The Child Protection eNewsletter

Nevada judge thinks attraction to one-year-old girls “natural impulse”… 

A Carson City man was sentenced to up to 18 years in prison for possessing more than 800 images of child pornography.  Read More Here  Jason Excell, 36, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of possession of child pornography.  In exchange for the plea, additional charges were dismissed.

"These kinds of offenses are problems with impulse control," said Carson City District Judge Bill Maddox prior to sentencing.  "When I say that, it's my understanding that most men are sexually attracted to young women.  When I say young women I don't just mean women that ... you should be attracted to.  I mean women from the time they're 1 all the way up until they're 100."

Maddox noted the legal terms malum in se, a Latin phrase meaning an act that is "inherently evil," and malum prohibitum, which means acts that are not necessarily inherently immoral or hurtful, only wrong by statute.  He said child pornography could be considered malum prohibitum because in some countries and cultures it is acceptable to engage in sexual conduct with young girls.

"As an example, having sex with a girl between 12 and 16 is prohibited because we say it's prohibited.  It's because we decided as a civilized society you do not want adults engaging in sexual conduct with children below 16 years of age, which flies in the face of our, I guess for lack of a better description, our normal impulses," he said.

"I guess we could just ignore them, say it's just like a traffic ticket, it's malum prohibitum, it's only against the law because it's prohibited.  Or we could say that because we're trying to control what's an otherwise natural impulse there has to be consequences.

According to Deputy District Attorney Kristin Luis, the images are of children "easily under the age of 10," being sexually violated by adults or engaging in sex with other children.  She said at least 88 of the photographs were of children who have been identified by federal authorities through other child pornography cases nationwide.

Woman, 30, posed as teenage boy in sex case… 

An Everett, Washington woman who posed as a teenage boy was arrested Sunday for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl who believed the older woman was her boyfriend.  Read More Here  Lorelei Josephine Corpuz, 30, lived for more than a year as a 17-year-old boy named "Mark," according to papers filed in Everett District Court.  As "Mark," Corpuz persuaded the girl's family to let "Mark" live in their home as the girl's boyfriend.  Corpuz claimed to be an orphan, police alleged.  It wasn't until police arrested Corpuz on Sunday on an unrelated matter that the girl and her family learned that "Mark" was a woman - and almost twice the age they were led to believe, according to court papers.  That's when officers were told that Corpuz allegedly had beaten and sexually assaulted the girl.

"The family was very surprised to learn that this female who had presented herself as a juvenile male was in fact" an adult woman, Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said.  The14-year-old girl who was sexually abused by the woman said she didn't know about the ruse but eventually suspected it.  Read More Here  "I kind of, like, guessed, but then every time I questioned her, she would get really mad," the girl told KOMO-TV of Seattle on Wednesday, "so I just stopped caring."

In other news… 

The Texas Youth Commission has begun releasing kids from detention centers amid claims of abuse and neglect.  Read More Here  A Ward County grand jury investigating allegations of rampant sexual abuse at a West Texas juvenile prison is set to resume its work in Monahans.  Read More Here  In its first meeting on the case last month, the grand jury did not take any testimony, instead issuing a series of subpoenas.  Meanwhile, Texas judges are sending fewer children to the scandal-ridden Texas Youth Commission for punishment and rehabilitation since reports of widespread abuse at its facilities were made public.  Read More Here  TYC typically receives larger numbers of offenders in late winter and early spring, said spokesman Jim Hurley.  Now, judges are sending only about half the normal amount.  Last week, Texas courts sent 33 children.

Because a Miami-Dade County ordinance intended to keep predators away from children made it nearly impossible for them to find housing, five convicted sex offenders are living under a noisy highway bridge with the state of Florida's grudging approval.  Read More Here  The five men under the Julia Tuttle Causeway are the only known sex offenders authorized to live outdoors in Florida, said state Corrections Department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.

A child psychiatrist who once headed the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry was arrested amid allegations he had molested male patients dating back to the 1960s.  Read More Here  Dr. William Ayres, 75, was taken into custody Thursday at his San Mateo home and charged with 14 felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14.

A Missouri man whose wife ran a day care center has admitted that he molested 40 children over a 30-year period, according to sworn testimony from investigators in a probable cause statement.  Read More Here  According to the probable cause statement, William Huck, Sr. admitted molesting children over three decades.  Police believe Huck's wife was completely unaware of any of the alleged abuse.

Police say an unemployed suburban mother of five found a quick way to make ends meet:  She was arrested for turning her children into beggars.  Read More Here  Police discovered the panhandling when the woman's 11-year-old son was reported missing at a supermarket at 8 p.m.  When police arrived, the woman's 18-year-old daughter told them that her mother had made them walk several miles from their home to the supermarket, where they were told to stand outside and beg for money.  The boy was later found and all of the children were removed from the home.

A part-time preacher awaiting trial on a charge of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl apparently shot and killed himself at his father's rural Alabama home, Conecuh County Sheriff Edwin Booker said.  Read More Here  Stephen Lyle "Steve" Whittaker, 40, of Brewton had served as pastor of the 33-member Beaver Creek Southern Baptist Church in Baker, Florida until he was charged March 12 with felony sexual abuse of the girl.  He was released on $5,000 bond.

Three children allegedly abducted by their father and taken out of the country were found this week in Honduras and are now back in the United States, family members told FOXNews.com.  Read More Here  U.S. officials are working on extraditing the father quickly — before he's released by Honduran authorities — so he can be brought back to the U.S. to face federal kidnapping charges.

A judge violated a juvenile's free-speech rights when he placed her on probation for posting an expletive-laden entry on MySpace criticizing a school principal, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled.  Read More Here  "While we have little regard for A.B.'s use of vulgar epithets, we conclude that her overall message constitutes political speech," Judge Patricia Riley wrote in the 10-page opinion.  Meanwhile, Connecticut’s Attorney General has stepped up his efforts to require social networking sites like MySpace.com to verify that user are over the age of 18.  Read More Here

A former teacher who had been hired by Baltimore City schools after leaving the Baltimore County school system amid questions about his relationship with a 13-year-old student entered a guilty plea yesterday to a charge of committing a sex offense against the girl.  Read More Here  Meanwhile, ABC News reports that despite the recent headlines of female teachers carrying on sexual relationship with male students, the vast majority of teachers who harass or abuse their students are men.  Read More Here  Men make up just 15 percent of all teachers, yet are responsible for two-thirds of all abuse.

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