989: Elisabeth Brichet, 12, kidnapped in Belgium and murdered in France.

21 November 1990: Natacha Danais, 13, at Rezé, near Nantes.

5 May 2001 Manyana Thumpong, 13, at Sedan, the French Ardennes.

16 May 2001 Céline Saison, 18, Charleville.

26 June 2003: Fourniret is arrested after a kidnapped 13-year-old girl jumps from his moving van near Namur in Belgium.

NYC lawyer charged with groping employees

A prominent NYC lawyer was charged with 3rd degree sex abuse, forcible touching, and harassment after allegedly groping two female lawyers over the past year.

Last June, Dienst touched the breasts of a woman and tried to get her to touch his crotch, and on March 22, he allegedly lifted the shirt of another female lawyer and put his mouth on her exposed breast.

The seamy details were outlined in a criminal complaint, which described how Dienst preyed on his female colleagues at the Queller, Fisher, Dienst, Serrins, Washor & Kool law firm.

"I just want to see how great your t--s look," Dienst said when he grabbed one of the womens' breasts on March 21, the complaint charged. "I just want to feel how great your tits feel."

Dienst lifted up the woman's shirt and tried to "place his mouth on informant's breast, without permission or authority" and after she "asked the defendant to stop," the complaint said.

Unwilling to take no for an answer, Dienst "then placed his hand down the back of the informant's pants, placed informant's hand on his penis," according to the complaint.

Earlier, on June 22, 2007, Dienst "grabbed and stroked"" another female lawyer's breasts and lower back without permission.

Dienst, a founding partner of the Quelller, Fisher, Dienst, Serrins Washer & Kool law firm, has represented the Detectives Endowment Association as well as the unions representing sergeants and lieutenants, as well as top brass from captains to deputy chiefs.

Judge Dena Douglas filed orders of protection on behalf of both victims and adjuorned the case until August 5. His son is this prominent news reporter.

Miami hospital worker accused of groping patient

Pedro Gonzalez, a 27 year old hospital worker, has been charged with sexual battery for allegedly groping a 31 year old patient. He's being held at a Miami-Dade County jail and it isn't clear if he has an attorney.

Gonzalez transports patients at Mount Sinai Medical Center. According to a police report obtained by The Miami Herald, he confessed to performing a sex act on a male patient waking up from anesthesia after surgery last month.

The 31 year old victim was aware of the act and told detectives he could identify his attacker. Hopsital spokepeople said that they hve worked closely with police and will continue to do so until a proper resolution is achieved.

Nevada hospital groper arrested after 5 day manhunt

20 year old Roy Trost was charged with groping two women in a Las Vegas area hospital parking lot while armed. According to police, Trost was hanging around Desert Springs Hospital in Flamingo before the attacks on the women.

Crime scene tape went up in a neighborhood near Desert Springs Hospital on Wednesday; three days after Metro says two women were attacked in a back parking lot.

"The individual in question, while positioning himself in the back lot of the back lot of the hospital, as people were walking out, he found a crime of opportunity," Metro's Captain Vincent Cannito explains. "As the young ladies in this particular case had exited the building they were approached by the suspect."

Cannito says that both woman were attacked and that the assailant had a handgun and is considered to be armed and dangerous.

Hospital employee Felisha McDonald says her bosses are making sure their employees walk out in groups and pay attention to their surroundings. "It makes me tense and I'm worried about it Our boss talked to us and told us to be aware and look around."

Trost was arrested in Venice Beach, CA yesterday by FBI agents after his roommate found a journal featuring the sexually degrading acts he had the woman and girl perform.

I opened the journal and I read it and I was horrified. In the journal was a description of the activities that took place over in the parking lot of the hospital," said Marco Briody.
Briody says Trost took off when the cops got there.

Trost faces 13 charges, including sexually assaulting a minor, open and gross lewdness, and kidnapping. The gun used in the attack was a replica, according to police.

Man who answered ad about "lady driven car" convicted of sex assault

REGINA (SNN)[Sasketchewan News Network]
-- A stranger who groped a young Regina woman after responding to a newspaper advertisement for her "lady-driven car" has been convicted of sexual assault. It took the nine-woman, three-man jury only half an hour Wednesday to find John Robert Chrispen guilty.

