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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 65 - November 6, 2009 Jessop guilt of sexual assault...The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following last year's raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage." ABC News story here 
Raymond Jessop, 38, didn't visibly react when the verdict was read after just more than two hours of jury deliberations. Free on bond during trial, he was immediately handcuffed and led to jail. Jurors were expected to return to court Monday to begin deciding his sentence on the child sexual assault conviction. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Jessop allegedly has nine wives. He also faces a bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later. The girl in the assault case, now 21, was previously in a spiritual marriage with Jessop's brother before being "reassigned" to Jessop when she was 15, according to documents seized at the ranch. She became pregnant at age 16. During closing arguments, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols stood before photos of the young mother and toddler in prairie dresses. "There is a sound foundation based not just in documents - based in DNA evidence for which the documents serve as corroboration ... that Raymond Merril Jessop behind those gates, behind that guard house, behind those walls, sexually assaulted" the then-teen, he said. Forensic experts who testified during the trial, which began with the largest jury pool in the small county's history on October 26, said there was a nearly 100 percent probability Jessop was the father of the woman's daughter, who is now 4. Jessop's attorneys had argued that no witness placed Jessop in Schleicher County at the time of the alleged assault in November 2004. They said prosecutors instead relied on only small snippets of documents to place Jessop and the teen at the ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the time. Many of the documents were seized from enormous cement vaults inside the temple and temple annex at the ranch. Nichols used a photo album, family records and dictations by jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs to establish a time line that put Jessop and the teen at the ranch when she became pregnant. The records covered parts of 2004 and 2005, but not specifically the time of the alleged assault. The woman was on the prosecution's witness list, but did not testify. Generally, under Texas law, no one under 17 can consent to sex with adult. For more on this story, see vol6_iss78, vol7_iss62, and vol7_iss63. Florida baby found alive in box under baby sitter's bed... Investigators spent five days searching a rural area of dense vines and marshes for a missing infant, only to find her lying quietly in a 2-foot by 3-foot cedar box that had been shoved under her baby sitter's bed. Clothing was packed around it to muffle any sounds and baking soda placed inside to mask the stench of dirty diapers. AP News story here 
Authorities said the baby's mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer, gave the infant to baby sitter Susan Elizabeth Baker early Saturday, then reported her missing about 10 hours later. About 100 law enforcement agents and others spent days scouring around the baby's home in a remote, makeshift community of dirt roads, tin-roof shacks and old mobile homes. Searchers also dug through trash cans and bins.
All along, the baby was under the bed. Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock choked up Thursday as he described how 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick was stashed in the box for 12 straight hours before investigators discovered her late Wednesday. They believe she had been in the closed box on and off for several days. "She was way back under the bed," he said. "But she was not crying." Baker had written a letter to Governor Charlie Crist's office in August, pleading for help for the baby and claiming her father shook her and both parents did drugs in front of her. She asked Mercer a week ago if she could have permanent custody, Haddock said. Officials do not believe Shannon's father, who is Baker's stepbrother, was involved in the disappearance. Haddock said Shannon apparently had been fed and cared for while she was with Baker, who lived about 12 miles from Mercer. He said Baker became a suspect several days ago but never told them where the baby was, even as they interviewed her. Mercer was charged with interference of child custody, desertion of a child and several other charges. Charges against Baker included neglect of a child with aggravated circumstances and interference of child custody. California Inspector General's report cites "missed opportunities" in Garrido case... California parole officers "missed numerous opportunities" to discover long-missing Jaycee Dugard while supervising the man now accused of kidnapping and raping her, a state review of the case concludes. CNN News story here 
Phillip Garrido was a registered sex offender on parole between January 1988 and August, when Dugard, who had been missing for 18 years, was discovered living in a shed in his backyard in Antioch, California.
