Violent Crime Arrests Up
for D.C. Juveniles
Slight Rise Cited After Years of Decline
By Sewell Chan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 5, 2003
The District's juvenile arrest
rate for violent crimes -- including robbery, aggravated assault
and rape -- has risen slightly this year after a steady decline
since the mid-1990s, according to a report to be released this
month, just as the D.C. Council prepares to take up several bills
to make it easier to try juveniles as adults.
The report, which questions the
efficacy of such measures, notes a general increase in juvenile
arrests, including arrests for property and weapons offenses.
Auto theft arrests have increased every year since 2000. However,
juvenile arrests on murder and drug offenses have not increased
since last year.
Despite the increase over the past
year, the juvenile arrest rate for violent crime has dropped by
more than half since 1995, according to the report by the Urban
Institute, a nonpartisan research organization.
"The magnitude of the increase is
small compared to the steep decline that came before," wrote the
report's author, Jeffrey A. Butts, a sociologist who directs the
institute's Program on Youth Justice. "The rate of violent crime
among young people is half of what it was in the
1990s."
In an interview, Butts said that
the increase in juvenile arrests was to be expected after years
of decline. "It looks like we've hit the bottom and things are
starting to go up again, but it's not time to panic," he
said.
Nonetheless, the report
acknowledges that public concern about youth violence in the city
has increased because of highly visible crimes, including a
gang-related shooting that injured a Metrobus driver and the
fatal shooting of a 16-year-old student as he was leaving a high
school dance. Both shootings occurred in October.
The report is scheduled to be
released shortly before the council's Judiciary Committee holds
hearings in January on five juvenile justice bills. The most
comprehensive bill, proposed by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D),
would relax the legal hurdles the city must overcome in
transferring 15-year-old defendants to adult court in cases of
serious violent crime.
It also would make it easier for
officials to share information about juveniles with crime victims
and would allow judges to hold parents in criminal contempt for
failing to participate in their children's rehabilitation
plans.
Another bill, introduced by
council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), has similar
provisions but would also allow children with three juvenile
convictions to be transferred to adult court without additional
justification.
A third bill, introduced by
council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7), would let the city
suspend the driver's license of a delinquent's parent and share
information about the child's cases with the D.C. Housing
Authority, which could affect the family's eligibility for public
housing.
The report from the Urban
Institute argues that proposals to make it easier to try children
as adults represent "relatively meager changes in the legal
process" and would affect only a small number of youths, perhaps
a dozen each year.
"While such policies may be
popular with the public, they will have very little effect on
overall public safety and may even increase the odds that youth
will commit serious crime in the future," Butts wrote. He cited a
study last year that found that children tried in adult court in
Florida had higher recidivism than those who received services in
the juvenile system.
Butts said that juveniles in the
high-profile cases "are representative of a small, consistent,
tragic problem," but that the situation is still much better than
it was eight years ago.
"It's important for us not to do
what many states did in the 1990s, which was to turn the juvenile
justice system into a scapegoat for our problem with youth
violence," Butts said. "We're not going to solve the violence
problem by changing the juvenile justice system
alone."
To compare arrests this year with
those in previous years, the report used statistics from January
through October, weighting the figures to represent a full
year.
Four Shot
At Maryland High School
Drive-By Shooting Happened After Charity Basketball Game
May 7, 2004 7:05 pm US/Eastern
Four students were wounded Friday in a drive-by shooting at a high
school outside Baltimore, authorities said.
The victims were students who stayed after school to attend a charity
basketball game. Three of them suffered non-life-threatening injuries,
while the fourth was in surgery, Baltimore County Police Chief Terrence
B. Sheridan said.
The motivation for the attack was not immediately known, but Baltimore
County Executive James T. Smith Jr. told a local television station
that it was a "street crime that happened on school grounds."
Witnesses told police a car with about four people inside pulled up to
Randallstown High School at about 4:30 p.m., and the driver and a
passenger got out of the car, police spokesman Bill Toohey said. The
driver shot four or five times, then handed the gun to the passenger,
who also fired. The car ・a black BMW with tinted windows ・then sped off.
An officer looking for the car was told by witnesses that three people
had fled from a black BMW, Sheridan said. The officer captured one of
them.
The shooting occurred after the basketball game, which was organized by
a state lawmaker and attended by about 300 students. Toohey said the
lawmaker did not appear to be the target of the shooting.
"It's a shame that a random act of violence by people gives the school
a bad image," said Delegate Robert Zirkin, who organized the event
raise money for scholarships.
A security camera was pointed at the area of the shooting, but it was
not working, Toohey said.
Anxious parents waited outside the school, blocked from entering by
police tape. Deborah Lee of Randallstown said she was waiting for her
daughter, Sarah, to finish talking with investigators.
She said the 16-year-old junior had attended the game, then called to
tell her mom the game was over and it was time to pick her up. Shortly
afterward, Sarah called back to say people had been shot.
A woman who answered the telephone at the school's main office said
school officials could not comment because "clearly, they are trying to
contact families." She would not identify herself or her position.
Randallstown High School is located in northwest Baltimore County,
about 10 miles from Baltimore. It has 1,700 students and a staff of
115, according to the Baltimore County public schools Web site.
The school is across the street from a suburban development of homes
with two-car garages and nice lawns. It is about a mile off an old
country road that has become a busy commuter thoroughfare linking
residential developments with the city of Baltimore.
Two
Teens Shot at D.C. High School
Feb 2, 2004 12:17 pm US/Eastern
Two teenagers were shot Monday at a high school in the nation's
capital, fire and rescue officials said.
A 16-year-old boy was shot in the chest and arm inside Ballou High
School, District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services
spokesman Alan Etter said. He was flown to a trauma center in critical
condition. An 18-year-old suffered a graze wound to one leg, and his
injury was not considered serious, Etter said.
It was unclear whether the two were students at the school.
D.C. police were on the scene but were not immediately releasing any
information.
The shootings occurred at about 10:30 a.m. EST near the cafeteria,
Etter said. The building was locked down and students were kept inside.
A large crowd of relatives and friends gathered outside the crime scene
tape in front of the building, demanding to see students. Some school
security officers were talking to them, but many complained that they
were getting no information from school officials.
Ballou High School has been the scene of other trouble in recent
months. The school was closed from Oct. 2 to Nov. 5 after a student
removed mercury from an unlocked science classroom and then splattered
the toxic substance in various areas of the building.
Decontamination of the building took more than a month.
The school's reopening was marred by gunfire just before classes let
out, when a man allegedly fired a handgun in the direction of the
building. He faces gun-related charges.
School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz told WUSA-TV Monday that
she was "absolutely outraged and frustrated" to learn of the shooting.
She said the school system needs more help from police to control
violence.
Inquest
Probes Teen's Death During Standoff
Jul 17, 2003 3:32 pm US/Eastern
After two days of testimony, an independent fact finder must now try to
determine if a Langley High School student shot himself during a
standoff with police two months ago -- or if an officer killed him.
Dion Hall, 17, of the West End, died from a gunshot wound to the head
on May 8th -- several hours after a standoff with police ended in
gunfire.
Police say Hall shot a woman in the arm while trying to rob a Sheraden
pizza shop, then took cover in a parked van and started firing at
officers.
Several days after the shooting, Pittsburgh police announced that
evidence showed that the bullet that killed Hall did not come from an
officer's gun.
Hall's friends and family, however, say they don't believe that the
teenager -- who had so much to look forward to -- would commit suicide.
"With all these scholarships going for him -- why would
he kill himself?... Something just ain't right. I seen him when he left
that day." -- Frances Kendrick, Victim's Grandmother
Ballistics evidence presented at a coroner's inquest today, however,
indicates that the bullet that killed Hall came from a .357 revolver
that authorities say was found with the teenager -- not from an
officer's weapon.
While evidence did show that Hall was also shot once in the back --
most likely from a police officer's gun; that wound was not life
threatening.
After listening to the testimony, an attorney for the Fraternal Order
of Police says all the evidence seems to support the fact that police
acted properly.
"The testimony as I heard it would indicate that this
was a self-inflicted wound and that the shots that were fired by the
officer had nothing to do with the young man's death -- and appeared to
be a proper response to the sound of gunshot from the van." --
Steve Bowytz, Attorney
The independent fact finder will now weigh the evidence and make a
recommendation as to whether charges should be filed.
Though the ruling isn't expected for several days, one community group
-- People Against Police Violence -- claims it can predict the outcome.
"If you're black, poor or now an immigrant, they can do what they want
to," says spokesperson Renee Wilson. "There's no justice here -- no
justice."
Teacher Arrested for Dealing OxyContin
Aug 5, 2004 2:24 pm US/Eastern
A high school teacher in Lawrence County is facing charges for
allegedly dealing the painkiller OxyContin.
Police arrested Timothy Mosley, 29, a physical education teacher in the
Mohawk School District, following a joint investigation involving the
DA's drug task force, federal DEA and New Castle police department.
When they took him into custody, authorities say Mosley had nearly 200
OxyContin tablets -- with a street value estimated at as much as
$14,000.
Authorities believe Mosley has been distributing the drug for about the
last two years; but District Attorney Matthew Mangino says there is no
evidence that he dealt drugs to any of his students.
"We don't have any information that indicates that his
involvement in the distribution of OxyContin had anything to do with
his employment." -- Matthew Mangino, Lawrence County District
Attorney
Mangino says OxyContin has been a particularly bad problem in Lawrence
County.
"It's highly addictive and it's potentially lethal...
It's readily available on the street... There's a lot of residual crime
that goes beyond just the distribution of it -- the robberies and the
burglaries and the muggings that are all related; so we've had a
problem and we're going to continue to aggressively pursue people who
deal." -- DA Matthew Mangino
Mosley remains in the Lawrence County Jail, after failing to post a
$100,000 bond.
LeTourneau
Is Released From Jail
- Will Have To Register As A Sex Offender
- Is Forbidden To Have Contact With Vili Fualaau, Now
21
Aug 4, 2004 8:41 am US/Eastern
Mary Kay LeTourneau, the former grade school teacher whose seduction of
a sixth-grade pupil launched a thousand tabloid covers, has been
released from prison, a corrections spokeswoman said early Wednesday.
LeTourneau served seven and a half years for child rape at the
Washington Corrections Center for Women prison near here.
Now 42, LeTourneau was keeping mum about whether she plans to reunite
with her former student, Vili Fualaau, now 21, with whom she has two
children.
LeTourneau was a 34-year-old elementary school teacher in the Seattle
suburb of Des Moines and a married mother of four in 1996 when she
began a sexual relationship with the then-12-year-old Fualaau.
What she called true love, state law called a crime.
When LeTourneau was arrested in 1997, she was already pregnant with
Fualaau's daughter. A judge sentenced her to six months for
second-degree child rape, and ordered her to stay away from Fualaau.
She was remorseful then at her sentencing - promising she'd never do it
again - but that pledge quickly turned to dust a month after her
release, when she was caught having sex with Fualaau in her car.
She was sent to prison for seven and a half years, and gave birth to
Fualaau's second daughter behind bars.
The daughters are in the custody of their grandmother - Fualaau's
mother.
"I really expect her to make a beeline for Vili Fualaau," says Gregg
Olsen, who wrote a book on the two called "If Loving You Is Wrong."
Six years ago, Fualaau told "Inside Edition" that he still had "deep
feelings" for LeTourneau.
But his feelings today, as a grown man, are an open question.
LeTourneau meanwhile has a few things to take care of as she tastes
freedom for the first time in a long time.
She'll have to register as a sex offender, and she must obey a court
order that says she cannot go near Fualaau.
It's binding - unless Fualaau tells the court he would like it
withdrawn.