The 49-year-old Regina Beach man was accused of grabbing the complainant's breasts on Aug. 21, 2006, after they took her Acura Integra for a test drive.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Ronald Barclay adjourned sentencing to July 21 and ordered a pre-sentence report.

Chrispen will remain free on release conditions pending his sentencing.
The verdict came a day after the victim, who was 18 years old at the time of the assault, told court she decided to go to police lest it happen to someone else.
"It was the right thing to do," she said.

The woman, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, met Chrispen in a parking lot near the University of Regina after he called about her car ad. She said he appeared nervous during the test drive and twice abruptly braked for a pothole or puddle. Both times, he reached out his arm, touching her upper chest, as if to brace her in the passenger seat -- despite her seatbelt -- as the car jolted forward.

After they returned to the parking lot and she was back in the driver's seat, he mentioned that he had left his cellphone in the vehicle. Rather than waiting for her to reach for the phone, he leaned into the vehicle, grabbed each of her breasts, then picked up his phone and left, she told the court. She sat in the vehicle crying for about five minutes.
Chrispen never testified and called no other evidence.

His defence lawyer, Jeff Deagle, suggested the woman was mistaken in her impression of the incident and Chrispen had accidentally brushed her chest while reaching for the phone.
But Crown prosecutor Marylynne Beaton argued the woman clearly believed she was intentionally groped.

In his instructions to the jury, Barclay said an assault occurs whenever force is intentionally applied without the consent of the other party.

"Mere touching is sufficient if done intentionally," he said. To find Chrispen guilty of a sexual assault, the jury had to find the assault violated the complainant's "sexual integrity."

"This is a serious charge," Barclay told the jury, reminding them several times they couldn't convict unless the Crown had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Texas granny raped, beaten, pushed into well

An 18 year old registered sex offender is being held on $167,500 bond after being charged with kidnapping, raping, beating, then throwing a 63 year old woman into a well, where she was miraculously found by her grandson then rescued 16 hours later.

Henderson County Sheriff officials said Joshua James Cannon, 18, has been formerly charged with aggravated sexual assault, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and felon in possession of a firearm.

Cannon was sent to the Texas Youth Commission for molesting a 5 year old girl and registered as a sex offender last Wednesday.

"The investigation is continuing so we don't know all the charges the investigators will charge him with," McWilliams said.

The ordeal started after Cannon asked to use the woman’s phone. He said his truck had broken down, and called a number, but got an answering machine. He came back again, this time, with a rifle, and aimed it at her head.

"I tried to shut the door, but he grabbed it and ripped it from my hands. I ran toward the front door, but he caught me and hit me with the butt of the gun which knocked me to the floor," she said.

As she tried to escape, the man continually asked if she had a debit card while beating her.

"He took my purse and just kept asking if I had an ATM card. I just asked him to take the purse and leave but he wouldn't leave me. I begged and begged to stay here, but he wouldn't let me," she said. Despite her injuries, Cannon allegedly grabbed the woman up off the floor and forced her outside to her car.

"He pushed me in the car and told me if I tried to jump out that he would kill me. I didn't know what to do," she said.

The woman said Cannon kept saying the ordeal was some type of gang-related initiation and that he was being watched, but she never saw anyone.

Cannon passed her son’s home twice, with the woman, while holding her puppy, wondering if she was going to see him or other family members alive again.

"I just kept thinking of something to do, but I couldn't. I just kept thinking 'Oh God."

Less than two miles from her house was a path into a wooded area where the concrete well stands -- a well with a narrow top protruding from the earth about three feet and the base ballooning out into a cistern 20 feet below.

According to the woman, the perpetrator gave her three choices – being shot, strangled, or pushed down into the well. Cannon decided to push her down the well, where she bounced off the sides before resting at the water filled bottom.

"I don't remember how I fell, but I remember being scared and cold. I don't know why he left but soon he was gone," she said.

As the woman fought shock, hallucinations and the cold for hours on end, her family began looking for her after hearing a voicemail from the Seagoville Police Department on her cell phone.
The woman's daughter said she had gone by her mother's home and saw a chair out of place and thought it was odd her mother was not home.

However, it would be several hours before the daughter went back to the home and saw her mother's cell phone sitting on a table with the message about her car.

