FL - Florida police lured innocent men into online sex stings and seized their property, records show

Original Article (Video available)

01/05/2015

By Travis Gettys

Police posed as underage teens online to lure men into breaking the law as part of an apparent revenue scheme by Florida law enforcement agencies, according to an investigation of newly released public records.

Emails and other online communications analyzed by WTSP-TV revealed that many of the men who were eventually arrested were not interested in meeting children but were instead seeking adult sex partners – until they encountered undercover officers.

Law enforcement agencies fought open-records requests by the TV station, which eventually gained access to investigation reports from cases that resulted in arrest – but not from those that did not.

Police fought the requests by claiming the investigations remained open, but one agency claimed it had already destroyed records from one sting just one month after it was conducted.

Clearwater police seized 19 cars in January 2014, the station reported, when a joint sting with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office arrested 35 men in one weekend.

The two departments arrested at least 20 other men three months later and 11 more in September in similar stings that netted 12 more seized vehicles, the station reported.

One of the men arrested in the first sting paid $10,000 to get his 2014 Lexus returned, and the 24-year-old won’t get any of that money back even though all felony charges were eventually dropped in his case.

The station found that many of the men arrested in the stings had posted or responded to personal ads seeking adults, but police often steered the conversation to underage children or posed as adults with younger siblings who were interested in meeting.

Read the entire article here

See Also:

• Law Enforcement Gone Bad
• To Catch a Non-Predator, Try Entrapment

NE - Obama cybersecurity chief (Timothy DeFoggi) gets serious prison time for child porn

Timothy DeFoggi

Original Article

01/05/2015

By Jim Kouri

One of the key players in the creation and implementation of cybersecurity protocols for President Barack Obama's "signature legislation," the Affordable Care Act of 2010, will be spending the next two-and-a-half decades in a federal prison cell after a conviction for trafficking in Internet child pornography. Timothy DeFoggi, who served as the acting director of cybersecurity at Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the disgraced Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, was told by a judge on Monday that he'll serve the next 25 years in federal prison for kiddie pornography dissemination. DeFoggi was convicted by a federal jury on Aug. 26, 2014, after only a four-day trial in Omaha, Nebraska.

According to Justice Department officials, the 56-year-old computer security expert communicated online with other offenders in an underground Internet forum. At trial, it was shown that he articulated his strong desire to rape and murder children. Being a cyberscience expert, DeFoggi knew how to use the Tor browser, an online service that is capable of eluding law enforcement from tracking his Internet activities while he worked at HHS as its head of cybersecurity in 2013. What surprise many was the fact, he remained listed on the HHS staff roster with top security clearance even after he was arrested.

DeFoggi exchanged graphic sexual images of children on the website, which was impervious to traditional search engines or Web browsers, according to the Department of Justice. The FBI special agents assigned to the case subsequently were successful in closing down the kiddie porn site in December 2012.

“Using the same technological expertise he employed as Acting Director of Cyber Security at HHS, DeFoggi attempted to sexually exploit children and traffic in child pornography through an anonymous computer network of child predators,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell. “But dangerous criminals cannot be allowed to operate online with impunity. Today’s sentence shows that the Department of Justice will bring criminals and child predators to justice, even when they employ anonymous networks like Tor.”

Read the entire article here

See Also:

• Government child porn & other sex crimes (Videos)
• Other sexual crimes by law enforcement, politicians, etc.

AZ - Ex-FBI agent (Ryan Seese) doesn't have to register as sex offender for peeping Tom incidents in Hershey, elsewhere, court says

Original Article

Of course not, they are above the law! See here for many videos of people working for the government, busted for child porn, and it was swept under the rug.

07/11/2014

By Matt Miller

A former FBI agent who admitted sneaking into bathrooms to watch girls and women use toilets doesn't have to register as a sex offender, the state Superior Court has ruled.

The decision, issued this week in response to a plea by Ryan Seese, comes nearly four years after the Derry Township man was sentenced to 1 to 23 months in Dauphin County Prison, plus 3 years of probation, for committing the crimes at the Hershey Middle School and a private gym.

In its ruling, the Superior Court concluded that Seese isn't subject to sex offender registration because of amendments the state Legislature made to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, which took effect two years after his sentencing.

Seese pleaded guilty and no contest in 2010 to three charges of invasion of privacy and pleaded guilty to additional counts of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Police said two adult women were the victims in the incident in the women's locker room at the private gym and that Seese spied on two teens in a girl's bathroom during a concert at the middle school.

Seese left the FBI in 2007 after being convicted of another peeping Tom incident in a women's restroom at the University of Arizona.

When sentenced in the local cases in December 2010, Seese told Dauphin County Judge Bernard L. Coates Jr. the "addictive behavior" that drove him to be a peeping Tom went out of control following the death of his young son and his subsequent divorce.

IL - Chicago police fail to register sex offenders 601 times in just three months

Original Article (Audio available)

05/28/2014

By Rob Wildeboer

On February 13 of this year, _____ went to the Chicago Police Department Headquarters to register as a sex offender. He was one of 22 people who were turned away that day because the office was simply too busy. That’s according to police records. A month later, on March 21, _____ was approached by Chicago police officers on the West Side of Chicago.

According to an arrest report, _____ wasn’t doing anything illegal but was “loitering in an area known for narcotic activity.” Officers ran _____’s name and found he had failed to register. _____ told the officers he had tried to register on February 13 but had been turned away. He was arrested anyway and is now in the Cook County Jail, where it costs taxpayers $52,000 a year to house him.

I first heard about sex offenders being prevented from registering a few months ago. I spent several days waiting in line with offenders outside the criminal registration office at Chicago police headquarters. I couldn't believe it when officers came out of the office and told dozens of men who had been waiting for hours that they might as well go home because the office was too busy to register them all. Then the officers warned the men that they could be arrested for failing to register even though they’d just waited for hours in line to do just that.

I went back several times and saw the same scenario play out.

'Setting people up to be violated'

“It’s like they’re purposely setting people up to be violated to go back to jail. You can’t conclude nothing else but that,” said _____ as he tried to help his brother register back in February.

Another frustrated man who just gave his name as Terry said, “We’re the guys that are trying to do the right thing. We’re showing up here, we’re trying to do the right thing; we’re trying to follow the law to the letter of what’s on that piece of paper and they turn us away and say, sorry, but you can still be arrested. Yeah, well, how are we supposed to feel?”

Police records detail the failure

As officers turned offenders away, they wrote down the names of the offenders who had shown up. Using the Freedom of Information Act, WBEZ got copies of those lists. The lists have fields for name, date, time, several other things and then one space for “reason for being turned away.” In the first three months of this year the office turned people away 601 times, and in that space for the reason it put “capacity.”

