Milwaukee's North Side Strangler suspect pleads "Not Guilty"

Milwaukee’s North Side Strangler, allegedly Walter E. Ellis, was arraigned during his preliminary hearing yesterday. His not guilty plea to the seven counts of 1st degree intentional homicide came after a preliminary hearing during which Ellis’ DNA match with the killer’s and the strangulation death of all seven women, played a crucial role in the state’s argument that Ellis should be tried for the murders.

The preliminary hearing featured a parade of 18 current and retired Milwaukee police detectives who testified about the crime scenes, the gathering of DNA evidence and its transport to the State Crime Laboratory.

Milwaukee County Medical Examiner Christopher Happy testified that the cause of death in each case was strangulation.

The state moved into evidence reports from the lab that matched DNA from the crime scenes to DNA taken from Ellis' cheeks on Sept. 8 after he had been arrested.

At the end of testimony, Ellis' attorney, Russell J.A. Jones, requested that the case be dismissed because the only evidence offered was that Ellis' DNA was found at the crime scenes - along with DNA from other men, in some instances. At best, Jones said, the state showed that Ellis had sex with six of the victims. In one case, his DNA was on a small can of pepper spray found under the victim.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams argued that it was not a coincidence or an accident that Ellis' DNA was found on or near all seven victims, over a 21-year period, and that all had died by virtually the same manner. Williams said the "only reasonable inference" was that Ellis committed the crimes.

Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet ordered Ellis bound over for a May trial and also ordered no contact with his “girlfriend,” Tressie Johnson by any means except through his attorney. Johnson was arrested with Ellis September 5, but released a few days later.

Among the many relatives attending the preliminary hearing were Florence McCormick’s father and daughter. After detectives showed that she was found tied to a utility tub in a basement, nude except for a pair of socks because the killer had stuffed her underwear and pants down her mouth, they cried, recovering enough to give the following statements:

"I'm upset that he said 'not guilty,' but I'm glad they're putting him on trial," "I'm upset that he said 'not guilty,' but I'm glad they're putting him on trial," said Korona Richmond, whose mother, Florence McCormick, was murdered in 1995.

"What I want to know is, why did he kill my daughter?" asked Cornelius Thomas, after the hearing produced no hint of that answer.

Irene Smith’s older brother Sammy said "It's like a dream come true but like a nightmare all over again. It's like bringing her funeral back to the surface. I don't know how to deal with it, if I should be happy, sad, mad . . . I'm glad the killer's no longer on the streets. Who knows when he was going to kill next?"

Smith was killed in the fall of 1992 after Ellis bribed his way out of a halfway house, according to prosecutors.

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.

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.

Wife pleads guilty to breathplay death of husband

A woman plead guilty to criminal negligence involving death by hanging her husband during kinky sex gone wrong. In an ironic twist, the victim strangled a woman to death in another kinky sexual sesion over 20 years ago, and served 8 years.

Crystal Boarder, 31, pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death. Her husband, Tony Boarder, 46, died of asphyxiation during the hanging in September.

Tony and Crystal Boarder, his partner of about 10 years, engaged in "kinky sex games" of bondage and asphyxiation, the court heard.

They performed acts of suffocation with plastic bags and sheets, drownings in the bathtub and hangings in their barn, assistant Crown attorney Pamela Borghesan told the court.

On Sept. 8, the couple videotaped themselves taking turns hanging each other in the barn next to their house outside Rockwood, Borghesan said, describing the footage.

First, Crystal Boarder was hanged by her husband and let down. Then, Tony Boarder placed the rope around his own neck and she hanged him. He told her to lower him and then quickly lost consciousness. Crystal Boarder slowly brought him to the ground over a period of about 15 minutes. For the next 40 minutes, she checked his pulse and smoked cigarettes.

Later that morning, Crystal Boarder called the police and said she had accidentally killed her husband during a sex game, Borghesan said before Justice David Carr.

Crystal Boarder will be sentenced on July 16. Criminal negligance causing death carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Doctor pleads from attempted rape to misdemeanor assault

Dr. Bret Sokoloff of Germantown was convicted of three counts of misdemeanor assault after charges of attempted rape, sexual battery and indecent exposure were dismissed. He assaulted three nurses, and was sentenced to three years of probation.