As an adult, he now has the right to do that.
Student
to Stand Trial for Bank Robbery
Jan 23, 2003 2:06 pm US/Eastern
Instead of hitting the books, prosecutors say a local student hit a
downtown bank.
Today Peabody High School senior Jamie Hobdy waived her preliminary
hearing, so she's heading to trial on bank robbery charges for the
August heist at the PNC Bank in Fifth Avenue Place.
According to authorities, Hobdy confessed to the crime -- and police
say they lifted her fingerprints form a note demanding money that she
allegedly handed to a teller.
During an interview last week, however, Hobdy's sister said police had
the wrong girl.
"I asked her, flat out, 'Did you do this?' She told me,
no -- and I believe her."
-- LaJoy Hobdy, Suspect's Sister
Hobdy, who had been planning to attend a business school after
graduation, could now face some serious jail time.
She did, however, win a small victory in court today; a judge reduced
her bond from $50,000 to $20,000 -- meaning she'll be released from
jail if she can post $2,000.
Russia school siege
toll tops 350
Putin denounces 'attack on our country'
Sunday, September 5, 2004 Posted: 1:14 AM EDT (0514 GMT) Sunday, September 5, 2004 Posted: 0514 GMT (1314 HKT)
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 Timeline
reconstructs what happened as the standoff ended in a hail of gunfire.
 Gunfire,
chaos as hostages run for safety.
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BESLAN, Russia (CNN) -- The death toll in
the Russian hostage crisis has climbed beyond 350 as President Vladimir
Putin denounced the massacre as "an attack on our country."
In a nationally televised speech
Saturday, Putin said the fall of
the Soviet Union had left the country unable to react to attacks, and
he urged Russians to join together.
"We must create a much more effective
system of security," he said.
"We couldn't adequately react. ... We showed weakness, and weak people
are beaten." (Full story).
North Ossetia government spokesman Lev
Dzugayev told CNN that 323
hostages, including 156 children, died in the siege in the southern
town.
In addition, 26 hostage-takers --
including 10 people from Arab
countries -- and at least 10 Russian Special Forces troops died.
Chechens have been affiliated with the
al Qaeda terror network, and
an Arab connection suggests a further link between the Chechen rebel
movement and international terrorism. Chechen rebels have been fighting
Russian troops for a decade, seeking independence.
More than 700 people were wounded,
officials said.
Dzugayev said Saturday evening that 448
people were still in
hospitals in the region, including 248 children. Among the total
hospitalized, 69 were in serious condition.
Most of the dead were killed when a bomb
exploded in the gymnasium,
Dzugayev said.
Of those who died from gunshot wounds,
most were shot in the back as
they fled the gymnasium, he said.
Security forces are still combing the
region for hostage-takers who
escaped.
Putin traveled to the traumatized region
near Chechnya early
Saturday, visiting hospitals and meeting local officials.
"Russia is grieving with the people of
North Ossetia," he said in
Beslan. "Nobody wanted to use force."
"One of the tasks pursued by the
terrorists was to stoke ethnic
hatred, to blow up the whole of our North Caucasus."
At least 79 bodies have been identified,
the Emergency Situations
Ministry said. Many bodies were burned beyond recognition and will
require DNA testing for identification.
The Interfax news agency quoted a
defense official as saying that
"the terrorists planted a lot of mines and booby-traps filled with
metal bolts in the gym."
Investigators are looking at the
possibility that the hostage-takers
may have brought their weapons and explosives into the school well
before the siege.
Interfax quoted an unnamed regional
security officer as saying the
weapons had been hidden under the floor during summer construction work.
An escaped hostage said she recognized
some of the terrorists as
having done the construction work, Echo Moscow Radio reported.
The images of the aftermath, broadcast
on television and posted on
the Internet, horrified people around the world and brought ringing
outcries by international leaders. (Full story)
Chaotic scenes
The standoff that began early Wednesday
ended Friday after Russian
forces stormed the school amid explosions and intense gunfire.
Around midday Russian officials, working
under a cease-fire
agreement, tried to collect bodies outside the school.
There was an explosion, hostages fled,
and hostage-takers opened
fire on the children and rescue workers. Russian troops, who had not
planned to storm the building, returned fire.
Several hours later the scene remained
in chaos, with troops
fighting room-by-room.
Children who survived said they were
denied food and water and had
to take off their clothes because of the heat.
The standoff followed a bloody week in
Russia. A female suicide
bomber killed nine people outside a Moscow subway station Tuesday. Two
suspected Chechen female suicide bombers downed two airliners on August
24, killing all 89 people aboard the planes.
Russian officials have said the new wave
of attacks is an attempt at
revenge for last weekend's elections in Chechnya in which a
Kremlin-backed candidate won the presidency.
CNN's Matthew Chance, Ryan Chilcote
and Jill Dougherty
contributed to this report.
Weapons
Found at PA School
LEBANON,
PA-September 21, 2004 — A 14-year-old Lebanon Middle School student has
been arrested and his principal fired over a weapons incident.
Superintendent
Marianne Bartley told the school board last night that city police
arrested the boy after being called to the school on Friday.
The boy's identity was not released, but
he had recently moved to the city from New Jersey.
Officials say the youngster took an
unloaded .22-caliber handgun, a bullet that didn't fit the gun, and a
knife to school.
School administrators summoned police
after being alerted by students. The boy was arrested without incident
and placed in a juvenile detention center.
The school board fired Principal A.
Bradley Flickinger for willful neglect of duty, and appointed an
assistant principal as his replacement.
Bartley told The Patriot-News of
Harrisburg that the boy did not display the gun or threaten anyone.
Alleged Rape
Victim Arrested
Feb 6, 2004 10:27 am
US/Eastern
A woman who accused three college basketball players of raping her at a
downtown Pittsburgh hotel is now accused of lying to police about the
alleged assault.
Police arrested Sherri Ann Urbanek-Bach, 38, last night for filing a
false police report, prostitution and attempted theft by extortion.
"In this case, we believe we have ample information to
support the charge of fictitious reports to law enforcement."
-- Lt. Kevin Kraus, Pittsburgh Police
"We believe that financial gain was the motive in this case."
-- Cmdr. Maurita Bryant, Pittsburgh Police
According to authorities, Urbanek-Bach told police she met members of
the St. John's basketball team at Club Erotica in McKees Rocks and went
back to the Westin Convention Center Hotel with them, where she claimed
the men assaulted her.
A player's camera phone, however, showed something else.
Sources close to the investigation tell KDKA that a key piece of
evidence in turning the accuser into the accused was a video recording
of the encounter that one of the players made with the camera on his
cell phone.
Though the players involved have not been charged, St. John's
University has expelled senior Grady Reynolds for this incident and a
prior one.
Two other players, sophomore Elijah Ingram and senior Abraham Keita,
have been suspended and are expected to be expelled as well.
The school has also suspended several other players for violating team
rules.
School
Psychologist's Credentials Under Question
Nov 3, 2003 6:17 pm
US/Eastern
A school psychologist who's accused of molesting children claims he got
a PhD from a prominent school; but KD Investigator Andy Sheehan
discovered his credentials don't add up.
Donald Stettner's resume looks impressive with multiple degrees. He
even has a doctorate in the philosophy of social work from Columbia
State University.
The problem is that Columbia State University isn't the impressive
institution featured on its brochure. In fact, KDKA has discovered that
the school is a California "diploma mill" that sent out degrees to
anyone who could come up with $3,000. The school president is a former
stage hypnotist who's now under indictment for fraud.
Stettner told KDKA he only recently found that out.
KD Investigator Andy Sheehan: "Now you're
aware that this exposed what's called a diploma mill, that this is a
fraudulent institution where people paid money and were issued bogus
degrees?"
Donald Stettner, School Psychologist: "I became aware of
that in April of 2003."
KDKA: "Well, you must have been aware of it at the
time, because apparently nobody did any work at Columbia State
University. Are you saying that you did rigorous coursework to obtain a
PhD?"
Stettner: "I did."
One expert says that can't be the case.
"[Columbia State] used to advertise PhDs in 27 days, no
questions asked; and when the guy was interviewed on television he said
'Oh 27 days, 154, three days -- who cares? I give them what they want.'"
-- John Bear, Diploma Mill Authority
Questions about Donald Stettner's credentials don't end there.
Stettner claims he received a master's in psychology from Newport
University -- which KDKA discovered is an Internet school that is not
accredited by the US Department of Education. In fact, in four states,
it's a crime to put a Newport University degree on your resume.
So if Stettner held these bogus degrees, how did he end up becoming a
school psychologist in the Pittsburgh Public Schools? Well, he did
receive other legitimate degrees -- and amazingly, the state doesn't
even require a degree in psychology for a person to become a school
psychologist.
"If you're saying I was victim of a fraudulent scam, so
be it; but my contention is that I'm a fully licensed, fully qualified
doctor." -- Donald Stettner, School Psychologist
Technically, Stettner is correct.
Two years ago, the University of Pittsburgh awarded Stettner a
doctorate in education. Pitt won't comment, but according to Stettner,
they not only accepted his credentials from Columbia State and Newport
University, but they gave him course credit.
Stettner also took graduate courses in psychology from Duquense. He
didn't receive a degree, but it was enough for the state to designate
him as candidate for school psychologist certification.
Stettner's resume didn't send up any red flags at the state Department
of Education, where officials saw no reason to check the legitimacy of
his credentials.
Pittsburgh school officials didn't review Stettner's resume either,
hiring him off the state list. After three years, the district
recommended Stettner for full certification.
"Is it fail safe? No it isn't fail safe -- and if
there's evidence that there's been misrepresentation of qualifications
or that perhaps, the state erred, we would certainly pursue that."
-- Ira Weiss, Pittsburgh Schools Solicitor
Again, the city schools and state never questioned Stettner's resume,
because a psychology degree is not required to be a school psychologist
-- and they didn't see the need to dig any further.
Meantime, Stettner is suspended from the city schools without pay,
pending his first molestation trial in the spring; but he retains his
status as a certified school psychologist.
Girls'
Brawl Is a
Last-Day Ritual at School
Students Say Female Fistfight Is a Last-Day Ritual
P I T T S B U R G H, June 17 Jun. 17, 2003 - —
Peabody High School students say it has become an annual ritual on the
last day of school for girls to fistfight from the moment they step out
the school's front doors.
A Peabody student shot video with a home video camera Monday that
shows the strange ritual. The student said she did not attend school
Monday, but went there as classes let out because she and others had
heard there would be fights among the girls.
Students said they all knew it was coming, so why weren't school
officials better prepared?
Pittsburgh Public Schools police chief Robert Fadzen said the fight
was just enthusiasm getting out of hand on the last day of school.
WTAE's Jon Greiner informed viewers that the fighting started on the
school grounds and continued on the streets of East Liberty, beginning
at about 10:30 a.m. Monday.
Long Tradition
The fights were no surprise to most students.
"People knew this was coming the last day of school because it
almost happened on Friday. So they should have known there was going to
be a last day of school and there was going to be fighting everywhere,"
student Marcie Rucker said.
The girl responsible for the video shown on WTAE did not want to be
identified. She and one of her friends, who also did not want to be
identified, said fights like the one that took place on Peabody's last
day of class have a long tradition in city schools as a way for girls
to settle their differences.
"There were students talking the whole year about their enemies and
how they're going to fight. It happens every year, they're going to
fight at the end of the year and they just fought today," one girl
said.
No one was seriously hurt but one girl was treated at a hospital
after being pepper sprayed. The video appears to show the girl holding
her eyes after already being sprayed.
