Hialeah, FL armed robber gets 30 years for robbery, rape, kidnapping

A Hialeah, FL rapist and robber was sentenced to 30 years in prison by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 after pleading guilty to a crime spree which included burglary, robbery, and rape. Jeosvany Salas was caught after DNA evidence left at the attacks matched his profile.

The crimes Salas plead guilty to involved:

Tying up and robbing a 73-year-old Miami woman in a September 2007 robbery that police said was a case of mistaken identity. Through forensic science, again, a fingerprint found on a piece of Scotch tape doomed Salas.

Kidnapping a Miami-Dade pawn shop owner in August 2008, holding him hostage for nine hours. Salas was nailed when his DNA was found on a beer bottle he drank from inside the victim's home.

Taking a Hialeah mother hostage in May 2008, shooting her with a stun gun and sexually assaulting her. It was that final act that broke the case: Saliva swabbed off the victim's chest matched Salas' DNA.

Salas was set to go to trial on the attack on the 73 year old woman, and was facing 21 life sentences in all, but plead after prosecutors filed the rape case. The attack on the woman occured after Salas and other robbers mistook her home for a Cuban human trafficer's. The rape case started out as a kidnapping and robbery, where Salas and his gang tied up the mother and her daughter while ransacking their home looking for electronics and jewerly. The rape occured after Salas asked the mother for a kiss and licked her body. The pawn show owner was beaten for hours while the robbers tried to get him to hand over his secuirty codes. Police caught Salas after noticing his SUV outside the pawn shop.

Craigslist - "Adult Services" ad section gone for good

updated 9/16/2010 10:43:07 AM ET By Sarah Jacobsson Purewal [PC World]

Pressured by law enforcement, advocacy groups, and Congress, Craigslist said it would permanently remove adult services from its online classified ads here in the United States. The move quickly sparked criticism by free-speech advocates who see Craigslist's shuttering of its adult services as a threat to free speech on the Internet.

Craigslist's lawyers told a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on child sex trafficking Wednesday that it has no plans to reopen its U.S. adult services section, which it shut down Sept. 3 after heavy criticism from human rights advocacy groups and Congress who charged that Craigslist was commonly used in the global sex trade of women.

William Clinton Powell, the director of customer service and law enforcement relations for Craigslist, said that his company had "no intention to bring the category back" and "money is not a consideration." Craigslist skirted the issue of whether it would yield to calls by advocacy groups to stop running erotic services ads that appear on international versions of the Craigslist site outside the U.S.

At the end of August a group of 17 attorneys general requested, in an open letter, that Craigslist disable the adult services section of its site immediately. The letter explained that the "increasingly sharp public criticism" of the adult services section "reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution — including ads trafficking children — are rampant on it."

The letter also gave examples of how adult services ads on Craigslist were allegedly tied to sex crimes. It cited one story of two girls who were allegedly trafficked over the Internet through listings on the Craigslist site. Those two girls wrote an open letter in July 2010 requesting that Craigslist take the section down.

Craigslist responded with a request evidence of the alleged trafficking authorities.

Earlier this month Craigslist complied with lawmaker requests and put a black bar with the word "censored" over the section of the site labeled adult services. The move raised the question of free speech and the Internet — and whether or not Congress has the right to censor Internet.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Craigslist decision to "censor" its Adult Services section is an unfortunate one. The EFF points out that the attorneys general basically bullied Craigslist into making such a decision, as "over the past two years, Craigslist repeatedly offered to go far above and beyond their legal obligations to work with law enforcement officials," and "the AGs have inevitably rewarded completely voluntary, non-mandatory offers of cooperation from Craigslist with further demands and insults."

Of course, shutting down Craigslist's Adult Services section for good is unlikely to fix all the sex trafficking issues like that. As Elizabeth McDougall, a partner at Perkins Coie LLP (the law firm representing Craigslist), says, the ads will just "migrate to less socially responsible sites" that won't cooperate with law enforcement.