The 37-year-old was indicted last year on five counts of sexual battery and two counts of attempted rape that allegedly occurred between 2005 and February of this year.He was also charged last year with indecent exposure after a professional masseuse at Massage Envy in Collierville said Sokoloff removed his sheet and exposed himself during his massage therapy.

Sokoloff has not practiced since his arrest, even though he has not been formally suspended.
The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners will take action, if any, on his license.

Rape of ex-girlfriend planned, according to Canadian judge

The brutal rape of a Canmore woman by her ex-boyfriend -- a fugitive on the lam from the U.S. -- wasn't a spontaneous assault, a judge ruled yesterday.

Justice Beth Hughes rejected John Julius Marr's claim he had gone to the woman's home on March 27, 2004, to discuss money she owed him and to retrieve his property.

Instead, the Calgary Court of Queen's Bench judge said, Marr's intent all along was to attack the woman "to teach her a lesson."

"I do not accept his evidence because it runs contrary to the very nature of the acts he admitted to," Hughes said.

She noted Marr, in pleading guilty to aggravated sexual assault, admitted tying up his victim with tape from her home, raping her over a lengthy period and keeping his identity secret throughout.

"These are not the actions of a person who 'panicked,'" said Hughes. "He made the decision to break into her home (and) wait in the darkness so he could teach her a lesson."

Defence lawyer Dale Fedorchuk had argued Marr's rape of the woman following a break-up with her was a spontaneous act done after he decided to break into her home to wait for her.

Marr said he illegally entered the residence because he thought if he waited outside she wouldn't listen to his claims she owed him money for home renovations and still had his property.
He testified after he broke in, he realized he had done wrong and when she arrived home he panicked.

After raping and tying his victim up, Marr took the woman's car and drove to Banff and then Vancouver, before fleeing to his native U.S.

Hughes agreed with Crown prosecutor John Szekeres, who suggested Marr couldn't have gone to the woman's home to retrieve his property since he had no way of transporting it.

A date for sentencing submissions will be set once a pre-sentence report and psychological risk assessment is complete June 20.

Marr remains in custody pending his sentencing.

Accused hotel manager killer pleads guilty to rape of clerk in same hotel 8 days earlier

Dwight T. Hayes, 21, accused in the slaying of Cynthia White, a hotel manager in Columbia, MO on November 24, pled guilty to the sexual assault of a hotel clerk in the same hotel a week earlier. Hayes waited in the lobby of the Fairfield Inn under the ruse of waiting for a friend. Just after midnight on November 16, he decided to stick up the establishment.

The victim gave him money from the register, and the man told her to go into the back room. He demanded she remove her clothing , and then he raped and sodomized her.

Afterward, the man stole her car keys and left the hotel in the victim’s car.

Police originally arrested Hayes on Nov. 25 based on a surveillance photo recorded during an attempted robbery on Nov. 13 at the Hampton Inn on Clark Lane. Police released the picture to the media in hopes of making an arrest.

Police received a call about the man in the picture and arrested Hayes at the home of a relative, 1812 McKee St., in connection with the attempted robbery. During a search following the arrest, a handgun and ammunition thought to be used in White’s slaying were found at his residence. Police said Hayes also made incriminating statements about the murder and voluntarily admitted to committing the robbery and rape during interviews with investigators.

Prosecutors will ask for the maximum sentence, which will be over 100 years, when Hayes is sentenced on June 23. With Missouri's truth in sentencing laws, Hayes will serve over 85 years before parole. Knight said that the plea will cut down on potential avenues of appeal.

"This was severe, egregious criminal conduct, it was over the top,” Knight said. He just flat-out deserves the maximum sentences. What happens at sentencing will be critical here. With a plea of guilty, his rights to appeal are substantially narrowed,” Knight said. “It’s the best possible outcome.”

Knight asked for, and recieved a continuance in Hayes' murder case so he could subpoena witnesses.