Henderson County Sheriff's Lt. Pat McWilliams said Seagoville police found the suspect and a 15 year old juvenile, who Cannon picked up after he pushed the woman into the well. The police seized the car, but let both go.

Meanwhile, the woman’s family started calling police and searching for their matriarch after the Seagoville police called the victim’s daughter about the stolen car.

The son, familiar with the area of the well because of previous ATV riding, sent his son, the victim’s grandson to the well just in case she was there.

"I don't know why my brother thought to look there, but he sent my nephew and he found his grandmother down in the well," the victim's daughter said.

The victim said at first she thought she was dreaming that her grandson was looking down at her, but then other family members and neighbors began gathering around the well.

"I heard him saying grandma and I just started crying and thanking God. I knew that God had saved me," she said.

But it would take firefighters with the Gun Barrel City Fire Department to safely retrieve her from what had been her prison for a day.

The victim's daughter said firefighters originally tried a ladder, but it didn't work so they lowered a firefighter down to help the beaten woman out.

"Seeing (the firefighter) I thought he just looked good," she said.

The victim was taken to Tyler, where she was treated for dehydration, brusies and a broken nose. Currently, the woman is living with relatives, but her future plans are unclear.

I don't want to move, but then I don't want to be alone right now. I hope that (Cannon) gets the punishment he deserves."

"God let me know with this that miracles do happen."

Sperm bank CEO faces sexual harassment lawsuit

Growing Generations, a high priced sperm bank which caters to the LGBT community, is facing allegations about inappropriate conduct by its CEO. CEO Stuart Miller is accused by former marketing director Scott Glasgow of firing Glasgow after he refused his boss’ sexual advances and requiring Glasgow to share a bed with Miller during company trips.

The lawsuit also claims that Miller sent Glasgow pictures of himself shirtless, wearing bondage attire and holding a whip, and forced Glasgow to perform in drag on a company trip.

Through his attorneys, Glasgow declined to elaborate. "We stand by the allegations contained in the complaint and we look forward to proving them at trial," said one of Glasgow's attorneys, Brent Pelton.

Growing Generations' lawyer did not immediately a message left at Miller's office, and a company consultant called the lawsuit ridiculous and declined further contact.

The LA based company, which charges as much as $100,000 for surrogacy services, began surrogacy services for men in 1994.

Glasgow, who made $1,000 a week as Growing Generations' New York-based marketing director, claims he excelled at the company until he refused to attend Landmark Education seminars and turned down Miller's unwanted advances.

"Miller's interest in Glasgow changed from one of a professional nature to one of an inappropriate romantic nature," the lawsuit says.

Miller booked a king sized bed for a company trip to New Orleans for both himself and Glasgow, and that he had stroked Glasgow’s head in bed.

Glasgow also said that employees were required to attend Landmark seminars, an offshoot of the est program that was popular in the 1970s.

He said that he was evaluated by how he was "touching, moving and inspiring" others, according to the Landmark philosophy, and not by his business accomplishments.

Woman claims Arizona deputy is sexual predator, files lawsuit

A Three Points woman has filed a lawsuit against Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, and an allegedly sexually predatory deputy.

According to the woman, Deputy Michael Boria sexually assaulted her after going to her home to talk about shots fired in the area last May.

According to the lawsuit, the Pima County Sheriff's Department insisted on speaking with the woman immediately following her call for help despite there being a conflict of interest. In addition, the lawsuit says Boria himself tried to respond to the woman's 911 call.

The lawsuit further alleges a fellow deputy recalls telling Boria: "We'll get all the facts. We'll, um, just trust us; we'll figure it out one way or another. Uh, we'll punch holes in her story or whatever."

Before filing the lawsuit, the woman tried to settle her dispute with the county by filing a claim asking for $1.6 million. In the claim letter, her attorney, Robert Truman Hungerford, alleged that deputies refused to allow the paramedics to treat her for two hours because they wanted to interrogate her first.

She was also questioned another four hours at the hospital before being examined, according to the claim letter. The claim letter further states that the case was turned over to the Tucson Police Department, but that detectives determined she was a "woman scorned."

Deputy Pima County Attorney Susan Eazer stated that no criminal charges were filed against Boria because of the low likelihood of conviction.