In the first three months of this year the office turned people away 601 times and in that space for the reason it said, “capacity.” On some days, like January 14th for example, no one was turned away. But on February 14, 31 people were turned away because the office was at “capacity.” On March 4, 34 people were turned away; on the 5th, 27 people; on the 6th, 26 people.

A semi-reluctant advocate

“These registrants try and follow the law. They try and report and register and fulfill their duties but the police department doesn’t let them and the police department isn’t fulfilling their responsibility to the public,” said attorney Patrick Morrissey in a recent interview in the lobby of the Cook County criminal court building at 26th and California. He had just come from a hearing where he was representing a sex offender who is currently in the Cook County Jail for failing to register.

A year and a half ago Morrissey was in his law office when he got a call from a sex offender who was having trouble registering with the Chicago Police Department. Morrissey was outraged, though his boss, who happens to also be his dad, was not too interested in getting involved in the issue. Morrissey pushed ahead anyway.

“By the City of Chicago refusing to register people and causing them to walk the streets unregistered subject to arrest, is unconscionable,” said Morrissey. “You know it doesn’t only harm these people who have to register and who are subject to arrest, but it harms the public because it detracts from what this law is about, about keeping track of people.”

It’s also costly, not for the police department, but for the taxpayers who have to fund the county jail where it costs $52,000 a year to house inmates. Morrissey has a client who went to the Chicago police registration office and was turned away and then later arrested for failing to register.

“He was in the Cook County Jail from about July of 2011 until April of 2014,” said Morrissey. “I think there’s a lot of people who are currently in the Cook County Jail on a failure to register charge.”

Morrissey is right. According to the Cook County Sheriff’s office, on April 25 of this year, there were 190 people in the jail on failure to register charges.

One of them was _____, the guy I mentioned at the top of the story, who wasn’t doing anything illegal but was approached by police, and when they ran his name they found he had failed to register even though he’d tried to register.

In another example of penny wise but pound foolish, on January 22, police records show that _____, a homeless man, was turned away from the registration office because, not surprisingly, he didn’t have the hundred dollar fee sex offenders have to pay once a year. He was arrested less than two weeks later, February 3, for failure to register and is in the county jail, where he’s costing taxpayers $143 a day.

Or take _____. He went to police headquarters March 4, 5, 6 and 7. The records show that each time the Chicago police refused to register him because they were too busy. Finally on March 10 he made it into the office and he was arrested because something called an investigative alert had been issued for him. The Chicago police had been looking for this guy and for a week he’d been standing in a line outside CPD headquarters.

Just one more example: On March 4 _____ went to register and was turned away. He returned on the 5th but police failed to register him again. The note on the police sign in log says he was turned away because he needed a sign language interpreter. So he wasn’t registered. He’s since been arrested and is now in jail for failure to register.

Little information and some misinformation from Chicago Police

For several months WBEZ has repeatedly requested an interview with Police Supt. Garry McCarthy to have a substantive and thoughtful discussion about this complicated issue and for several months, he has refused, and he continues to refuse. Instead of insightful conversations we’ve gotten dismissive emails. We’ve also gotten written statements containing misleading information that minimizes the extent of the problem.

For example, in February, department spokesman Adam Collins sent us a 14-sentence statement saying the police department proactively sends the names of registrants who were turned away to the “Illinois State Police so they know the individual came in to register and he or she should not be subject to arrest.”

According to Tracie Newton with the Illinois State Police, which maintains the sex offender registration, that list from CPD is absolutely useless. Newton says CPD just started sending lists over one day without any discussion or explanation and there’s nothing in the statutes that allows the state police to do anything with the lists.

This past week, Collins sent another email statement saying the department is expanding the registration office and construction should be done by August. Collins provided no details about how much the project will cost or whether there will be additional officers detailed to that section. He also provided no explanation for the hundreds of men that have been turned away from the registration office and have been arrested or are subject to arrest.

DC - Pentagon punished nearly 500 for sexual harassment

Original Article

05/15/2014

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military fired or disciplined nearly 500 workers for sexual harassment in a 12-month period, and nearly 13 percent of the complaints filed involved repeat offenders, according to new data.

The Pentagon on Thursday released its first formal report on sexual harassment amid months of criticism from Congress over how the department handles sexual assaults and related crimes.

According to the report, there were 1,366 reports of sexual harassment filed in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, involving 496 offenders across the services and National Guard. Officials acknowledged that much like sexual assault complaints, incidents of sexual harassment are vastly underreported, and they said there will be a concerted effort to increase reporting.

Sexual harassment involves unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is tied to a person's ongoing employment or interferes with the person's work.

The report reveals that in the vast majority of the cases the victim was a young, lower-ranking woman and the offender a senior enlisted male service member, often in the same unit. The most frequent location of the harassment was a military base.

More than half of the complaints involved crude or offensive behavior, and another 40 percent were described as unwanted sexual attention. Most involved verbal behavior.

Nearly 60 percent of the complaints were substantiated and the punishments ranged from court martial and firing to pay cuts, rank demotions, letters of reprimand, and other administrative actions.

The report noted the link between sexual harassment and sexual assaults, saying that surveys have indicated that up to 30 percent of the women and 19 percent of the men who said they had been assaulted reported that the offenders had sexually harassed them before and/or after the attacks took place.

The report also said that the military services are aware of the large number of repeat offenders and "are taking appropriate action."

Officials said they hope to use the data to begin to resolve any problems with department policy or programs.

See Also:

• Government child porn & other sex crimes

IL - Ex-Illinois lawmaker (Keith Farnham) charged with child porn possession, in graphic federal complaint

Keith Farnham

Original Article

04/29/2014

An Illinois state lawmaker who resigned his House seat in March was charged Monday with possession of child pornography, in a federal complaint that detailed graphic online chats.

Former Rep. Keith Farnham, a 66-year-old Democrat, was accused of having two child porn videos on a computer seized from his state office.

The complaint described alleged online chats between an email address linked to Farnham and others in which they discussed their child porn preferences.

"12 is about as old as i can handle. i love them at 6 7 8," read one message, allegedly from the address associated with Farnham, in a chat from November.

The same user, in a chat later that month, also allegedly recalled sexually molesting a 6-year-old girl.

The complaint contains graphic details about pornographic images and videos allegedly traded and sought by Farnham; some of the images were of children under 10 years old and at least one is an infant, the filing said.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Farnham twice co-sponsored bills that would toughen penalties for child porn offenses.

The lawmaker has not been arrested but is scheduled to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Chicago on Wednesday. Farnham has not responded to requests for comment.

Several computers and electronic storage devices with child pornography were discovered in searches on March 13 at Farham's office and home in Elgin, just west of Chicago.

Farnham, who was first elected in 2008, resigned his seat on March 19 -- days after the search warrants were executed. He said at the time that he had to attend to "battling serious health issues."

