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Fourteen years and numerous judicial reviews have passed since José Medellin was sentenced to die after confessing to the brutal gang rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston. That's long enough, state officials say. It's time to carry out the sentence. But defense attorneys, and an unusual coalition of federal officials, including no less than the attorney general and secretary of state, say if his Aug. 5 execution is not stayed, so Mr. Medellin's case can be reviewed one more time at the behest of the International Court of Justice, Texas will be rushing to judgment and endangering...

Boy George's US solo summer tour is in doubt after authorities refused to issue him with a visa, citing looming overseas legal issues. A statement from the singer and DJ's management said it was in relation to a forthcoming London trial on false imprisonment charges. The 47-year-old denied the allegations in 2007 and was released on bail. The former Culture Club frontman's 24-date tour is scheduled to begin on 11 July in Las Vegas. "At the moment, Boy George cannot come to the United States of America because he has been refused permission to enter by the USA Administration," the...

We can't tell you her name but she was able to tell a jury about what happened to her. And her determination to recount some of the most incredible savagery ever heard in a courtroom is testimony to her courage and her desire to see justice done. The recall of a Columbia University student that unfolded in a New York City hall of justice on Monday was almost too hard to hear. The 24-year-old victim sat in the witness box with her jaw clenched and her mind focused, as she retold the unimaginable ordeal she claims she suffered at the...

CINCINNATI -- A lawyer for the man accused of raping a University of Cincinnati student said the encounter could have been consensual because the woman has a history of sleepwalking. Dexter Ford, 52, is charged with raping the 23-year-old woman early Thursday morning near Interstate 71 in Cincinnati. Ford's lawyer, Jeff Adams, said prosecutors told him the woman takes prescription medication and has a sleepwalking condition, a fact that will likely be the core part of Ford's defense.

Shoura Council Chairman Dr. Saleh Bin-Humaid has urged US authorities to review the case of Homaidan Al-Turki, a 37-year-old Saudi student who was found guilty in a Colorado state court of 12 counts of sexually assaulting his Indonesian maid. . . . Al-Turki, a former Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado, maintains that he did not sexually assault the woman, whose identity has not been disclosed due to the nature of the alleged crime, and has accused US officials of persecuting him for "traditional Muslim behavior." . . . Al-Turki, who had been a graduate student in Colorado for...

A Toronto pastor who sexually assaulted and deliberately impregnated a parishioner, threatening her with evil spirits unless she yielded to his demands, has been sentenced to four years in prison. Rev. Frank Seeko Lawrence "grossly abused his position as pastor and spiritual healer by threatening a vulnerable and trusting young woman," Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba said yesterday. On Jan. 10, a jury convicted the 59-year-old man of sexually assaulting the victim, while acquitting him of assaulting and threatening to kill her. Jurors also acquitted the father of 11 of sexually assaulting another woman by whom he also fathered a...

A Texas kindergartener is accusing two of her female classmates of sexual assault, MyFoxHouston reported on Monday. "She said two of the girls at school put glue in between her legs, in her private parts," the mother of the 6-year-old girl told the station. "Someone hurt my baby; she just seems different now." The alleged attack took place inside a school bathroom, according to the report. Doctors confirmed the unidentified girl suffered vaginal trauma and that glue was present when they examined her, the station reported. A spokeswoman for the Fort Bend school district issued a statement to the station:...

Amazing--a middle school girl makes a false allegation of rape against a construction worker who is working at her school, and the result is: a) An outpouring of support and sympathy for the falsely accused construction worker. b) A tearful apology from the false accuser to the falsely accused construction worker. c) A tearful apology from the false accuser's parents to the falsely accused construction worker. d) A call for increased awareness of false allegations of rape. e) A call for increased vigilance against construction workers. If you picked "e", you're correct. The unbelievable story is below. To write a...

From Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine's new press release Governor Kaine Announces 2008 Legislative Initiatives on Domestic and Sexual Violence (1/2/08): "The Violence Against Women Act of 2005 also prohibits law enforcement officers from asking or requiring a victim of an alleged sex offense to submit to a polygraph examination as a condition for proceeding with the investigation of such an offense... "In 2004, the Department of Criminal Justice Services conducted a survey of sexual Assault policies of law enforcement agencies. A little over 72% of respondents indicated that they sometimes performed polygraph exams on victims of sexual assault. Only...

