WA - Fake kidnapping of young boy stirs anger in Sequim

Original Article

04/15/2014

SEQUIM - Terror turned to outrage at a local park when parents realized a child kidnapping that played out before their eyes was actually faked -- just to make a video.

On any given day, parents and their kids are often found enjoying Carrie Blake Park in Sequim. However, last Saturday treated visitors to a very different scene, as families watched a man in a ski mask appear to kidnap a little boy.

"I saw this guy, he's wearing a mask, just two-handed grabs this kid and jumps into the van and takes off," said Rebekah Asin, a parent who was at the park Saturday.

The abduction looked so real, Tiffany Barnett jumped up and gave chase.

"I was trying to run after them, trying to get their license plate number," Barnett said.

Two cousins, Jason and Jesse Holden were the abductors in the video. They told ABC News that they regret nearly everything about the staged kidnapping.

"I'll be the first one to admit that the way we went about it wasn't the best way. We could have definitely done it another way," Jason Holden said.

Parents realized it was all a ruse when the masked man returned to the park a short time later to say everyone was safe. He also admitted the "crime" was staged to make an educational video on "kidnapping awareness."

The cousins are revaluating their tactics and responsibility after scathing reaction online.

"There's a line to draw where we can do some of our ideas that we do. There's a line that should be drawn and not go over that line," Jason said.

Multiple witnesses called 911. Sequim Police Chief Bill Dickinson said people had good reason to be upset.

"People are angry when they are taken advantage of," Dickinson said. "When they are the butt of the joke, it's never funny."

"The parents were furious and the kids were scared," Asin said.

The cousins have other segments posted on Youtube showing a variety of pranks, including a staged robbery. Many believe this kidnapping project could have easily gotten someone hurt or killed.

"They're lucky that there wasn't an off-duty police officer or somebody carrying a concealed weapon that could have shot them," Barnett said.

Despite all that, nobody has been arrested because apparently no obvious crime was committed. Still, frightened children stood calling their parents, fearful they'd be snatched-up next.

"My daughter is still terrified," Barnett said. "She'll tell you right now, 'What if they take me? what if they take me?'"

Investigators are still looking to see if criminal charges are appropriate, or if the participants violated zoning and licensing rules.

Chloroform Kidnapping Prank - Kidnapping People in Public

Hypocrites are everywhere. They scream and shout about protecting kids from abuse, but when they see it happening they ignore it?

OH - Jury finds veteran Cleveland police officer (Gregory Jones) guilty of 2012 rape

Gregory Jones

Original Article

04/02/2014

By Rachel Dissell

CLEVELAND - A jury today found veteran Cleveland police officer Gregory Jones guilty of raping and kidnapping a woman in 2012.

Jones, 49, faced multiple charges of rape, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition involving two separate women.

After trial that lasted more than a week in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Steven Gall's courtroom, a jury deliberated for about two days before reaching a verdict.

They found Jones not guilty of a rape reported by a separate woman in 2008.

Gall ordered Jones taken into custody and set his sentencing for April 30.

"The jury saw Greg Jones for what he is – a predator who victimized a helpless, vulnerable woman," Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Jesse Canonico said after in an email after the verdict was announced. "He was a rapist masquerading as a police officer, but this jury saw through the disguise and held him accountable for what he did."

An officer of more than 20 years, Jones maintained his innocence and testified that he had had consensual sex with the women, one whom he was introduced to by a friend and another he had casual sexual relationship with.

Jones' attorneys, Steven Bradely and Mark Marein, pointedly attacked the credibility of both women. They could not be reached for comment after the verdict.

In a closing statement, attorney Steven Bradley called one of the women a "chronic 20-plus-year crack user" who admitted to being high and drunk the night she said Jones attacked her. He also said she had sometimes worked as a prostitute.

She reported to police that Jones attacked her after seeing a news report about him being accused of a 2012 rape. Bradley said there was no evidence other than her report.

"Who here would be willing to rely on her," Bradley asked jurors.

