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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 40 - July 8, 2009 Long Island mom bullies 9-year-old girl with Craigslist sex ad...A Long Island, New York, social worker is facing two misdemeanor charges after allegedly posting a sexually suggestive ad on Craigslist that gave interested parties the home phone number of a 9-year-old girl. CNN News story here 
According to prosecutors, Margery Tannenbaum posted the ad to get revenge after an argument between her daughter and the girl, who attend the same school in Hauppauge, New York.
Tannenbaum was arraigned on charges of aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a minor. She pleaded not guilty and will appear in court later this month. Officials told CNN affiliate News 12 in Long Island that the Craigslist ad read "I need a little affection...I'm blond, I'm cute and I'll be waiting." Interested parties were directed to an e-mail address where they were given the girl's name and home phone number. Callers were unaware they were trying to reach a 9-year-old. According to Suffolk County authorities, the mother of the girl intercepted calls before her daughter answered. She said she received 22 calls in one day, in all around 40 calls from various men who saw the ad, including some seeking an escort service. After Craigslist was issued a subpoena, authorities said they were able to track the account to Tannenbaum. 
Meanwhile, a federal judge tentatively threw out the convictions of a Missouri mother for her role in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old neighbor girl who later killed herself. Fox News story here
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge George Wu acquitted Lori Drew of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. Wu says his ruling will become final when he issues it in writing. Drew was convicted in a trial in November, but the judge says that if she is to be found guilty of illegally accessing computers, anyone who has ever violated the social networking site's terms of service would be guilty of a misdemeanor. Prosecutors had sought the maximum three-year prison sentence and a $300,000 fine. A defense motion to dismiss the convictions has received a lengthy review from Wu, who delayed Drew's sentencing in May to review the testimony of two prosecution witnesses. Much attention has been paid to Drew's case, primarily because it was the nation's first cyberbullying trial. Prosecutors say Drew sought to humiliate Megan Meier by helping create a fictitious teen boy on the social networking site and sending flirtatious messages to the girl in his name. The fake boy then dumped Megan in a message saying the world would be better without her. She hanged herself a short time later in October 2006 in the St. Louis suburb of Dardenne Prairie, Missouri. Drew was not directly charged with causing Megan's death. Instead, prosecutors indicted her under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which in the past has been used in hacking and trademark theft cases. For more on this story see vol5_iss76, vol6_iss38, and vol6_iss75. Associated Press reports that bullying is more likely to be reported to authorities and is more likely to be treated as a crime than in years past. FindLaw news story here For ways to protect children and teens in the internet world see eGuide/online safety, eGuide/MySpace and Facebook, and eGuide/bullying. In other news... 
The gruesome details of Jada Justice's death were revealed when Indiana prosecutors charged the 2-year-old girl's cousin and her boyfriend with murder. Sun-Times news story here Engelica Castillo, 18, and her live-in boyfriend, Tim Tkachik, 23, of Hobart, also are charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent, battery and false informing. Both were being held without bond in the Lake County, Indiana jail. Jada's mother, Melissa Swiontek, said that she never thought Castillo or Tkachik would harm her daughter. Prosecutors said Jada's body was burned, encased in concrete and left in a LaPorte County swamp. "They should have the same fate she had, if you ask me," Swiontek said. The two had originally reported that Jada had been abducted from a parked car when they stopped at a Gary, Indiana, convenience store to buy milk and cigarettes. CNN story here Tkachik eventually led police to Jada's body Thursday, according to court documents. Tkachik told police that Castillo spanked and beat Jada repeatedly on June 13, causing the girl to hit her head on a table, according to court documents. At one point, Tkachik told police, he tried to stop Castillo, but when he couldn't, he went to another room to watch TV. That night, while they were on their way to buy heroin, the couple realized that Jada was dead. Police said the couple returned to their home and put Jada's body into garbage bags. The next morning, they allegedly tried to burn the body. When that didn't work, the documents say, Tkachik dumped Jada's body in a tub and poured concrete over it. The couple drove to a swamp in LaPorte, where they dumped the concrete slab, the documents said. Then they returned home, took some heroin, and decided to report Justice's abduction the next day.