A former ymca worker is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a child. Wake Forest, NC -- 27-year-old, Justin Taylor faces one charge of Indecent Liberties with a Child. Investigators say the abuse happened last month during a YMCA after-school program at an elementary school in Wake Forest. Taylor was suspended from the YMCA and the seminary in Wake Forest, where he is studying to be a minister. related video   Watch  

13-year-old initiated sex, judge says Article from: Herald Sun December 17, 2007 01:51pm A JUDGE has labelled a man's rape of a 13-year-old boy "adolescent experimentation" and said the teen and the perpetrator were "both victims". Judge Michael Kelly's comments come a month after a prosecutor accused him of making inappropriate and disrespectful statements about the sexual assault victim during a plea hearing. The Melbourne County Court was told that in March 2001 a 24-year-old man began a relationship with a 13-year-old boy.

DENVER - The University of Colorado has agreed to pay two women $2.85 million to settle a lawsuit alleging they were sexually assaulted by football players and recruits, school officials said Wednesday. The allegations had sparked a football recruiting scandal at the school, prompted broad university reforms and led to a shake-up of its top leaders. University spokesman Ken McConnellogue said the school also agreed to hire an adviser to monitor compliance with federal laws governing equal treatment of women and add a position in the university Office of Victim Assistance. The agreement came two months after an appellate court...

Chicago (AP) -- The son of an Illinois congressman is accused of having sexual contact with two female inmates and inappropriate contact with a third while working for the state Department of Corrections, officials announced Friday. Jeffrey M. Rush, 41, the son of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, was a supervisor of security at the Fox Valley Adult Transition Center in Aurora, a facility which houses female offenders. Between February and June, Rush met two inmates for sexual contact on numerous occasions and offered a third inmate a ride, according to the Kane County state's attorney's office. Rush drove a state-issued...

A GROUP of young boys wanted a teenage girl to perform a sexual act with everyone watching "for a laugh", a court has been told. The 17-year-old girl was filmed performing oral sex on two boys, had her hair set alight, was spat at and urinated on during the incident at a park at Werribee, in Melbourne's outer-west, in June last year, the court heard today. Eight teenagers, aged between 16 and 18, appeared at a Children's Court today after pleading guilty to charges stemming from the incident. ... [An accused youth] also said a few days after the incident...

Police in Chesterfield Township say an Albanian man suspected of sexually assaulting an 83-year-old woman and spying on other women was ordered to be deported in 2004 and should never have been in the U.S. When the attacker left he threatened to come back for her if she notified anyone. She courageously called the police and assisted in the investigation. A Michigan State Police forensic artist prepared a sketch of the suspect that was circulated locally and in the media. In response to that information another woman came forward with information that lead to the identification and arrest of Altin...

TACOMA, Wash. -- A former elementary school teacher has been charged with kidnapping a 10-year-old student and is suspected of raping him multiple times. Jennifer Rice, 37, was arrested Saturday and booked into the Pierce County Jail for investigation of kidnapping, five counts of first-degree child rape, and four counts of child molestation. On Monday she pleaded not guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to a charge of kidnapping with sexual motivation, and prosecutors said more charges will follow. Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said Rice was working as a contract teacher at McKinley Elementary School earlier this year and...

Lockport police are investigating an apparent attack by a pit bull on a small boy. The 2-year-old is recovering at Women and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo after police say he was attacked and sexually assaulted by his family’s pit bull. Police said the toddler was in his home on Washburn Street about 2 p.m. when the pit bull attacked. According to police, the dog sodomized the boy. "The dog sexually attacked the kid and caused some pretty significant injuries," said Lockport Police Detective Capt. Larry Eggert. Eggert said the boy’s family members and neighbors had to beat the dog to...

... "Any rape case is horrible but this takes it to another level, something you can't think of even in your worst dreams," police spokesman Ted White said. According to the police report, a man knocked on the woman's door at about 9 p.m. and told her he had a flat tire. The mother and son, whom police have not identified, went outside and were ambushed by a group of gun-wielding suspects. The victims told police they were forced back into their home and beaten and sexually assaulted. According to authorities, the men raped, sodomized and beat the woman, then...

Los Angeles police officer was arrested Saturday in South Los Angeles in connection with a sexual assault, police said today. Police said Officer Hector Villalta was arrested on July 7 after he allegedly sexually assaulted a female companion at his home after he and the woman returned from a nightclub in South Los Angeles. After the assault, the woman ran from the residence to a local gas station where she called police. Villalta was booked on suspicion of sexual assault. He was released on $100,000 bail the following day, police said. He is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles...

Tory Bowen says she knows what happened to her ... But she won’t be able tell her story to jurors... because a judge’s order bars witnesses from using words like “rape” and “sexual assault” in the trial of Pamir Safi, who is accused of sexually assaulting Bowen. In my mind, what happened to me was rape,” said Bowen, 24. “I want the freedom to be able to point in court and say, ‘That man raped me.’” Last month, Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront denied a motion by prosecutors that would have prohibited Safi’s attorneys from using words like “sex”...