Michael Storie, said his client was innocent of all charges and that Boria, a three-year veteran of the Pima County Sheriff’s department. He said Boria resigned because sheriff’s deputies would always be the subject of false charges.

"This woman is trying to take innocent and appropriate on-duty conduct and turn it into a cash grab."

The Pima County Attorney's Office, which represents the Sheriff's Department, has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.

Woman pleads guilty to killing abusive "partner"

A woman who shot her boyfriend to death last year did so because of the abuse she endured just before the rape and also because he threatened to kidnap, rape, and kill kids, her defense attorney told Judge Deborah Bernini on Monday.

Details of Damien Blaine Thorn's life and death were revealed Monday when Danielle Marie McFarland, 26, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Pima County Superior Court.

Assistant Pima County Public Defender John Seamon told the judge that Thorn, 42, and McFarland were a live-in couple for the five years, with the last two of those years featuring increasing physical and psychological abuse.

Thorn, armed with a Desert Eagle .44 Magnum, picked up McFarland from work on Monday, July 9, Seamon said.

He told her that if she hadn’t been at work, he would have hunted her down and killed her, Seamon said.

Over the next five days, Thorn kept McFarland naked and restrained, only releasing her to complete certain chores, Seamon said.

Thorn repeatedly told McFarland he would kill her unless she helped him kidnap small children so he could have sex with them and murder them, Seamon said.

That Friday, Thorn released McFarland from her restraints so she could sign a contract in blood and perform her duties, Seamon said. McFarland was able to retrieve Thorn’s gun from another room after receiving permission from him to turn off the lights, Seamon said.

When McFarland pointed the gun at him, Thorn laughed and told her if she didn’t shoot him, he was going to restrain her, kill her mother, kidnap, rape and kill a child and then kill her, Seamon said.

It was only at that point, Seamon said, that McFarland shot and killed Thorn.
McFarland called 911 from the couple’s home in the 9200 block of East Tanque Verde Road.

When the case was presented to a grand jury, court documents indicated that Thorn and McFarland were engaged in a “consensual” master-slave relationship, but that there were witnesses who would testify that McFarland was a victim of domestic violence.

One of these witnesses, Thorn’s ex-wife, told detectives that he changed his real name to Damien Thorn from Richard Meager because that’s the Antichrist’s name from the movie “The Omen.”

The former wife also told detectives Thorn was extremely abusive during their marriage, liked “little girls” and required her to stay in a dog kennel, court documents indicate.

Other witnesses confirmed that McFarland was often covered in bruises, and that Thorn had an “unhealthy interest in small children.”

Seamon told Bernini that the defendant planned to move to New York, and Bernini gave McFarland permission to travel to New York before sentencing on July 18. McFarland faces a sentencing range from probation to 5 years.

Florida man allegdly rapes acquaintance

58-year-old Joseph M. Dennis was arrested Thursday afternoon for raping a 43 year old woman at knifepoint 15 years his junior. The woman told police investigators that she got into an argument with Dennis Thursday at around 2:30 AM.

As she turned to walk away, Dennis grabbed her from behind, dragged her through the woors, and carried her to his home, where he punched her in the face, then raped her at knifepoint. He was found hiding at another person’s home.

He is charged with sexual battery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and battery. He remains in the County Jail.

The victim has been treated and released from Flagler hospital.

Chiropractor charged with groping patient

A Middletown chiropractor who was featured on the Fox network’s Marriage 911 show was charged with forcible touching, a misdemeanor for groping a woman under his care. Christopher King, 48, on Goshen was released on $500 bail.

In 2005, King's family was on Fox Network's "Nanny 911" to get help with their unruly children. Then King and his wife were featured as an argumentative couple on their own short-lived spin-off, "Marriage 911."

A Fox news release for the "Nanny 911" episodes called King "a self-proclaimed 'old-fashioned guy'" who expected his wife to do all the chores and raise their five kids.

According to Detective Sgt. Gerald Mishk, after a woman finished a chiropractic treatment, she was lying down on a table. King began to say suggestive things to her, then squezzed her breast after sliding his hand under her.

James Monroe, King’s lawyer, and Jeffery Spina, who is King’s empoyer, both believe in King’s innocence.

