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Archives > Volume 8 Issue 2 - January 8, 2010 Feds: sexual assault rampant in juvenile facilities...More than one in 10 juvenile detainees in major U.S. facilities says they experienced some form of sexual abuse or sexual victimization while in detention, according to a report Thursday by the Department of Justice. CNN News story here 
The report's major finding is only an estimate, due to the inability to verify the information collected through questionnaires. Still, the estimated 12 percent of more than 26,000 detained juveniles reporting sexual victimization by other detainees or staff members brought a pledge of steps to address the issue.
The findings "bring into focus the dire circumstances that too many youth in juvenile correctional facilities have to endure," said a Justice Department statement issued with the report. "While the report focuses on specific types of juvenile facilities - larger facilities that typically hold adjudicated youth for longer periods -the Department of Justice is committed to addressing confinement issues for all youth in all facilities," the statement said. The Review Panel on Prison Rape - part of the Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs - will hold hearings on the report as part of a broader effort to reduce prison rape, according to the statement. In addition, the department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is seeking funding for a National Training and Technical Assistance Center to improve conditions and treatment services for detained youths, the statement said. Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a working group under the Prison Rape Elimination Act to review standards proposed by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission and draft national standards for detecting and preventing prison rape, the statement said. The study identified six facilities where the survey found at least 3 out of every 10 inmates said they were sexually victimized while in custody: Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in Indiana; Corsicana Residential Treatment Center in Texas; Backbone Mountain Youth Center in Swanton, Maryland.; Samarkand Youth Development Center in Eagle Springs, North Carolina; Cresson Secure Treatment Unit in Pennsylvania; and the Culpeper Juvenile Correctional Center, Long Term, in Mitchells, Virginia. MSNBC News story here At Pendleton, the rate of incidents was double the national average for such facilities. Another seven sites reported nearly as high levels of sexual abuse or victimization: Victory Field Correctional Academy in Vernon, Texas; Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility; Shawono Center in Grayling, Michigan; Woodland Hills Youth Development Center in Nashville, Tennessee; L.E. Rader Center in Sand Springs, Oklahoma; Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center in Virginia; New Jersey Training School in Monroe Township, New Jersey. At those 13 facilities, most reports of sexual victimization involved nonconsensual sex acts with another youth or serious sex acts with facility staff. Staff sexual misconduct was higher in state-run facilities than in privately or locally operated sites, the study found, and smaller facilities tended to have fewer incidents of sexual victimization. Police: "Indications" missing baby Gabriel may still be alive... Police say there are signs a baby missing since just after Christmas - whose mother claims to have given him to complete strangers in a Texas park - and whose father says she claimed to have killed the infant - is alive. CBS News story here 
Eight-month-old Gabriel Johnson, at the center of a heated custody dispute, was last seen in San Antonio with his 23-year-old mother, Elizabeth Johnson, of Tempe, Arizona. Authorities say Johnson spent December 22-27 at two motels there.
Johnson's white Oldsmobile was found at a San Antonio motel Tuesday. A baby seat and other items were inside, and there were no obvious signs of violence, said FBI spokesman Eric Vasys. Gabriel's biological father, Logan McQueary, said during a Monday news conference in Tempe that he had received a text message from Johnson telling him she had killed their son. But McQueary said he had "a feeling" the boy was still alive. Johnson was arrested last week in Miami Beach, Florida, on suspicion of custodial interference after she failed to show up for a custodial hearing in Phoenix. CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston reports that Johnson says she gave Gabriel away to total strangers in a San Antonio park. In a jailhouse interview, Johnson told a reporter she "trusted them," and believes "in my heart they are good people." A couple from Scottsdale, Arizona, who wanted to adopt Gabriel may know more about the missing child's whereabouts than they're telling investigators, police said Thursday. AP News story here Jack and Terri Smith are now "persons of interest" in the investigation into the disappearance of Gabriel, according to Tempe police spokesman Sergeant Steve Carbajal. The Smiths have given numerous media interviews in recent days where they said they met Johnson at an airport during a long layover and befriended her. Terri Smith said the young mother wanted to give up her baby for adoption but the ex-boyfriend wouldn't go along. Terri Smith told KTVK-TV in Phoenix on Thursday that the couple has cooperated fully with police and has nothing to hide. Tempe police have been inundated with tips and are now directing callers to the National Center for Missing or Exploited Children. Houston mom lures 16-year-old Canadian boy... A Houston mother of four was arrested Tuesday and remains in jail after allegedly starting a sexual relationship with a Canadian teenager through the online game "World of Warcraft," and then flying to his town and luring him away from home, MyFoxHouston.com reported. Fox News story here 
Lauri Price, 42, thought she could get around U.S. statutory rape laws by having sex with the 16-year-old in Canada, where that is the legal age of consent, Harris County investigators told MyFoxHouston.