“I had a lot of witnesses subpoenaed for this trial, and a murder case takes even more witnesses,” Knight said.

Boone County Judge Gene Hamilton granted a continuance in Hayes' murder trial until after May 5, when Hayes will be given a trial date.

Manager sentenced after pleading guilty to attempted rape of employee

Ronaldo Duarte, 36, was sentenced to consecutive terms of 2 1/2 to 5 years in prison and 5 years probation for the attempted rape of his employee at a suburban Philadelphia restaurant. The victim was a 21 year old college student.

Duarte made sexual advances to his employee outside the restaurant, which she refused. The victim went outside for a break, and Duarte followed her. He tried to rip her clothes off to rape her, and she fought back. She went to the police that night and was examined at a hospital.

When confronted by police, court records say, Duarte confessed. Standing next to his attorney, Mel Kardos, Duarte apologized to the victim in court Friday.

“I feel so bad. I will regret it for the rest of my life,” he said.

The victim told the judge that she still suffers from nightmares and anxiety, and that her grades have dropped since the attack.

“I will never forget what happened to me. It's unfortunate that he will never understand that,” she said. “I just hope that since I found the strength to stand up to Ronaldo, that it will protect others.”

Duarte was ordered to sign Pennsylvania's Sex Offender Registry for the next decade, get sex offender treatment, and have no contact with the victim. The presiding judge praised the victim for fighting back against her attacker.

“I have been impressed by your strength throughout this case,” Judge Albert Cepparulo told the woman. “You stood up to him then, and you stood up now.”

Duarte pled no contest, which is the same as a guilty plea for all purposes except civil lawsuits.

Serial rapist pleads guilty,confesses to more repes.

Clifford Jones, a Cleveland-area rapist, confessed to five unsloved rapes from the 1980s as well as the rapes of young women in the mid 2000s. The unsolved rapes occured before the imprisonment for raping a relative.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said, "This monster terrorized Cleveland Heights. Today's plea brings justice to four victims and closes an ugly chapter in the lives of five others."According to the prosecutor's office Jones, 49, of Cleveland, was convicted of raping a young relative in 1985. He was imprisoned for 15 years. After getting out of prison in 2000, Jones raped and sexually assaulted four young women.

On September 16, 2004, Jones attempted to rape a 22-year-old female on Edgehill Drive in Cleveland Heights, after she had parked her car.

He raped a second 22 year old woman, this time a Case Western Reserve student into the woods on October 8, 2004. Jones will be sentenced May 7.

Philly man with previous convictions pleads guilty to rape

A 44 year old Philadelphia man with a previous conviction for robbery and previous rape arrests where the victim did not press charges pled guilty to attempted rape and armed robbery. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 to 20 years when he is sentenced July 14 by Judge Earl W. Trent Jr.

About 10 a.m. Feb. 20, 2007, Wooden entered the dry cleaners with his hand in his coat pocket, as if he had a gun, Assistant District Attorney Bill Davis said in court yesterday.

Wooden swiped $40 from the cash register, then pushed the woman owner to the back of the store, forced her on the floor and attempted to rape her, Davis said.

Wooden was arrested June 14 in a building on Woodland Avenue near 70th Street in Southwest Philadelphia.

In court yesterday, Wooden, wearing a buttoned-down shirt and glasses, cried after pleading guilty.

Wooden faces a maximum of 20 to 40 years. Attempted rape and robbery are 1st degree felonies in Pennsylvania.

Alleged California serial rapist scheduled for trial May 19

A Redwood City, CA man who pled not guilty to rape in the Bay Area will be going to trial later in the spring. He faces 26 counts after allegedly raping two victims and attempting to rape another.

Raul Gutierrez Contreras, 30, pleaded not guilty to the charges and was appointed an attorney through the county's private defender program, Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

He was arrested in February 2007 for driving under the influence but also had a warrant out for his arrest in connection with an attack a woman reported about a week earlier.

After Contreras was arrested, he was linked to two other rape incidents over the course of 2006, and charged with 26 felony counts including rape, burglary, false imprisonment, sexual battery and felony threats. One incident was near the Colma Bay Area Rapid Transit station and another in South San Francisco, Wagstaffe said.