Michigan returned 62 sex offenders to prison in the past week after they were mistakenly released because of a glitch in how psychologists determined their treatment plans, authorities said. Fox news story here The parolees, who were outfitted with GPS tethers, were picked up immediately after officials learned of the mistake, Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said. Some were released again after the parole board determined it was safe to do so, though most remained incarcerated while the board considered whether they should be freed. Governor Jennifer Granholm's administration has worked to shrink the prison population due to budget deficits but says only low-risk offenders are being paroled earlier than they may otherwise have been and all have served their minimum sentences. House Minority Leader Kevin Elsenheimer (R-Kewadin), called on Granholm to stop any earlier paroles "until we know the scope of the problem." He characterized the mistaken releases as "negligence." A newly expanded parole board is using risk assessment scales to evaluate sex offenders, while in the past the board relied on reports of how treatment had gone in prison along with details of the crime and other factors.
Young kids are getting online at a faster rate than their parents and older siblings. AP story here A new study from Nielsen Online found that nearly 16 million U.S. children ages 2 to 11 were online in May. They made up about 9.5 percent of Internet users. In the past five years, Nielsen said, the number of kids online has grown by 18 percent, compared with just a 10 percent growth among all Internet users. And this growth comes as the total number of U.S. kids under 14 is declining. In all, the time children spend online grew 63 percent in the past five years, from nearly 7 hours in May 2004 to more than 11 hours online this past May. Nielsen also found that boys spent 7 percent more time online than girls, but girls viewed 9 percent more Web pages than boys did in May 2009. Grunwald said kids are also beginning to produce their own content rather than use the Web as a passive viewer.
Howard County, Maryland police are investigating what appears to be the heat-related death of a 23-month-old girl who was strapped into a child safety seat inside a car for about nine hours. WBAL-TV story here Police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said the preliminary investigation indicated that the incident was likely accidental. "Right now, this does appear to have been a horrible tragedy, but one that was very likely an accident," she said. Police said they believe the girl died of heat stroke, although autopsy results are still pending. If the incident is determined to be accidental, charges likely will not be filed in the case, Llewellyn said. Police believe a "change in the parents' morning routine" may have resulted in the child being inadvertently left in the back seat of the car. Police said they waited to give official word of the child's death in order to coordinate news of the tragedy with a safety warning. WBAL TV 11 News took a thermometer and shut it inside a car that was sitting in the sun with the windows up. Within 25 minutes, reporter Kate Amara said the temperature had risen from 78 to 100 degrees and was still climbing. "We want to remind people to put their purse or briefcase in the back with their child so they'll always remember the child is there. When they park their cars, always keep them locked from the outside, so children can't climb inside and get trapped in there," Llewellyn said.
Scientists have discovered a remarkable similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression in a breakthrough that is expected to open the way to new treatments for two of the most common mental illnesses, affecting millions of people. The Independent news story here Previously doctors had assumed that the two conditions were quite separate. But new research shows for the first time that both have a common genetic basis that leads people to develop one or other of the two illnesses. Three different international studies investigated the genetic basis of schizophrenia by pooling their analysis of about 15,000 patients and nearly 50,000 healthy subjects to find that thousands of tiny genetic mutations - known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - are operating in raising the risk of developing the illness. Each mutation on its own increased the risk of developing schizophrenia by about 0.2 per cent but collectively they were found to account for at least a third of the total risk of developing schizophrenia. The condition is known to have a strong inherited component, accounting for about 80 per cent of the total risk, but it is also influenced by upbringing and environment. However, one of the most surprising findings to emerge from the three studies was that the same array of genetic variations in SNPs was also linked with bipolar disorder, a discovery that is at odds with the orthodoxy in psychiatry stating that the two conditions are clinically distinct, the scientists said. The findings are a milestone in the understanding of both schizophrenia and manic depression - also known as bipolar disorder - which could eventually lead to new ways of either preventing or treating conditions that cause untold human misery and expense.
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