As an officer attempted to handcuff the girl, another officer
appears to spray her again. She is taken to her knees and handcuffed.
Unnecessary Force?
Some witnesses thought the officers used unnecessary force.
"She was trying to get her eyes and they put her in handcuffs and
one of the policemen threw her on the ground. I was thinking, 'Why
should he have to throw her on the ground when he's a man and she's a
girl, like a slim girl?' He shouldn't have to do that, I didn't think,"
one witness said.
Fortunately, police and students alike think it was a one-time fight
that will not be repeated again.
First-shift police supervisors were not available to ask about the
incident by the time WTAE-TV obtained the videotape.
Although, a dozen or more girls were fighting, only one girl was
arrested for disorderly conduct. Another girl was cited for failing to
disperse, and four boys who never threw a punch were cited for failing
to disperse. — This report was compiled by WTAE-TV
Violent
Video Game Set at Local School
May 18, 2004 6:13 pm US/Eastern
Violent video games set in fantasy worlds are nothing new; but KD
Investigator Andy Sheehan discovered one game on the Internet that has
some local parents up in arms.
In the game, the player -- a gunman -- stalks an exact 3D replica of a
local school in search of students and teachers to kill.
The playing terrain is the city's Taylor Allderdice High School; the
game is called AllderDEATH.
Some students were taken aback after watching a tape of the game.
"It's kind of alarming." -- Jennifer Bossinger,
Allderdice Student
"It just puts a little more stress on you, a little more
pressure, a little more reason to be anxious or think about before you
go into school -- are you going to be safe that day." -- Shira
Levenson, Allderdice Student
A concerned caller alerted KDKA to the game after spotting it on the
Internet. KDKA then traced the domain name of the website to a person
named John Hooker, whose last know address was in Regent Square.
Though Hooker was not available to comment, his mother told KDKA that
her son, a 1998 Taylor Allderdice graduate, was in China pursuing
business opportunities.
When Hooker returns, though, he may be talking to Pittsburgh School
District Police Chief Robert Fadzen.
"It is alarming -- particularly in light of Columbine.
These kinds of things are not amusing; they not funny; and it is scary.
It scares parents. It scares us." -- Chief Robert Fadzen,
Pittsburgh School Police
Fadzen has alerted city police and they've launched a joint
investigation; but at this point, the chief says it's unclear whether
the website actually violates any laws or whether it's protected under
the First Amendment. "Just because it's in very poor taste," he adds,
"doesn't make it illegal."
Khan Saleem, who's son Evan is a freshman at Allderdice, is confident
the school district will address the situation directly. "These things
should be taken seriously," says Saleem.
KD Investigator Andy Sheehan: Should a
parent or student be afraid of the content here or afraid if they go to
Allderdice High School?
Chief Robert Fadzen, Pittsburgh School Police: "Oh,
absolutely not. I don't view this gentleman as a threat. I don't think
he intended it as a threat; again, I think it's just in very, very poor
taste."
Hooker's mother tells KDKA her son isn't violent, but she agreed the
game might incite other people to violence.
In the meantime, the website was taken down today.
Watch KDKA-TV this Wednesday at 6pm for more on Andy
Sheehan's investigation -- including a look at whether the website is
legal -- and whether local law enforcement get involved
Drastic Increase
In Rapes In NYC Has Become Priorty For NYPD
(New York-WABC, March 14, 2002) —
What's behind a sudden, dramatic increase in
rapes in New York City? More than four dozen women were raped in the
city in the week ending March 10th, that's up nearly 140 percent
compared to the same period last year. The concern over the increase is
so great that Mayor Bloomberg is making addressing the problem priority
number one for the NYPD. Cheryl
Fiandaca reports from the West Village with more.
See Some Sketches Of Suspects In Recent Rape Cases
Watch Cheryl Fiandaca's Report
The vicious attacks are very disturbing and
very violent. In some cases they have involved guns and knives, and in
other the victims have been seriously injured. Both police and rape
counselors say they don't know what's causing the spike reported rapes,
but they do know that they have occurred in almost any borough.
The city's most brutal week of violence against women started with a
rape in the West Village on Sunday night. Rape counselor say they are
noticing a disturbing trend.
Susan Xenarios, St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital: "The violence has
been more brutal, it's been more complicated. There's more domestic
violence, sexual assault cases, so batterers are also raping their
partners. There's more stranger rapes, which is also very uncommon."
Despite the fact that overall crime is down in the city, during the
week of March 3 through March 10th, 50 women reported being raped, a
138 percent increase over the same week in 2001. The mayor says NYPD
Commissioner Ray Kelly is working on the problem.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City: "Kelly is racking his brain
and trying to put together a task force to see if we can't focus on
rape. It is a terrible crime, it's a disturbing number, and it's going
against all of the other crimes, so we're not sure why. Kelly's number
one priority is to focus on that."
That will be good news for women in East New York, where a 15
year-old girl on her way to school was viciously raped and brutalized.
Sketches have been made of the suspect in that case, as well as in the
case of a knife-point rape on the Upper West Side. Police released a
third sketch Wednesday, of the suspect in Sunday's gun-point rape of a
foreign exchange student attending NYU. In all three cases, and dozens
of others, the suspects remain on the loose.
Councilwoman Christine Quinn represents District 3 in Manhattan,
where there have been 20 reported rapes this year. It's an alarming
statistic that Quinn says shows the NYPD needs to do more.
Councilwoman Christine Quinn, West Village (D): "And they need to
develop new and different strategies that are going to address the
increase, the increase in the brutality and the increase in the fact
that so many more of the victims know who their perpetrators are."
Officials say police have already stepped up patrols in the areas
where the rapes have occurred. They are working around the clock,
trying to solve the cases. Detectives urge women to be aware of their
surroundings, and to report sexual assaults immediately to aid
investigators in finding the perpetrators.
Raped in class
Friday, August 17, 2001
By Judith Reisman
ｩ 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
Amnesty International is outraged. And
rightly so. The organization is incensed about "the scale of rape by
[Liberian] security forces against women and girls ・some as young as 12
years old."
However, on our shores, the U.S.
Department of Justice reports more than 19,000 in-school rape victims
in 1999, 58 percent higher than the 12,000 in-school rapes in 1994. Had
this scale of schoolhouse rape occurred in a foreign country, against
thousands of helpless children, Amnesty would surely have given the
crimes full-court press.
So, why has the American press not sounded
the alarm on behalf of our own children?
"Ken," a DOJ Research Specialist responded
to my query about rapes "inside school building or on school property,"
saying, "According to our data ・inside school building(s) or on school
property ・there were approximately 12,000 rapes in 1994. In 1999 ・over
19,000 rapes."
A review of DOJ's "Personal Crimes of
Violence, 1999," Tables 61-63 revealed nearly 10 percent of all rapes
that year occurring "inside school building or on school property."
Fortunately, Table 63 separates "rape" out as a violent crime.
I say fortunately since most DOJ data
collapse "rape" into an overall "violent crime" category along with
robbery and aggravated assault, distinctly different degrees of violent
crime. Certainly, when rape is lumped in with robbery, tracking rape
trends is nearly impossible.
While roughly 1 percent of elementary
schools had reported rape in their schools in yet another DOJ report,
despite the available age of victim data, DOJ excludes school children
under age 12 from the schoolhouse rape report. Why? Other DOJ research
shows that 67 percent of all sex-abuse victims are children under age
18 and 34 percent are under age 12. It would be critical to locate the
number of such children victimized in our schools.
Other questions still go without answers:
For instance, why are rapes not categorized by victim age and gender?
What percent of school rape victims are teachers and what percent are
children? Has a tribunal been convened to examine the causes of this
unique child-abuse disgrace? Where are the arrest reports and the media
frenzy surrounding roughly 19,000 schoolhouse rapists?
The National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children has "8 Rules" for schoolchildren "to keep them from
being victims of abuse or kidnapping." A rough summary of the 8 Rules
・training mandated for Massachusetts and Kentucky elementary children,
addresses how to be safe from predators outside of school.
Children are told to ask your parents "or
a trusted adult" for help if molested or alarmed by someone. If all
else fails, Rule No. 8 is a self-help recitation for school children,
"I am strong, smart and have the right to be safe!"
I know my readers would find these
solutions to rape and sexual abuse worrisome. Who thinks that having a
second grader repeat I am "strong" and "safe" would have stopped 19,000
in-school rapes of children age 12 and over?
The organization, Survivors of Educator
Sexual Abuse & Misconduct Emerge, confirms the growing problem of
school personnel and teachers-as-sex-perverts. SESAME cites a survey of
high school graduates, finding 17.7 percent of males and 82.2 percent
of females who say they were sexually harassed by faculty or staff as
students, 13.5 percent saying they "engaged in sexual intercourse with
a teacher."
Given the outrageousness of these numbers,
one expects ethical journalists to immediately begin in-depth
investigations of these toxic schoolhouse data.
School as a sex-assault war zone follows
roughly 40 years of school "sex education," unleashed in the early
1960s when classrooms became eroticized. Rapes and sex assaults in
schools ・once a place of trust and safely ・are now objective measures
of a failed sexual worldview and of fetid social decay.
NJ Works
To Rid Gang Violence
Oct 13, 2004 5:26 pm US/Eastern
There was a spike in the number of homicides statewide last year, and
authorities said the increase was most likely due to a rise in gang
activity.
The total number of killings for 2003 was expected to be released
Wednesday in the state's annual Uniform Crime Report. The report will
show an increase in homicides over the previous year, according to
Attorney General Peter C. Harvey.
Twenty-one percent of those killed last year were between the ages of
20 and 24, he said.
"That's significant," Harvey said. "We infer that to be gang and street
level narcotics activity."
The effort to crack down on gangs was the focus of a meeting in Egg
Harbor Township on Wednesday of the East Coast Gang Investigators
Association to be attended by local and state police. The Attorney
General's Office will debut a new educational videotape about gang
activity in the state as part of a push to get parents involved in
steering youngsters away from gangs.
About two-thirds of those in gangs in New Jersey are younger than 17
years old. Harvey said there are about 10,000 gang members in the state
and there is a gang presence in all 21 counties.
"We want to cut off their recruiting success in suburban and urban
areas," Harvey said. "We want to educate parents and explain the
gravity of the gang problem, but also to give them some strategies to
extract their kids if they're in them and to keep them from joining in
the first place."
The state Commission of Investigation reported in May that gangs such
as the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings had widened their turf from the
state's cities into the suburbs in recent years.
Police in New Jersey already receive gang-related training from federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. The program trains
officers in identifying gang clothing, symbols and tattoos.
A state pilot program will soon take an anti-gang message from police
into after-school activities for students.
Harvey said aggressive prosecution has led to success against gang
members in the last two years. Seventeen members of a violent heroin
trafficking gang with ties to the Bloods that operated in Mercer and
Essex counties were arrested in June.
Ten members of a drug gang that Harvey said controlled a housing
project in Atlantic City were arrested in March. In August 2003, 65
members of the Champagne Posse, which controlled most of the selling of
marijuana in the Newark area, were arrested or indicted.
An ongoing effort against the violent Latin Kings led to 47 arrests in
October 2002.
2004 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Professor
Charged With Child Porn
Oct 14, 2004 11:04 pm US/Eastern
A longtime chemistry professor at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown
is free on $25,000 bail after being charged with downloading nearly 500
images of child pornography onto his school computer.
Bucks County district attorney Diane Gibbons says 61-year-old Joseph
Stenson, who has been working on the campus for 34 years, is charged
with sexual abuse of children, due to his possession of the graphic
images of youngsters engaging in sex acts with children and adults.