The initial warrant came from a citizen's tip that a coworker, Contreras, fit the description of the suspect in the February 2007 attack and that he worked at an auto body shop.

Jury selection begins May 19.

Nebraska man sentenced to 10 to 15 years

Azad Alama was sentenced to between 10 & 15 years in prison for the rape of a Lincoln, NE woman inside her apartment in 2006.

Alama, 22, pleaded guilty earlier to an amended charge of attempted first-degree sexual assault arising from the June 2006 incident. The woman told authorities that a man, referred to as “Izod” in a police report, picked her up, carried her into her bedroom and began to kiss her on her bed.

Two other men went inside the apartment with Alama, but they were not charged because DNA evidence taken from the victim only belonged to Alama. He'll be eligible for parole in about 5 years.

Pastor sentenced to 26 1/2 years in prison for molseting and raping female congregants

A pastor of a now defunct church was sentenced to 26 1/2 years for molesting and sexually exploiting females between ages 7 and 24 in a Kitsap, WA church. Robbin Leeroy Harper, 60 was arrested in November after 10 victims claimed they were either raped, molested, or both by the pastor. Harper pled guilty to 7 felony and one misdemeanor count of sexual abuse charges, and a joint recommendation of 23 1/4 years was submitted by both the prosecution and defense.

Harper was apologetic in his statements to the packed courthouse.

"I'm ashamed," he said. "From the beginning of this, I never wanted to go to trial. I wanted to plead guilty from the beginning."

Harper said he had tried to seek help over the past two years, and said the time in jail so far has been beneficial. "Many of the questions people have here are the same ones I have," he said.

The sentencing allowed the attorneys, victims, family and friends of the victims and Harper, and Harper himself to speak. Several family members of victims took the opportunity, as well as one victim, in addition to Harper.

Court documents indicate that, as the head of the now defunct Church in South Colby, Harper used his office to hold private meetings with the victims, who ranged in age from 7 to 24. The meetings led to suggestive hugs, then inappropriate touching, followed by molestation and sexual acts.

Harper was sentenced to 26 1/2 years in prison, but with good behavior, he should only serve 24. He will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

St. Louis area man sentenced to 15 years for sexual attacks following photo shoots

Lester “Jay” Krupp will be sentenced to 15 years in prison for a plea agreement reached with prosecutors following the conviction for 4 counts of deviant sexual assault and a single count of felonious restraint. A St. Louis County Circuit Court jury found him guilty of these charges, which stemmed from a May 10, 2006 incident when he enticed a then 20 year old woman into a secluded valley for the promise of a photo shoot. Instead, he attacked and made her perform sex acts.

A second woman's photo shoot gone wrong lead to a misdemeanor conviction of sexual misconduct. This occurred on April 11, 2006.

Under an agreement reached between the prosecution and Krupp's attorneys after the verdicts, Krupp will be sentenced to 15 years in prison. Krupp also agreed to plead guilty to two additional charges, felonious restraint and domestic assault, involving a third woman in 2006.

The episode involving the most charges began when Krupp showed up outside the tanning salon where the woman worked. Although she declined his offer of a photo shoot, she drove off with him. The woman testified she had dated Krupp once about a year earlier. “There's been no motive for her to lie,” prosecutor Joe Dueker said. “(The woman) was just trying to stay alive that day.”Krupp did not testify.

Krupp's attorney, Travis Noble, said the woman's story had too many inconsistencies to be believable. “This girl's story changed all the time,” Noble said to the jury in his closing statement “ ... This girl's word -– that's all it is because there's no physical evidence.”Noble said text message records showed the girl could not have been with Krupp during the time she claimed to have been assaulted.

Noble stated his client was stupid, but not criminal to show interest in photo shoots of stupid young women and posting them on the internet.

Bar rapist pleads no contest just before trial - sentenced to 8 years

Earnest Reno Rainey, 39, pleaded no contest to sexual battery against a physically helpless person in an incident exactly 2 years earlier where he drugged, then raped a woman at a Deland, FL bar.