Suspicion fell on Farnham after authorities linked an email used to trade child pornography online to the then-legislator, the complaint said.

A conviction on a single count of possession of child pornography carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

See Also:

• Farnham campaign touted his record ‘targeting predators’

American Justice: It’s Not What You Did, It’s Who You Know

Original Article

04/09/2014

By WillB

You hear it all the time; a man gets caught soliciting an underage girl and the public cries out! He’s called a “monster”, a “predator”. Chances are he will spend several years in prison and live the rest of his life labeled as a pariah; a “registered sex offender”. Unless, of course, the man is politically or socially connected.

We recently saw two examples of the double standard when it comes to prosecuting individuals for sex offenses. Last week actor James Franco, 35, solicited an underage girl on vacation. The series of texts and Instagram messages were publicly broadcast when the teenager posted them online. He apologized for the incident on Live With Kelly and Michael (Video), said he learned his lesson and seemingly will be allowed to go on with his life. Two weeks ago, a former Tennessee Alderman, Richard L. Smith, was sentenced to only two years probation and only two years on the registry for also soliciting a minor through texts and social media.

What distinguished the actions of these two individuals from the thousands who serve long prison sentences and a lifetime as a sexual offender? Their political and social connections.

The most glaring examples are Joshua Lunsford and John Walsh themselves. Joshua Lunsford is the brother of Jessica Lunsford, who was abducted and killed in 2005 and after whom several sex offender laws are named. Two years after her death Joshua Lunsford was sentenced to only 10 days in jail, one year of probation and no registration requirement for fondling a 14 year old girl. John Walsh, father of Adam Walsh, another child victim and after whom the country’s most elaborate sex offender law is named, admitted to dating his wife when she was a minor. He even joked about it on a Biography Channel documentary.

Florida is not without its own double standard. In 2006, Florida Congressman Mark Foley, who was chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, which introduced legislation targeting sexual predators and created stricter guidelines for tracking them, himself was caught in a sexting scandal targeting an underage congressional page. He was never charged.

Apparently, in America justice is not blind. It’s not what you did that determines whether you should serve a lifetime of punishment, stigma and shame on the sex offender registry, it’s who you know.

Are prisons failing when it comes to preparing inmates for life on the outside?

Prison Nation

Original Article

Like we've said before, prison is a business not a treatment facility. They should be treating the inmates like the human beings they are, not like animals, then maybe things would change.

By Scott Alessi

In a story that sounds more like it would have taken place in The Shawshank Redemption, an inmate released from prison last week after serving more than 13 years did the only thing he could think to do when he became a free man: He went back to the scene of his original crime and got himself arrested again.

_____ was first convicted in 1999 for robbing a shoe store in Toms River, New Jersey and given a mandatory minimum sentence of just under 13 years. When he was released last Friday, he took a bus to Toms River and went back to the same store, unarmed, and stole $389 from the cash register, along with the cell phones of two employees. He threw the phones in a garbage can at the shopping center and didn't even keep the cash, which police reportedly found in a gutter behind the building. _____ was easily found just a few blocks away and arrested, almost as if he was waiting for the police to come take him home.

Toms River police chief Mitchell Little offered the following explanation of _____'s actions to NBC News New York: "Maybe that's the only life he knows, and the only thing he could think of was going back to the same store and doing the same crime again--getting caught and going back where he was taken care of and told what to do and getting meals and shelter and everything else."

Sadly, I think that Little is correct. Adjusting to life outside of the prison structure is a serious problem for inmates who have served long sentences, and is just one of the problems with the nation's current incarceration system. Some ex-offenders have no social contacts, no resources, and literally nowhere to go. It has especially become an issue for those suffering from mental illness, who sometimes get themselves arrested because prison is the only place where they can receive stable care and supervision.

In the face of high recidivism rates, some states have looked into ways to better prepare inmates for the transition out of prison. Texas is one state that has implemented limited programming to attempt to reduce its prison population, with some success. In 2012 I interviewed a former Texas inmate who detailed some of those programs, which included such basics as how to look presentable for a job interview. The need for much more extensive programming is clearly there, he told me, but funding challenges prohibit more inmates from benefiting from this kind of assistance before their release.

Texas is also home to the fantastic nonprofit organization Bridges to Life, which provides prisons with a restorative justice program geared toward rehabilitation. But the program also gives inmates an opportunity to hone their social skills by interacting with people outside the prison culture--a critical tool needed for adjusting to life after incarceration. Such grassroots efforts are one way that individuals can volunteer their time to help those in prison prepare for the day when they get out, and to help make sure they stay out, all without adding an additional financial burden to the prison system.

If one thing is clear from _____'s case, it is that simply reducing the prison population isn't enough. Major efforts are needed to help the people released from prison to redeem themselves and to live healthy and productive lives once their prison term is behind them. For a pro-life church, protecting and improving the lives of this vulnerable population should be a serious concern.

GA - The "sex offender" money making scheme continues to grow!

Original Article

03/29/2014

In 1994 the Jacob Wetterling Act established the first national sex offender registry law, and Indiana’s “Zachary’s Law” placed their state registry online.

In 1996 “Megan’s Law” was passed at the federal level, forcing states to maintain publicly accessible registries and allowing all levels of community notification.

In 1997 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld civil commitment in Kansas v. Hendricks, and a year later, Delaware passed the first law requiring registrants to carry a special ID card
.
In 2005 strict mandatory minimum laws were created with the Jessica Lunsford Act followed by the Adam Walsh Act in 2006. (1)

These laws are the result of horrific acts of violence often resulting in murder and with actual or assumed sexual motivation against youth. They were driven in equal parts by grieving parents wanting justice, politicians who, for reasons both altruistic and self-serving, were willing to take up the cause, and a media fired by the sensationalism inherent in the issue.

The cases that drove the laws are rare anomalies; with instant telecommunications and every story being repeated beyond counting, the impression is easily given and received that these heinous incidents happen every day. They don’t. They represent the tiniest fraction of all sexual offenses, but the transition is easily made in the public’s mind: sex offender = violent, predatory pedophile and potential murderer.

And an industry was born—a multi-million if not billion dollar industry—containing but not limited to these branches; the only order attempted is alphabetical.

Read the rest of the story

TN - Former alderman (Richard L. Smith) on probation for solicitation charges against a minor

Richard L. Smith

Original Article

This just goes to show you that the laws are only for specific people. If you are a politician, well known, or rich, then the laws don't apply to you!

03/28/2014

By Bailey Darrow

PUTNAM COUNTY - Former Monterey alderman Richard L. Smith appeared in criminal court Thursday, entering a plea of guilty to one count of solicitation of a minor and must now serve two years on the sex offender registry.

In October, Smith was arrested on a three-count grand jury indictment charging him with one count of solicitation of a minor and two counts of extortion after he reportedly made contact with a young girl on social media and by sending text messages to a cell phone he purchased for her.