Brooklyn serial rapist sentenced to 174 1/2 to 178 years in prison

A Brooklyn serial rapist who preyed on women in the Crown Heights neighborhood was sentenced to 174 1/2 to 178 years in the New York prison system Wednesday, September 8, 2010, according to the Brooklyn DA's office. 23 year old Erick Lewis was convicted of rape, criminal sex act, robbery, and 2 counts of sex abuse in August.

Lewis’ string of rapes around Crown Heights began in January 2008 around 12:30 p.m, when Lewis followed a woman into a laundry room in the basement of her Crown Heights apartment building, assaulted her and attempted to force her to perform oral sex.

In August 2008, just after midnight, Lewis raped and robbed another woman, at gunpoint, in the elevator of another Crown Heights building. The victim reported the incident to the police, and was taken to Methodist Hospital. There she was treated, and forensic evidence was collected.

On September 11, 2008, Lewis robbed a woman and forced her to perform oral sex on him, in the elevator of another Crown Heights building. Forensic evidence was collected from the floor of the elevator linking Lewis to the crime.

The presiding judge was Brooklyn Superior Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice.

Text messaging "lovers" receive life without parole in murder of woman's husband

Monterey County, CA Judge Larry Hayes sentenced a mother and her "lover" to life without parole for kidnapping and killing the woman's husband.  Marisela Zarate Andrade, 33, and Sergio de la Cruz, 34, were sentenced to life without parole Tuesday, September 14 for the murder of Jose "Nicco" Zarate of Wasco, CA. Zarate was kidnapped April 11, 2008 from his home and his body was found three days later in the trunk of a Ford Escort near Gonzales, CA vineyard with his hands and feet bound with duct tape, shot between the eyes.

The evidence which convicted the two was collected by Monterey County Sheriff's detective Brett Speirs. These included text messages which spoke of how Marisela and De La Cruz intended to kidnap and kill Jose. Marisela would drug her husband's coffee with chloroform, then De La Cruz and another man would kidnap Jose from his Wasco home. After killing Jose, Marisela wanted De La Cruz to behead her husband to make sure "the rat (is) very dead." The pistol used to kill Jose was recovered in San Francicso during a drug raid.

She gave police different statements about the last time she saw him. When confronted with the text messages, she admitted she participated in the plan to have her husband abducted, but insisted she only wanted him beaten up, a claim she maintained at trial.

Noting that he had received a letter from Zarate Andrade prior to sentencing, Hayes said Tuesday the woman was in denial. He said the length of time the two spent planning the murder, and the content of the text messages, showed the extent of the cruelty they intended to inflict on the victim.

Judge Hayes said,"In some ways you are both very lucky the DA did not choose to (seek) the death penalty in this case. That's how atrocious this murder was." Prosecutor David Gross could have sought the death penalty because Zarate's murder occurred duing the course of a kidnapping.

Besides the life without parole sentenced, Judge Hayes sentenced Marisela to an additional 8 years for kidnapping and De La Cruz to an additional 33 to life for kidnapping and executing the victim. Hayes stayed both sentences. The victim's family attended the sentencing.

Woman who allegedly staged shotgun murder of husband charged

A Minnesota woman who claimed that intruders killed her husband was charged with 2nd degree murder in Blue Earth County, MN on September 10. 26 year old James Nibbe was found shot to death early the morning of August 31 in his Lake Crystal, MN home. Jennifer claimed a masked intruder took James' shotgun, killed him, then fled on foot. Police poked holes in the story after learning that there were no footprints out of the house and that the Labrador the couple owned had stayed asleep during the killing.

Charges cite journal entries by Jennifer Nibbe that chronicle her dissatisfaction with her two-year marriage, her interest in another man and how "Sometimes I wish I could go back to just [my son, who is 17] and I plugging along."

The complaint describes Jennifer Nibbe, a nurse, as addicted to painkillers and deeply in debt. Just two months before he was killed with a single shotgun blast to the head, James Nibbe, 26, had taken out a $250,000 life insurance policy, naming his wife as the beneficiary.

On September 13, a judge set bail at $600,000 in front of a courtroom packed with both the suspect and the victim's family.