SAN DIEGO — A former respiratory therapist pleaded guilty Tuesday to molesting young, brain-damaged patients at the hospital where he worked for 25 years. Wayne Albert Bleyle, 55, admitted to eight counts of forcible lewd acts upon a child and four counts of exhibiting a minor in pornography. Under a plea agreement, Bleyle would serve 45 years and eight months in prison. With credit for good behavior, he would serve at least 85 percent of that sentence. Bleyle, who worked at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, answered procedural questions in a firm, quiet voice. Superior Court Judge Kenneth So...

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - An Air Force officer accused of raping four men and attempting to rape two others told jurors in his court-martial Saturday that he was the victim of "a gay roundup" by military investigators. Capt. Devery L. Taylor, the former chief of patient administration at Eglin Regional Hospital, said he had consensual sex with five of his alleged victims and that a fifth forced him to have sex.

"I've been sentenced for a D.U.I. offense. My 3rd one. When I first came to prison, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly none of this. I'm a tall white male, who unfortunately has a small amount of feminine characteristics. And very shy. These characteristics have got me raped so many times I have no more feelings physically. I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I've had knifes at my head and throat. I had fought and been beat so hard that I didn't ever think I'd see straight...

HOUSTON - A 17-year-old suburban teen was sentenced Monday to 90 years in prison in the brutal attack of a Hispanic boy who was beaten, kicked, stomped, burned and sodomized with the plastic pole of a patio umbrella. Keith Turner was the second teen convicted of aggravated sexual assault in the April attack at a house in Spring, north of Houston. David Henry Tuck, 18, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Nov. 16. Turner was convicted late Friday after about 90 minutes of deliberations. The jury took about five hours over two days to reach the sentence...

Rape is a four-letter word. When police get a report of one, it flies to the top of their priority list. Even, police say, when that reaction is exploited. Sexual assaults, like other crimes, are sometimes falsely reported. People pretend to have been raped for reasons ranging from a cry for attention to hiding an infidelity. In a recent Grapevine case, police believe a woman who reported being raped in her apartment may have been looking for an excuse to break her lease. After committing more than a week of resources to the investigation, Grapevine officers concluded that the evidence...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Another University of Central Florida fraternity is under investigation after a second alleged hazing incident at the school, Local 6 News has learned. UCF police said they recently caught a student with his pants down in a hallway of the Health and Public Affairs building. The student said it was related to a hazing incident involving the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity where pledges were being spanked inside a classroom, Local 6 News reported. There is no word this weekend whether the fraternity will face any disciplinary action. Last week, school officials investigating an apparent hazing ritual at...

On the first two days of Eid in Cairo, a mob of hundreds of men swept through downtown attacking and sexually assaulting random girls in an animalistic display that must boggle every mind. Apparently, the utter lack of basic decency, respect for women, or the rule of law was not confined to Ramadan alone - in fact, Ramadan was the only thing suppressing the baser instincts of these men. I feel sick at heart, and may never spend time downtown again, as it seems we women are actively in danger there. Will Cairo one day be like Mogadishu, where every...

WASHINGTON - A woman was charged Wednesday with sexual assault after an altercation with a flight attendant on an airplane flying from Charlotte, N.C., to London, an official said. Conan Bruce, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service in Washington, said the woman got into an argument with a male flight attendant aboard US Airways Flight 1494. "During the altercation, she grabbed his buttocks," Bruce said, adding that he based that information on police reports. When the airplane landed at Gatwick Airport, Sussex police charged the woman with disrupting a flight and sexual assault, Bruce said. ___ On the...

A convicted paedophile who was due to be sentenced for sex offences against children has been found dead in the River Taff in Cardiff. The body of Raymond Croft, 58, from Port Talbot, was found after he missed his sentencing in Swansea last week. He had previously been found guilty of sexual assault, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and attempted sexual activity with a child. Police said there are no suspicious circumstances around his death. Croft was due to appear at Swansea Crown Court last week to be sentenced for sex offences against children, but...

Almost 20 percent of the female cadets at The Citadel ( a public, coeducational college established as the Military College of South Carolina in 1842) last spring reported they had been sexually assaulted since enrolling at the military college, according to results of a survey released by the school Wednesday. Approximately 4 percent of the male cadets also reported being sexually assaulted since joining the formerly all-male school, according to the results of the survey. ( ... ) All the women and about 30 percent of the men were asked to complete the anonymous online survey, says Citadel spokesperson Charlene...