By entering a best interest plea of guilty to only the one count of solicitation, a Class E felony, Smith will have to serve two years on probation and must register on the sex offender registry.

He will be allowed to continue living at his home on Volunteer Way in Monterey, even though it is less than 1,000 feet from a school or park, despite that registration status. He will also be allowed to continue living with his girlfriend and her minor child, court documents state.

Upon successful completion of the sentence, Smith will be removed from the sex offender registry and the offense will be fully expunged, according to court documents.

The indictments issued against Smith alleged that between Dec. 1, 2012, and Jan. 9, 2013, Smith “did unlawfully by means of electronic communication intentionally request, persuade, invite or attempt to induce a person who (he) knows or should know is less than 18 years of age” to engage in conduct that, if completed, would constitute a violation of the state’s statutory rape law.

The extortion indictments alleged that Smith told the girl that “he would expose information concerning their personal relationship to various parties to embarrass her unless she fulfilled promises that he said she made concerning their romantic, sexual, and personal relationship.”

According to the indictments, he also told the girl “that he would expose information concerning their personal relationship to various parties to embarrass her unless she returned certain personal property,” to him.

The items Smith insisted the girl return include a ring, a necklace and a phone, according to the indictment.

Smith served on the Monterey board of mayor and aldermen for eight years. In 2010, he ran for mayor of Monterey, losing to then vice-mayor Jeff Hicks by only two votes. He also qualified in the race for mayor of the city in 2008, but ultimately withdrew his name from the ballot. In January 2012, he resigned from the city’s Planning Commission.

Most recently, Smith gained media attention as he campaigned for what he calls “Boomer’s Law” that would increase the possible punishment for aggravated assault in the state, following the death of his son in 2012.

WI - State Rep. Bill Kramer charged with 2 counts of sexual assault

Rep. Bill Kramer

Original Article

03/28/2014

By DEE J. HALL

The Waukesha County District Attorney's Office on Friday charged state Rep. Bill Kramer with two criminal counts for allegedly sexually assaulting a Senate aide three years ago after a Republican gathering, according to a criminal complaint.

Kramer, R-Waukesha, earlier this month was stripped of his post as majority leader of the state Assembly by fellow Republicans after he was accused of sexually harassing one woman and inappropriately touching another during a trip in late February to Washington, D.C. One woman is a lobbyist; the other is a legislative staffer.

The felony charges of second-degree sexual assault issued Friday by Deputy District Attorney Debra Blasius stem from an alleged incident that occurred in Muskego on April 8, 2011.

The alleged victim, who was an aide to an unnamed senator, reported the incident to Muskego Police on March 5, just days after the allegations surfaced that Kramer had sexually harassed two women during the out-of-town trip.

It was unclear from the criminal complaint which senator the woman worked for and whether it was a state or U.S. senator.

Kramer's attorney, Jim Gatzke of New Berlin, said his client expects to be cleared.

"The process will provide Mr. Kramer with an opportunity to defend himself from the allegations and he will do so in the appropriate forum," Gatzke wrote in an email. "Once all of the information has been brought forward, Mr. Kramer is confident that he will be exonerated."

Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel is a Republican who is running for attorney general. He said he was not involved in the charging decision.

According to the criminal complaint:

The woman, identified only by her initials, reported that an intoxicated Kramer approached her after a Republican gathering called "Pints and Politics" at the High Tide Pub and Grill in Muskego asking for a ride.

She told Muskego Police detective Stephen Westphal that while talking with Kramer, he pushed her against her vehicle hard enough to bruise her back while groping her breasts. Later, while sitting in the passenger seat of the woman's vehicle, Kramer groped her breasts and groin and forcibly kissed her, the alleged victim told Westphal.

"(She) states that she felt dirty, scared and was afraid that the defendant was going to rape her," the criminal complaint said. "After the defendant leaned into the back seat to pick something up she was able to send a quick text message asking friends to return to the parking lot."

Although the woman did not report the alleged incident to police, the criminal complaint said she and an attorney drafted a letter warning Kramer to stay away from her. The detective said the letter, sent to Kramer on May 18, 2011, warned him to have no contact with the woman because of the "physical and sexual assault you perpetrated on (the victim) at the recent Pints and Politics event in Muskego."

The woman's account was bolstered by another woman, who said she found the alleged victim crying and "in a panic" when she met her in the parking lot that evening, and by Keith Best, first vice chairman of the Waukesha County Republican Party, who also was at the political event that evening.

Best told Westphal that he doesn't recall details but that the woman told her Kramer "got physical with her and put his hands where they did not belong."

Westphal also said the GOP official told him that the alleged victim "was extremely upset and distraught following the incident and this is why the incident stuck with him."

The detective wrote that the woman said she didn't report the incident to police earlier for fear of embarrassing herself, her family and the Republican Party. She told Westphal that she had suffered "night terrors" and other negative effects stemming from the alleged incident.

Westphal reported contacting Kramer, 49, on March 19 and asked the state representative to come in for an interview but that Kramer said he would not be able to come in until April because he was in "therapy for these issues."

According to Westphal's report, in a phone call, Kramer initially said he didn't recall the incident but alleged that the victim had "stuck her tongue down my throat" at an event in 2008.

Later, Westphal wrote, Kramer told him that "I am sure I kissed her good night" and may have made a pass at her but gave various answers when asked if he had touched her breasts.

"I am sure she said something about it not going any further, that is why I went home," the detective quoted Kramer as saying. "I am sure that happened but I don't remember it. I have been turned down a lot."

Each of the two charges is a felony punishable by up to 40 years of prison and extended supervision and a $100,000 fine. Kramer is scheduled to make his initial court appearance in the case at 8:15 a.m. April 14 in Waukesha County Circuit Court in Waukesha.

Kramer has filed papers with the state saying he will not run for re-election this year. Owner of a financial services company, Kramer has served in the Assembly since 2006.

DOJ Pushes to Expand Hacking Abilities Against Cyber-Criminals

Original Article

03/27/2014

By JENNIFER VALENTINO-DEVRIES

The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing to make it easier for law enforcement to get warrants to hack into the computers of criminal suspects across the country.

The move, which would alter federal court rules governing search warrants, comes amid increases in cases related to computer crimes.

Investigators say they need more flexibility to get warrants to allow hacking in such cases, especially when multiple computers are involved or the government doesn’t know where the suspect’s computer is physically located.

The Justice Department effort is raising questions among some technology advocates, who say the government should focus on fixing the holes in computer software that allow such hacking instead of exploiting them. Privacy advocates also warn government spyware could end up on innocent people’s computers if remote attacks are authorized against equipment whose ownership isn’t clear.

The Justice Department declined to provide further comment beyond the original documents.