Couple abuse developmentally disabled woman for 13 years starting when she was 14 - Woman sentenced to 40 years

(Original Post 5-10-08)
Sgt. Linda Cook, a Muncie, IN detective, is calling the case of a couple who has allegedly sexually abused a 27 year old developmentally disabled woman for the past 13 years a "most bizarre case." Duane Tackett, 48, and his wife Patricia, 47, are charged with sexually abusing the developmentally disabled woman.

"It started here in Muncie when the girl was 14. She's presently 27. We believe they lived in Muncie for the first two years of this abuse then moved to Salyersville, Kentucky," said Sgt. Linda Cook, Muncie police.

The Tacketts had recently moved to a Muncie neighborhood from Kentucky. When a relative asked the victim why she was wearing a birth control patch, the woman told of the history of abuse and the relative then called police.

Police say Patricia Tackett and the victim were living in a home on Hodson Street with Duane Tackett still in Kentucky. Police records describe a regular patten of sexual abuse by both suspects. Investigators say the victim has the mental capacity of a child.

"We're looking at adding at least one rape count to each defendant because of the mental capacity of the victim," said Mark McKinney, Delaware County prosecutor.

"I believe it may have become part of her life and maybe it was accepted. She definitely tells me she doesn't want to do it anymore and doesn't like the people that did this to her."

The break in the case occured when the victim told an aunt that Duane Tackett repeatedly had sex with her for the past 13 years. Duane Tackett was persuaded to return to Indiana to face the sex charges according to Cook. Underlying issues regarding the abuse include not wanting the woman to "date" other men.

Patricia Ann Tackett, 47, 124 1/2 N. Hodson St., was arrested this week on a preliminary charge of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Her husband, Duane Ray Tackett, 48, was taken into custody Wednesday, preliminarily charged with sexual misconduct with a minor, criminal deviate conduct and child solicitation. They were being held without bond in the Delaware County jail late Wednesday.

Formal charges the Tacketts face may also include rape, as mentioned above. They are being held without bond and face Kentucky charges as well.

(Update 9-13-10) Patricia Tackett was sentenced to 40 years in prison August 24 by Judge Marianne Vorhees in Delaware Circuit Court 1. Judge Vorhees believed that Patricia Tackett's crimes were "very disturbing, almost beyond belief," and merited a term of as much as 60 years behind bars.

A Delaware County Circuit Court 1 jury found her guilty July 28 of rape, sexual misconduct with a minor, and child solicitation. Child solicitation is a Class D felony carrying a standard 1 1/2 year sentenced - the other felonies are Class B felonies with a standard 10 year sentence. Testimony said that the Tacketts both participated in assults on the woman lasting for at least 14 years.

"The details of this crime are shocking," said Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold, who recommended a 38-year sentence.

Defense attorney Kelly Bryan suggested a 10-year sentence with four years suspended, asking the judge to consider "a certain element of provocation and control here, at the hands of her spouse."

[P]robation officer Teresa Brown told the judge that in a pre-sentence interview, Tackett had expressed little remorse for her actions, instead blaming a family member who had learned of the sexual abuse and alerted authorities.

"Not only did she not take responsibility for this crime, she's still having continuous contact with Duane Tackett, who's coming to see her at the jail," Brown said. Brown said the victim -- now 30 and described as having the mental capacity of an 8-year-old -- had told her the Tacketts "should be made to stop so that they won't hurt anyone else, and stay in jail."

At the sentencing hearing, Patricia Tackett said to the victim, who was not present, "I feel so hurt because I let you down...Please forgive me for all I have done." Judge Vorhees, for her part, said that "I believe in my heart she knew exactly what was going on and she knew it was wrong," the judge said. "And she did nothing to stop it." As for her expression of remorse, it was, in Vorhees' opinion, "way too little, (and) way, way, way too late, probably 14, 15, 16 years too late."