Gibbons says investigators were tipped off to Stenson's activities in
June:
"He sent an e-mail graphically describing child pornography. He
intended to e-mail it to a friend of his. Instead, he e-mailed it to
everyone on campus."
Gibbons says police seized the computer and sent it off to the state
attorney general's forensics unit to recover the images.
She says two computers were also seized when police arrested Stenson at
his home the other day.
As a condition of bail, Stenson cannot return to the campus or have
access to students.
MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Nine Charged
In Kiddie Porn Sting
- Charged Are Accused Of Subscribing To Child Porn
Web Sites
Oct 5, 2004 4:40 pm US/Eastern
Nine people from New Jersey, including several who worked around
children, were charged Tuesday with getting child pornography off the
Internet.
They join about 170 people in the United States already charged in a
continuing federal investigation centered on a pornography enterprise
that had been based in the nation of Belarus. Several hundred others
are charged in other nations, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Investigators in January said the Belarus company, Regpay Co. Ltd. of
Minsk, processed fees for memberships to child pornography sites. They
also charged a Florida company, Connections USA, which in May pleaded
guilty to processing credit card payments for an international child
pornography ring, agreed to forfeit $1.1 million and dissolve its
business.
The nine charged Tuesday used credit cards to subscribe to a child
pornography Web site that allowed users to download or upload images.
Possession of child pornography is a crime that carries up to five
years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Those charged include a Newton man who had recently retired as a
part-time bus driver for a middle school, a Trenton man who had taught
at a private school, a Trenton man who works as a school janitor and a
psychologist from Greenwich Township who worked with both adults and
children, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Five other New Jersey men were arrested on similar charges over the
summer, including a motel night manager from Eatontown who prosecutors
said molested two minors.
The investigation has proceeded on other fronts.
On Friday, two people associated with LB Systems Inc., a California
company created to assist Regpay process credit card sales, pleaded
guilty in federal court.
Yaroslav Grebenschikov, 33, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to
conspiring to launder money for Regpay, and Natan Moshkovich, 32, of
Encino, Calif., pleaded guilty to failing to report the offense.
And on Monday, a federal grand jury in Newark indicted the owner and
president of Connections USA, Arthur Levinson, on charges of conspiracy
to commit money laundering and conspiracy to engage in financial
transactions involving money from unlawful activity.
Levinson lawyer Henry E. Klingeman said that Levinson intends to plead
innocent at his arraignment.
"He's steadfastly denied any knowledge that this was going on,"
Klingeman said.
Levinson, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has cooperated with
investigators since he was approached June 2003, Klingeman said.
Four of Regpay's leaders were indicted in January, and three were
arrested over the summer in France and Spain. One remains at large.
ｩ 2004 The Associated Press. All
Rights Reserved.
Police
investigating reports of rapes of two county high school students
One attack at Overlea, the other near
Woodlawn
By Sara Neufeld
Sun Staff
October 20, 2004
Baltimore County police say they are investigating two reported rapes
of high school students -- a Woodlawn High girl who said she was
assaulted last week after leaving the campus with two other students
during school hours last week, the other a girl who reported being
attacked yesterday in a restroom at Overlea High.
The Woodlawn girl was found lying in an
alley in the 1500 block of Clairidge Road in western Baltimore County
at 2:48 p.m. Oct. 13, said Officer Shawn Vinson, a police spokesman.
She was taken to St. Agnes HealthCare. The next day, she told police
she had been raped.
The girl left Woodlawn's campus with two
male students, and they went to a house and drank alcoholic beverages,
Vinson said. The girl told police that one of the boys had sex with her
in the house while she was drunk, the spokesman added.
Police did not give the girl's age.
Police had not made any arrests in connection with the incident
yesterday. Woodlawn Principal Daric V. Jackson said the two boys are
not attending classes this week, and they face disciplinary hearings
before the school board.
Jackson said the girl has not returned
to school. He said he believes she left campus voluntarily with the
boys about 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The day after the alleged assault,
before school let out, the girl's brother and six other young men
arrived at Woodlawn High seeking retribution, said Police Department
spokesman Bill Toohey. They had a bat, a box cutter and some other
weapons, but not a gun, he said.
A police officer assigned to the school
told the group to leave, Toohey said. They left but came back, and the
officer arrested them, he said. Court records show the men were charged
with trespassing and possession of a deadly weapon on school property.
All seven were released to await court appearances in January and were
ordered to stay away from the school.
Last week's events came as an especially
hard blow for Woodlawn High, which is trying to remake its image under
Jackson's leadership. In an article last month about the new principal,
The Sun wrote of his efforts to prevent students from cutting class. In
previous years, Woodlawn students have frequently wandered through the
halls and off campus.
At Overlea, a 15-year-old student told
police she was forced into a boys' restroom by two boys about 11 a.m.,
and raped by both while a third waited outside as a lookout.
Police said the girl returned to class,
and said nothing of the attack before telling her boyfriend about 2:45
p.m. Neither called the police, but as word spread around the school,
someone called 911 about 4 p.m., police said.
Staff writers Julie Bykowicz, Lisa
Goldberg and Richard Irwin contributed to this article.
Man, 19, charged in
shooting of four after high school football game
2 teens out of hospital; no motive yet
identified
By Hanah Cho and Julie Bell
Sun Staff
October 31, 2004
A 19-year-old West Baltimore man was
charged with attempted murder in the shooting of four young men after a
football game Friday night between Patterson High School and Walbrook
High Uniformed Services Academy at Patterson
Park in Southeast Baltimore, police said yesterday.
Injuries to the victims, ages 15 to 21,
were not life-threatening and two were released after treatment at area
hospitals. No motive has been identified, and it wasn't clear yesterday
whether any victims attend the high schools.
The shooting near Utz Field was the
latest youth-related violence reported in the city. A 12-year-old girl
was arrested Friday and charged in the fatal beating two weeks ago of a
4-year-old family friend. Last week, a 16-year-old student at Harbor
City East was fatally shot in an East Baltimore low-rise public housing
community. Two brothers were shot outside Thurgood Marshall High School
on Oct. 21, and since the beginning of the school year, more than 40
fires have been set in at least 14 schools.
City officials condemned the latest
incident, while, separately, about 35 community residents met last
night in a West Baltimore church for a spiritual gathering dedicated to
ending the violence.
"For anyone to be that brazen ... is
absolutely outrageous," Mayor Martin O'Malley said yesterday at a
ceremony dedicating a memorial for fallen Northeast District police
officers.
The suspect, Willie Tyson, 19, of the
1600 block of Delano Court has been charged four times for possession
of a controlled dangerous substance and once for burglary going back to
May of last year, said Troy Harris, a police spokesman. It could not be
determined last night if any of those charges resulted in convictions.
Along with four counts of attempted
murder, Tyson also was charged with one count of handgun violation,
police said.
Referring to Tyson's previous arrests,
O'Malley placed blame on the criminal justice system by saying, "This
was not a school failing. This was not a police failing."
Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark said
his department will continue to pursue drug dealers. "It's time to put
them out of business," he said. "We're going to keep going after them."
Later, at The Old Time Way Church of
Deliverance at West Lanvale and North Pulaski streets, residents
prayed, sang and pledged to reach out to young people selling drugs to
give them other options.
"Right now, murders in Baltimore City
are reaching an epidemic level," said the Rev. James H. Jones II, chief
executive officer of Rescue in Progress, or R.I.P., a nonprofit group
dedicated to offering youths job training and recreational activities.
"The Police Department [is] doing everything they possibly can, but
they cannot do it by themselves."
Funeral home proprietor Carlton C.
Douglass implored those present to call police when drug dealers come
to their neighborhoods, saying his business has changed drastically
since he began it in the late 1960s: Back then, he rarely embalmed
anyone between the ages of 12 and 30. "We were burying grandparents,"
he said.
On Friday, gunshots erupted about 9:30
p.m. as spectators were leaving the football game between Patterson and
Walbrook high schools at Patterson
Park's Utz Field near South Linwood Avenue. Officers who heard the
gunshots arrested Tyson after chasing him on foot, police said.
Terrance Whitworth, 19, of the 2700
block of Jefferson St. and Derrick Greer, 15, of the 200 block of S.
Fagley St., were wounded in their legs and calves, and were released
from Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Harris said.
Dennis Brown, 21, of the 2600 block of
McElderry St. remained at Bayview last night, hospital officials said.
Shawntez Jenkins, 15 of the 1100 block of N. Fulton Ave. was listed in
fair condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
School officials did not return calls
yesterday.
City schools athletic director Bob Wade
declined to comment.
Johnny Brown, Walbrook's head football
coach, said he and his players were on the bus ready to leave when they
heard of the shooting. Friday's game was the second and final night
game for his team, he said.
Ned Sparks, Maryland Public Secondary
Schools Athletic Association executive director, said he was unfamiliar
with Friday's shooting, but said any concerns about violence don't
appear to be deterring schools from scheduling Friday night games.
"No, as a matter of fact, Howard County
just put lights in for all their schools," Sparks said, adding that Morgan
State University's stadium is now being used for some Friday night
high school football games.
"They're trying to build up Friday night
football," Sparks said of schools generally. "It's an American
tradition."
Save a personal copy of this article and
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(It's free.)
Pop! pop! Ping! On the afternoon of
August 20, near Washington
state's Columbia River, John Duncan and Manuel Sanchez were using
stolen pistols for target practice, shooting at trees and bottles. The
noise annoyed 50-year-old Emilio Pruneda, a migrant worker who lived in
a riverside encampment not far away. He asked them to stop.
When Duncan and Sanchez didn't stop
shooting, Pruneda began yelling
and threw some rocks at the two. One rock hit Sanchez in the forehead,
cutting him. He ran to the top of a hill where Duncan was standing,
yelling, "This guy should die!"
Duncan then aimed his pistol and shot at
Pruneda because, he later
told police as part of his confession, "I was mad at him for hitting my
best and only friend with a rock."
After he shot, said Duncan, 'the man
wasn't moving and he looked
dead.... My first shot hit him m the eye, and it was sick, so I closed
my eyes and shot him more."
The two confessed to shooting Pruneda
more than 18 times.
It was a brutal, callous, and bloody
murder. But what is even more
shocking to people in the small Washington town of Wenatchee is that
John Duncan and Manuel Sanchez are only 12 years old.
Today, instead of sitting in their
sixth-grade classroom, the two
boys are being held in a juvenile detention center, waiting to be tried
for murder.
Tried As Adults?
At the time CE went to press, Washington
state officials were still
deciding whether to try the boys as adults or as juveniles. If they are
tried as adults and convicted, Duncan and Sanchez could face life in
prison. If they are tried as juveniles and convicted, the two might end
up spending only a few years in a prison for juveniles.
There is great public pressure to try
the boys as adults, even
though they are only 12 years old. More and more Americans say they are
fed up with juvenile crime and stories of young violent criminals
spending only a few years in prison. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll taken
in August showed that 73 percent of Americans now believe that
juveniles should be punished the same way adults are punished.
The public's "get-tough" attitude has
been fueled by a dramatic rise
in youth crime. Here are some recent figures from the U.S. Justice
Department and the FBI:
* Between 1988 and 1992, the number of
serious crimes committed by
people under age 18jumped 68 percent;
* Between 1983 and 1993, the number of
youths under age 18 arrested
for murder and weapons violations doubled.
* Between 1987 and 1991, the number of
juveniles under age 18
arrested for violent crimes--murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated
(serious injury-causing) assault increased 50 percent.
Guns and Drugs
Why has violent crime by young people
increased so dramatically in
recent years?