State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Linda Pruitt said his plea averted a trial for rape (called sexual battery in Florida). Rainey will be sentenced to 8 years in prison and 8 more years of sex offender probation.

The bartender said she saw Rainey sitting next to the victim at the bar at 11 p.m. on March 24, 2006, sheriff's investigators said.

The victim told deputies she ordered a mixed drink that night and does not remember anything else. When she regained consciousness, she discovered Rainey had taken off her pants and was raping her, the report states.

She screamed for help, and Rainey punched her several times and began strangling her. The victim played dead and after Rainey walked away, she picked up her clothes and ran into some nearby woods on East Beresford Avenue, the report states.

The victim passed out again in the woods and did not wake up until the next morning. She could not find her car, which police later found in Sanford.

Rainey was teacked down after DNA evidence was collected, and the bartender picked him out of a lineup. Rainey, after serving his sentence, will be on the Florida sex offender registry for life.

Already convicted felon sentenced to 40 years for rape and robbery

Brad Max Lamar, a 20 year old Macon, GA man, was sentenced to 40 years in prison, 25 years for rape and 15 years for armed robbery, for an attack on a Macon woman last October.

[He] entered a guilty plea in Bibb County Superior Court. He was indicted in November on charges of rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, burglary, theft by receiving a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and two counts of aggravated sodomy, according to court records.

In exchange for his guilty plea, all charges except rape and armed robbery were dismissed. Lamar was sentenced to 25 years in prison on the rape charge and 15 for armed robbery.
Assistant district attorney Nancy Scott Malcor said the woman was at home Oct. 2 waiting on a repairman when she heard a knock at the door.

When she opened the door, expecting to see the repairman, Lamar asked for water for his overheating car. The woman retrieved a gallon jug of water and returned to the door, where Lamar attacked her, Malcor said. Lamar dragged the woman back into her house, demanding money. A neighbor heard her screams and called for help, Malcor said.

Lamar brandished a gun and at one point, and demanded money and jewelry. He choked her before the sexual assault. He bound the woman's hands and feet with her pantyhose and struck her with the gun before fleeing, when he was arrested by police.

Drunk pilot peads down to assault from attempted rape - gets unsupervised probation

James Ryan Clifton, 37 and from Alabama, charged originally with attempted rape, plead down to felony 3rd degree assault, and was sentenced to three years of unsupervised probation. after a drunken New Year's Eve party.

Clifton originally was charged with attacking a woman, who was a guest at the hotel, in the hallway during the early morning hours of Jan. 1, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed Feb. 16, 2007, by Pitkin County Deputy Brad Gibson.The alleged victim told Gibson that Clifton had pulled her down a hallway, forcefully kissed her, ripped open her pants and attempted to rape her as she screamed for help.

According to court documents, the entire attack lasted between 10 and 15 minutes.The attack was foiled, the affidavit states, when a co-worker of the victim heard the calls for help and chased Clifton outside, where the two got into a fist fight. When deputies arrived, Clifton was being taken to Aspen Valley Hospital in an ambulance, court papers allege. Defense attorney Greg Greer said Monday that Clifton was hospitalized because of injuries sustained in the fight. “This was a New Year’s celebration gone amok because of too much drinking,” Deputy District Attorney Gail Nichols said.

Unsupervised probation means just that - no supervision by a probation officer, and sex charges, which according to best sex offender management practices, should never be plead down to non sex charges. The probation stipulations state Clifton must refrain from drugs or alcohol, get months drug and alcohol tests, and write a letter of apology to his victim, who approved the plea agreement. With unsupervised probation, that's kind of hard to do. At least he has a felony on his record.

The other New York sex scandal

(Originally Posted 3-13-08)

The Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal will finally come to a political close Monday when the former New York governor, accused of hiring a prostitute named "Kristen" er, Ashley, officially resigns. After two days of ever more sleazy details, including the fact that his presence as "Client 9" led to the breakup of the prostitution ring and the parading of his wife like an accomplice, he announced his resignation yesterday. However, Spitzer still faces the possibility of divorce, disbarment, and even federal Mann Act charges for traveling from New York to DC to have sex with Kristen, er, Ashley the night before Valentine's Day.