The lawyer stated that "Dr. King adamantly denies any wrongdoing, and the practice remains committed to delivering quality health care to their patients."

Spina said: "It doesn't make sense to me, knowing the circumstances, but I believe he's innocent."

Yesterday, the patient and her husband spoke out.

The patient had spinal surgery two years ago for a degenerative condition. She weaned herself off pain medications, and two months ago started going to Dolson Avenue Medical for chiropractic and other treatments.

She says King made remarks and asked questions that made her uncomfortable, but she shrugged them off.

After treating her on May 13, her husband says, King started asking the woman about her orgasms. She got off King's table, walked to the physical therapy area and lay down there. King walked over and started to rub her shoulders, the husband says, and that's when he groped her. When she resisted, he says, King pushed her down, told her to relax and fondled her other breast.

"I'm definitely afraid to go to a doctor right now," she said. "I don't sleep. I'm sick to my stomach. It's awful."

The victim and her husband went to police May 16, and hopes other victims do the same.

Indiana official sued over employer/husband's sexual abuse

The Indiana Supreme Court heard arguments on why Pleasant Township Trustee Camelia Clark should be held legally responsible for the sexual battery committed by her employee/husband Donald Clark. Camelia Clark was the trustee and Donald Clark was the deputy trustee.

He pleaded guilty to sexual and simple battery back in 2005 for incidents involving women seeking temporary financial assistance.

The former chairman of the Republican Party in Steuben County and the 4th District received a two-year prison sentence and has since been released.

Debra Barnett, one of the victims, sued in March 2005. According to court records, Donald Clark told her he would give her financial assistance if she worked at the trustee’s office. Then, while reviewing her work in a back room, he closed the door, pushed a chair in front of it and assaulted Barnett.

That suit also claimed that Donald Clark committed similar behavior against clients of the office in 1998 and 1999. At his sentencing, police testified they investigated seven cases involving Donald Clark and female township residents going back to 1979.

The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the ruling in December 2007, finding that an employer can be liable for the criminal acts of an employee if the employee’s actions were at least for a time authorized.

The Indiana Supreme Court listened to arguments revolving the doctrine of “respondeat superior.” This makes employers liable for the criminal or negligent actions on their employees, regardless of knowledge if they were doing authorized acts.

Christopher Wheeler argued on behalf of the victim that Donald Clark was doing authorized acts during part of the time he was with Barnett – such as instructing her on filing, reviewing her work and seeking her signature on paperwork.

“This case is about whether or not my client should have the opportunity to bring her case to a jury,” he said.

But Robert Keen Jr., attorney for Camelia Clark, said the authorized acts aren’t closely related enough to the battery to allow them to use the narrow exception. For instance, he said a person injured by a bouncer – who is authorized to have physical contact with patrons – could sue the employer if injured.

Justice Frank Sullivan Jr., disturbed by the arguments before him, believed that employers should have to guard against employees taking sexual advantage of their clients.

“What concerns me most about this case is the vulnerability of an individual who is so down and out on her luck that she is seeking public assistance… and a public employee who takes advantage of that situation.” he said.

A ruling will occur in the coming months.

Cheerleader files lawsuit against coach who raped her

A former University of Tampa cheerleading coach’s victim filed a negligence lawsuit against the school saying that failure to perform background checks led to the assault.

Heather Wienclawski’s victimization by her cheerleading coach back in 2004, caused severe emotional distress which led to her not being able to complete her studies.

Chris Knopik, the victim’s attorney, says that UT put a sexual predator instead of a mentor in a position of trust.

"Young people in college will look at their professors and coaches as mentors. In this circumstance, it seems the University of Tampa put exactly the wrong person in this position."

The university was negligent in its hiring of [Thomas Andrew] Hall and should have known about his criminal history through background checks, the complaint said.

Hall had been arrested and charged with aggravated battery on a police officer and resisting an officer with violence in 1993, FDLE records show. He pleaded no contest to the charges.

The university "failed to take any action to investigate, reassign or discharge Coach Hall from the cheerleading squad when it became aware" of the charges that, the suit argued, made Hall unfit to serve as cheerleading coach.