Most experts blame the increase on two
things: guns and drugs. Guns
are now readily available, and kids involved in selling drugs are much
more likely to use guns than they were ten years ago, say police. Just
how big a role guns and drugs play in the lives of young criminals is
shown in a recent study by sociologist Claire Johnson. For the study,
Johnson interviewed 19 young men serving sentences for homicide (murder
or another crime that results in a victim's death) at a
maximum-security facility for juveniles in Washington, D.C.
She learned that all of the youths were
glad they had been tried as
juveniles.
"Some of them even said point blank that
killing the person was
worth it," Johnson writes, "because they were only going to be in here
a couple of years."
Johnson found that the most common
element shared by the youths was
a childhood where violence, drugs, and guns were common. All the youths
said they did not use drugs, but all but one stated they sold drugs.
According to Johnson, "All but one ...
when asked why they killed,
answered simply that they did what they had to do.
"All but one of the youths carried guns
for protection. They
considered killing as a message to others that they win not get away
with being disrespected or robbed.
"Most said they would carry a gun again
for protection.... This,
combined with a resolution that they would kill again if faced with the
same situations, makes the future of these youths [seem bleak]."
Tougher Laws
Across the country, the response of
lawmakers to the rise in violent
youth crime has been to enact tougher laws. Most states have now passed
laws making it easier to try a young person as an adult and toughening
penalties for kids with guns. Some states have also set up "boot camp"
prisons for young offenders. (See sidebar on page 2d) The new federal
crime bill (CE 3) further attacks youth crime by making it a federal
crime for anyone under age 18 to buy, possess, or use a gun.
Supporters of the new laws think it is
only right that the
punishment fit the crime--even if the crime is committed by a child.
"These kids are committing adult
crimes," says Colorado state
representative Jeanne Adkins. "Colorado's new youth crime law [lowering
the age a youth can be tried as an adult! says there is a consequence
for your actions, regardless of your age."
Critics Speak Out
Not everyone agrees that the new tougher
youth crime laws are fair
or even that they will cut down on youth crime. Some critics believe
that the juvenile justice system can be made to work.
One of these critics is Senator Joseph
Biden (D-Del.), chairman of
the Senate Judiciary Committee. Biden recently told the Senate that
"the philosophy that drives the juvenile justice system is that kids in
trouble need something more than to be thrown in prison."
"The juvenile justice system is based on
the idea that there's
hope," says james R. Bell, an attorney with the Youth Law Center, a
youth advocacy firm in San Francisco. 'When you say the system is of no
value and can't work, you're saying, there's no hope. We want
retribution.'"
How Juvenile Justice Works
The juvenile justice system had its
beginnings in 1899 in Illinois
with the establishment of the first special court for children under
age 16. Before then, children were tried in the same court and given
the same sentences, often in the same prisons, as adults. Today, as
when the system was founded, supporters of a separate justice system
for juveniles believe that young criminals, in contrast to adult
criminals, are still developing personal values. So, in theory,
juveniles can more easily be reformed, or rehabilitated, to lead
productive lives.
Under today's juvenile justice system,
courts are supposed to act as
substitute parents. juvenile court judges look at children's personal
histories, not just their crimes, to determine sentences. And judges
are expected to order treatment, not just punishment, depending on each
youngster's potential for rehabilitation. In prison or in detention
houses, psychologists and social workers try to put kids back on the
right track.
Critics of the juvenile justice system,
however, point to figures
that show that 90 percent of the youths who go through juvenile justice
for violent crimes commit such crimes again.
Still, say juvenile justice supporters,
that's better than the
record of youths sentenced to serve time in adult prisons. In Florida,
the nation's leader in sending juveniles to adult prisons, says Ira M.
Schwartz, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work,
juveniles even more likely than adult prisoners to return to a life of
crime after their release.
What's your opinion? Do you think that
young people should be tried
as adults? Or should they be tried in the juvenile justice system? Give
at least two reasons for your opinion.
Fraternity Crime Report 1994
From: thf2@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: Looking for Frats and Rape FAQ/info
Newsgroups: soc.college,talk.rape,alt.feminism,alt.college.fraternities,alt.fraternity.sorority,alt.college.fraternities.sigma-pi
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 23:24:16 GMT
Fraternity
Gender Discrimination
Bibliography
I. Rape
A. Fraternities and Rape
B. Gang Rape in General
C. On Difficulty of Conviction
D. Civil Actions Against Fraternity Rapists
II. Fraternities' Benefits to Members
III. Hazing
IV. Application of Gender Discrimination Laws to Fraternities
A. Congressional Exemption from Existing Federal Laws
B. Freedom of Association
An incomplete bibliography, last updated July 24, 1994.
Fraternities and Rape
- Bausell and Maloy, "The links among drugs, alcohol, and campus crime: A
research report," Paper presented at the Fourth National Conference
on Campus Violence, Campus Violence Prevention Center, Towson, MD.
Part of the paper deals with fraternity violence.
- Boeringer, Scot B., Constance L. Shehan, and Ronald L. Akers, "Social
Contexts and Social Learning in Sexual Coercion and Aggression:
Assessing the Contribution of Fraternity Membership," Family
Relations, Jan 1991, 58-64. Main results: "fraternity members
did not significantly differ from independents in terms of their
self-perceived likelihood of sexually coercive behavior (using
force or committing rape). However, their mean scores on the
dependent variables that indicate actual use of nonphysical force
and drugs or alcohol to obtain sex were significantly higher than
nonmembers' mean scores. Finally... fraternity members did not
differ significantly in their reports of having raped a woman."
- Copenhaver, Stacey, and Elizabeth Grauerholz, "Sexual Victimization
Among Sorority Women: Exploring the Link Between Sexual Violence and
Institutional Practices," Sex Roles, Vol. 24, Nos. 1/2, 1991, 31.
Abstract: "This study investigates the incidence and nature of sexual
coercion among sorority women. Particular emphasis is placed on
sexual coercion that occurs within the context of fraternal life.
Overall, almost half of those studied had experienced some form of
sexual coercion, 24% experienced attempted rape, and 17% were
victims of completed rape. Almost half of the rapes occurred in
a fraternity house, and over half occurred either during a fraternity
function or was perpetrated by a fraternity member. This study
provides evidence that fraternities represent a social context that
tolerates, if not actually encourages, sexual coercion of women,
including sorority women."
- Erhart and Sandler, Campus gang rape: Party Games?, Association of American
Colleges, 1985. [Vast majority of campus gang rapes committed
by fraternity members or athletes.]
- Garrett-Gooding and Senter, "Attitudes and acts of sexual aggression on
a university campus," Sociological Inquiry (1987) 59:348-71.
- Hokanson, Kimberly A. [Series of papers done for PhD program at Harvard
Graduate School of Education on fraternities at small schools
in the Northeast.]
- Hughes and Sandler, "Friends" raping friends: Could it happen to you?,
Association of American Colleges, 1987. Part of the paper
deals with fraternity rape.
- Kanin,
"Reference groups and sex conduct norm violations," Sociological
Quarterly (1967), 8:495-504. [A bit dated, but arguably still
relevant.]
- Lisak and Poth, Motives and Psychodynamics of Self-Reported Unincarcerated
Rapists, 60 Am. J. Orthopsychiatry 268 (1990).
- Los Angeles Times, 12/22/85, Part 6, page 8. [Coverage of the Sandler
report on gang rape.]
- Martin & Hummer, "Fraternities and Rape on Campus," 3 Gender & Society
457 (December 1989). Questionable methodology.
- Ms. Magazine, September-October 1990, p. 52.
- The Nation, July 4, 1987.
- O'Shaugnessy, Mary Ellen, "Sexually Stressful Events Survey," sponsored
by the Office of the Dean of Students, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, January 22, 1990. "Men reported to be fraternity
members are over-represented as offenders associated with the
more serious crimes. Fraternity members represent approximately
25% of the undergraduate men enrolled at the UIUC during the
spring semester of 1989. However, of the 54 sexual
assaults committed by men who were reported to be UIUC students, 34
(63%) were committed by members of fraternities. Of the 56 sexual
abuse cases involving men who were UIUC students, 40 (71%) involved
fraternity members. Additionally, it is noted that three women
reported having been sexually assaulted by more than one man during
a single incident and that all of these incidents involved
fraternity members."
- Parrot and Bechhofer, eds, Acquaintance Rape: The Hidden Crime, Wiley, 1991.
[This anthology of papers has several articles mentioning the
link between fraternities and rape. See especially Chris
O'Sullivan's paper.]
- Parrot, Sexual Assault on Campus, 1993.
- Sanday, Fraternity Gang Rape, NYU Press, 1990. [This book also seems
to have mysteriously disappeared off the shelves of nearly every
college library. Case study of a number of fraternities at the
University of Pennsylvania. Also details relationship between
male bonding and female objectification.
Sanday is probably *the* expert on the anthropology of rape,
studying over a hundred societies and societal structures to see
what sort of society is more likely to find rape acceptable.]
- U.S.News and World Report, October 7, 1991. "A 1990 national survey of
more than 12,000 students by the Campus Violence Prevention Center
at Maryland's Towson State University found that about half of all
reported acquaintance rapes were committed by frat members and
athletes." As the article notes, a number of fraternities have
put together anti-rape programs; there is no evidence, however,
that these programs have had any impact on fraternity rape rates.
- Utne Reader, May/June 1990, page 69.
- Warshaw, I Never Called It Rape, Harper & Row, 1988.
- Washington Post, 12/20/85, page B3. [Coverage of the Sandler report on
gang rape.]
>From a post by an5544@anon.penet.fi in alt.college.fraternities, edited only
for spelling:
According to the Department of Justice's statistics office (as an
aside, all these numbers are collaborated by the FBI's campus-watch
program, begun in 1983):
A male fraternity member was named as the aggressor in 93% of
all university-related reported rapes between 1984 and 1993.
In terms of strict geographic locality, more alleged rapes occur
within the property lines of fraternity and sorority houses than
any other specific area in the United States (excluding military
bases and prisons).
More [legal] action (alleging sexual or violent assault) is brought
against fraternities than any other school-related student or
faculty organizations in the United States (including campus-
related military organizations, such as veterans groups and ROTC).
The rate of hazing deaths has not decreased since a brief
hiatus in 1962-67. In fact, marked increases in deaths of college
males affiliated with fraternities were seen in 1973, 1979,
1985, 1986 and 1990. Since 1990, the rate has been relatively
unchanged.
A woman is more likely to report being raped at or after
a fraternity- or sorority-organized event where alcoholic beverages
are present than outside, by a stranger in any urban area in the
United States, with the exception of Detroit, Michigan (+3%
difference).
Hope this clears of any inconsistencies. Part of the reason I
wrote this is because I was raped myself when pledging
OX at the University of California, Berkeley in 1977.
I am a man, obviously. Obviously women do not bear the pain
and horror and embarassment of Fraternity rape alone; many
men do as well, but, like myself, do not report it.
For that reason, I hope you don't take offence at my wish to
remain anonymous. These figures can be verified via the FBI's
Statistic Helpline resource (where I found them) or through most
any SPSS criminology database that crossreferences both FBI
and Dept. of Justice data.
X at Hastings Law College
Gang Rape in General
- Blakely, "The New Bedford verdict," Ms. (July 1984), 116.
- Geis, "Group sexual assaults," Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality (May
1971), 101-13.
- Medea and Thompson, Against Rape, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (1974).
- See also Erhart and Sandler, supra, and O'Sullivan in Parrot and Bechhofer,
supra.
On Difficulty of Conviction:
[Though not specific to the issue of fraternities, in my opinion, the
following sources help one understand why rape in fraternities is such
a problem -- it is close to impossible to convict for a fraternity rape,
and one can see why when applying the general information from the following
books.]