The government’s push for rule changes sheds light on law enforcement’s use of remote hacking techniques, which are being deployed more frequently but have been protected behind a veil of secrecy for years.

In documents submitted by the government to the judicial system’s rule-making body this year, the government discussed using software to find suspected child pornographers who visited a U.S. site and concealed their identity using a strong anonymization tool called Tor.

The government’s hacking tools—such as sending an email embedded with code that installs spying software — resemble those used by criminal hackers. The government doesn’t describe these methods as hacking, preferring instead to use terms like “remote access” and “network investigative techniques.”

Right now, investigators who want to search property, including computers, generally need to get a warrant from a judge in the district where the property is located, according to federal court rules.

In a computer investigation, that might not be possible, because criminals can hide behind anonymizing technologies. In cases involving botnets—groups of hijacked computers—investigators might also want to search many machines at once without getting that many warrants.

Some judges have already granted warrants in cases when authorities don’t know where the machine is. But at least one judge has denied an application in part because of the current rules. The department also wants warrants to be allowed for multiple computers at the same time, as well as for searches of many related storage, email and social media accounts at once, as long as those accounts are accessed by the computer being searched.

“Remote searches of computers are often essential to the successful investigation” of computer crimes, Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman wrote in a letter to the judicial system’s rulemaking authority requesting the change in September. The government tries to obtain these “remote access warrants” mainly to “combat Internet anonymizing techniques,” the department said in a memo to the authority in March.

Some groups have raised questions about law enforcement’s use of hacking technologies, arguing that such tools mean the government is failing to help fix software problems exploited by criminals.

“It is crucial that we have a robust public debate about how the Fourth Amendment and federal law should limit the government’s use of malware and spyware within the U.S.,” said Nathan Wessler, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union who focuses on technology issues.

A Texas judge who denied a warrant application last year cited privacy concerns associated with sending malware when the location of the computer wasn’t known. He pointed out that a suspect opening an email infected with spyware could be doing so on a public computer, creating risk of information being collected from innocent people.

A former computer crimes prosecutor serving on an advisory committee of the U.S. Judicial Conference, which is reviewing the request, said he was concerned that allowing the search of multiple computers under a single warrant would violate the Fourth Amendment’s protections against overly broad searches.

The proposed rule is set to be debated by the Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules in early April, after which it would be opened to public comment.

IL - Search warrant for former Elgin lawmaker's (Keith Farnham) office sought child porn

Keith Farnham

Original Article

03/21/2014

By Ray Long and Maura Zurick

SPRINGFIELD - Federal agents sought evidence of child pornography last week when they seized computers from the Elgin district office of former state Rep. Keith Farnham, who resigned Wednesday, according to a search warrant released Friday.

In addition, a federal agent on Thursday took a laptop computer that Farnham used in the Illinois House chamber, and last week agents removed a computer from a legislative office building next to the Capitol, according to the documents and an interview with a state technology official.

Asked about the child pornography matter, Farnham, 66, said Friday in a phone interview: “I can’t comment about any of it.”

Farnham has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, said no charges have been filed and refused further comment.

Farnham handed in his resignation on Wednesday, saying he was “battling serious health issues for a number of years.” He had won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, running unopposed.

Democratic leaders from the area will choose Farnham’s replacement.

The federal investigation came to light last week when authorities acknowledged search warrants were executed at Farnham’s Elgin district office and home. Several computers and equipment were seized at Farnham’s district office, as well as a computer from his office near the Capitol, according to federal records obtained by the Tribune using the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

An attachment to the March 7 warrant to search Farnham’s district office indicated agents were searching for “documents in any format and medium pertaining to the possession, receipt or distribution of child pornography” as well as computer files, copies and negatives of child pornography or any documents that depicted minors “engaged in sexually explicit conduct.” Agents also sought accounts tied to any Internet service provider or computer file sharing, according to the records.

The Thursday request for the laptop Farnham used in the House chamber came from an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the federal Department of Homeland Security, said Tim Rice, who oversees information technology for the General Assembly.

“They basically made a request, and I consented to it,” said Rice, executive director of the Legislative Information System, which oversees electronics in the House.

Farnham took office in 2009 and received $74,569 in pay in 2013, according to comptroller records.

AL - Troubles at Women’s Prison Test Alabama

Julia Tutwiler Prison

Original Article

03/01/2014

By KIM SEVERSON

WETUMPKA - For a female inmate, there are few places worse than the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women.

Corrections officers have raped, beaten and harassed women inside the aging prison here for at least 18 years, according to an unfolding Justice Department investigation. More than a third of the employees have had sex with prisoners, which is sometimes the only currency for basics like toilet paper and tampons.

But Tutwiler, whose conditions are so bad that the federal government says they are most likely unconstitutional, is only one in a series of troubled prisons in a state system that has the second-highest number of inmates per capita in the nation.

Now, as Alabama faces federal intervention and as the Legislature is weighing its spending choices for the coming year, it remains an open question whether the recent reports on Tutwiler are enough to prompt reform.

“Yes, we need to rectify the crimes that happened at Tutwiler, but going forward it’s a bigger problem than just Tutwiler,” said State Senator Cam Ward, a Republican from Alabaster who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “We’re dealing with a box of dynamite.”

The solution, Mr. Ward and others say, is not to build more prisons but to change the sentencing guidelines that have filled the prisons well beyond capacity.

Just over half the state’s prisoners are locked up for drug and property crimes, a rate for nonviolent offenses that is among the highest in the nation.

“No one wants to be soft on crime, but the way we’re doing this is just stupid,” Mr. Ward said.

Still, in many corners of Alabama, a state where political prominence is often tied to how much a candidate disparages criminals, the appetite for change remains minimal.

The Legislature is in the middle of its budget session, working over a document from Gov. Robert Bentley that includes $389 million for the state’s prisons. That is about $7 million less than last year’s budget.

The Department of Corrections argues that it needs $42 million more than it had last year. Alabama prisons are running at almost double capacity, and staffing is dangerously low, said Kim T. Thomas, the department’s commissioner. He said he would use about $21 million of his request to give corrections officers a 10 percent raise and hire about 100 officers.

The odds of approval for that much new money are not great, but they are better this year than they have been in a long while, said Stephen Stetson, a policy analyst with Arise Citizens’ Policy Project, a liberal policy group.

Even so, “for the average legislator, it’s still, ‘These bodies don’t matter,' ” he said.

There is no ignoring the prison crisis. Even Stacy George, a former corrections officer who is challenging Mr. Bentley in the June Republican primary by promising to be “the gun-toting governor,” this past week issued a plan for prison reform. It calls for changing sentencing rules, rescinding the “three-strikes” law for repeat offenders, releasing the sick and elderly, and sending low-level drug offenders into treatment programs instead.