There stands Planned Parenthood, right behind Senate Democrat leaders, whispering seductively in their collective ear the promise of lots of votes and lots of cash. That's an interesting looking wallet Planned Parenthood has. Oh, baby skin. Of course. The addiction to power is arguably the most powerful addiction. This is obviously what's behind the Democrats' obstruction to the Child Custody Protection Act, which would stop non-parents from trafficking minor girls for abortions from states with parental notification laws to states without them. CCPA would also rescue girls from incestuous households by eliminating the loophole around state parental notification laws that...

Sex assault victim sues Homeland Security for $5M By MARY LOU PICKEL The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 07/25/06 A Korean woman from Gwinnett County has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security after a citizenship officer pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting her during a citizenship interview. Sang Yi Sevilla says Officer Kelvin Renard Owens intimidated her in June 2004 by asking, "If I let you pass, what are you going to give me?" according to a suit she filed Friday in federal court in Atlanta. Owens grabbed her breasts and asked her to meet him outside...

A gay Atlanta man was bludgeoned to death and his confessed killer walked free after claiming he was forced into a sexual act and responded in self-defense. The killer of a Kentucky man whose body was stuffed in a suitcase and dumped into a lake also claimed he acted to thwart a sexual advance and was convicted of manslaughter instead of murder.

A former Emery County junior high teacher has been sentenced to 90 days home confinement for having sex with a 15-year-old student. Brandy Yates, 30, of Ferron, had earlier pleaded no contest to third-degree felony attempted forcible sexual abuse with the victim, a male student at San Rafael Junior High School, according to court records. During a Tuesday sentencing, 7th District Judge Bruce Halliday also placed Yates on three years of probation, fined her $1,500 and ordered sex-offender therapy. Yates must also add her name to the state's sex-offender registry.

FORMER CIA operative Valerie Plame is the new Paula Jones -- if with national security credentials and Washington Beltway savoir-faire. Both women filed iffy lawsuits that seemed more designed to discredit a president than to prevail in a court of law. Jones never could prove that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton hurt her career as a state worker after he allegedly sexually harassed her. Hence, there were no economic damages, as Judge Susan Webber Wright noted when she ruled against Jones. The suit filed last week by Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, against Bush biggies -- Veep Dick...

Ever since the case of the raping and killing of an Iraqi and the alleged murder of three of her family members by U.S. troops went public, the age of the rape victim had been in dispute, ranging from about 15 to 25. Two days ago, Reuters and others news agencies produced proof that she was 14, based on a passport and identity card. Most news organizations then started calling her a girl -- but some persist in referring to her as a "woman." The girl was apparently born August 19, 1991. Yet a widely published AP story today by...

Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the human rights minister said on Monday, as the military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis. In an interview a week after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded a review of foreign troops' immunity, Wigdan Michael said work on it was now under way and a request could be ready by next month to go to the U.N. Security Council, under whose mandate U.S.-led forces are in control of Iraq. "We're very serious about this," she said, blaming a lack...

Teen, Mom Sue MySpace.com for $30 Million; Suit Filed in Travis County Claims Popular Internet Site Fails to Protects Children From Adult Sexual Predators. By Claire Osborn AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, June 20, 2006 A 14-year-old Travis County girl who said she was sexually assaulted by a Buda man she met on MySpace.com sued the popular social networking site Monday for $30 million, claiming that it fails to protect minors from adult sexual predators. The lawsuit claims that the Web site does not require users to verify their age and calls the security measures aimed at preventing strangers from contacting users...

The parents of a severely disabled woman suing a Colorado Springs school district over a sexual assault at a high school said the district has refused to mediate a civil lawsuit as one of its experts called the attack "pleasurable" for the woman. Kalie McArthur, now 20 and with an IQ of about 50, was assaulted in September 2004 at Rampart High School by a 15-year-old boy assigned as a peer trainer, said Jeff Weeks, an attorney for the girl and her parents. The boy, who had been suspended 20 times in the previous year and had a 0.0 grade...

Hosts of a chat show on a Hong Kong radio station apologized Tuesday for an Internet survey asking its listeners to vote which actress they would most like to sexually assault. The Commercial Radio poll drew widespread criticism last week, with teachers, legislators and ordinary citizens slamming it for advocating violence against women and for corrupting youth. "The program hosts and co-workers publicly apologize for any offence that the Internet poll 'Which female artiste would you most like to sexually assault' caused to female artistes and everyone in Hong Kong," a message posted on the radio Web site said. The...