Former Navy sailor sentenced to decade behind bars for "love" triangle slaying

On Friday, September 3, Sixto Balbuena, a former Navy sailor who stabbed "romantic" rival Samuel Valdivia to death over the affections of their "girlfriend" and former teacher Tamara Hoffman, was sentenced to a decade behind bars. This sentence was the minimum Balbuena could have gotten after his conviction of 2nd degree murder - the max he could have got was 22 years. The trial started May 28, 2010 and ended June 4. The presiding judge in the trial was Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten

Balbuena and the victim, 18 year old Valdivia, were both seduced by their former math teacher as students at separate high schools. Hoffman was teaching the then 17 year old Balbuena at Tempe, AZ's Marcos de Niza High School. She was fired after police caught Balbuena with Hoffman's bra in a parked car in November 2006 . She then went to Chandler's El Dorado High School and started a sexual relationship with 18 year olf Valdivia.

On April 9, 2009, Balbuena left Naval Air Facility El Centro in California, where he was an aircraft mechanic, at about 9 p.m., after finishing his shift, and headed toward Chandler to visit his fiancee, Hoffman, then 48.

Phone records show that they exchanged cellphone calls several times that night as he made the 4 ½-hour drive. But when he reached her house, according to the attorneys' statements, Hoffman did not answer the door or her cellphone. Balbuena opened the front door.

Inside, he heard noises coming from the bedroom. He grabbed a knife from the kitchen. Then, he told police investigators - one of whom testified Thursday - he saw a shadowy figure and they tussled. Seventeen minutes after he arrived, Balbuena called police. Prosecutor Jason Kalish played the 911 call, in which Balbuena says that "some guy" had been stabbed. Hoffman can be heard sobbing in the background.

When police arrived, they found Balbuena and Hoffman sitting calmly in the living room and wondered if either had been stabbed. An officer then found Valdivia, wearing only boxer shorts, moaning on the bathroom floor, his internal organs protruding from an abdominal wound.

Valdivia, who played for El Dorado's baseball team and wrote songs, died at the scene. After the conviction, Julio Valdivia, Samuel's older brother, said  "I don't know if he's going to pay enough. It's been tough. The pain is still there. I still feel like it happened yesterday. Sometimes, I feel like I need to talk to him. He made me think and kept me out of trouble." During the sentencing hearing, Balbuena said "I'm going to face them. I want to ask your forgiveness for all that has happened," but Valdivia's family did not believe he was sincere.

The victim's mother Placida Maldonado said  "He said he didn't mean to hurt him, but I don't believe that." The victim's brother-in-law Julio Laurean said "He's going to do 10 years, but we will do a lifetime...It felt like he was just trying to get out of the hole, that's how I felt."

Valdivia's relatives also believe that Hoffman had a part in the killing. "There are two victims here. One is dead and the other now behind bars," Maldonado said. A sister said that "She's truly at fault. She's crazy and should not have been dating boys. She was 48 years old and my brother only 18."

TheArizona Board of Education investigation of Hoffman saw her surrender her teaching certificate on December 7, but she can reapply within 5 years of the surrender. No criminal chargers were ever filed regarding Hoffman.

"Boyfriend" charged with 1st degree murder after shooting woman to death

A 23 year old woman was found shot to death in her South Side of Chicago apartment early Saturday morning and her 28 year old "boyfriend," Gerald Rufus was charged in her murder. Theresa Russell was found dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the arm by police at around 2:32 AM Saturday, September 4.

Rufus was picked up after he was seen on top of the victim, who suffered a gunshot wound under the left armpit. He initially told police Russell was shot in front of the building at 6435 S. Morgan St. and he had taken the victim upstairs to the kitchen area, a police report said.

The man then changed his story and said the incident occurred on the back porch of the second floor apartment, and that the gunmen shot into the apartment from the back door, the report said. The man was taken into custody because witnesses gave conflicting statements indicating they heard a single shot fired inside the apartment and there was not evidence that a shooting happened in front of the building. Police later learned Russell was shot dead after arguing with Rufus.

Rufus faces 45 to 85 years in prison in convicted of 1st degree murder - 20 to 60 for the murder charge and 25 years for using a firearm.