The federal government has stepped in to fix Alabama’s prison problems before, but it has been years since the state has faced a situation as serious as that uncovered by a series of damning investigations into Tutwiler.

“We think that there is a very strong case of constitutional violations here,” said Jocelyn Samuels, the acting assistant attorney general for civil rights for the Justice Department, who sent a 36-page report to the governor in January.

The toxic, highly sexualized environment, she said in an interview, has been met by “a deliberate indifference on the part of prison officials and prison management, who have been aware of the conditions for many years and have failed to curb it.”

The prison was built in 1942 and named after Julia Tutwiler, a woman called the Angel of the Stockades for her work trying to improve conditions for inmates in Alabama. More than 900 women live there, including some on death row, although the original building was designed for about 400.

The prison’s abysmal staffing levels, abundant blind spots and only three cameras created a situation where sex among prisoners and with guards was rampant, the report said. Male guards have routinely watched women showering and once helped prisoners organize a strip show. Sex is sometimes exchanged both for banned items like drugs and for basic needs like clean uniforms.

At least six corrections employees have been convicted of sexual crimes since 2009.

The Justice Department is still investigating Tutwiler, scrutinizing medical and mental health care there.

“It is just a culture of deprivation and abuse, not just at Tutwiler but in institutions across Alabama,” said Charlotte Morrison, a senior lawyer with the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal organization that represents indigent defendants and prisoners.

In 2012, the organization asked the federal government to step in after its own investigation into Tutwiler showed rampant sexual abuse.

The Department of Corrections says conditions at Tutwiler were beginning to improve well before the Justice Department began its investigation in April 2013. Six months after the Equal Justice Initiative report came out in May 2012, the longtime warden and other top prison officers were replaced, said Mr. Thomas, the corrections commissioner.

He also asked the National Institute of Corrections to review practices and policies at Tutwiler. Using those findings, he issued a wide-ranging plan in January 2013 that included recruiting more female corrections officers, pressing the Legislature for more money and changing several policies and procedures. Among them was a system to better investigate and track reports of assaults and abuse.

“That report came about because I wanted an abundance of caution and to be transparent,” Mr. Thomas said.

But women recently released and still inside say life at Tutwiler has improved only marginally.

_____, who is serving 20 years for armed robbery, said she had been raped by a prison guard and gave birth to a daughter who is now 3 and living with relatives near Montgomery.

The guard, Rodney Arbuthnot, served six months in jail for custodial sexual misconduct. He has since moved to Texas. The courts only recently tracked him down, and the family is finally getting about $230 a month in child support.

In a telephone interview, Ms. _____ said that prisoners were still fearful and that conditions remained bad.

“Right now, for me personally, it’s still the same as far as the officers,” she said. “It’s like an act of Congress to get the things you need just to live. It’s inhumane for inmates to be here, period.”

_____, a mother of six, served almost 10 years of a life sentence without parole for a murder conviction. Her premature son had been stillborn, and she buried him in a marked grave near her home. A medical examiner said the child had been drowned in a bathtub, but the conviction was overturned after a court agreed that the autopsy had been botched. She was released in December 2012.

She remains in contact with some Tutwiler prisoners, who she said were split on whether attention from the federal government was a good thing.

Sex is an important commodity there, Ms. _____ said. The inmates use it to get better treatment and secure contraband items that they can then sell to get food and other basics.

“The women do it for favors,” she said. “They get makeup, cologne, anything that’s stuff that is resellable. That’s how they make their money.”

She and others believe it will take a larger overhaul at the top of the Department of Corrections to fix the prison’s problems.

“It’s a primitive, very backward prison system,” said Larry F. Wood, a clinical psychologist who was hired at Tutwiler in 2012. He quit after two months, appalled at the conditions and what he said was the administration’s lack of support for mental health services.

“I’ve worked in prisons for most of 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “We need to back up and look at it with fresh eyes. The people who are running it don’t have the perspective to see what can change.”

See Also:

• Petition seeks 'zero tolerance' for sexual abuse at Tutwiler prison, calls for 'immediate removal' of some staff

IL - Crowded Chicago Police office forces sex offenders to violate parole

Waiting outside in the cold

Original Article

03/03/2014

By Rob Wildeboer

The Chicago Police Department forces sex offenders to violate their parole. I know that sounds crazy. I thought it was crazy when I first heard about it, but I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two weeks with sex offenders waiting -- for hours and hours -- outside police headquarters and watching a Kafkaesque process play out.


Every morning sex offenders start lining up at 6, while it’s still dark out, sometimes even earlier than that, and I probably don’t have to remind you how cold it’s been this winter. _____ was one of a couple dozen men on a recent morning.
- We're sure they don't care.  Ex-offenders in other states have froze to death due to not being allowed into shelters during cold weather.

“It’s freezing out here,” said _____. “Man, I had frost bites today. Somebody gave me some gloves to put on my hands.”

It’s often like this, with the men stomping their feet on the cold concrete, trying to stay warm. For some reason, there’s no waiting room. A small vestibule acts as a makeshift waiting room but there are 20 guys stuck outside. By 10:30 a.m. all of the men are cold and frustrated. “I been here since 7 o’clock waiting in line trying to see these people to keep me from being locked up,” said _____.

Ambulance needed

On this morning an ambulance was called for one of the men because he had numbness in his feet. After that, the men were allowed to wait in the main lobby of police headquarters but that’s the exception to the rule.

People convicted as sex offenders have to register once a year. It basically means they have to go to the police department registration office and update their personal info and show proof of their current address. And if they move, they have to go back to re-register within three days. If they enroll in school they have to re-register within three days. If they change jobs they have to re-register within three days.

There are a lot of requirements and in Chicago, and they can be nearly impossible to meet, not because the offenders don’t want to meet them but because of the way the Chicago Police Department runs the registration office.

When I met _____ in line it was his third time trying to get in the office to register. “Every time we come here they have us standing in this line out here in this cold,” he said.

_____ was turned away the other two days because the office doesn't have the capacity to process all the sex offenders who show up to register, and _____’s worried the same thing is going to happen again. “At 12 o’clock they’ll cut the line, they’ll stop the line and tell us to come back tomorrow but I been standing out here already four to five hours,” said _____.

Go home, but you can still be arrested

Sure enough, an hour later, at 11:45 a.m., a man comes out of the registry office and tells _____ and the two dozen other men who have been waiting in the cold all morning, that they won’t be able to register today. But then it gets weirder. The police department employee tells the men they can sign a list that will prove they showed up today to register but then he tells them that even if they’re on the list, they can still be arrested for failing to register.

In a written statement, Adam Collins, a spokesman for the Chicago Police, said the list is collected and the department “proactively sends their names to Illinois State Police … to minimize any potential criminal registration problems for the individuals.”

