The Child Protection eNewsletter

Boulder prosecutor:  “We could not ignore this”… 
District Attorney Mary Lacy defended having John Mark Karr hauled to Colorado from Thailand for a DNA test that ultimately proved he didn't kill JonBenet Ramsey, saying the former teacher's predilection for little girls forced her hand.  http://hosted.ap.org  Thai police arrested John Mark Karr after seeing him with a young girl sitting on his lap in a school, a source told Denver’s 9NEWS.  http://9news.com  "We felt we could not ignore this.  We had to follow it," Lacy said.  "There was a real public safety concern here directed at a particular child" in Thailand, and a forensic psychologist said Karr "was dangerous, this person was escalating."  http://www.localnewswatch.com

Video of the DA’s entire press conference is available online at  http://www.9news.com.  The same site also contains video of the original press reports of JonBenet’s murder.

The Boulder County District Attorney’s office has put key documents related to Karr, including the arrest warrant and the Michael Tracey emails online at  http://www.co.boulder.co.us.  They have also put recordings of eleven phone calls between Tracey and Karr online in MP3 format at  http://www.co.boulder.co.us.  The DA’s motion to quash is online at http://news.findlaw.com.

Austrian girl held captive for eight years asks for “time to tell story myself…  
An Austrian girl held in an underground cell for more than eight years took car trips with her captor and was seen alone in his garden, a neighbor said Tuesday, adding fresh details to an increasingly complex portrait of her captivity.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com

She released a letter through her psychiatrist that asked for time to tell her story herself.  The transcript of the letter, which was read and not released in written form, is available online at http://www.msnbc.msn.com.  In the letter, she defended her captor as "part of my life" and insisted she didn't miss anything during her long ordeal.  http://abcnews.go.com  According to leading criminologist Brian Masters, “her statement is a vivid and eloquently expressed example of what is known as Stockholm Syndrome, when a captive identifies with his or her captor so far as to become his apologist and defender.”  http://www.dailymail.co.uk

In other news… 
The trial of the world’s most prolific known pedophile Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller  vol3_iss45  and  http://www.msnbc.msn.com  opened this week.  http://public.findlaw.com  A timeline of Schwartzmiller’s activities is available online at  http://www.sfgate.com.

The former bishop of the Las Vegas Catholic Diocese faces potential charges in California for failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse by a priest he supervised there.  http://www.lasvegassun.com

The nationwide search for a former Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania professor wanted on child sex charges has the school making changes to its hiring policy.  http://www.wgal.com  Meanwhile, L. Scott Ward, professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, was arrested Sunday at Dulles Airport for possession of pornographic videos depicting him having sex with underage boys.  Ward was dismissed from the university as this is the third time he will face child sex charges.  http://www.phillyburbs.com

In a high-profile trial that spanned over two weeks, the 12-member jury found Jonea Rogers not guilty on all counts of violating court custody orders when she fled with her daughter from Marin County, California in 2000 in order to protect her child from suspected abuse.  http://www.coastalpost.com

The New Jersey Supreme Court has banned the use of hypnotically refreshed testimony in criminal trials by any witnesses other than defendants, finding the theory that hypnosis improves memory recall is not based on "sound, adequately founded scientific methodology."  http://public.findlaw.com

A sex offender given probation in part due to his height  vol4_iss24 should be resentenced because his punishment is too lenient, the state of Nebraska said in a court filing last Monday.  http://www.law.com  Attorney General Jon Bruning's office made its case for a tougher sentence in a 33-page brief filed with the state Court of Appeals.

Hamilton County, Ohio Prosecutor Joe Deters said he is confident foster parents Liz and David Carroll will be convicted of murdering a 3-year-old developmentally disabled boy who was in their care.  http://www.daytondailynews.com  Tuesday, Deters said the boy, Marcus Fiesel, was restrained with packing tape, rolled up in a blanket and left for two days in a closet at the family's Clermont County home while the Carrolls attended a family reunion in Williamsburg, Ky.


*for access to member only sites like the New York Times, use the ID "JohnDoeID" and the password "whatever". On sites asking for an email address, feel free to use "info@childprotectionprogram.org"