British man receives 15 to life for stabbing "girlfriend" during sex

By Jaya Narain [Daily Mail] Last updated at 8:00 AM [BST] on 8th September 2010

A man stabbed his girlfriend to death after she accidentally blurted out the name of another man as they made love. Gary Higgs, 44, flew into a rage when his girlfriend suddenly cried out: 'Chris!'. He stormed downstairs, grabbed a chef's knife and stabbed Joanne Kitchen once in the back and once in the chest.

As she was dying from her wounds, he throttled the 41-year-old to death with the electrical flex of their alarm clock. He later told police: 'I asked her why she said "Chris", but she said she must have been thinking about her daughter's boyfriend Chris.' Manchester Crown Court heard Chris had been at the house the day before.

But Higgs told officers: 'It didn't make any sense to me and I was getting more angry. Why was she thinking about her daughter's boyfriend when we were having sex?

'I couldn't get things out of my mind. I didn't know exactly what I was thinking. I picked the knife up and carried it upstairs to the bedroom. I don't remember thinking I wanted to harm Jo at this time.I was just so mad.' Higgs also said that after he stabbed her, Miss Kitchen told him: 'You've killed me.'

Higgs, who admitted murder, was yesterday jailed for life and told he must serve a minimum of 15 years.
The court heard the couple ditched their long-term partners and moved in together after talking on Facebook.

Paul Reid, QC, prosecuting, said they struggled financially and depended on Miss Kitchen's wage as a security officer at a college in Bury. Early one morning in April this year a woman waiting at a bus stop heard 'argumentative screams' from a woman coming from the couple's home and another witness saw Higgs standing bare - chested at the window.

The alarm was raised when Miss Kitchen failed to turn up for work and her daughters could not contact their mother by phone or text. The landlord of the house in Radcliffe, near Bury, let the two women in and he found her body in the upstairs room.

Sentencing Higgs, Judge Andrew Gilbart, QC, said the relationship had been overcome by financial tensions and arguments. He said: "Those tensions can lead to mistrust and sexual jealousy. It seems you were overcome by your view that she could still be interested sexually in others and be as readily welcoming to conduct an affair with others as she had been with you. There is no evidence of that whatsoever, but even if there were, it cannot justify what you did. In my judgment, this is a case of an unreasonably possessive man killing his lover in a rage."

Policeman in Oz sentenced to 33 years with 24 to serve in cliff murder of wife

Des Campbell, the former policeman who murdered his wife Janet by pushing her off a cliff, was jailed for a maximum of 33 years [Friday September 3]. Campbell, 52, dressed in a green prison tracksuit, did not react as the sentence was handed down.

"There can be no doubt that the circumstances under which Janet Campbell met her death demonstrate the offender's sustained callousness towards her for nothing more than monetary gain," the sentencing judge, Megan Latham, said.

Justice Latham, whose decision was shown live to the public via video link, sentenced him to a 24-year non-parole period in "recognition of the deliberate taking of a life". Justice Latham said the non-parole period would expire in May 2034.

Killer and victim met in the Riverina town of Deniliquin, where Janet Fisicaro worked as a hospital orderly.

Campbell, who had previously been a policeman in Victoria and England, was working as a paramedic.

Janet, 49, had been left well off when her first husband died. Prosecutors argued that Campbell was only ever after her money, with the Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, comparing the murder to a contract killing.

On March 24, 2005 - six months after they secretly wed, and a week after Janet finally told her family of the marriage - Campbell took her camping in the Royal National Park. Just before nightfall Janet fell to her death from a 50-metre cliff near their campsite. ASupreme Court jury rejected Campbell's claims that she fell accidentally, convicting him in May of murder.

The trial heard that Campbell secretly carried on affairs with other women during his relationship with Janet.

He did not attend her funeral, and booked a holiday with one of his girlfriends the week after his wife plunged to her death.A few months later, the widower holidayed in the Philippines, where he met the woman who became his fourth wife.