In a report issued Wednesday, the state inspector-general's office found the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation failed to properly keep tabs on Garrido or properly supervise the officers assigned to his case. "While it is true that Garrido's California parole was never officially violated, our review shows that Garrido committed numerous parole violations and that the department failed to properly supervise Garrido and missed numerous opportunities to discover his victims," the report states. Parole officers failed to investigate utility wires running from Garrido's house toward the shed where Dugard was held, to check out the presence of a 12-year-old girl during a visit or to act on information the report said clearly showed Garrido had violated the terms of his release. Dugard, now 29, was last seen in 1991. Investigators say Garrido fathered two children, now 11 and 15, with the girl during her captivity. He and his wife, Nancy, are charged with 29 felony counts in the case and have pleaded not guilty. The California report is limited to reviewing the actions of state parole officers, who were in charge of monitoring Garrido from June 1999 until Dugard and her children were discovered in August. However, it added, Garrido was under the jurisdiction of federal parole officers when authorities say he kidnapped Dugard in 1991. "Federal parole authorities also failed to detect Garrido's criminal conduct and his victims," the report states. Full report here California Inspector-General David Shaw said the problems began when Garrido was classified as a low-risk sex offender, when his background should have resulted in his classification as a high-risk offender. "It's apparent that this initial mistake set the tone for many mistakes to come," Shaw said. Shaw's investigation found frequent gaps, some of them lasting nearly a year, between face-to-face visits by parole officers to Garrido. The suspect "was only properly supervised 12 out of 123 months that we supervised him, a failure rate of about 90 percent," Shaw told reporters. In all, parole officers visited Garrido at least 60 times during the 10 years he was under California supervision. In one 2008 case, a parole officer encountered a 12-year-old girl on the property, "but failed to identify her or her relationship to Garrido," Shaw said. Garrido was paroled in August 1988 after serving 11 years of a federal kidnapping sentence, along with a 5-year term on Nevada state rape charges. The inspector-general's report recommends steps to tighten supervision of paroled sex offenders, including improved risk assessments and increased use of global positioning systems to keep tabs on parolees. For more on this story, see vol7_iss48, vol7_iss49, vol7_iss50, vol7_iss51, vol7_iss52, and vol7_iss53. In other news... 
A 14-year-old California boy told police he drowned his 4-year-old neighbor on Friday because the child had threatened to tell his mother the older boy had molested him. CNN story here Raul Renato Castro has been charged in Fresno County as an adult, with special circumstances including murder during a child molestation, sodomy, kidnapping and murder of a witness to prevent testimony, according to the district attorney's office. He faces separate felony charges of kidnapping, sodomy and child molestation. An affidavit, filed by the Fresno County Sheriff's Department, says Castro told investigators he lured the victim, Alex Christopher Mercato, into his apartment "by telling the victim he had something to show him." Castro then talked the boy into entering the bathroom, according to the document. Castro said he then sodomized the child, after which "the victim tripped over the carpet, fell, and hit the back of his head on the bathtub," the affidavit says. "Castro said the victim started crying and told Castro he was going to tell his mother. Castro said he panicked and decided to kill the victim by drowning him in the bathtub." "Castro turned on the water to the bathtub and filled it up just enough to put the victim's face underwater and drowned him. Castro said he held the victim underwater 2-4 minutes. Castro got into the bathtub with the victim, held him down until the victim died." "Castro then carried the victim over his left shoulder and put him [in]... the clothes dryer to conceal him."
The Michigan appeals court ordered a man removed from the state's sex-offender registry, saying it was cruel punishment for a young "Romeo" who had a consensual relationship with a teen and later became her husband. AP News story here Robert Dipiazza's lawyer said there are other men like her client who are on the list and could be removed because of the decision. "It's a victory for common sense," Miriam Aukerman said. "Teens in romantic relationships shouldn't be labeled as sexual predators." In 2004, Dipiazza was 18 when he had a consensual sexual relationship with a girl who was nearly 15. A teacher saw a photograph of him with his hand on her breast and contacted authorities in Muskegon County. Under Michigan law, the age of consent is 16. Dipiazza was given a break: A case of third-degree attempted criminal sexual conduct was erased after he completed a special probation in 2005. There was no conviction but he still was required to register as a sex offender. For more on this subject, see eGuide/statutory rape. To check sex offender registries, click on the link at http://www.childprotectionprogram.org/home/index.php.
Pop sensation Rihanna is speaking out about the night her then-boyfriend Chris Brown beat her, saying it was "humiliating" and "traumatizing" to admit the assault took place and that it was "wrong" that she went back to Brown afterwards. ABC News story here "It was a wake-up call. It was a wake-up call for me. Big time," Rihanna told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Diane Sawyer in her first television interview discussing the assault. "I will say that to any young girl who is going through domestic violence, don't react off of love. F love. Come out of the situation and look at it in the third person and for what it really is." The pop star said it was "embarrassing" that Brown was the type of person she fell in love with. After months of silence since the February beating, Rihanna decided to speak publicly about the ordeal so she can be a voice to help others who may be in danger of returning to abuse. About one in three adolescent girls will have been in a physically abusive relationship by the time she graduates from high school, according to recent studies. For more information on abusive relationships, see the resources ABC provides. ABC New story here
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