The complaint also said the university failed to supervise and monitor Hall, evaluate his interactions with female cheerleaders and did not ensure that a female coach accompanied him.
According to the complaint and an arrest report, this is what happened on the night of Dec. 10, 2004:

Wienclawski told Hall that she was leaving the cheerleading squad to work as an intern in Orlando. The coach offered to take her out to celebrate and introduce her to business contacts. Wienclawski accepted the invitation, believing it was a good networking opportunity.

Hall picked up Wienclawski at her dorm and went to the Blue Martini bar at the International Plaza in Tampa. Later that night, a friend arrived to take Wienclawski home. Hall refused, saying he was responsible for Wienclawski and "that he felt obligated to ensure her safe return," the complaint said.

Hall and Wienclawski then left, but she kept asking her coach if he could take her to her friend's house or her dorm. Hall instead drove her to his home, according to a Tribune story published in 2004.

Wienclawski was raped at the house, the complaint said. She was "intoxicated and sick" at the time of the attack, according to a criminal arrest affidavit.

Hall pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual battery with slight force, according to FDLE records. He was sentenced to 6 years probation, a supervision program and lifetime sex offender registration.

Man gets probation in sexual assault on acquaintence

Juan Cortez-Rios, 29, was sentenced to 2 years probation for sexually assaulting a former female friend on New Years' Day. He originally faced rape and disorderly conduct charges in the assault on his 25 year old ex-friend, but charges were amended to aggravated sexual battery and identity theft.

Prosecutor Christina Trocheck, an assistant Saline County attorney, said at the sentencing Friday that the identity theft charge related to Cortez-Rios’ use of another person’s identity to gain and maintain employment at a Salina manufacturing plant.

District Judge Rene Young sentenced Cortez-Rios to 13 months in prison on the aggravated sexual battery charge, and eight months on the identity theft charge. The two sentences were to be served consecutively.

Both sentences were suspended and Cortez-Rios was place on probation for 2 years. He was also ordered to undergo DNA testing and pay a variety of court costs and fees.

NC state tropper sentenced to 6 to 9 years for sexual battery

A North Carolina state trooper who target Hispanic women, some of them illegal immigrants, for sexual battery at traffic stops has been sentenced to between 6 and 9 years in prison. Michael Steele was sentenced by Judge Allan Baddour, and asked for leinency before sentencing.

"I hope if it's in your pleasure, I have a chance to spend time with my family," he said.

Steele, 28, will now spend up to nine years in jail for 10 charges he pled guilty to last month. Those charges range from felonious restraint, to second-degree kidnapping, extortion, assault on a female and sexual battery.

It was August of last year that three Hispanic women claimed he pulled them over in separate traffic stops, touched and kissed them and threatened to kill their families or report them to immigration officials if they did not comply. Some of the victims were illegal immigrants.

"He used his position in a way I've never seen in the almost 18 years I've been a prosecutor," said Jim Woodall, Orange County District Attorney. "I've never seen an officer use his position in this way to target people he felt were powerless against him."

Woodall said this case has affected every member of the highway patrol and beyond.

"Law enforcement in general has been touched and every person who lives in this state who wants to trust law enforcement has been affected by this," he said.

Steele's attorney said his client took responsibility for his actions, has never been in trouble before and is remorseful.

After court, neither Steel's attorney or family had a comment.

According to prosecutors, Steele's prosecutors said that he will probably serve about 8 years.

Man sentenced to 27 years for wife's death

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Marquette, MI sentenced 25 year old Derek Linklater to 27 years in federal prison for killing his wife hours after they were married.

Loretta Wandahsega's body was found last July in her home on Hannahville Indian Community land. She belonged to the Potawatomi Tribe of American Indians. An autopsy showed the 34-year-old woman died from a blow to the head. When entering his plea last year, Linklater told a judge the couple had a heated argument hours after they were married July 11, 2007.

Felonies occuring on tribal land have federal jurisdiction. Linklater's formal charge was 2nd degree murder.

Man accused of unlawful restraint of woman he had an off/on relationship with

David Cresong, a Florida man, was charged with rape and battery for forcing a woman to have sex with him and not allowing her to leave on Saturday. He waas charged with kidnapping or false imprisonment and sexual assault of a victim over 12.

The victim, age 44, called Lake Placid police to report that Cresong forced her to have sexual intercourse against her will at about 2:50 a.m. Saturday.