Wooded Rapist guilty in rape of 16 year old girl - Davidson County won't prosecute any more cases

(Original Post 5-6-08)
Nashville, Tennessee police have caught a suspect whom they believe to be the Wooded Rapist, a sexual predator who has attacked at least 14 women on their wooded homes. Robert Jason Burdick has a criminal record going back to 1998 for rape, and authorities are trying to link him with other unsolved rapes in the area.

Pat Young, the Wooded Rapist's first victim, remembers her attack and hopes that

She said she remembers her attack like it was yesterday. "At home asleep in your bed is supposed to be the safest place you are. Well, that's where I was at, home asleep in my bed," she said.

Young was able to bite her attacker and give police DNA, which they said matches Burdick’s.
But Young said she does not believe her attacker was just getting started.

"You have to wonder where he started. We're the first case that we know of, but were there more that went unreported?" she said.

Sources close to the case said Burdick was sent to Spencer Youth Center for Juvenile Offenders. "I think he's been doing this for a very long time. I know there are cases directly related through DNA. I suspect there are others where there is other evidence and if they can tie it to him, good," Young said.

Burdick has been charged with five counts of aggravated rape and more charges are pending. Sources say that Burdick spent time in juvenile detention and was arrested on assault charges involving a possible girlfriend at age 17.

(Update 10-19-09) The Wooded Rapist suspect was found not guilty of the aggravated rape of Pat Young, but was found guilty of attempted aggravated rape. Robert Jason Burdick, 39, still faces between 8 and 12 years for his attack on Young back in 1994. Burdick has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for the rape of another woman and faces 11 more trials.

The issue that prosecutors failed to prove to the Davidson County Jury was whether Burdick's hand entered Young's vaginal area during the attack, not whether there was an attack. "I don't mind not being raped. Tonight, I'll be with my friends and he goes back to the big house."

Young has been willing to share her name and show her face for the same reason she has reached out to other alleged victims of Burdick, the man police call the "Wooded Rapist."

"This shouldn't be embarrassing for the victims," Young said. "We should be looking at the perpetrators. They take people's souls to empower themselves."

Young was looking at Burdick carefully throughout the trial. She stared at him often during her time on the witness stand. She noticed he would not meet her eyes.

"He looks so dead ordinary," she said. "Put him in a suit and he's a banker or a lawyer. Put him in scrubs and he's a doctor. Put him in a shirt with his name on it and he's a technical guy. There's nothing to say there's evil there."

Defense attorneys cited the failure to prove the most serious charges as a small victory for their client. According to Fletcher Long, "anything other than the charged offense in a high-profile case like this is an achievement. He has been obliterated in the war of public opinion, and if the jurors came in tainted, it wasn't in the defendant's favor."

The defense will appeal based on the theory that only a "John Doe" DNA profile was issued an arrest warrant, not their client by name. Attorney Carrie Gasaway stated "It could very likely be the outcome for Mr. Burdick that there is no conviction on this charge."

Meanwhile, prosecutors are more circumspect, because there are numerous trials to go, and that even though they obtained a conviction for lesser charges that aggravated rape, a conviction is a conviction.

Prosecutor Dan Hamm stated that "Quite frankly we understand that reasonable people could find either way. We were just hoping that the emotions wouldn't be so strong they wouldn't be able to make a decision." His colleague Roger Moore said that  "We will try each count as we get to it. That's our philosophy at this point."

(Update 5-28-10) WIlliamson County, TN jurors found Burdick guilty May 20, 2010 of aggravated and especially aggravated rape in an attack on a then 16 year old girl, Elizabeth "Zea" Miller. Burdick broke into her Brentwood, TN townhouse, kidnapped her and took her at gunpoint to a garage where he raped her. Burdick faces 15 to 25 years when he is sentenced July 13, something that the victim wants.

 "I would love just for my own personal edification to have him be sentenced at the maximum. I have to live this to the fullest and so does he. I don't get to escape out of this any earlier in my life so neither should he. I would love to see two 25-year sentences served consecutively."

[Willamson County District Attorney Kim]Helper called eight witnesses to the stand, including Miller, her mother, detectives working the case and Qadriyyah Debnam, a forensic scientist who worked with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at the time of the rape. She told jurors that she found sperm in Miller's underwear that were a match to Burdick's DNA.