Of course letting the men actually register would be an even more effective way to minimize registration problems. For clarity, I asked Collins several times, aren’t the men at risk of being arrested? He simply resent a portion of his written statement.

For the offenders being turned away every day -- sometimes 10, 20, or even more of them -- the message they’re getting is that the department prefers to risk their arrest rather than process this paperwork more quickly.

Violating registration rules can mean prison

The men are nervous and they have good reason. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections there are currently 841 people in prison for violating registration requirements.

Read the rest of the article

CA - Correctional officer 'code of silence' exists in prisons

Folsom Prison

Original Article

Of course it does, it also exists outside of prison walls. And you are just now figuring that out and reporting on it? And if you believe they will monitor this, you are a nice little sheeple! You will NEVER see what it's really like on the inside unless you are on the inside!

02/26/2014

By Thom Jensen

Two years ago this week, Folsom State Prison inmates Michael Vera and Cameron Welch allegedly cut the throat of another prisoner at the command of prison gang leader Samuel Cox.

Four months later, according to court records, guards at Corcoran State Prison pepper-sprayed a mentally ill inmate while other guards watched and made video recordings.

In both cases, guards were accused of failing to report the violations.

In a California Office of the Inspector General report released in June, investigators talk about a practice of guards failing to report the violations and crimes they witness. It's referred to as a "code of silence" among guards.

In one case, the report stated two correctional officers allegedly stopped speaking to a sergeant who previously reported misconduct of team members. It says the guards called the sergeant a "rat."

Former correctional officer and union representative Jeff Doyle said, "That is what it really comes down to is not being a tattle-tale, not a rat."

Doyle, who now operates a prison employee blog titled Paco Villa, said 99 percent of guards are honest.

"The code of silence thing was really at its height when I first started doing the blog, and it's one reason the blog took off and became a success," Doyle said.

In the case of the murdered inmate at Folsom Prison, former guard Nader Hamameh allegedly did not report inmate Richard Leonard was about to be attacked even after another prisoner warned him.

Records show Hamameh was also reprimanded for bringing in a box cutter and eight razors in 2009.

Hamameh and his attorney declined to comment for this story.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would not comment on Hamameh because he is currently suing the agency for firing him.

But speaking about the "code of silence" in general, the department released this statement:

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has a zero tolerance policy for any form of dishonesty, retaliation, or "Code of Silence" act. CDCR employees consistently receive "Code of Ethics" training regarding their responsibilities to recognize and report any "Code of Silence" act which may have occurred. All reports of dishonesty or behavior in relation to any forms of "Code of Silence" are investigated thoroughly.

A former corrections administrator who served as the chief deputy warden at Salinas Valley Prison for 32 years and who is now a prison consultant said training alone is not enough.

"Correctional officers can be manipulated by inmates," Edward Caden said. "Once you've compromised that officer's integrity, you own them. That type of compromising can lead to requesting them to introduce drugs and the blackmail that if you don't do it, I will turn you in for these other offenses that I know you've committed."

Doyle said guards are like cops. They have to watch out for one another.

"It's us and them in there," he said, adding, "It's a matter of self-preservation for a lot of these guys."

The Office of the Inspector General said in its report it will continue to monitor the "code of silence" problem and other issues inside the prison system.

See Also:

• Conspiracy of Silence (Video)
• Franklin child prostitution ring allegations
• Government child porn and other sex crimes (Videos)

FL - Florida lawmaker says DHS should face "tough questions" about its new sex offender evaluation director

Rep. Matt Gaetz DUI Photo

Original Article

Mr. Gaetz was arrested for DUI, refused a breathalyzer test, and didn't have his license suspended like the law mandates (here), wants closure, yet he continues to exploit ex-offenders for his own gain? He's also pro-Marijuana legalization. How hypocritical of him! Maybe Florida needs a DUI registry, make it retroactive, then put Mr. Gaetz on it?

02/17/2014

MADISON (WXOW) - The man hired to be the new sexual offender evaluation director for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) resigned from a similar position in Florida last September, after defending the rights of sex offenders and allowing the number of offenders tagged as "sexual predators" to drop by more than half under his watch.

A DHS spokesperson says the agency has selected Dr. Daniel Montaldi to head up sex offender evaluations at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston, but notes that the "hiring process is not complete."

Sand Ridge specializes in treatment services for offenders committed under Chapter 980, Wisconsin's sexually violent persons law.

Dr. Montaldi last served as the lead administrator for Florida's Sexually Violent Predator Program.

He resigned that position one day after the Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper wrote an article raising questions about is views and record.

As in Wisconsin, Florida law allows the state to keep sexual predators locked up after their prison sentences end. Dr. Montaldi was in charge of the staff that would evaluate those offenders before they were released and recommend those likely to re-offend for continued confinement.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the number of sex predator recommendations dropped considerably under Dr. Montaldi. In the year before he became director, the program flagged 213 offenders as potential predators. In the year under Dr. Montaldi's direction, that number dropped to 86.

"We learned that Florida had been releasing violent sexual predators under Mr. Montaldi's watch and that those violent sexual predators were re-offending, sometimes even the day or the same week they were released," Florida State Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-District 4) said on Monday.

Rep. Gaetz is the Chair of the Florida House Sub-Committee on Criminal Justice, who says he found not only Dr. Montaldi's record troubling, but also his comments on the civil rights of sex offenders.
- All human beings are entitled to civil rights, period, so if it offends you then you are not adhering to your oath of office to uphold the Constitution and the rights of others!

The Sun-Sentinel reported that in an August 2013 email to members of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, Dr. Montaldi wrote: "The value of liberty in a free society must also extend to society's most feared and despised members. The civil rights of even sex offenders is still an important moral value."

"I think the people of Wisconsin should have a lot of questions about somebody that was essentially run out of the State of Florida because he used a position as an administrator with our sexually violent predator program to increase the propensity for releases for some very, very dangerous people," said Rep. Gaetz.

But in its statement, DHS downplayed those concerns.

"Dr. Montaldi has experience, expertise and philosophies that align with the Department's role under Chapter 980 with regard to the treatment and supervision of sex offenders as well as sex offender re-offense risk assessment. He is widely recognized as a content expert in risk assessment and we are eager to have him join our staff," wrote DHS Spokesperson Stephanie Smiley.

Smiley said that because the hire is not yet complete, she cannot confirm a start date or salary for Dr. Montaldi, but says the starting salary for the position was listed to go as high as $122,316 annually.

See Also:

• Scott Walker looking to fire new sex offender administrator
• Bill Would Ban Release of Mug Shots in Florida

MO - Sex offender faces a different kind of limbo

Civil Commitment (SORTS)

Original Article

02/19/2014

By Jesse Bogan

STE. GENEVIEVE COUNTY - There is a special wing here at the county jail that holds nine detainees who were convicted long ago for sex crimes. They already served their time in prison.