The other woman, who made the first report against Jones in July 2012 when she was 34, willingly went to Jones' home and wasn't honest with the jury about having an interest in Jones, Bradley said.

He said witnesses described the Chicago woman as a conniving and manipulative liar.

Assistant County Prosecutor Melissa Riley, however, called attention to what she called Jones' "Penthouse forum" description of the encounters.

Jones' recollection didn't make sense with the reaction or injuries of the woman he met through friends at a card game.

Riley said witnesses described how upset she was after she said Jones raped her and that medical records backed up that she had physical injuries consistent with what she told police.

Riley also said the woman's doctors described several injuries she had and a recently surgery that made Jones' descriptions of her actions that night unlikely.

Riley also asked the jury to question why – if the allegations were false – did a man that knew Jones call the 2012 victim and offer her money to drop the complaint.

Jones has been suspended from the department without pay since August 2012.

Public Safety Director Michael McGrath will hold an administrative hearing soon to determine the fate of Jones' employment with the city, spokeswoman Maureen Harper said Wednesday.

IA - Bills in memory of slain Iowa teenager sail through Senate committee

Original Article

02/13/2014

By Mike Wiser

Bills expand the definition and penalties for kidnapping

DES MOINES - A pair of bills drafted in the memory of slain Dayton teenager Kathlynn Shepard sailed through a Senate committee Thursday.

Senate Study Bills 3079 and 3076 expand the definition and penalties for kidnapping and allow authorities to consider the content of sealed juvenile records when sentencing sexually violent predators, respectively.

“May 20 was the worst day of my life. It was the day my daughter was kidnapped with her friend,” Denise Shepard told lawmakers during a subcommittee hearing. “Reading the autopsy report of what he did to my daughter broke me.”

_____, of rural Stratford, abducted Kathlynn Shepard and Dezi Hughes, then 15 and 12, and took them to a hog confinement facility where he worked. _____ killed Shepard and tried to dispose of her body in a river. _____ later killed himself. Hughes was able to escape when _____ separated the girls after the kidnapping.

_____ was released from the state prison system in 2011 after serving 20 years for two 1991 kidnapping convictions. The first involved a 21-year-old woman he tried to assault. The other involved a pair of 3-year-olds he snatched from a day-care center. The children were found hours later, alive, in a garbage bin.

_____ also had a sealed juvenile conviction that the judge couldn't consider during the sentencing in the 1991 cases.

“As a parent of three children, it is unimaginable for me to understand what you have gone through,” Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids and sponsor of the two bills told Denise Shepard, who attended the hearing with her husband and two others. Each wore purple T-shirts commemorating events held in Kathlynn’s honor.

She said the two bills are just a start.

“I personally would like to see a horrendous sex offender or kidnapper, you do it once, you’re put away forever,” she said. “But unfortunately, I don’t get to vote on making those rules. This is the first step in making sure we get something on the books as soon as possible and see if we can, down the road, get something that will make it harder for these sex offenders.”

Mysterious Dissapearances in National Parks

Original Article

This is a conspiracy article about people missing from parks and what they think may be doing it, but it wouldn't surprise us if they tried to twist this into homeless sex offenders are snatching people in parks or sex offenders committing mass kidnappings in parks. You know how they like fear and hysteria.

Unexplained disappearance is the physical disappearance of people or other objects without apparent cause or reason.

Reports of missing persons have increased sixfold in the past 25 years, from roughly 150,000 in 1980 to about 900,000 this year. The increase was driven in part by the country’s growing population. But the numbers also indicate that law enforcement treats the cases more seriously now, including those of marginalized citizens.

The most amazing fact is that the U.S. national park service states they do not track missing people inside their parks and when the author of the book “Missing 411″ asks for any data associated with the missing, they want to charge him 1.4 million dollars for them to do their job. They have also blocked the ability to get records on certain cases, including a congressman who was asked to look into this.

Full story / 2 hr interview with author of the book Missing 411

Part 1 of 3

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