Free Republic

PHILADELPHIA - The managing editor of a student-run news organization that covers Penn State resigned Saturday after the publication's Twitter account sent messages saying former coach Joe Paterno had died, according to a letter on the publication's website. Paterno's sons refuted accounts of their 85-year-old father's death in Twitter messages posted after those by Onward State. "I appreciate the support & prayers. Joe is continuing to fight," Jay Paterno tweeted. Paterno has lung cancer and has been in a hospital since Jan. 13. His doctors say recent complications have made his condition "serious." Onward State recanted its posts but not...

Anderson Cooper just reported that Penn State is exempt from public disclosure. So the real question is, WTF is really going on in LIBERAL Pennsyvania?

A PEDOPHILE who broke into a Brisbane family's home, stripped naked and molested a three-year-old girl and took indecent photographs of the toddler as she slept has received a combined jail term of effectively eight years. The Brisbane District Court was told Craig Anthony Ellis broke into the family's Aspley home on Brisbane's northside and sexually assaulted the toddler on January 21, 2009. Ellis, then aged 29, tried to flee when the girl's parents were awoken by their daughter's muffled cries - resulting in the toddler's father crash tackling the naked intruder while the mother struck the pedophile with an...

The former U.N. weapons inspector convicted in an online sex sting has been sentenced to 1½ to 5½ years in state prison. Following his sentencing in Monroe County Court on Wednesday afternoon, Scott Ritter was led out in handcuffs and sent to Monroe County Correctional Facility, where he will remain until it is determined which state prison he will serve his sentence at.

The gym teacher accused of having sex hundreds of times with a student over two years when he was 15 broke down as she told a court the allegations have ruined her life. Tania Pontbriand, 40, from Quebec, denies having sex with the student between 2002 and 2004, when she was a teacher at Rosemère High School.

GEORGETOWN, Del. -- A Delaware pediatrician who decorated his office with Disney characters and miniature amusement park rides, is convicted of abusing scores of young patients over more than a decade will spend the rest of his life in prison. Earl Bradley, 58, showed no emotion as a judge sentenced him Friday to 14 life sentences for 14 counts of first-degree rape. Bradley was also sentenced to 165 years for multiple counts of assault and continuous sexual exploitation of a child. Bradley was arrested in Dec. 2009 after a 2-year-old girl complained to her mother after an office visit that...

Darrell McHargue Charged In Connection With Boy's Rape SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. -- A 48-year-old Shepherdsville man is accused of raping a 12-year-old boy in the woods a few miles from his home. The rape took place Saturday night, police said. The suspect was arrested and charged with first-degree rape just hours later, but he has since posted bond and been released to house arrest, leaving the young victim's mother outraged. "My son calls my husband, his dad answers the phone and he says, 'Dad, I've been raped, get down here,'" said the victim's mother, who asked that WLKY not reveal her...

A 63-year-old Oak Harbor man admitted to raping two young children, but blamed his actions on the 4-year-old victim, according to a police report. Prosecutors charged Richard Tice Sr. in Island County Superior Court May 2 with four counts of first-degree rape of a child. He's accused of repeatedly raping a 4-year-old girl and an 8-year-old girl. Detective Sgt. Teri Gardner with the Oak Harbor Police Department started investigating the case last month after the parents of one of the alleged victims brought her to the hospital after she disclosed the abuse. The 4-year-old child was transported to Harborview Medical...

Jackie Zudis was looking at the judge. But she was talking to George England. "George, after today you will no longer control me," she said on Friday. Jurors hugged her after deciding they believed her story, one so horrific she despaired that no one ever would. That, in the 1970s, England had purchased her as a 3-year-old from her mother in war-torn Vietnam. That he'd taken her to California, where he'd pushed her to invite her young friends over so he could molest them. That, for decades, he'd sexually terrorized her in every way imaginable.

David G. Stanco was sentenced Friday to serve seven years in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. Stanco, 57, a former religious instructor, will also serve 25 years on probation and will be registered as a sex offender for 10 years. As further terms of his sentencing, he was ordered to undergo treatment for substance abuse and sexual abuse. The longtime choir director at United Methodist Church in Watertown, Stanco was initially charged with breach of peace and trespassing after he was found semiconscious in his truck at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Watertown near a family plot. He...

