|
Archives > Volume 8 Issue 3 - January 12, 2010 Baby Gabriel's mom in jail on felony charges...The mother at the center of a missing baby case has left Miami and is being held in the Maricopa County, Arizona jail on charges of kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference. Fox News story here 
Elizabeth Johnson is being held on a cash-only $1.1 million bond after being extradited from Florida, police said. Johnson was arrested in Miami on December 30 after she did not show up for a custodial hearing in Phoenix, MyFoxPhoenix.com reported.
Johnson had apparently driven cross-country with 8-month-old son Gabriel, the site reported. Gabriel was last seen with his mother in San Antonio. Johnson told police she gave him up to an unknown couple in Texas for adoption, according to MyFoxPhoenix.com. After arriving in the valley, Elizabeth Johnson reportedly telephoned her grandfather, who lives in Scottsdale. "I can't even imagine Elizabeth hurting that child or anything worse," Bob Johnson told FOX 10, according to the site. Authorities are now naming a Scottsdale couple as "persons of interest" in the case, MyFoxPhoenix.com reported. The Smiths tell police they befriended Johnson at an airport and she offered to give her son to them to adopt - but the baby's father didn't agree. Jack and Tammi Smith, who tried to adopt the 8-month-old baby who's been missing since Christmas, say they now feel the mother of the baby duped and used them. Today Show story here Today Show video here Delaware pediatrician molests 100 as warnings ignored for years... Dating back almost a decade, there were complaints and investigations involving Dr. Earl Bradley, a well-known Delaware pediatrician who authorities say may have molested more than 100 children. Fox News story here 
There were jokes among colleagues, who thought Bradley had an unusual practice with his carnival-like office filled with toys and a merry-go-round. Even Bradley's own sister, who worked for him, heard parents' concerns.
Despite the warnings, Delaware's medical board only recently suspended Bradley's license - after he was arrested. "The system failed. What I don't know, and what we must find out, is where and how," said Delaware Governor Jack Markell, who plans to order an independent review of the state's handling of the case. Outraged parents have complained that children could have been spared had officials acted sooner. "If he was under investigation for over a year, why didn't someone speak up?" a tearful mother said at a community forum last month. "All of this could have been avoided." Bradley, 56, is being held in lieu of $2.9 million bond after being charged with more than 30 felonies, including rape. After years of suspicions, his arrest came when a 2-year-old girl told her mother that Bradley hurt her last month when he took her to a basement room after an exam. Authorities have said Bradley videotaped some of the attacks, some of which occurred in exam rooms with Disney themes. The case has shocked the close-knit coastal community of Lewes and the central Delaware town of Milford, where he closed an office in 2005 after police investigated him. The case is even more chilling because some alleged victims are no more than 6 months old. The governor is not the only one calling for a review. The state attorney general's office also has asked for an investigation. At Beebe Medical Center in Lewes, administrators knew police had investigated him in 2005. News Journal story here Doctors who worked with him were told by parents of Bradley's former patients that he forced reluctant girls to undress, performed long vaginal exams and took girls alone to get treats. One doctor didn't mince words with police, calling Bradley a pedophile. Workers in the Lewes and Milford offices of his BayBees Pediatrics knew he kissed, hugged and cuddled girls. An office manager said Bradley took antidepressants from the office and told police she wrote a letter about his problems to the Medical Society of Delaware. Police had tried since at least 2005 to build a criminal case against Bradley. They documented his questionable behavior and reputation in reports that were not made public until last week about Bradley, 56, who was charged in December with raping nine girls since August - eight of whom he videotaped. Authorities said there could be 100 victims. As allegations piled up over nearly five years, though, unaware parents kept sending their girls and boys to his one-man, Disney-themed medical practice, which drew patients from nearby resorts and distant farming towns. Yet no one in the medical or law enforcement communities did what Delaware law mandates - put their observations and suspicions in writing to the Delaware Board of Medical Practice, which investigates physician misconduct. Failure to report such behavior, which the law deems an "affirmative duty," can bring a fine of $250 to $5,000. In other news... 
An Ohio pediatrician convicted of sex crimes involving former patients, money laundering and drug charges has been sentenced to 21 to 27 years in prison. AP story here Fifty-four-year-old Mark Blankenburg, of Hamilton, was sentenced Friday. A jury convicted him of gross sexual imposition, corruption of a minor and compelling prostitution. See vol7_iss60 for more on the trial. During his trial, four men testified the doctor molested or performed sex acts on them when they were teenagers. A Butler County judge later convicted Blankenburg of drug trafficking and money laundering. Prosecutors say Blankenburg gave patients money and prescription drugs to keep them quiet about the molestation. Blankenburg's twin brother, Scott, also is a pediatrician and is awaiting trial on similar allegations. For more on this story see Cincinnati Enquirer story here
The New Mexico man elected the first mayor when Rio Rancho, New Mexico became a city nearly 30 years ago has been charged with kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old girl whose family knew and trusted him. KRGE story here William Howden, 70, is being held on a $100,000 cash-only bond. According to a criminal complaint the girl told her mother Howden locked her in a storage shed behind his home in Albuquerque's North Valley on Thanksgiving. There he pulled down his pants and made her touch him, and he also fondled her, the girl alleged. Her mother told police she found blood on her daughter's tights. The girl also claimed the molestation had been going on for months and that Howden made her watch pornographic movies with him. "The charges in this case are likely to change and likely to be upgraded by the time we get to the grand jury," Pat Davis, a spokesman for the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office, told KRQE News 13. Family members told police Howden had been acting strangely with the child and even tried to keep him from being alone with her.
A western Maryland juvenile detention center had the highest rate of sexual abuse in a nationwide study released earlier this week, prompting the state Department of Juvenile Services to launch an independent investigation of the claims. Cumberland Times story here The U.S. Justice Department report indicates that four of 11 youth at Backbone Mountain Youth Center in Garrett County said they had been sexually abused by staff or another youth in the last year. That rate - 36.4 percent - was the highest of 195 juvenile detention centers surveyed across the country. Nationwide about 12 percent of youths held in state-run, privately run, or local facilities reported some type of sexual victimization, the report showed. The rates varied widely between facilities. Victimization included forced sexual activity with another youth and all sexual activity with staff. For more on the Justice Department report, see vol8_iss2. *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" |
Survivors And Victims Empowered
1725 Oregon Pike, Suite 106
Lancaster, PA 17601
(717) 569-0550 voice
(717) 569-3039 fax
http://www.childprotectionprogram.org