She told police Det. Sgt. James Fansler that she arrived at 303 Washingtonia Ave., where Cresong temporarily resided. She said she went to the home to visit her friend.

She told Fansler she drank about five or six beers and two wine coolers over the course of the evening and stated she also smoked about $200 worth of crack cocaine while there.

Cresong and the victim have had a strained relationship for the past two or three years, and admitted she knew he would be there. When asked if they were still a couple, she stated, "He thinks we are; there is no telling David no."

After a visit from Cresong's relatives, the victim reported at about 2:50 a.m., Cresong told her it was time for bed. She reported she told him she wanted to leave, but was afraid Cresong would beat her for not adhering with his wishes.

She reported she told Cresong "no" several times but did not resist due to having been subjected to physical force in the past, the report stated. [If that is true, then each act of sexual intercouse after the physical force was used is considered rape.]

He kept the alleged victim at his place, and pulled out a knife stating he would kill either her or himself. After the victim called police from a cell phone, Cresong ordered her out.

University of Arizona football player charged with sex assault

A University of Arizona football player was indicted on sexual assault charges after an incident which occured last April 2. Johnathan Turner, 23, was indicted May 16, according to a Pima County sheriff's department spokeswoman. The victim was a fellow UA student.

The indictment stems from an incident April 2 when the victim told authorities she and some of her friends were drinking at a residence near North Camino de Oeste and West Sweetwater Drive, Hanke said. The victim said she passed out on a couch and woke up around 2:30 a.m. to find Turner sexually assaulting her, according to a search-warrant affidavit filed in Pima County Superior Court shortly after the incident.

The victim said she pushed Turner off her, went into a bedroom and told her friend what had just happened, the affidavit said.

"Mr. Turner followed her into the bedroom and stated nothing had happened," the search-warrant affidavit said. "He described (the victim) as 'tripping out.' He continued to state he was just 'cuddling' with (the victim)."

The victim was taken to St. Mary's Hospital by her friends, and sheriff's adult-sex-crimes detectives investigated. DNA evidence was obtained, along with two quilts and seat cushions from the couch, the search warrant shows.

Turner, from Corona, Calif., was not booked into jail, Hanke said. He is a junior defensive end for the UA football team and a sociology major. The charge, a Class 2 felony, carries 5 to 14 years in prison.

Coach Mike Stoops suspended Turner from the team on April 5, supposedly for unspecified reasons, but had been monitoring the investigation, which fingered Turner as a person of interest early.

"I'm obviously aware of the situation, and I will let the judicial system take its course," Stoops said. "We'll have some kind of statement when it moves further."

Stoops will meet with Athletic Director Jim Livengood this week to talk about Turner's status. For now, Turner will remain on scholarship but will not be able to practice or work out with the team, Stoops said.

"I really haven't talked to Jim about that or the university," Stoops said. "I'm sure we'll discuss that and what's best for all parties, and make some kind of decision this week."

According to the university's student athlete code of conduct, Turner could lose his scholarship [No duh! He'll be losing a lot more than that - like freedom, on not having the stigma of being a sex offender.]

Turner, a 6-foot-3-inch, 263-pounder, was expected to start this fall at defensive end. He has 25 career starts, third-highest on the team.

Sioux Falls man attacks ex-girlfriend

A Sioux Falls, SD man is charged with simple assault, 2nd degree rape, and interference with emergency communications after allegedly trying to rape his ex-girlfriend. David Allen Daugherty, 31 allegedly attacked his 27 year old ex-girlfriend Sunday around 10AM.

Police the victim and the suspect live in different units in the same building. They say 31 year-old David Allen Daugherty was watching for the victim to come outside with her daughter to walk their dog. Neighbor Crystal LaPointe tells us she saw what happened next.

"And she was handing something in and I seen someone grab her arm and then a little bit later, probably not even a minute later she comes running out and runs back into the other apartment, and the guy's right behind her and shuts the door."

At the time, Crystal didn't think much of the whole incident. But a few moments later police and medical aid workers started showing up. Police say Daugherty forced his way into the victim's apartment. When he did that, police tell us she told the three kids in the apartment to go to one bedroom while she and the suspect went to another bedroom.

The victim was able to escape and neighbors called police. Daugherty walked away, and was arrested a short time later for rape.

