Free Republic

The former mayor of Waterbury, Conn., who is serving decades in prison for having sex with little girls, is demanding thousands of dollars in back pay. Ex-Mayor Philip Giordano wants the city to pay $61,000 to cover 13 weeks of unused vacation, 99 sick days and 27 personal days from the years before he was busted in 2001, the Republican-American newspaper reported. "Kindly consider this correspondence a formal demand for payment," Giordano, 43, wrote from the Garner Correctional Facility in Newtown, where he is inmate No. 292935. The pervert's payoff demand got a cool reception from Sheila O'Malley, chief of...

Yes, he has a penchant for sexual liaisons with teenage boys. Sure, he fled the country. Absolutely, he was nabbed in Mexico in the company of a teenage companion. But give Kevin Bruce Cooper, 42, props for being a realist. Cooper, a well-known Blount County contractor, could have put off for at least a few weeks a decision on his fate in U.S. District Court. He skipped out to Mexico last year rather than report to prison for an earlier taboo trip to Thailand to meet a young male paramour. But defense attorney Joe Costner told U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford...

TAVARES, Fla. — A couple tried to hire a hit man to kill their three grandchildren and daughter-in-law to stop them from testifying against their son in his rape trial, authorities said. The couple, ages 60 and 59, were charged with four counts each of criminal conspiracy to commit murder. They were being held without bond. Police said they initially offered $100 to an undercover sheriff's deputy to kill their son's wife, their 10-year-old granddaughter, two step-grandchildren, ages 14 and 16, and the family dog. More money was promised after the killings, said Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Christie Mysinger. The...

McMINNVILLE, Tenn. — A former teacher who went to jail for having sex with a 13-year-old boy was arrested for the second time in two weeks, accused of again contacting the victim and sending him sexually explicit videos. Warren County Sheriff Jackie Matheny said Pamela Rogers, 28, was arrested Monday on probation violation charges and was being held in jail awaiting a court appearance. Neither Rogers' attorney or the district attorney could be reached for comment. But prosecutors told the Southern Standard newspaper in a story published Wednesday that Rogers contacted the 14-year-old student electronically just hours after an April...

SEVIERVILLE - His mother suspected something "weird" was going on when she caught her son on the computer at 1 a.m. chatting with his teacher. When asked what they were doing, the boy said he and Kristi Dance Oakes were "studying." During the summer of 2004, Oakes drove the boy to and from his job at a Pigeon Forge amusement park, where she also was employed, because his car had broken down, the mother said. On June 23, 2004, a police officer at 11:30 p.m. found a topless Oakes performing oral sex on the 16-year-old boy in her parked car...

Police arrested a 56-year-old elementary school teacher Friday afternoon for allegedly fondling at least five girls under the age of 10 during classes. Kenneth Anderson, 56, of Vacaville, a teacher at Callison Elementary School, was arrested at his home, said Sgt. Charlie Spruill, on 15 counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a minor. Spruill did not know what grade Anderson teaches, but the school's Web site lists him as a fourth-grade teacher. Anderson, who has been with the district 18 years, allegedly fondled the girls either on top of or underneath their clothing "on what we would term...

Tampa -- A father marched into a classroom and punched a teacher's assistant in the face after his teenage daughter accused the man of inappropriately touching her. "I'm not real proud of what I did," Dave F. Swafford, 42, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "You have to protect your children, and my daughter does not lie to me." Swafford was charged with felony battery on a school employee after he hit the 35-year-old aide in front of a full class at Lakewood Ranch High near Bradenton on Tuesday, authorities said.

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A 26-year-old drama teacher has pleaded not guilty to allegations she engaged in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old male student. After Liliana Pennington's plea on Friday, Orange County Superior Court Judge David Hoffer ordered her to stay away from the boy and set bail at $100,000. Pennington, arrested on Wednesday, was charged with statutory rape and oral copulation of a minor. If convicted, her sentence could range from probation to five years in prison. Pennington's attorney, Laurie Walton, declined to comment. Pennington met the boy when he was 12, said Deputy District Attorney Heidi Garrel....

A Salinas pastor accused of sexually molesting his adopted daughter and a handicapped girl pleaded guilty less than two months after authorities began investigating him. Donald Domelle, 65, pastor of the Baptist Temple of Salinas, admitted to two felony counts of lewd conduct with a child and agreed to a minimum of 15 years in prison Thursday in a remarkably swift case that kept one young woman and a teenager from recounting in court their stories of repeated sexual abuse at the pastor's hands.

RICHMOND - The adult film actress whom police say had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old De Anza High School student was booked into County Jail in Martinez on Friday evening after her extradition from Oklahoma, Richmond police said. Genevieve Elise Silva, 20, was arrested last month by Kiowa County sheriff's deputies in Roosevelt, Okla., on suspicion of rape using a controlled substance, statutory rape, and detaining or concealing a child in connection with a warrant filed by Richmond police. She was booked on several charges which include unlawful sexual intercourse with person under 18 and concealment of a child...