Estrich, Real Rape, Harvard U Press, 1987.
- Rowland, The Ultimate Violation, Doubleday, 1985.
- See also, August 19, 1993 Boston Globe: "Woman Wins Settlement From College,
Fraternity in Rape Case," detailing a Colgate student who successfully
sued Sigma Chi for their role in her gang rape after the local
prosecutor failed to take any action.
Pro-Fraternity
A man by the name of William Muse has written several books on fraternities,
none of which I have access to. The titles of the books seem to indicate
that running a large social organization is good training for running
a business later, a relatively uncontroversial hypothesis. To my knowledge,
he doesn't make a defense of the all-male nature of the social organization,
nor does he discuss the rape rate in fraternities. One would suspect
that a co-ed social organization would provide better training than an
all-male organization, for the simple reason that even the business world
is comprised of both men and women. It's not clear how much relevance
his studies have to the 1990's.
As of July 24, 1994, I have not found a single article exonerating
fraternities for their excessive rape rate, despite repeated requests
over the last three years.
Hazing Sources
I've researched this less extensively, though I'm aware of where one might
want to start research on the subject.
- Hank Nuwer, Broken Pledges: the deadly rite of hazing, Longstreet
Press, 1990. ISBN 092926472X [haven't read this yet]
- Cialdini, R.B. (1985). Commitment and consistency: Hobgoblins of the
mind. in _Influence:_Science_and_Practice. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
[I haven't yet read this article, which was recommended to me by a friend.]
- Eileen Stevens, whose son, Chuck, died in a hazing incident at Alfred
University, has successfully lobbied most state legislatures to pass
a series of [rarely enforced] anti-hazing laws. Her organization, CHUCK,
should have a great deal of information on the subject.
- Psychology Today did a very good article on hazing sometime between 1986 and
1990.
- Rolling Stone, some time in the summer of 1992, published a mostly
sympathetic article on Dartmouth fraternities. They mention a leader of
the anti-fraternity movement there, and he may have additional information.
- And, of course, a NEXIS search for "fraternity and (haze or hazing or CHUCK)"
will turn up a large number of mainstream press articles on the subject.
Congressional Exemption from Sex Discrimination Laws
Fraternities are exempt from the federal civil rights laws, and are thus
free to discriminate as they please. The statute is 20 USC $ 1681(a)(6).
The Congressional debate passing the exemption is at 120 Cong Rec 41390-94.
A good summary of the law and other issues associated with associational
sex discrimination is in Deborah L. Rohde's "Justice and Gender," pp. 274-
288 (Harvard U Press, 1988).
A number of people have suggested that fraternities would still be
protected from gender discrimination laws by the First Amendment's
protections for freedom of association. The issue is a matter of
some debate. For further research on the matter, see:
- Frank v. Ivy Club, 120 N.J. 73, 576 A.2d 241 (1990), cert. denied,
111 S.Ct. 799 (1991) (desegregating Princeton eating clubs under
New Jersey anti-discrimination law);
- New York State Club Ass'n v. City of New York, 487 U.S. 1 (1988)
(upholding New York City law desegregating all-male luncheon
clubs).
- Board of Directors of Rotary Int'l v. Rotary Club, 481 U.S. 537
(1987) (preventing national Rotary Club from expelling local
chapter that had admitted women).
- Roberts v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609 (1984) (Jaycees
do not qualify as "intimate association" protected by First
Amendment and Minnesota anti-discrimination law can apply to
them).
While the Court has stated that "intimate association" is
protected, as yet, "no private club or association has been
protected in any manner by the right of intimate association."
See Note, State Power and Discrimination by Private Clubs:
First Amendment Protection for Nonexpressive Associations,
104 Harv. L. Rev. 1835 (1991) (criticizing Frank v. Ivy Club,
but recognizing state interest in preventing discrimination in
clubs that are not purely social).
See also
- Nancy Horton, Traditional Single-Sex Fraternities on
College Campuses: Will They Survive in the 1990's, 18 J. College
& University Law 419 (1992) (criticizing Frank v. Ivy Club, but
acknowledging that that case "threatens the membership practices
of fraternities across the United States"; outlines strategy to
protect fraternity gender discrimination).
- Daniel L. Schwartz, Comment, Discrimination On Campus: A Critical
Examination of Single-Sex College Social Organizations, 75 Calif.
L. Rev. 2117 (1987), however, argues that fraternities would not
be protected by the freedom of association.
- Martha McCluskey, Privileged Violence, Principled Fantasy,
and Feminist Method: The Colby Fraternity Case, 44 Maine
Law Review 261 (1992), is an analysis of the Phelps v. Colby
College case, as well as the impact of Colby fraternities on
women there.
I have yet to look at the following four notes or articles:
Note, Board of Directors of Rotary International v. Rotary Club
of Duarte: Prying Open the Doors of the All-Male Club, 11 Harv.
Women's L. J. 117 (1988).
- Burns, The Exclusion of Women from Influential Men's Clubs: The
Inner Sanctum and the Myth of Full Equality, 18 Harv. C.R.-C.L.
Rev. 321 (1983).
- Note, Freedom of Association: The Attack on Single-Sex College
Social Organizations, 4 Yale L. & Policy Rev. 426 (1986).
- Steinberg, Rape on College Campus: Reform Through Title IX,
18 J. College & University Law 39 (1991).
- An old Supreme Court case, Waugh v. University of Mississippi,
237 U.S. 589 (1915) upheld a Mississippi law prohibiting
students from joining fraternities; while never overruled, it is
extremely unlikely that this case would be considered good law
in light of Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169 (1972).
I've heard reports that Delta Kappa Epsilon is currently engaged
in litigation with Middlebury College over that campus's abolishing
of gender discrimination. Any information on the status or
existence of that suit would be appreciated.
Thanks to rplotkin@athena.mit.edu, jennyg@titan.ucc.umass.edu,
fulton@silver.ucs.indiana.edu, rand@merrimack.edu, Martha
McCluskey, yh2231@student.law.duke.edu and an5544@anon.penet.fi
and other anonymous contributors for their contributions and
corrections to this bibliography.
Anyone wishing to add to this bibliography, please e-mail me at
thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu. I'm looking for a pointer to the Southern
Illinois University Study on fraternities and drinking.
ted frank
Child
Porn on School Computer?
Oct 1, 2004 5:02 pm US/Eastern
State police are investigating possible possession of child pornography
at an Armstrong County school.
Officials told KD Investigator Andy Sheehan that the suspected
pornography was apparently downloaded onto a school computer at
Elderton Junior and Senior High School.
Now officers with the state police's computer crime unit will attempt
to find out how the files were downloaded and just who is responsible
for doing so.
Possession of child pornography is classified as a felony and is
punishable by seven years in jail.
|
|
Pipe bombs left over
from Halloween
|
| |
 |
| |
| PMPD |
|
A photo of a pipe
bomb detonated at Pleasantside elementary Nov. 1.
|
|
By Janis
CleughThe Tri-City News 11/4/04
Students at Pleasantside elementary in Port Moody are getting a lesson
on the dangers of pipe bombs after three were found and two detonated
on the school's property the day after Halloween.
Students and teachers with classrooms facing the playground were
evacuated while a bomb disposal squad removed two handmade bombs that
were found by a janitor at around 10 a.m.
A robot was dispatched to examine and pick up one of the explosives
while the second was "attacked" by a shot fired from the robot. (A
third pipe bomb had previously been blown up.)
The bombs, six inches long, are made of 1.5-inch steel pipe capped with
steel plugs.
PoMo Police circulated a photo of the bombs to administrators in School
District 43 yesterday to remind students to stay away from explosive
devices,.
Principal Gary Kern said Pleasantside's 191 students were briefed about
the dangers of fireworks before Halloween. Monday afternoon, students
were told about the pipe bombs and a letter was sent home to parents
about the discovery.
PMPD Const. Brian Soles said it's likely those responsible for the pipe
bombs tried to explode them the night before but took off when they
failed. He said he doesn't believe the illegal devices were intended to
harm the Pleasantside students.
Last December, bomb disposal experts were sent to James Park elementary
in Port Coquitlam after a teacher found a pipe bomb on a field.
Meanwhile, police and fire crews were kept busy with Halloween
complaints Sunday night:
Burnt bus
* Vandals torched a school bus used to transport Heritage Woods
secondary students on field trips and to sports events at around 9 p.m.
Police believe the suspects climbed into an open window to light the
bus on fire, which damaged an outside concrete wall. Principal Doug
Sheppard said the 48-seat bus was bought this past summer from
Abbotsford School District "and now we'll have to rent or borrow a bus
from neighbouring schools to get around."
Smashed glass
* Vandals smashed at least 20 windows at Tri-City schools, including
Heritage Woods secondary, Pitt River and Minnekhada middle schools, and
Eagle Ridge, Bramblewood, Porter Street, Parkland and Lincoln
elementary schools. Graffiti and rubbish fires were also reported at
schools following Halloween.
Pot find
* Coquitlam RCMP got a treat at a home in the 1200-block of Hornby
Street when officers found 300 marijuana plants inside. Neighbours
tipped off police at around 6:30 p.m. when they saw water pour from the
front door from a tap that had been left on. No one was home.
|
©
| Article of Interest -
School Violence |
What constitutes a dangerous school?
Few schools fit definition, state education board says.
by Jane Elizabeth, Post-Gazette Education Writer, Friday, March 21, 2003
For more articles like
this visit http://www.bridges4kids.org
Harrisburg, PA - If students
attend a school where assaults, robberies and other crimes are
committed regularly, they should be allowed to transfer to another
school.
That's the idea behind the "Unsafe School
Choice Option" regulations contained in the federal No Child Left
Behind education law. But each state must adopt its own definition of a
"persistently dangerous school," and under criteria being considered by
the state Board of Education, few if any Pennsylvania schools would
qualify.
The board yesterday discussed proposed
definitions that would require an arrest to be made in any violent
incident before it could be counted against the school. According to
yearly school violence data, few arrests are ever reported by school
districts.
The draft proposal of the state education
department that was given to board members yesterday suggests a minimum
of five arrests in one year before a school could be considered
persistently dangerous.
In Pittsburgh Public Schools, for instance, the
latest school violence report shows only six of the district's 91
schools reported any arrests. None of those reported more than three.
Some state board members expressed concern that
schools with smaller student populations would be more likely to be
labeled "persistently dangerous" after only a few incidents.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education's
proposal recommends that schools with fewer than 250 students would be
termed persistently dangerous if school officials reported arrests in
five dangerous incidents per year. For a school of more than 1,000,
that cutoff would be 20 incidents.
Those numbers are still a work in progress,
emphasized Myrna Delgado, director of the department's safe schools
office.
Also, board members complained that the victims
-- not the perpetrators -- of violent crime would be the ones to
transfer out of the school.
"The bad apple stays in the basket and the good
apple leaves?" asked board member Mollie Phillips.
And board member James Barker said that the law
"ignores the reality of a persistently dangerous community" and
unfairly targets schools where students come from unsafe neighborhoods.
The state plans to use data from the annual
school district violence reports -- reports that have been sharply
criticized as flawed and incomplete. School districts, with no
oversight or auditing by the state, report their own data. And until
this year, the state provided no clear-cut guidelines on what precisely
should be reported by districts.
Education Secretary Vicki Phillips said after
yesterday's meeting that the department will look into ways to improve
reporting by schools.
Board members yesterday approved minor portions
of the proposal, including which incidents would be considered violent
offenses to be counted against the school. Those include kidnapping,
robbery, aggravated assault, rape, sexual assault and aggravated
indecent assault.