Authorities say the substitute teacher started having an online sexual relationship with the boy, then 15 years old, in September 2008 after meeting him through the Internet video game, said Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorney's Office. "When she traveled to Canada, she actually took the boy from his home and they had a large statewide manhunt in Canada," Harris County Prosecutor Eric Devlin told MyFox. "The child was missing for about 36 hours." Police say Price and the teen were found in a bed and breakfast. The 16-year-old was taken home. Because the age of consent in Canada is 16, Price is not being charged with physical sexual assault. However, because she allegedly pursued the relationship in Texas, she has been charged by prosecutors in Houston with two counts of online solicitation of a minor and one count of enticing a child with the intent to commit a felony. After going to the teen's home in Barrie, Ontario, in February and failing to lure the boy away, Price continued her online relationship with the boy, said Lieutenant Matthew Gray, with the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce. "She talked to him about sex and a lot of different stuff. It was a very long, long grooming process. She thought that in February she had him at that time. She continued to work on him until she finally felt she broke through," he said. In other news... 
A Missouri police chief is behind bars after admitting to having sex with young boys, videotaping the attacks, and then destroying the evidence. KSPR story here Prosecutors have charged 42 year old Kenneth Tomlinson the second with 16 counts of sodomy involving two boys aged 12 and 14. As captain Tomlinson runs the Fredericktown Police Department. He also led a Boy Scout troop there, but has been stripped of his membership in the organization. "I'm sure they'll be a lots questions for people, and I'll just answer 'em the best I can, you know, and, and make everybody assured that we're doing everything we can to make our, town safe and secure," said Fredericktown Mayor Danny Kemp. Tomlinson became Fredericktown's top cop in 2008. Court documents say he admitted to having sex with the boys beginning last spring. He's jailed on a cash only $100,000 bond.
Yesterday, a Massachusetts-based group that has been chronicling the US clergy sexual abuse scandal released the names of 60 to 70 accused priests it says were born in Ireland or are of Irish descent who came to the United States and were reoffenders. Boston Globe story here The group, BishopAccountability.org, demanded that Cardinal Sean P. OMalley of Boston and Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence immediately make public the names of any credibly accused Irish priests who have worked in their dioceses. By revealing the names, the group said it hopes to highlight the issue of immigrant Irish priests who are known pedophiles and whose histories of alleged abuse have long been "outsourced" to the United States. BishopAccountability.org has a database of 3,000 names of accused priests and said roughly a third are linked to Ireland, which is reeling from revelations of a decades-long coverup of abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese. Four Irish bishops resigned this month as news unfolded. For more on that story, see vol7_iss77 and vol8_iss1. "Bishops [in Ireland], just like bishops here, have been moving accused priests around, even though they know they are dangerous," said Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org. "Unfortunately the places where they put them include our own backyard. So the Irish crisis, basically, has become our crisis, too." See eGuide/clergy abuse for more information on clergy abuse issues.
A teacher at Sierra Oaks Elementary School in Sacramento County has been arrested, accused of performing lewd acts on multiple children. Fox 40 news story here Investigators arrested 25-year-old instructor Shane Vicars shortly after 3:00pm Wednesday following allegations the teacher had inappropriate contact with minors. Vicars was an after-school instructor for the Discovery Club at Sierra Oaks Elementary. According to San Juan Unified School District's website, the Discovery Club is a before- and after-school child care program in which students receive tutoring on homework and create art projects. Vicars is listed as one of two instructors at the program. According to the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, Vicars has been arrested on 15 counts of lewd acts with a minor and 14 counts of child annoyance. Law enforcement authorities say the victims, who range in age from seven to eleven-years-old, were students at the school and the crime took place on-campus after school hours. A Sheriff's Department spokesman said the allegations came to light in mid-December when a child came forward to a parent. Vicars was immediately placed on leave while the Sheriff's Department investigated. The district and investigators are encouraging parents to speak with their students as there may be additional victims who have not come forward. See eGuide/educator abuse for more information about teacher abuse.
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