The Child Protection eNewsletter

Police: Father Kidnapped Daughter, May Flee Country on Yacht….  

Authorities searching for a 7-year-old girl who disappeared with her father found the SUV police say he used kidnap her.  Fox News story here

Clark Rockefeller is accused of grabbing the girl Sunday during a visit supervised by a social worker and fleeing in an SUV driven by someone else.  Boston police confirm the car was found Tuesday and the operator was being questioned.

The divorced father, who has a murky background, and his daughter Reigh Boss were last seen Sunday night at Grand Central Terminal in New York.

Reigh lives with her mother in London.  The visit Sunday was the first with her father in several months.  Police say the 48-year-old Rockefeller has used many aliases.

A search was under way in New York. Police believe Rockefeller may try to flee the country in a recently purchased 72-foot yacht.

Massachusetts posted an Amber Alert for Reigh, but canceled it Monday after New York City police reported that Rockefeller had been seen the night before at the city's Grand Central Terminal.  For more on this story see  CBS News story here

In other news… 

The mother of a missing 2-year-old Florida girl was caught by photographers partying at a club June 20–after the date she claims her daughter disappeared.  Fox News story here  The photographs, obtained by FOX News, show Casey Anthony smiling and posing with various people at an Orlando club called Fusion.  She later would tell police that her daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony, had been missing since earlier in the month.  John Azzilano, the nightlife photographer who snapped the images, said 22-year-old Casey Anthony was enjoying herself.  When Anthony and her family first reported Caylee’s disappearance on July 15, she told police the girl already had been missing for a month.  She also claimed that Caylee had been taken by a baby sitter, who also vanished.  Since that time, police have expressed doubt in many of the details of Anthony’s story.  They also have testified that they found hair samples in the trunk of a car Anthony had been driving and said the trunk had an odor of decomposition. For the latest on the Caylee saga, visit WFTV.com Caylee updates here and vol6_iss49.

A former dormitory matron at Oprah Winfrey's school for poor South African girls pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges that she indecently assaulted and otherwise abused six teenagers and a fellow matron at the academy.  Chicago Sun-Times story here  Tiny Virginia Makopo, 28, looked nervous and sullen at the start of her trial, and she and her lawyer gave no indication what her defense would be.  Judge Thelma Simpson granted a prosecution request for the rest of the proceedings, expected to last all week, to be closed to the public.  She also is allowing the teenagers to testify through close-circuit TV to save them the trauma of confronting their alleged attacker in court.  Prosecutor Etienne Venter described the girls as ''very scared and very, very emotional.''  Winfrey has been deeply embarrassed by the scandal, especially since she had told the girls she was the ''momma bear'' who would protect them.  The talk show star has spoken in the past of being raped by a distant cousin at age 9 and then abused by three other men, trusted family friends. She has campaigned for laws in the United States to protect children from abusers.  Police said the alleged abuse took place over four months at her Leadership Academy for Girls and victimized six students aged 13 to 15 and a 23-year-old dormitory matron.

Michigan put thousands of lower-income children at risk by authorizing sex offenders and other criminals to provide day care over a period of more than two years, according to a state audit.  Read AP story here  The Department of Human Services licensed, registered or enrolled about 1,900 "unsuitable" day care providers, including child abusers and 31 people listed on the public sex offender registry, said Auditor General Thomas McTavish.  About 4,600 children were potentially at risk between October 2003 and March 2006, according to the audit.  More than 400 unsuitable providers were previous perpetrators of child abuse or neglect, and 28 had committed crimes such as murder and rape.  In response to the audit's findings, the state stopped paying some providers and began running additional criminal background checks on workers in April 2007 after being informed that its primary background check program wasn't flagging all offenders.

A former Kokomo, Indiana High School swim coach pleaded guilty to 16 child pornography charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Indy channel story here  Brian D. Hindson, 40, of Carmel, admitted to secretly videotaping 11 girls as they undressed in locker rooms at Kokomo High School and Memorial Gym in Kokomo between 1998 and 2007.  “For 10 years, Mr. Hindson exploited the children he was entrusted to teach and protect but that exploitation ends today,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich.  An FBI investigation began in March 2006, when two people in North Carolina told the agency they found two videos–showing what appeared to be a high school female in a locker room changing out of a bathing suit–on a computer that Hindson had sold them on eBay, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner signed a bill that will add the names of people found liable for sexual abuse to a court-administered public registry.  Delmarvanow.com story here  The legislation–Senate Bill 319–was introduced late in the session by state Sen. Karen A. Peterson, D-Stanton, to add a public notice segment to the 2007 Child Victim's Act, which eliminated the civil statute of limitations in cases of child sexual abuse.  The new law requires a "Civil Sexual Abuse Report" to be posted in courthouses and on the court's Web site, including the name and address of the defendant, plus the offense for which he or she was found liable.  Cases settled out of court would not be included.

About 3 percent of 12- to 17-year-old girls are physically or sexually assaulted by a boyfriend or date, a U.S. study suggests.  MSNBC News story here  In interviews with a nationally representative sample of U.S. teens, researchers found that 2.7 percent of girls and 0.6 percent of boys said they had been the victim of serious dating violence–including physical abuse, sexual assault or being threatened with a weapon.  "Overall, these findings suggest that dating violence in adolescence is a significant public health issue to address, particularly for older adolescent girls," the researchers report in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

New Jersey Assemblyman Neil Cohen resigned from the Legislature, four days after it was reported that he's under investigation for suspected possession of child pornography.  abc7local News story here  The clerk of the Assembly received a one-sentence letter from Cohen just before 9:30 a.m.  Cohen says his resignation is effective immediately, but did not offer any explanation.  Cohen, 57, once sponsored a bill creating a computer hotline to report child pornography and other Internet crimes.  Cohen, of Roselle, served in the Assembly from 1990 to 1991 and from 1994 to present.  He had been serving as deputy speaker.

Idaho parents are concerned for their children's safety, after officials say a convicted sex offender made a list of 32 girls to "look up" once he gets out of jail. Read KTVB News story here  Christopher Dwayne Watson has been locked up in the Malheur County Jail for the past 90 days for a sex crime with a minor.  Erin Landis with the Malheur County District Attorney’s office tells NewsChannel 7 that sheriff's deputies found a list titled "people to look up," written by Watson.  That list includes 32 local girls ages 6 to 17 and his original 15-year-old victim.  Watson is scheduled to be released from jail Friday.

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