Phillips said staff members would continue to
work on the proposal before taking it to the board for a vote. By July
1, each state must have a plan in place for students to transfer out of
dangerous schools, or risk losing federal funding.
|
|
| Thank you for visiting http://www.bridges4kids.org/. |
From: kieren shea (KierenShea@bigpond.com)
Subject: Gang rapes in Sydney Australia
Newsgroups: talk.rape
Date: 2001-07-29 20:07:37 PST
- NATIONAL
70 girls attacked by rape gangs
By John Kidman, Police Reporter
POLICE examining more than 20 brutal sexual attacks on teenaged girls in
just 10 months believe they have uncovered a frightening new crime
associated with race.
Hospital records and police data show that at least another 50 similar
incidents have been reported in the Bankstown area of south-west Sydney over
the past two years.
The victims, one as young as 13, were allegedly lured to meetings then gang
raped and horrifically humiliated.
All of those suspected of perpetrating the acts come from the same cultural
and religious backgrounds.
Now police are concerned that the acts may become culturally
institutionalised.
They are now planning a social research program to examine the phenomenon
and help them decide how to eradicate it.
Fifteen youths and men have so far been charged with more than 300 offences
relating to matters since mid-2000 alone.
They are all of Middle Eastern extraction. None of those involved is
presently before the courts.
Their alleged victims have all been Caucasian, aged between 13 and 18.
The attacks are continuing.
In the most recent, up to two dozen offenders are suspected of taking part
in the repeated violation of a teenager in a school yard at Guildford three
weeks ago.
In a chilling postscript, several of the group allegedly scrawled degrading
slogans on her body.
Before being brutalised, other victims have reportedly been questioned about
their Australian heritage or forced to endure taunts about their attackers'
prowess.
Last August, an 18-year-old woman was allegedly raped 15 times by 14 youths
who passed her from one group of mates to the next after she was coerced
from a train at Bankstown station.
Allegedly assaulted in turn by four of the pack in a toilet, the woman was
driven to further local locations, raped again and again and, as a final act
of humiliation, sprayed down with a hose.
Another victim was, the same month, dragged by the hair to a secluded park,
stripped and held to the ground behind a shed, where she was allegedly
defiled.
In response to what was then thought to be an isolated rampage involving
several groups of males, Detective Inspector Kim McKay was appointed to head
Strike Force Sayda, which was given the task of halting it.
As Sydney struggled to cope with the Olympics, 12 of the most experienced
officers available were drawn from Bankstown and Crime Agencies.
They had identified a nucleus of six to eight suspects who lived within a
kilometre of each other, and as many again who were at least loosely
connected socially.
In tandem with a public appeal by then-Crime Agencies commander Clive Small
for women to take sensible precautions, a string of arrests were made and at
Christmas, Sayda began focusing on preparing briefs of evidence for the
courts.
In total, the strike force identified 17 sex attacks on 20 teenagers.
It laid charges in relation to eight of the matters and 10 of the alleged
victims.
What emerged in the following months, however, was the grim reality that the
problem hadn't gone away.
A 16-year-old girl was savagely assaulted by at least a dozen males in
Bankstown's Memorial Park on February 10.
Drugged, severely traumatised and abandoned, she was found by her distraught
father after failing to make it home the night before.
A separate investigation was launched by another Crime Agencies branch, the
Child Protection Enforcement Agency, which identified a cousin of a suspect
in an earlier known assault from a DNA sample at the scene.
Police believed the match suggested that what they were dealing with was
bigger than the work of several semi-affiliated groups but still able to be
linked.
Although under legal and professional pressure not to discuss Sayda's work
in detail, Inspector McKay issued a second warning to the community on March
11.
Other officers made the point that those allegedly responsible for the Sayda
rapes were said to have been expert at "luring" girls into compromising
situations by using flattery, appearing to be the friend of a friend or
offering to buy coffee or drinks.
Unfortunately, the public didn't take heed.
On the night of Wednesday, May 9, two girls were dragged into a car on
Parramatta Road at Camperdown.
Refusing the initial offer of a lift, they shared cigarettes with the two
men they'd just met before walking towards their bus stop but never made it.
Both were driven to Homebush, violently assaulted and dumped.
In the wake of the last known assault, at Guildford on July 7, senior police
this week conceded they were at a loss about how to prevent more attacks.
According to one officer who spoke to The Sun-Herald, they were now dealing
with an average of at least one Sayda-type incident every month.
As a result, moves are under way to commission expert social research into
the problem.
The concerns come in the wake of controversy over Police Commissioner Peter
Ryan's claim that crime is falling and previous remarks he made about ethnic
gangs, which led to accusations of US-style racial profiling.
Police have been hampered because in several cases - including some reported
by a local hospital - the women have been unwilling to assist them out of
embarrassment or fear of reprisals.
And some were simply too traumatised to help.
The Sun-Herald
Gang rape of 15 yr old girl
Below is a story of a horrific brutal crime.
DATELINE: Washington, D.C. April 15, 1999 Thursday
"Six brutal and determined boys . . . decided that I
would be their slave and punching bag for the evening. . . . I
thought I
should have fought from the beginning. . . But no, I chickened out. I
wanted to live through it all.
"It was as if someone had just taken all my morals
and
dreams and goals and flushed them down the drain."- The 15-year-old
White
victim of a black gang rape in Aspen Hill.
Because of a brutal, rainy Friday night more than a
year
ago, four teen-agers are in prison while two of their friends await
trial
on charges of robbing and raping a 15-year-old girl.
"The worst I've ever seen," Dr. Angelo Falcone has
said
of the vaginal injuries suffered by the girl during a 3 1/2-hour
ordeal in a vacant apartment in the Peppertree Farm complex in Aspen
Hill.
"She didn't know any of them," said assistant
state's
attorney Alexander Foster.
"This case has been sheer evil," said assistant
state's
attorney Debra Dwyer as the third youth, now 18, was sentenced to life
in
prison.
It has been "brutal, chilling, mean," agreed Circuit
Judge Louise G. Scrivener at the sentencing.
There was no hint of danger in the rain that was
falling
at 10:30 p.m. on March 20, 1998. The slender girl - who is not
identified
because of her age and the nature of the crime - had turned 15 only
the
month before and was waiting at the Silver Spring bus stop for a ride
to
her Wheaton home after visiting the home of a high school classmate.
According to charging documents, she rebuffed Harold
Lee
Williams, 17, and Muhain "Ghost" Ud-dien Adam, 18, when they tried to
talk
to her. But the black youths continued to urge her to accompany them
to a
"chill," a party or hangout, after they had climbed into the Wheaton
bus.
By the time they got off at the stop at Georgia
Avenue
and Veirs Mill Road, the boys knew she was planning to walk about
three-quarters of a mile to her father's home.
"You don't want to walk home in this rain ,"
Williams
said to her, according to Mr. Foster. "Come with us. I've got a $50
bill.
We'll send you home in a cab."
In retrospect, the victim says, "I had always
considered
myself a good judge of character, but now, I'm not so sure. . . . I
was a
spirited teen-ager who believed that nothing could break me or stand
in my
way."
Finally, she agreed. The next bus took them to the
7-Eleven convenience store along Georgia Avenue north of Connecticut
Avenue. The trio walked more than a mile through a maze of parking
lots
and apartment buildings to a three-story,
brown-brick apartment building at 3111 Whispering Pines Drive.
Williams led the way around the back to the entrance
of
ground-level Apartment 11. Climbing through a window, he opened the
door
from the inside, and they were soon joined by four teen-agers.
The apartment was dark except for a bathroom light.
For
about 10 minutes, they sat on the rug. Then, one youth asked her to go
into another room. They told her go to into the bathroom, where they
began
fondling her private parts,
according to police investigators.
The victim recalls, "When I look back on it all, the
scariest part of it was the fact that I never saw it coming until it
was
too late, and even when they were dragging me into the room and
tearing
off all of my clothes, I still didn't believe that it was happening."
She screamed and said she wanted to leave. Someone
slugged her in the face. She fell to the floor and briefly lost
consciousness. Then Williams said, "If you scream, I'll kill you," Mr.
Foster said.
Someone else said, "We're all expletive tonight."
The beating continued, as well as sexual acts of all
kinds. It was about 4 a.m. when Williams displayed a knife and
threatened
the victim if she told what happened, Mr. Foster said. The six teens
took
her keys, a couple of dollars and a red "Rookie" jacket. They left the
apartment, ordering her to clean up the condoms, cigarette butts and
other
debris and "turn out the light when you leave."
Carrying her panties and bra, she went out into the
rain
and the neighborhood she did not know. A male motorist saw her,
volunteered to take her to Montgomery General Hospital. En route, he
asked
whether her boyfriend had beaten her up.
Crying, she described her ordeal.
After treating her for bruises all over her body,
two
black eyes, facial cuts and a hairline fracture to her right jaw,
doctors
had her transferred to the rape crisis center at Shady Grove Adventist
Hospital for specialists to treat injuries to her vagina and rectum.
* * *
Within two days, Montgomery County detectives
tracked
down and arrested the six young men. A month later, they were indicted
as
adults on charges of first-degree rape, attempted first-degree rape,
first-degree sex offense, first-degree assault and conspiracy to
commit
rape.
They are:
* Tyrone Anthony Moore, 15, of Silver Spring, whose
case
was the only one waived by a judge to juvenile court. He was the
youngest
and smallest at 5 feet 3 inches and 120 pounds. He lived on the third
floor above the vacant apartment and
had been suspended from middle school for setting two fires. He
pleaded
"responsible" for the rape and was sentenced to Charles H. Hickey Jr.
School for Boys in Baltimore County until he is 21 years old.
* Christopher Terry, 16, of the 6300 block of
Greentree
Road in Bethesda, who pleaded guilty to first-degree rape and was
sentenced in November to life in prison. At 6 feet 1 inch, Terry was a
skinny 155-pounder.
* Antoine "Worm" Deon Haskins, 16, 5 feet 4 inches
and
130 pounds, then living in the 14200 block of Georgia Avenue, about a
mile
from the apartment. He has "Worm" and "Psycho" tattooed on his left
arm.
He pleaded guilty and was
sentenced in November to life in prison.
* Adam, 18, of the 10500 block of Bucknell Drive in
Wheaton, reared in a Muslim church. He pleaded guilty and, as he was
sentenced March 31 to life in prison, said: "I'm so ashamed. . . .
From
the bottom of my heart, I apologize to this young lady and my family.
I
take full responsibility for my act." Since he was jailed, Adam
completed
high school and received a diploma.
* Michael Andrease Lynch, 19, of MacBeth Drive,
barely
half-a-mile from the apartment, who is scheduled for trial Oct. 4. At
the
time, the youth weighed about 160 pounds and stood 5 feet 9 inches.
* Williams, 17, no fixed address, is now confined to
Maryland's SuperMax prison in Baltimore because of nine assaultive
incidents in Montgomery County jail including breaking the nose of a
correctional officer. He had been separated from
his co-defendants in jail and is to be tried in July or August.
Williams, at 6 feet 4 inches and 200-plus pounds,
considered the ringleader of "The 460 Crew," named after the Aspen
Hill
telephone exchange. When he appears in court, Williams is fitted with
a
"stun belt" to electronically stun him if he
physically acts up. Three big deputy sheriffs stand nearby, seldom
taking
their eyes off him.
When Williams tried to have his case referred to
juvenile court, his sister, Kisha Williams, 22, of Vienna, explained
that
he had been beaten, sometimes every day, from the age of 4 or 5 by an
alcoholic father. He lived in institutions much of the time from about
age
9 on.
When he was 9 or 10 years old, he spent time in St.