Horry County police said Friday they were looking for a 29-year-old Loris man in connection with an attack on a woman who was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and set on fire, according to a news release. The attack occurred earlier this week, police said. The woman remained hospitalized Friday and was being treated for burns, with the most severe injuries to her hands, Horry County police Sgt. Bob Carr said. Police are searching for Fortinato Santos Reyes, who has been charged in an arrest warrant with assault and battery with intent to kill, arson, kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct, the release...

A 39-year-old former Southland law enforcement officer was behind bars Monday for allegedly posing as a police officer to abduct and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Las Vegas. Shawn Shelton of Moorpark, formerly a Manhattan Beach police officer and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, was arrested in the 1100 block of Blossom Hill Drive in Corona at about 5:30 p.m. Friday based on tip from Las Vegas police, Corona police Detective Jesse Jurado said. He was denied bail and locked in the city jail, Jurado said. Shelton allegedly drove up to a 14-year-old boy at a Las Vegas bus...

Adult females sexually exploiting adolescent boys are malefactors -- not benefactors. "There is an alarmingly high rate of sexual abuse by females in the backgrounds of rapists, sex offenders, and sexually aggressive men," writes Frederick Mathews, Ph.D., in "The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens." Yet the public's perception of adult females who manipulate minor boys into sexual relationships continues to be skewed by late-night comedians and news coverage that treats it as a boy's harmless rite of passage rather than a serious crime. It's most disturbing when a judge doesn't get it. On May 22,...

PRESCOTT — The son of state Senate President Ken Bennett, who assaulted 18 middle school boys at a camp where he was a junior counselor last summer, will spend 30 days in jail and may escape a felony record. The sentence, handed down Friday, angered the relatives of several of the victims, including the father of a 13-year-old boy who attends St. Cyril's Catholic School in Midtown. "Privilege won again," said the man, whom the Arizona Daily Star is not identifying in order to protect his son.

"Collegetown Creeper" Arrested In San Diego SAN DIEGO, CA - (5-5-06) Abraham Shorey, known by law enforcement as the "Collegetown Creeper," was taken into custody around 7pm near West Mountain View Drive and Adams Avenue. It was discovered that Shorey was in the San Diego area on Wednesday when police in Chula Vista stopped him, but they let him go after he gave police a fake name. Mr. Shorey is wanted in connection with a series of incidents where he allegedly entered women's homes and committed "bizarre acts." He is being held on warrants out of New York; two counts...

LOS ANGELES -- Southern California backup quarterback Mark Sanchez was released from jail early Thursday following his arrest for investigation of sexually assaulting a female student, authorities said. Sanchez, 19, was released shortly after midnight after posting $200,000 bail, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Ban Nguyen. He was arrested around 4 p.m. Wednesday at an apartment complex near campus, Los Angeles police Officer Jason Lee said. No other details were immediately available. USC officials said they will temporarily suspend Sanchez while police conduct their investigation. "The university takes charges of sexual assault seriously," Michael Jackson, USC vice president of...

USC quarterback Mark Sanchez was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman. L.A.P.D. Officer Jason Lee says Sanchez was taken into custody around 4 p.m. Wednesday. He's accused of sexually assaulting a female student. Sanchez is listed on the Trojans' depth chart as the backup to John David Booty, but is expected to battle for the starting job this fall. Booty practiced only once this spring before he injured his back and had to undergo surgery. Sanchez played the recent spring scrimmage and has been practicing with the first unit. He will be a redshirt freshman this coming season.

Mark Sanchez, Southern California's backup quarterback, was arrested Wednesday after being accused of sexually assaulting a female student, police said. Sanchez, 19, was arrested around 4 p.m. just north of campus and was being booked for investigation of sexual assault, police Officer Jason Lee said. "The alleged assault occurred earlier today," Lee said. The USC student reported it to police but no other details were immediately available

FORT WORTH — A first-grade teacher at Worth Heights Elementary School was arrested Friday, accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl more than 20 times since the last school year, sometimes in the presence of other school children. Jose “Joe” David Soliz, 27, resigned on Tuesday after being questioned by school district investigators concerning the alleged improper conduct with the student, said Barbara Griffith, spokeswoman for the district. Soliz was arrested at his Fort Worth home Friday morning by the U.S. Marshal’s task force on a warrant accusing him of aggravated sexual assault of a child and was being held...

Police reports say he was assaulted with a broomstick, a flashlight and a cane — and now a 12-year-old Tucson boy may see the camp counselors accused of attacking him receive a plea deal that could allow them to avoid prison. One of the counselors was Clifton Roy Bennett, the 18-year-old son of Arizona Senate President Ken Bennett. SnipAt least two of the victims are from Tucson, according to local attorney Lynne M. Cadigan, who is acting as an advocate for one of them, a 12-year-old boy who attends Catholic school. The father of that boy says he did not...