Burdick's next trial will be in Wilson County, where he will be tried on aggravated and especially aggravated rape charges for an attack on hie ex-"girlfriend's" niece who he used to babysit. After that trial, the sexual predator will return to Williamson and Davidson Counties for more rape trials.

(Update 9-4-10) Burdick was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment and a $60,000 fine in a Nashville courtroom July 13, 2010 for Miller's rape. If Burdick had took the plea deal he was offered, he would have only received 20 years maximum. Judge Timothy Easter gave Burdick 2 consecutive 25 year sentences for aggravated and especially aggravated rape.

Davidson County prosecutors have retired the remaining seven cases against Burdick in a cost saving measure.

Metro Assistant District Attorney Roger Moore said putting Burdick on trial would waste taxpayer dollars, and he said the remaining five victims agreed the cases could stop. "Lightning may strike the prison, and he may escape, but we are not dealing on possibility. We are dealing with what has been done," Moore said.

Judge Seth Norman agreed to the prosecutor's request, but two other Tennessee counties still plan on trying Burdick on more rape charges. Williamson County District Attorney Kim Helper is scheduled to prosecute two more Wooded Rapist cases. "Victims do have a say in this state, and the victims very much … have the right to face offenders in court,"  she said.
 
Wilson County plans to try Burdick on aggravated rape and especially aggravated kidnapping of a child beginning March 28, 2011. Tom Swink, Wilson County, TN assistant DA, said "While our office believes that Burdick's convictions and sentences will stand on appeal, nothing is certain, and we will proceed as planned with Mr. Burdick's Wilson County prosecution."

Man charged with forcible sex abuse for nurse groping pleads guilty, gets 6 months

(Original Post 10-11-09)
A man accompanying his wife to a Utah hospital missed the birth of his child because he was being booked for fondling the nurse who took care of his baby's mother.

Adam Jay Manning was charged with forcible sex abuse, a Class 2 felony in Utah, for fondling and grabbing the nurse. The incident started at 3 AM October 9, when Manning brought a pregnant woman in labor to Mackay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, UT. Manning made a comment about how cute the nurse was, but the nurse ignored him, attending to the woman in labor.

Manning, according to Ogden police lieutenant Loren Draper, told the nurse that something was wrong with her neck, which was a pretense for him to grab her breast and fondle her neck. The nurse pushed Manning away, moved to the other side of the wheelchair, and reported the incident to police, leading to charges.

Manning pleaded guilty in February 2008 to shoplifting, a class B misdemeanor, and was sentenced to a year of probation that included classes at New Horizons, a mental health and substance abuse treatment center. In June, Manning pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, also a class B misdemeanor. He was sentenced to fines and a year of probation, which he allegedly violated -- a judge issued a warrant for his arrest Sept. 14, court records show.

Draper said it was unclear whether the woman Manning brought to the hospital was a girlfriend or wife, but one thing was abundantly clear - "Obviously, he wasn't there for the birth of the child."

(Update 9-4-10) Last month, Manning received 6 months in jail after pleading guilty June 15 to attempted forcible sex abuse. 2nd District Judge Scott Hadley sentenced Manning on August 10, 2010 to serve the term in the Weber County Jail, and ordered Manning undergo sex, mental health, and substance abuse counseling.

Defense attorney Randall Marshall argued that Manning's action was a rare situation accompanied by a blackout, which Manning is prone to suffer because of brain damage from a Jeep accident 10 years ago.

"He touched her over the clothing. There was no violence, no force," Marshall said. "That doesn't come close to some of the sexual offenses we see ... 180 days in jail seems a little heavy." Marshall asked for 120 days, noting Manning's lack of prior similar crimes, saying he touched the woman twice "and that was the end of it."

Arguing the other side of the same coin, Deputy Weber County Attorney Branden Miles said "precisely because there was a blackout, we don't know that it won't happen again. He continues to pose a danger until it's figured out."

One thing which won't be blacked out is Manning's listing in the sex offender registry.