A defendant charged with sexually abusing a child under 14 by using threats or coercion can't argue that the victim consented, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday, resolving a 27-year dispute over the meaning of California's molestation laws. Most molesting cases are charged under a law that makes it a crime to commit a "lewd or lascivious act" on a child under 14, who is considered incapable of consenting freely. Thursday's case, from Santa Clara, involved a more serious charge, molestation through force or duress. A defendant convicted under that law faces a mandatory prison term of up to 10...

A La Mesa karate instructor, out on bail while facing chargers of molesting a teenage boy, was back in court Thursday for a bail review. According to prosecutors, Eric Protas, 38, has been spending time on the Internet, posting comments to a Facebook page comparing himself to Jesus and his teen accuser to Judas. Protas is accused of sexually abusing a former student over a one-year period. Prosecutors allege that Protas had sexual contact with the victim 300 times in the past year and a half. Prosecutors asked the judge to increase bail based on the Facebook activity and comments...

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (KGO) -- A San Leandro man molested an 8-year-girl at a Bay Area Walmart store Monday, the second such attack in less than two weeks. 29-year-old San Leandro resident Carlyle Villazon was arrested Friday after two good Samaritans jumped in to help. Police are calling those men heroes. They are also reluctant heroes. One of them did not want to do television interviews to talk about what happened. Police say predators know how easy it is for kids to become separated from their parents in large stores and they are warning parents to keep their children close...

A 53-year-old former girls basketball coach from Renton who was convicted in 2003 of sexual misconduct with a minor was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 32 months for identity theft and Social Security fraud. Anthony D. Giles was alleged to be using the identity of a deceased infant as early as 1990, according to the release from the U.S. Attorney Office in Seattle. Prosecutors said he had gotten drivers licenses and social security cards in the baby’s name. They also said he used it to obtain work at Boeing and to avoid having to disclose that...

Sen. Franken to stump for Del. Senate nominee Coons By Jordan Fabian - 10/04/10 03:53 PM ET Delaware Democratic Senate nominee Chris Coons is seeking to boost his campaign this week with an appearance by a liberal Democratic senator. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), a former comedian and liberal talk radio host, will stump for Coons on Thursday, according to the Delaware Democratic Party. The New Castle County executive faces GOP nominee Christine O'Donnell, who is backed by Tea Party groups, in the general election. Most polls show Coons leading O'Donnell by double-digits. Republicans viewed the race for Vice President Joe...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Police have taken a 24-year old registered sex offender from Kentucky into custody after he was found in a local motel room with missing 12-year old Albuquerque girl. Officers are investigating if the two met online. The girl's family reported her missing to Albuquerque police on Sunday. On Monday afternoon, some of the girls' friends contacted her family and told them the girl sent them text messages indicating she was at the Motel 6 at Coors and Iliff. The man has a conviction in Kentucky for second-degree sexual assault against two victims who were 13 and 15-years...

California is so broke it is being compared to Greece. But the Orange County Board of Supervisors gave away 4.3 million dollars to an illegal Mexican alien who is also a child molester. Why did the supervisors do it? Answer: “The lawyer made me do it!” The first chapter in this distasteful story begins with Fernando Ramirez, a 24-year-old illegal alien, being caught molesting a 6-year-old girl in a park. He was duly convicted and sent to the Orange County Central Jail. The second chapter is predictable. Inmates in prison for murder, bank robbery, mugging old ladies, and other assorted...

UPPER PROVIDENCE — First-grade teacher and day camp director David Devine will be released on bail once electronic home monitoring is set up at his mother’s Chester Heights home. Devine, 34, who is suspended from his teaching position with the West Chester Area School District, on Tuesday waived his preliminary hearing on 500 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. District Judge Nicholas Lippincott reduced Devine’s bail to 10 percent of $50,000, with conditions. Although a resident of Media, Devine must stay with his mother in Chester Heights because Devine’s home...

Site in German- Polanski has been freed from house arrest in Switzerland and is free to travel. US has no recourse.

