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Archives > Volume 9 Issue 5 - February 2, 2011 Super Bowl Attracts Child Sex Traffickers...When fans flock to the Dallas Cowboys' stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, few will be thinking about anything other than touchdowns and tailgates. ABC News story here 
But nearby, in hotels, motels and on street corners, Texas authorities say a "dark side" will exist, one where children are sold for sex by pimps. And those sex traffickers are descending on the area.
"People are thinking of the Packers and the Steelers and the game on the field, having a good time and Super Bowl commercials. Most don't think about a 12-year-old being forced to dance naked," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told ABC News. "There are several things at play here. There are maybe 100,000 or more coming in and out of town for a single event, and it seems to be a testosterone filled event," said Abbott. "The Super Bowl is a magnet for child sex traffickers." Texas is creating a task force of federal, state and city agencies to combat child trafficking in Arlington during the big game. "The link is that with any sort of major event and planned event there is going to be unfortunately corresponding influx of various crimes," said Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of the task force because of its expertise in international child trafficking. "And one of those very unfortunately is going to be prostitution and or the child prostitution or more directly human trafficking," Rusnok said. Abbott said that Texas law enforcement officials wanted to "get ahead of the curve" this year in combating the problem of child prostitution during the Super Bowl after hearing stories from Miami Beach and Tampa, where the last two Super Bowls were held. During the 2010 Super Bowl in Miami Beach, child outreach professionals said they saw a surge in young women working the streets in the week leading up to the big game. Many of the young girls they spoke with told outreach experts that they'd been brought to the area by pimps hoping to profit from the game. "We saw at least four times as many, if not more, young women on the streets," said Sandy Skelaney, who headed the Super Bowl outreach project at Kristi House, a child advocacy organization in Miami. Skelaney and a group of more than 150 volunteers roamed the streets of Miami Beach that Super Bowl weekend, approaching girls who were under the control of pimps and handing out cards with hotline numbers. According to the group's data, 14 leads were generated regarding missing children, six children were recovered and volunteers made contact with 23 young women who were potential victims of sexual exploitation. In 2009, in the days leading up to the Super Bowl held in Tampa, agents arrested two alleged pimps who had advertized the sexual services of a 14-year-old girl in a Craigslist ad titled, "Super Bowl Special," according to news reports at the time. Police in Phoenix, Ariz., where the 2008 Super Bowl was played, broke up a child prostitution ring that they believed at the time had come specifically for the championship game. In other news... 
Pennsylvania police arrested the seventh teen wanted in connection with a bullying incident in which a 13-year-old was kicked and beaten, hung upside down in a tree and finally left hanging from a fence. Delaware County Times story here Six other teens - all students at Upper Darby High School - were taken into custody yesterday. Both police Superintendent Michael Chitwood and Capt. George Rhoades Jr., who headed up the investigation, condemned the physical bullying, calling this one the most menacing of their careers. "This is probably as heinous a case as Ive ever seen," Chitwood said at a press conference where the cell phone video taken by one of the attackers was aired for the media. "The 13-year-old was attacked by a group of seven other males. They beat this kid, kicked him, drug him through the snow and stuffed him in a tree, upside down, and hung him on a fence. It was seven on one. "This kid was screaming for help in the vicinity of E building (of Park Lane East Apartments) and not one person called 911. You can see a woman on the tape walking by right after he was hung on the metal fence. Hes lucky they didnt kill him. Hes lucky they didnt impale his neck on that fence." The cell phone video of the attack is available online at MSNBC, For more on bullying, visit eGuide/bullying.
Authorities said Tuesday they found the body of a 4-year-old boy in a Central California canal, capping the search for the child who was kidnapped from his home two weeks ago. MSNBC story here A water department worker spotted Juliani Cardenas' body floating in the Delta-Mendota Canal and called 911 around 7:30 a.m., said Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson. The body was found about 30 miles downstream from where a vehicle belonging to the man suspected of kidnapping Juliani was recovered last week. Investigators have not located the suspect, who is the ex-boyfriend of Juliani's mother, but they believe his body also will be found in the canal, Christianson said. The man, 27-year-old Jose Rodriguez, is accused of taking Juliani from the boy's home in Patterson on Jan. 18. A homicide warrant has been issued for Rodriguez, Christianson said.
A former Jacksonville private school teacher has been sentenced to 17 1/2 years in federal prison for trading child pornography on the Internet. AP story here The U.S. Attorney's Office said 55-year Ripley Ridenour was sentenced Monday. Investigators say they found 200 images and 11 videos depicting child pornography on his home computer when he was arrested in July. He pleaded guilty in August. 
Michigan authorities said they are treating the search for three boys who went missing in November as a homicide investigation. The boys' father is the primary suspect. Fox News story here "We've seen false hope continue to grow," said Larry Weeks, the Morenci police chief at a press conference. Considering the investigation up to this point, he said, "this is no longer a missing person's case, but a murder investigation." Efforts to find the brothers have so far proved futile, and Weeks has said statements made by their father, John Skelton, 39, "indicate it's not going to be a positive outcome." Skelton allegedly told investigators through his parents that he turned the boys over to the United Foster Outreach and Underground Sanctuary. An investigation by police, however, found that no organization exists by that name.
A suburban Florida soccer mom showed signs of trouble in the months before she was accused of killing her two teenage children: Her 16-year-old daughter told police in November she had been hit by her mother, and troopers investigating a car crash thought the woman had been using drugs. MSNBC story here The incidents were described in reports released Monday, several days after authorities say Julie Powers Schenecker, 50, shot and killed the kids because they were talking back and being "mouthy." *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" |
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