Dodgeville man pleads guilty to raping Madison woman

A Dodgeville, WI man pleaded guilty to following a 31 year old Madison, WI woman into her apartment, forcing his way in, and raping her on July 30. Walter Matthews, 21, faces a sentence of 60 years for the 1st degree sexual assault and 15 years for the burglary conviciton.

Under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors, three other sexual assault charges and a kidnapping charge were dismissed but can be considered for sentencing by Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser. Three other sex assault counts were also dismissed.

Prosecutors have agreed to limit the maximum sentencing sought at the sentencing hearing, which will take place in about a month.

Halifax, NS, Canada man found guilty of exposing girlfriend to HIV

From The Daily Gleaner

HALIFAX - A Halifax man living with HIV was found guilty Thursday of aggravated sexual assault for not telling his ex-girlfriend about his health condition before having unprotected sex with her.

Blaine Arthur Holland, 36, was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 but his ex-girlfriend, who can't be named, was under the impression he only tested positive in March 2006.

"He's been lying to his friends, his family, to anyone who will listen," the victim said in a brief phone interview after the verdict Thursday. "He knew.

The Halifax woman, 37, agreed to keep dating Holland after he told her, thinking he had just found out. She ended the relationship and went to the police in September 2006, when she discovered from another ex-girlfriend of Holland's that he's known about his condition for much longer.

Consent was the main issue in the trial, Justice Arthur Pickup said during his half-hour decision in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

He explained that although a person may freely agree to have unprotected sex with someone else, the consent is moot if the person was unaware of the partner's HIV status beforehand.
During the two-day trial last month, the victim testified that had she known Holland was infected, she never would have entered into a sexual relationship with him.

She told the court they had sex between 100 and 150 times. They didn't always use a condom, she said, although Holland insists they always practised safer sex.Pickup said it came down to the credibility of Holland and his ex-girlfriend, who has so far tested negative for HIV.

The woman said she got tested for the virus as soon as she found out Holland's status in March 2006. However, Holland testified that he was upfront about his health when the pair started dating a year earlier.Pickup said it "didn't make sense" that the woman would wait a year to get tested if Holland had told her about his condition in March 2005.

A presentence report was requested and Holland will return to court Aug. 14 for sentencing.

Man sentenced to year of house arrest for raping wife

Judge James P. MacElree II sentenced a 33 year old mushroom company worker to 11½ to 23 months in Chester County Prison, but granted parole on the jail term, leaving a year of home confinement for the sexual assault of his 28 year old wife while she was visiting his home. The charge of sexual assault, a 2nd degree felony in Pennsylvania, carries a sentence maximum of 10 years.

The victim, who appeared in MacElree’s courtroom for the sentencing but did not address the judge, told a prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney John H. Pavloff, that she did not want the couple’s two children to have to visit their father in prison. “He’s a good father,” Pavloff said she told him.

According to court records, the man admitted to his estranged wife that he had had sex with her while she slept on his sofa one night when she visited him after their initial separation. When asked how many times he had had sex with her in that way, he replied that it was just “a one-time thing.”

He also told his victim that she had “like half woke up” during the incident.

MacElree also sentenced the man to one year’s probation and 200 hours of community service for a single count of invasion of privacy. That charge stemmed from the defendant’s admission that he had taken photos of the woman while she was asleep, exposing her breasts and buttocks.

The victim found out about the crimes when she stayed overnight at his East Nottingham trailer to see their daughter off on her first day of school. Later that month, she went to his home and saw pictured her husband took of her naked and in various states of undress. The worst pictures showed the woman being raped by her husband.

The victim determined that she had been sedated by her attacked because she saw his hands and clothes that she had been wearing the night of the assault. The husband gave his victim wife a cup of tea with a knockout drug.

She later confronted him with the information about the photos. In a telephone conversation that was taped by state police, he acknowledged having sex with her. “It was like a one-time thing,” he told the woman.

Pavloff said after the sentencing that there was no physical evidence to finally determine where and when the assault took place. The defendant admitted in his guilty plea to assaulting the woman in August 2006, but the victim maintains that it must have happened in September.
The woman, who has custody of their children, filed for divorce in February.

The man was also sentenced to a year probation for unlawful possession of a gun.