A local woman is behind bars, accused of pretending to be a teenage boy in order to have sex with a teenage girl. 31 year old Patricia Dye faces a number of charges, including importuning, corruption of a minor, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The Warren County Prosecutor tells Local 12 that Dye allegedly cut her hair and used the name "Matt Abrams" when courting the girl, who is between the ages of 13 and 16 years old. The girl went to a motel with Dye in June, but didn't know Dye was really a woman. When...

A Florida teacher convicted of having sex with two of her students, was called a sexual predator today by a judge who sentenced her to 10 years in prison.Stephanie Ragusa, wearing an orange jumpsuit, cried at one point during her sentencing hearing, but nodded her head in approval as Circuit Judge Chet Tharpe also imposed five years of sexual offender probation on the 31-year-old defendant. "You were a teacher," Tharpe said. "And as parents, we place our trust in teachers to provide a safe environment in which our children can learn. You violated that trust in the worst imaginable way....

LOS ANGELES, (AP) -- A judge has refused to unseal secret testimony given by the original prosecutor in Roman Polanski's 33-year-old sex case.

A Tracy woman pleaded guilty today to charges that she murdered 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, a surprise move in a case that garnered national attention. Appearing in San Joaquin County Superior Court, Melissa Huckaby, 29, entered her plea to murder with a special circumstance for kidnapping, said Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau. Huckaby faces life in prison without the possibility of parole when she is sentenced June 14 by Judge Linda Lofthus. Huckaby's plea in a Stockton courtroom took place at what had been scheduled as a procedural hearing in advance of a trial set for this fall. Prosecutors had been...

ELYRIA — A county judge Thursday found 16-year-old Daniel Kovarbasich guilty of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault in the Jan. 22 beating and stabbing death of Duane Hurley. Daniel, who was tried as an adult, could get up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced later this year. Had be been convicted of the murder and felonious assault charges he originally faced, Daniel could have been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Daniel had taken the stand earlier in the day Thursday, telling Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge that he killed Hurley to avoid...

DETROIT (AP) - A 22-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator and local entertainment promoter has been jailed on charges of molesting an 11-year-old Michigan boy. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says in a release Friday that Ricardo West of Allen Park has been charged with multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct, using a computer to commit a crime and accosting children for immoral purposes.

HAYWARD -- A Cal State East Bay professor arrested for allegedly possessing child pornography earlier this month was charged Wednesday in Missouri with statutory rape and sodomy after federal investigators say a 20-year-old St. Louis woman allowed him to victimize her 13-month-old daughter. Kenneth Kyle, 47, of San Francisco was originally arrested March 15 and charged in Superior Court with one count of possessing child pornography and one count of child exploitation, after authorities said they had found hundreds of images on his home computer in the South of Market area and on his laptop. He was later charged in...

Fort Bragg, Mendocino County -- For someone accused of shooting a 63-year-old former neighbor in front of the man's stunned wife and then standing by for half an hour to watch him die, Aaron Vargas has an awful lot of supporters in this damp little coastal town. The reason?Vargas says the dead man, Darrell McNeill, started raping him at the age of 11.The abuse continued into his 20s, Vargas' relatives say. And even when the now-32-year-old handyman finally broke away, McNeill kept badgering and pursuing him - until finally, Vargas snapped and confronted him. Nobody disputes that Vargas brought...

LOS ANGELES -- The attorney for the victim in Roman Polanski's 32-year-old sex case is joining his lawyers' bid to have the director sentenced in absentia. . . . On behalf of the victim, Samantha Geimer, Silver supported another motion by Polanski's lawyers urging he be sentenced to time served.

(link at Source URL)

TYLER, TX - On Thursday, December 03, 2009, Tyler investigators arrested 40-year-old Victor Jerome Lee for Online Solicitation of a Minor, a 2nd degree felony, and Possession of a Controlled Substance Drug Free Zone, State Jail Felony. The case was initiated when the father reported to police that he observed sexually explicit text messages on his 12-year-old son's cell phone. Tyler police investigators were able to trace where the sexually explicit messages were being sent from and the identity of the sender. Investigators were told that this case went beyond just text messaging where Lee had met with the juvenile...

