The Child Protection eNewsletter

6 children in custody after raid on compound...

Six children have been placed in temporary state custody as they are interviewed in the wake of a raid on a church compound as part of a child-porn investigation, Arkansas police said.  MSNBC News story here

The children will be under the care of the state Department of Human Services during the interviews, said state police spokesman Bill Sadler.  He didn't say how long the interviews would last.

More than 100 federal and state police raided the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in the small southwestern Arkansas town of Fouke on Saturday as part of a two-year investigation into child abuse and pornography allegations against convicted tax evader Tony Alamo.

"Should there be any long-term separation of the children from the Alamo property, a local court will make the determination as to the status of those children," Sadler said in a statement.

He did not say how old the children were, but an e-mail that authorities inadvertently sent to media members last week referred to 12-, 13- and 14-year-old girls.

Alamo, described by prosecutors in his tax evasion case as a polygamist who preys on girls and women, has denied involvement in pornography.

In an interview Monday, Alamo spoke of the allegations with a mix of denial and defiance, saying he never promoted sexual abuse but that he believes there's a mandate from the Bible for young girls to marry.  MSNBC News story here

"In the Bible it happened.  But girls today, I don't marry 'em if they want to at 14-15 years old.  Because we won't do it, even though I believe it's OK," Alamo said.

In an AP interview on Saturday, he had said that for girls having sex, "consent is puberty."

"We did make the decision to remove the children that we felt were in harm's way or in imminent danger," said Arkansas Department of Human Services spokeswoman Julie Munsell.  AP News story here

Munsell said the state must decide by Tuesday to either ask a Miller County judge to grant the state temporary custody or return the children to their families.

To continue to hold the children, the state has to petition a court for custody.  A probable cause hearing has to be held within five days of the petition.  The hearing would be conducted in private as a juvenile matter.

State officials are now trying to identify the parents of some of the children and are trying to sort through calls the agency has received from people claiming to be their guardians.

"We've been fielding lots of phone calls from relatives, some claiming to be parents and some claiming to be extended family," Munsell said.  "We are asking for those relatives or those claiming to be parents to present identification so we can match the children to those who have the parental right."

Missing Caylee Anthony's grandparents fight protestors...

Each night, a half dozen protesters plant lawn chairs across the street from the home of missing 3-year-old Caylee Anthony, demanding a confession from her mother and grandparents.  "Baby killer," one woman's sign reads.  "My mommy did it!" reads another.  ABC News story here

But all they get is silence:  The child's family stays quiet night after night, their yard lined with yellow caution tape and "No Trespassing" signs, and a collage of the hazel-eyed child's photographs taped to the front door.

Three months after Caylee disappeared under mysterious circumstances, the protesters have joined the crowd of reporters and gawkers outside the family's suburban Orlando home, hoping to get what police so far have not: a statement that the little girl is dead.  They believe the girl's 22-year-old mother, Casey Anthony, killed her and that her grandparents, Cindy and George Anthony, are covering it up.

A recent early morning scuffle wound up videotaped and aired on national television.  Cindy and George Anthony told police they were trying to sleep when they heard a loud bang on their garage door.  They found a group of seven or eight protesters at the edge of the driveway who began yelling and screaming profanities.

A woman grabbed George Anthony's shirt, stamped with a picture of his missing granddaughter, and his wife said she got between them to stop a fight.  "This can't keep happening," Casey Anthony said in a 911 call.

After the confrontation, the Guardian Angels showed up and began patrolling the well-manicured, middle-class neighborhood.

Meanwhile, on Monday, a tip surfaced that Caylee may have been seen in Rutherford County, Tennessee in July.  My Fox Orlando story here  The FBI said although the person who came forward with the tip has the best of intentions, after checking out the tip and surveillance pictures they don't think it was an actual Caylee sighting and neither does the missing girl's grandfather.

The State Attorney's Office is reviewing complaints about the money going into the search for Caylee Anthony.  The reports complain of misuse of the Anthony trust and possible charity fraud.  The state attorney's office would not elaborate on which accounts were being talked about in the complaints.

Study finds boys as socially aggressive as girls...

Girls often get a bad rap for gossiping, forming cliques, and other aggressive social behavior, as characterized in the popular movie Mean Girls.  Boys, meanwhile, are known for physically aggressive behavior, such as hitting.  CBS News story here

A new study, however, says these attitudes may be at least partly unfounded.  While boys are indeed more physically aggressive, girls and boys are equally guilty of aggressive social behavior, according to the report published in Child Development.

Researchers did an analysis of 148 studies that included nearly 74,000 children and teenagers.  The studies were mostly done in schools and looked both at direct aggression, which is physical or verbal, and indirect aggression, which includes covert behaviors designed to damage another person's social relations with others, without direct confrontation.

"These conclusions challenge the popular misconception that indirect aggression is a female form of aggression," says Noel A. Card, PhD, assistant professor of family studies and human development at the University of Arizona and the study's lead author, in a news release.

Based on the analysis, researchers concluded that often the same kids who are directly aggressive are also indirectly aggressive.  Although boys tend to exhibit more direct aggression than girls, there is little difference between girls and boys for indirect aggression.  This continues over different ages and ethnicities.

In other news...