Santa Rosa, Calif. - A 26-year-old man was arrested on charges he molested a teenage boy he met through Microsoft Corp.'s popular Xbox Live online video game community, authorities said. Ronnie Brendan Watts, of Placerville, delayed entering a plea Wednesday to charges that include using the Internet to solicit a minor, said Donna Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office. He is due back in court Jan. 20. Santa Rosa police arrested Watts on Dec. 15 after the 14-year-old boy revealed details of the alleged relationship to his mother. Detectives said Watts contacted the boy in October...

SAN JOSE -- Curtis Dean Anderson surprised a San Jose courtroom today by pleading guilty to the kidnapping, molestation and murder of 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild. The Vallejo girl disappeared on her way to school in December 1999. Anderson had earlier pleaded not guilty to charges that he sexually assaulted and killed her as she was held captive at his San Jose boardinghouse room

HANOI, Vietnam -- Former British rocker Gary Glitter admitted to police that an 11-year-old girl slept in his bed, but denied sexually abusing her, his attorney said Thursday. During interrogations by police, Glitter said he allowed the girl to sleep in his bed after she claimed she was afraid of ghosts, attorney Le Thanh Kinh told The Associated Press. Glitter, 61, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, is being held in Phuoc Co prison outside coastal Vung Tau city on suspicion of engaging in obscene acts with a child — a charge punishable by up to 12 years in...

VUNG TAU, Vietnam -- On warm nights in this seaside resort, neighbors say the British foreigner would sing in his backyard — sometimes for friends, sometimes alone, but always very loudly. Once upon a time, Gary Glitter sang to millions as he pranced and strutted in his metallic jumpsuits as one of the shining stars during Britain's glam rock era in the 1970s. But Glitter, 61, has fallen a long way since his days on top of the charts, dogged by rumors of his predilection for very young girls since his conviction in London in 1999 for possessing child pornography....

OAKLAND - Tanda Rucker, a former Berkeley High School basketball star who was once named the state's top prep player, pleaded no contest this week to 18 felony charges for having unlawful sexual relationships with high school girls she met while coaching in Alameda. Rucker, 32, faces up to a year in County Jail and five years of felony probation when she is sentenced in February. She also will have to register for the rest of her life as a convicted sex offender, which all but ensures she will never coach again. The charges involve two former students Rucker coached...

MARTINEZ -- A 22-year-old Martinez woman is in police custody after allegedly having Internet correspondence with someone who solicited sex from her and her 4-year-old daughter in exchange for $500, police said. Shannon Nicole Woods, of the 200 block of Thistle Circle, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of offering a minor under 16 for lewd and lascivious acts. She is being held on $50,000 bail, said Martinez police detective Sgt. Gary Peterson. Police are reviewing videotapes and the contents of Woods' laptop while determining whether they have enough evidence to charge her with a crime. Peterson said police received tips...

Pasadena -- A Superior Court judge has ruled that a renowned University of Southern California geneticist accused of molesting the daughter of a colleague must face trial. William French Anderson, known as the father of gene therapy, has been charged with one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child. Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz concluded a preliminary hearing Thursday by ruling that the prosecution had enough evidence to proceed with a trial. The judge scheduled the trial to begin Dec. 7. Anderson, who has been...

MARYVILLE — Kimberly Cunningham, the 33-year-old South Knoxville woman who shot to death a man she believes raped her daughter twice when the child was 10, was convicted today of voluntary manslaughter in the man's death. The verdict was returned about 10 a.m. by the seven-woman, five-man jury after five hours of deliberation Thursday and one hour today. Cunningham had been on trial on a charge of second-degree murder, but the jury acquitted her of that and found her guilty of the lesser charge. She had already been tried once in the death of Coy Hundley. In that trial last...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Child-welfare officials obtained an emergency court order to seize a baby just 24 hours after he was born, contending the infant would be unsafe because his father is a convicted sex offender. The hospital, however, refused to hand over the infant so soon after birth, according to a lawyer representing the mother. The child was born Tuesday, and Schuylkill County Children and Youth Services was granted the order Wednesday. The agency expressed concerns that the boy could be in danger because his 53-year-old father, DaiShin WolfHawk, was convicted of rape and sodomy more than two decades ago...

Tennessee family has filed a lawsuit against Dolly Parton's dinner theater Dixie Stampede and an ex-employee, claiming their 8-year-old daughter was sexually molested while performing in the annual Christmas show. Armando Martinez Gonzalez, 31, is accused of fondling the unidentified child actress before a show in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. The complaint, filed on Oct. 10 in Sevier County Circuit Court, claims Dixie Stampede breached its contract to care for, supervise and protect the girl. The family is also charging the company with negligent supervision, hiring, recklessness and emotional distress, claiming supervisors should have been aware of what was happening behind...