Fear tends to hide the truth from us. Most of what our society believes about sex offenders is not true. Below are just a few of the beliefs we were taught that are either misleading or completely untrue: • Epidemic of rape-murders: The Somer Renee Thompson case is a tragedy indeed, but is a very rare tragedy. In the NISMART-2 study from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, only 115 “stereotypical kidnappings” occurred in the year of the study, with only 45 of those cases ended in death or were permanently missing [1]. Your child has a far...

DAYTON — A woman accused of celebrating her 55th birthday by having sex with a 12-year-old boy pleaded guilty to one count of gross sexual imposition of a person under age 13 on Friday, Oct. 23. Gloria J. Murphy, of 5440 Rawlings Drive, appeared before Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Katherine Huffman, who set sentencing for Dec. 2. The charge is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Gloria J. Murphy, who uses a walker and an oxygen tube, appeared frail.

John Couey, convicted of killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, had died of cancer, according to Jessie's grandfather, Archie Lunsford. "We got a call from the warden this morning," said Lunsford. Mark's mother, Ruthie, said this "is the best news she has heard." Couey, 51, had been in Florida State Prison near Jacksonville. He died 11:15 a.m. today at a Jacksonville hospital, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. "So far, no one has claimed his body," she said. "If no one claims it, he'll be buried in an inmate cemetery at Union Correctional Institution in Starke."

With the possible exception of the O.J. Simpson trial, it would be hard to think of a tabloid-ready celebrity scandal from the past 30 years that provokes a more purely, intensely, overheated-ly emotional response than the Roman Polanski rape case of 1977. (He fled the country early in 1978.) It’s a safe bet that a lot of people, upon reading the headline that Polanski had been arrested in Zurich, with the possibility of extradition to the U.S. to stand trial on that charge, greeted the news with more or less the following sentiment: “Good! It’s about time that the authorities...

“I know it wasn’t rape-rape. It was something else but I don’t believe it was rape-rape. He went to jail and and when they let him out he was like ‘You know what, this guy’s going to give me a hundred years in jail I’m not staying,’ so that’s why he left.” (video clip at link)

School districts, state agency blamed in molestation case Indiana child welfare officials and school districts in two states had a responsibility to protect children in Lee N. Tibbetts’ classroom, but a series of miscommunications and missteps among those agencies failed to catch a pattern of problematic behavior over three years. That breakdown allowed Tibbetts to remain in the classroom despite multiple accusations, including one that eventually led to the math teacher being arrested on charges alleging he molested a student while teaching for Indianapolis Public Schools. A review by The Indianapolis Star and The Cincinnati Enquirer shows that red flags...

It seems that untoward incidents are on the rise, the recent occurring at Idaho. Summer Nelson, a 28 year old baby sitter, hailing from Idaho, was charged of having physical terms with a 14 year old boy. She was actually appointed to take care of the boy in question with whom she allegedly had a physical relationship. Summer Nelson was appointed to take care of the minor, in August 2007. KXLY-TV reported on Tuesday, that the 28 year old baby sitter, Summer Nelson, was charged with four counts of lewd conduct with the child. Reports suggest that the accused baby...

A paedophile ring has been smashed after eight men were found guilty of a horrifying catalogue of more than 50 child pornography and abuse charges.Among the crimes was a shocking sexual attack carried out on a three-month-old baby boy by an executive adviser on child sex issues. James Rennie, chief executive of a publicly-funded gay rights group, was one of the men exposed yesterday as members of Scotland's biggest paedophile ring.   Rennie, 38, molested the toddler son of unsuspecting friends - a little boy he had been trusted to babysit - recording the abuse and sharing it with other...

The woman accused of raping and murdering 8-year-old Sandra Cantu of Tracy is facing new charges alleging that she poisoned a 7-year-old girl and a man in the months before Sandra died . ... In a complaint filed Thursday, prosecutors charged Huckaby with poisoning the 7-year-old girl, identified only as Jane Doe, on Jan. 17. That's the day that a woman at the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park said her daughter had apparently been drugged with muscle relaxants during a visit with Huckaby.... Huckaby was also charged with drugging a man identified as Daniel Plowman on March 2. The substance...

LOS ANGELES, (AP) -- A Los Angeles judge has dismissed Roman Polanski's bid to throw out a 31-year-old sex case because the fugitive director failed to appear in court. . . . The judge said Polanski's lawyer informed him the director doesn't intend to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the court.