There is another sex scandal in New York, one which is much more serious. A NYC councilman will reportedly resign after a July rape.

The councilman, Dennis P. Gallagher, a Queens Republican, was initially charged with raping a woman in his campaign office in Middle Village in July after they met in a nearby bar. Mr. Gallagher, who is married and the father of three children, acknowledged a sexual encounter but said that it had been consensual.

Gallagher is using his resignation from office (much like Spitzer is using his past governorship to negotiate lesser criminal charges under the Mann Act and local statutes) as part of his plea negotiation. He is also said to be close to a deal, which does NOT involve sex offender registration or treatment, but an apology to his victim and alcohol abuse treatment.

In January, a State Supreme Court judge dismissed the indictment of Mr. Gallagher, saying that prosecutors had unfairly prejudiced the grand jury against him. The judge added, however, that the evidence was strong enough to warrant an indictment.

That ruling left the door open for prosecutors to present the case again to a new grand jury. The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said that he intended to seek a new indictment, but that has not happened.

A sticking point earlier in the plea discussions was whether Mr. Gallagher would be required to register as a sex offender. No such requirement is in the current proposed resolution of the case, according to one of the people familiar with the negotiations.

Gallagher is one of only three Repubilcans on the 51 member City Council, but has only lost his leadership posts for his party (which isn't worth anything if there are only 3 Republicans in the City Council), but not his job. All questions were referred to his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, who refused to comment.

(Update 3-18-08)

Gallagher was given a conditional discharge, meaning that if he completes the conditions of drug and alcohol treatment, and has no contact with his victim, no guilty verdict will be on his record. [And people complain that female teachers get off when convicted of assaulting male students!]

His 52-year-old victim, in a statement read by the prosecutor, said, "I will never recover from the pain, anguish and humiliation I suffered as a result of this man's vicious assault and attack on me.
"He has scarred me for life and he took away my dignity and self-esteem. He is a sexual abuser. It is disappointing and disgusting when a man is given the privilege and honor of serving . . . as an elected official and then betrays our trust."

Newark, NJ man pleads guilty to rape of limo driver

A Newark man, Richard Caesar, 19 pleaded guilty to the rape of a 27 year old limo driver who managed to briefly escape from her rapist before he caught, then raped her again. Old fashioned detective work and Caesar's "Dutch" tattoo on the inside of his arm helped catch him.

Caesar, 19, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Denise Cobham to three counts of aggravated sex assault. In a deal worked out with public defender Alex Shalom, Dirkin agreed to recommend that Caesar be sentenced to no more than 14 years in prison.

The rape victim was a 27-year-old female driver for Classic Limo who answered a radio call to pick up Caesar on Oriental Street in Newark late in the evening of Jan. 6, 2007, said Dirkin, acting di rector of the prosecutor's sexual assault unit.

Caesar told the driver he was going to Hawthorne Avenue, but his suspicious behavior and the odd directions he gave made her think he was trying to get her to a secluded area for a robbery, Dirkin said.

The driver ignored his directions and stayed on busy streets but made a wrong turn and ended up in a quiet area, the prosecutor said. He said Caesar jumped over the seat and forced her to drive to a secluded spot on Voorhees Street, near the corner of Leslie Street.

After he forced her into oral sex and intercourse, she saw the headlights of a truck in the rear-view mirror and jumped from the car naked and yelling for help, Dirkin said.

Caesar made a motion to the truck driver that he had a gun and the driver kept going, the prosecutor said. The victim jumped back into her limo, he said, and managed to lock three of the doors be fore Caesar slipped through the only unlocked door.

"She almost escaped but couldn't get the door locked fast enough," Dirkin said. "It was like a nightmare."

Caesar forced her to perform oral sex again and then fled as a police officer alerted by the truck driver came down Voorhees Street, Dirkin said.

Because there was no DNA evidence, Newark detectives used fingerprints lifted from the outside of the limo and matcher it with Caesar's prints, stored because he was jailed for an unrelated charge. Caesar will be sentenced June 22, and the maximum he faces is 14 years.