Still, they wear bright orange jumpsuits as they await another kind of trial.

Flagged as possible sexually violent predators, the Missouri attorney general’s office wants them held indefinitely at a secure state mental institution called Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS.

But first, in most of their cases, juries will be asked to make a rare decision in the American legal system — keep them locked away on the expectation of another crime.

“Somebody with a crystal ball believes I may commit a crime in the future. And they want to lock me up for the rest of my life in a mental institution out of fear,” detainee _____ said from jail last week.

_____, 49, who had a condo in Ballwin before going to prison in 1997, compared the civil commitment legal procedure to throwing a DWI offender in prison before getting pulled over for a repeat offense.

“To me, it makes no sense,” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court assured in a 5-4 decision that it does.

But few have seen the civil commitment process play out the way it has for _____ — or for as long. He’s been detained and awaiting trial — mainly at the Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff’s Department Detention Center — since he finished his prison sentence at the end of 2006.

Since then, three juries have failed to agree on a unanimous verdict needed to commit him to the care of the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
- Why is it even going to three juries?  After the first, if they failed to say he needed commitment, then he should've been released.  Seems to me like they want him committed regardless of what "experts" say or a jury.

A fourth jury was selected Tuesday in St. Louis County.
- Really?  So I guess you will continue to get new juries until you get what you want, in the mean time wasting a ton of money!

“I am going to my fourth trial now after six years, and I am hopeful that I’ll go home,” _____ said from jail.

FEW ABSOLUTES

The jury for _____’s latest case won’t be told about the mistrials, nor SORTS, a facility that has been criticized by civil libertarians for being a prison disguised as a mental hospital. A civil lawsuit against SORTS leaders that has been crawling through U.S. District Court says there is little evidence showing that SORTS residents can progress through treatment and be released back into the community.
But _____’s situation is a different kind of limbo.

He’s found himself tangled in a legal web that isn't holding him at SORTS, nor in prison, but rather in jail, where he’s been playing board games and watching television the past six years.

As the mistrials rack up, he has no idea when it will end.

“It could go on the rest of my life,” he said.

Part of the challenge is there are few absolutes about _____’s case, other than he hasn't been on the streets of St. Louis County for a long time, which is the way some officials want to keep it. They see a pattern in his behavior.

_____ was first arrested in 1983, at age 18. He got caught sticking his hand in the pants of a 5-year-old girl playing in a yard. _____ pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to probation. He underwent sex-offender treatment.

_____, at 5 feet tall, stands out for his size. After graduating from Parkway South High, he earned an associate degree from St. Louis Community College at Meramec. But he was never able to land the career in business that he wanted.

By 1997, he’d been arrested again for molesting a 7-year-old girl. Her hearing-impaired parents used sign language and tears at the criminal trial to describe what their family had been put through by their former friend.

“He seemed such a nice person,” the father testified. “He was so friendly, like family to us. He was taking advantage of us, and that makes me very angry.”

_____’s attorney asked for probation. Prosecutors wanted 25 years.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Robert S. Cohen sentenced _____ to 10 years in prison.

“I have to be concerned about protecting this little girl and other little girls like her from the likes of you,” Cohen said.

_____ is essentially on trial again in St. Louis County for that same concern, even though he hasn't committed another crime.

RISK FACTORS

While in prison, _____ was admitted to the Missouri Sex Offender Program. Participants are encouraged to explore empathy for victims and develop a plan to prevent a relapse. Graduates have some of the lowest reoffense rates compared to other criminals released from prison.

_____ was kicked out of the program for lack of progress. The second time around, he completed it.

In a 2006 report, evaluators recommended that _____ transition to community supervision, rather than “prolonged incarceration” that could “erode progress made in treatment.” The report asked that he continue therapy after being released from custody. He was instructed to stay away from children and to participate in polygraph testing to ensure compliance with parole.

_____ was never released.

A different evaluator flagged his file near the end of his sentence for possibly meeting the criteria of a sexually violent predator (another evaluator didn’t). A corrections report says _____ self-reported molesting other victims. _____ told an evaluator that he made up victims to satisfy a demanding therapist, according to records in the case.

Actuarial testing tools, similar to those insurance companies use to predict future damage, also showed an increased risk to reoffend.

A panel of mental health professionals agreed that _____ fit the criteria of a predator. So did a collection of prosecutors. A judge was convinced there was probable cause to hold him for evaluation.

Then _____ got a break.

It came in the form of a Department of Mental Health report that said _____ does not belong in the SORTS program. Although he “suffers a mental abnormality,” he isn't “more likely than not” to reoffend if he was free.

Richard G. Scott, who wrote the 13-page report, continues to testify on _____’s behalf.

PROVING HIMSELF

St. Louis County jurors in his previous civil commitment hearings were surprised to hear _____ is still on trial.

Kimberly Zeman, 57, was in the jury box in 2010. That jury deadlocked 6-6, according to the court file.

“I don’t think anybody on the jury thought he wouldn’t do it again if he got out,” Zeman said in an interview. “But if we went based on the law, he passed every test, and I think that was a problem for a lot of people. We had to go by the law, not by what we thought.”

The second trial was closer. Nine wanted to turn _____ over to mental health authorities; three voted to free him, including Richard Herbert, 76, a retired trucking company supervisor.

“He served his time. He should be released,” Herbert said. “Of course all the females, they said he should be incarcerated. They all had kids.”

Herbert said the jury wanted to know more about what commitment would entail, but those details weren't shared.

Dan Kapsak, 40, was the jury foreman of that trial. Before he agreed to be interviewed, he said his comments were not associated with his job as a federal prosecutor in Illinois. He said the three dissenters on the hung jury seemed to base their decision on public policy arguments, not the evidence.

He was in disbelief that the third jury also failed to get a verdict and that a new one was being seated.

“That speaks to how serious of a threat the state thinks _____ is,” Kapsak said. “They are willing to spend the taxpayer money and keep moving forward.”
- So tell me again, what is the purpose of a jury?

Over the past six years, _____ has spent about $75,000 trying to defend himself.

“I’ve had to sell my house, my car. All my finances are gone,” he said.

His adoptive father, a retired price analyst at McDonnell Douglas, died while _____ was in jail. Now, _____ would like to care for his 85-year-old mother in Des Peres.

“I really just want to get back out in society and prove myself, let people know that I am a changed person,” he said. “The mistakes I made in my past are not who I am.”

On Tuesday, at the first day of his fourth trial, he’d swapped the orange jumpsuit for a blue button-down shirt. Leg shackles were hidden by gray dress pants.

He sat near his lead attorney, Eric Selig, and jotted notes about potential jurors.

“It’s the most important part,” he said during a break in jury selection.

See Also:

• (Similar case) Jury deadlocks on whether to deem convicted sex offender as violent predator