Lawmakers have secretly approved awarding an illegal immigrant child molester more than $4 million because he was beaten by fellow inmates while in custody. Fernandez Ramirez, 24, is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who molested a 6-year-old girl in a park. The back door settlement, paid with tax dollers, gives the illegal alien's family $3.75 million and $900,000 will go to medical liens rendered while in custody. Orange County (CA) Board of Supervisors refused to comment on the settlement even though constituents have the right to know since it's their money.

The judge in the Sandra Cantu murder case agreed to seal her autopsy report Friday, saying if the results were released, there would be "public outrage." "We haven't seen anything like this in San Joaquin County," Superior Court Judge Linda L. Loftus said. "A lot of courts have never seen this kind of case." Both prosecution and defense attorneys were in favor of sealing the report. "In the interest of a fair trial, for both sides in this case, that is the only option," Loftus said. "There would be overriding prejudice if the record is unsealed." She said there would...

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- A Santa Maria elementary school principal has been arrested for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl. Police arrested 32-year-old Brookann Collier at her home Thursday morning. . . .

A former crossing guard who admitted molesting seven children in Columbia was sent to prison for at least 230 years and up to 460 years. A judge in Columbia County said Dale Hutchings of Berwick is a sexually violent predator and should never able allowed near children again. That's why he was sentenced to hundreds of years behind bars. Assistant District Attorney Anthony McDonald said the evidence in the case was overwhelming. A former crossing guard who admitted molesting seven children in Columbia was sent to prison for at least 230 years and up to 460 years. A judge in...

LOS ANGELES -- An appeals court has rejected a bid by Roman Polanski's attorneys to disqualify all Los Angeles Superior Court judges from considering a request to dismiss a rape case against the fugitive film director. A three-judge panel of the California 2nd District Court of Appeal on Monday also lifted a stay on all proceedings in the 31-year-old case, sending the case back to Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza. The court will schedule another hearing to decide whether Polanski has to be present for the court to hear his motion to dismiss a charge that he raped a 13-year-old...

What I loved most about my father, was that we had the same name, Mark Johnson, but only mine included the middle name Antoine. By the time I was three, I had only seen my father, Mark Johnson Sr., two or three times. He had been in prison for molesting two children. He claimed he never did molest those children, and I used to believe him. I was nine when my father got out. God knows how happy I was to see him - the father I had always wanted to have in my life. My father found work doing...

KOKOMO, Ind. -- A man was arrested Monday on two counts of child molesting after the victim's father caught the man in the act with his 5-year-old daughter, police said. Larry Joe Nester, 46, of Kokomo, was taken into custody in the 3100 block of North Washington Street. Police said their investigation began on Nov. 28 when the girl's father reported the incident. Investigators said they found that Nester had also molested the girl on several occasions prior to the Nov. 28 incident.

RIPLEY, Tenn. - A former West Tennessee teacher accused of having sex with a student has been convicted of child abuse. Amy Elder, a 28-year-old former teacher and softball coach at Ripley High School, was accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl. She went to trial charged with sexual battery and statutory rape by an authority figure but was convicted Wednesday night in Ripley on lesser charges of child abuse. Elder testified in her own defense and denied having sexual contact with the teenager.

EAST PALO ALTO -- A woman beat up her brother after she caught him sexually assaulting her 2-year-old daughter in his East Palo Alto home, police said today. Joel Aguilar Guizar, 23, was allegedly attacking the child when his sister broke down a locked bedroom door about 1 p.m. Wednesday, said East Palo Alto police Detective Jeff Liu. The woman, whose name was not released, saw Guizar pulling up his pants, grew enraged and "beat the crap out of him," Liu said. Police were called to investigate reports of a domestic battery in progress. When they arrived, officers heard the...

Spokane, Wash. (AP) -- Sherry Jones knew it would be hard to get her first novel published. Getting "The Jewel of Medina" into bookstores was even harder. After overcoming the formidable hurdles any new author faces, Jones was overjoyed to sell the book to Random House. Then Random House canceled its publication at the last minute for fear the historical novel about Aisha, child bride of the prophet Muhammad, would incite riots in the Muslim world.