The woman charged in a MySpace hoax that allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide is moving out of her Missouri neighborhood to an undisclosed location.  FOX News story here  Lori Drew and her family have decided to leave their Dardenne Prairie, Missouri home and will move within a week, according to a report in the St. Charles Journal.  "I don't honestly know where we are going," Drew, 49, told the paper.  A federal judge in California is weighing a possible dismissal of the charges against Drew in connection with the hoax that led to the 2006 suicide of her teen neighbor Megan Meier.  Drew is accused of helping to create a false-identity account on the social networking site MySpace and harassing the teen with cruel messages in order to find out what Megan was saying about her own daughter.  The girls had had a recent falling out.  For more on this story, see  vol5_iss76  and  vol6_iss38.  To learn about internet safety and MySpace, see  Child Protection eGuide/vol1_iss25.

Meanwhile, MSNBC takes a look at "The secret lives of your kids online".  MSNBC News story here  As more kids head back to school with increasingly sophisticated technology in their backpacks, the mischief they get up to may not have much in common with the hyperbolic tales of evening news shows that reveal humanity at low tide.  Or so says Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org, which focuses on Internet safety for children, tweens and teens.  "Parents think there are far more sexual predators out there on the Internet than there are in reality," Aftab said in a recent interview.  "The cases in which a child willingly goes out to meet a 50-year-old adult who has conned (him or her) into thinking he's 15 is far less prevalent than other risks."  What other risks, you ask?  Here in the age of Web 2.0, the possibilities extend as far as a kid's imagination.  Face it, the Internet can be accessed via a cell phone far from a parent's supervision and video gaming is an online interactive sport where kids can play with total strangers from all over the world.  Unfortunately, the one thing most every kid has a tough time imagining is the kind of trouble he or she might be dredging up.  To view the 5 secrets parents need to know visit MSNBC link here

A baby who was found wailing in a trash can at an Arizona middle school and his teen mother were in the hospital Wednesday, and the mother could be facing child abuse charges.  AZ Family.com story here  The principal of Osborn Middle School in Phoenix found the baby Tuesday evening after hearing him screaming.  Officials said the baby was full term. It's believed that he was actually born on campus. He still had the umbilical cord attached when the principal found him.  Investigators later located the 14-year-old mother.  According to the school, the teen had gone to the nurse's office, complaining of stomach cramps.  The nurse said the eighth grader did not appear to be pregnant.

Two Kenosha, Wisconsin boys of ages 14 and 15 are accused of beating an adult neighbor to death during a burglary that targeted a computer game device, among other items.  FOX News story here  "It's pathetic," Police Chief John Morrissey said.  "How can a 15-year-old and a 14-year-old boy murder somebody over an Xbox?"  Others could also be charged in the death of Capri Walker, 51, who was found dead at her Kenosha home about 6:30 a.m. Sunday, the chief said Wednesday.  Police have recommended charges of first-degree intentional homicide, carrying a life prison term.  Under state law, juveniles can face adult charges in homicide cases.  Police reported recovering many of the items taken in the burglary, including an Xbox, some coins, jewelry and Walker's purse and cell phone.

A federal prosecutor described John Jackey Worman as a "monster" and said while she can't repair the harm he's done to a dozen victims - some as young as 3 months old - in the horrific sexual abuse case, she can see that he is put behind bars for life.  Delco Times story here  "I think he is a monster," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella following the verdict in which the 41-year-old Worman, of Colwyn, Pennsylvania, was convicted of all charges.  The case involved more than 1 million images of child pornography - most snapped by the defendant while he committed anal, oral and vaginal sex on the youngsters ranging from infancy to 15 years old during a nine-year period.  Worman was convicted in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia of 55 counts of manufacturing child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography in what could be one of the worst cases of child pornography in the nation because of the sheer volume of images found in the defendant's possession.  Rotella said that while what occurred to the three babies was "horrible and vile," they, fortunately, will have no memory of their ordeals.

46-year-old Shawn Barth is under arrest in California and is being held on $1 million bail after allegedly holding a 13 year old girl prisoner.  The young girl was reportedly being held as a sex slave in a motor home owned by Barth.  KEYT story here  According to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, the 13-year-old victim was being held psychologically against her will in an unincorporated area of Moorpark.  Barth reportedly used the young girl as a sex slave on a daily basis.  Although the girl was being held captive, she was allowed to attend school but never told anyone what was happening to her.  Investigators say Barth had a previous relationship with the victim's mother and there is a restraining order against him.

A 33-year-old Wisconsin woman stole her daughter's identity to attend high school and join the cheerleading squad, according to a criminal complaint filed against the woman.  FOX News story here  Wendy Brown, of Green Bay, faces a felony identity theft charge after enrolling in Ashwaubenon High School as her 15-year-old daughter, who lives in Nevada with Brown's mother.  According to the complaint, Brown wanted to get her high school degree and become a cheerleader because she didn't have a childhood and wanted to regain a part of her life that she'd missed.  Brown allegedly attended cheerleading practices before school started, received a cheerleader's locker and went to a pool party at the cheerleading coach's house.

A Florida woman will spend the rest of her life in prison for having sex with a 5-year-old boy.  Local 6 news story here  A jury in Sanford convicted Kelly Lumadue, 33, for videotaped sex acts with the boy.  It was Lumadue's second trial for the crime.  A garbage collector found the sex tapes in the trash and turned them over to police.  When Lumadue took the stand, she said her husband - who is a professional pornographer - made her do it.

*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"