Elizabeths Hospital in the District for psychiatric treatment. During
20
months in the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County in 1994
and
1995 for breaking and entering and assault with a deadly weapon,
Williams
was involved in 35 assaults on other youthful inmates and staff
members,
said Frank Duncan , an
official with the Department of Juvenile Justice.
"There are no further programs in the juvenile
system to
assist Mr. Williams," Mr. Duncan said.
After his arrest, Montgomery County police and
correctional officers with a court order told Williams to submit
blood,
hair and saliva samples. "You'd better get a lot of backup," Williams
is
quoted as saying, throwing a two-hole paper punch at the officers.
In the ensuing struggle, before officers could take
the
samples, he slugged Lt. Paul Sellers and broke the officer's nose.
Williams was subsequently charged with first-degree assault.
Williams also objected to the appointment of veteran
assistant public defender Lois Reynolds Coon, a white woman, to handle
his
defense. He said she was racially prejudiced in favor of the white
victim
and demanded assignment of
another public defender.
At Williams' juvenile court waiver hearing, Dr. Jean
W.
Smith, of the psychiatric Clifton T. Perkins Hospital, said Williams
had
sexual relations with about 50 women, at least one of whom gave
birth,
between his release from Hickey and arrest for the gang rape.
"He has problems with impulse control," Dr. Smith
said.
During the hearing, Williams, who was dressed all in
black, complained to Circuit Judge Paul Weinstein that he doesn't have
sneakers to wear and must instead wear slippers at SuperMax prison.
* * *
The victim, who is about 5 feet 6 inches and weighs
no
more than 110 pounds, said the ordeal changed her life and how she
looks
at the world.
"Not with bitterness or hate, but with pure
confusion as
to how anyone could do such a thing to another human being, to torture
another helpless person."
All her previous life, she said she got mad at
people
who were victims but stayed silent and didn't go to authorities. "But
then
it was me who was frightened out of my mind, but I knew I had to live
up
to what I had been saying all these years.
"I would hate myself if I thought they might get out
on
the street and do it to some other victims."
She transferred to another school.
"I have a lot more privacy there, so I can
concentrate
on my schoolwork and try to get my life together again. . . . It's
hard
when my friends talk about losing their virginity to the men they
love."
She becomes silent, then adds that it is hard to
look
into a man's eyes and "see if there is any good in them."
**** Well, I am sure the punks who committed this horrible crime will
have a very special Valentine's Day. HAHAHAHA!!!
Michael
School Sex
Crimes Reported In Record Numbers
Principals in New York City are reporting school sex crimes in
record numbers.
According to a report in the Daily News, the number of sex
crimes being reported jumped to 593 this year, up from 339 last year.
Some principals say that in the past, many of the cases being reported
would have been handled by a phone call to parents, but tough strict
standards have principals now making that first call to police.
Kindergarten Student
Claims Teacher Accosted
Him In Bathroom
Teacher Resigned
During Investigation
POSTED: 12:39 am EDT June 4, 2004
UPDATED: 8:38 am EDT June 4, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- Parents are upset about what a
teacher may have done to their children at one elementary school in
Philadelphia.
Marilyn Freeman said a teacher followed her
son into the boy's bathroom at Pollock Elementary School last October
and began pulling up the kindergarten student's pants while he used the
bathroom.
"He's been potty-trained since he
was 2 and doesn't want anyone in the bathroom," Freeman said. "He
doesn't need any help." Freeman
told the school principal what happened and they talked to the teacher
-- Terry Pittman -- who had just been hired to tutor hearing-impaired
students. The district said Pittman confessed but said he was trying to
help the 6-year-old and promised it wouldn't happen again. But according to Freeman, last month her son
came home traumatized. "While my
son was urinating, the teacher walked in and gave him a hug," she said.
"I flipped!" The school district
was contacted, and while it investigated, the teacher suddenly resigned
last week. Parents like Michele Foy were outraged. "The school district never notified any of the
parents that any of this was going on," she said. "To this day, we
haven't received any kind of letters or anything like that." Freeman said she believes the Philadelphia
School District is downplaying the link between the incidents with her
son and the teacher's sudden departure. "We weren't born yesterday," she said. "You can put two and
two together and get the answer there."
Students Fear 'Lesbian
Gang' At School
School Holds Meeting
On Alleged Threats
POSTED: 6:49 pm EST February 18, 2004
UPDATED: 8:16 am EST February 19, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- Gang concerns brought parents
and students together Wednesday at a West Philadelphia middle school.
But the kind of gang may surprise you. The gang is allegedly called DTO (for Dykes Taking Over) and
made up of self-styled lesbian students. 
Slideshow: Lesbian Gang
Creates Concern At School
Girls at the Turner Middle School allege
that the lesbian students are harassing them with gay remarks. The
straight students say lesbians are bullying, groping and harassing them
in gym and in the girl's bathrooms. Parents
of the students say the harrassment must stop before it becomes
violent. "I told them, 'No.' And
they kept bothering us. (They) kept coming to us asking us to become
gay," said Felicia Anderson (pictured, left), a straight student. Anderson, 14, said she doesn't like it and it
makes her cry. Wednesday morning,
Felicia and her mother joined around 24 other parents and students to
meet with school officials behind closed doors for two hours at Turner
Middle School. "(I am) very angry.
Now my daughter is afraid to come to school," said Tonya Grandy, a
parent of a student who said she was harrassed. Other parents said they were also fed up with
the sexual harassment from as many as a dozen 8th-graders at Turner. "She called me last week screaming and hollering
and crying because they had her in the gym cornered off, telling her
what they were gonna make her do," said Renee Alexander. "Don't nobody wanna be gay. Don't nobody wanna
be harassed. Don't nobody wanna be scared to come to school," said
Kendra Branch, a student. State
Rep. Ron Waters, who attended the meeting, said all students were
reminded about the school's code of conduct. It includes policies
against bullying and sexual harassment with consequences. "(You don't have to) accept it as part of
growing up. They're violating your right," Waters explained. Perhaps the most productive moment came when one
mother, Barbara Crawford, whose daughter has been accused of harassment
asked for help. "Accusations,
fighting and all that. Maybe my daughter is causing trouble. Maybe not.
I know it's a change and I need help. I'm going to do something about
it if I have to walk her to school and pick her up -- or even transfer
her to another school," Crawford said. Crawford said she is pleased with how the school is handling
this situation. Philadelphia schools have a zero tolerance policy
regarding harassment and bullying. Officials at Turner Middle School
declined comment on Wednesday's meeting.
Racist Graffiti Painted On School
Playground Walls
Part Of Graffiti
Referred To KKK
POSTED: 12:31 p.m. EST March 13, 2003
UPDATED: 12:57 p.m. EST March 13, 2003
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- School officials are
outraged over vandalism at a local school. Police said that someone painted racist graffiti on a wall at
the Lamberton School in the Overbrook Park area of Philadelphia at 75th
Street and Woodbine Avenue. 
The
graffiti was sprayed along the playground walls. One student said she
saw "KKK" and a person hanging from a rope on the wall, but did not
know what it meant.
The school sent home a letter to let
parents know this was the second incident in three weeks. Joann Evans said that explaining to a child
about the Ku Klux Klan is not easy. "Me,
as an adult, 42 years old, can't handle what those letters stand for. I
know it would be devastating to a 9-year-old," Evans said. Security director Dexter Green said that the
school district is sending crisis intervention counselors to Lamberton
and the school is treating the hate messages as a threat. "Even if we have to put up a reward for the
arrest, we are definitely willing to do that," Green said. The school district said it is working very
closely with Philadelphia police to try to find the people who did
this. When the suspects are caught, they will face charges for
terroristic threats and ethnic intimidation. Anyone with information about who may have spray painted the
threats is encouraged to call the Philadelphia School District security
office at (215) 299-7233.
Boy, 12, Allegedly Raped By
Male Classmate At School
Encounter Started
With Dispute Over Ball
POSTED: 6:28 pm EST November 17, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- An outraged mother says that her
12-year-old son was raped by an 11-year-old classmate at John B.
Stetson Middle School on Allegheny Avenue in Philadelphia. The 11-year-old has been charged with
involuntary deviate sexual behavior. 
The
12-year-old said it all started with a fight over a ball on Tuesday.
Minutes later, the boy claimed, he was being sexually attacked.
The victim's father, Max Rivera,
told NBC 10 News that he is sick to his stomach over the attack. "It hurts me. He raped my son, he raped me,
too," said Damaris Rivera. The
parents of the victim said the two boys got into a dispute over a ball
in the fourth floor bathroom of the school. The 11-year-old male
student then chased the 12-year-old inside the third-floor fire escape
and sexually assaulted him. "The
boy was choking him, threatening him, and then made him get down on the
ground and pulled down his pants -- over a handball," said Max Rivera. NBC 10 News talked to the young victim and asked
him what he thinks should happen to his attacker. "Go to jail for the rest of his life," the boy
said. "I'm upset with the school.
They couldn't see two children fighting and somehow they get into the
fire escape. How did that happen? How do you go in there without nobody
noticing? No alarm systems, no cameras," Damaris Rivera said. Late Wednesday afternoon, Edison Schools
spokesman Richard Barth said there are no cameras where the alleged
rape occurred. "We are -- Edison
Schools and the school district of Philadelphia, which are partners
working at Stetson Middle School -- are conducting an internal
investigation," Barth said. The
chief executive officer of the Philadelphia school district, Paul
Vallas, questioned how this could happen. "My reaction is one of outrage. If anyone has failed to
follow procedures, they will be fired. It is a simple as that," Vallas
said. "I'm thinking they're safer
in school and home than in their streets. And they're not, they're not
safe," Rivera said. The victim in
this case has been allowed to transfer to another school. The attacker
has been expelled. Crisis counseling has been offered to both families.
Vallas Reassigns Principal,
Security Officers At Audenreid High
New Management Team
Being Sent To School
POSTED: 8:39 p.m. EST February 4, 2003
UPDATED: 6:56 p.m. EST February 5, 2003
The
chief executive officer of Philadelphia schools came out swinging on
NBC 10 News Tuesday after a fight at a South Philadelphia High School
on Monday ended with six students hurt with razor cuts.
Three of those girls were criminally
charged in the brawl and a fourth girl was suspended. The girl who was
suspended was 16 years old and she needed 58 stitches to close the
wounds in her face. However, NBC 10
News has learned that school officials admit they suspended the wrong
student and that extraordinary action against the principal has been
taken.
CEO Paul Vallas said Tuesday that
buck stops with him. He told NBC 10 that Monday's incident was
completely unacceptable and that he intends on making major changes at
Overbrook High School and at George Audenreid High School, where the
brawl took place. Reporter Karen
Hepp: What's going to happen now. What's going to happen at this
school? Vallas: "Not only this
school but the Overbrook School. We will pull out the principal,
assistant principal, a good part of the security team and the dean of
students and we'll send replacements. "This incident should not have happened. There are a lot of
procedures that the school should have followed and did not follow.
Overall, the climate of the school is unacceptable for us to have this
type of activity going on in the schools. Kids need to feel safe and
secure. "I'm not putting the total
blame on administrators. I bear the responsibilities for children. It's
part of my responsibility when we have administrators at the local
level who can't maintain and order in school and who follow procedure,
they're going to face removal." Hepp:
"What can they expect tomorrow when they go to school for the children?
What can parents expect? Do you have changes in place?" Vallas: "We're going to be having parent
meetings at both schools later on this week. Once we get the parent
notices out. They can expect not only a new security team as well as
new administrators, but they can also expect additional security and
additional community support because we are reaching out to the
community-based organizations we work with to participate in our
crisis-intervention team." Hepp:
"One of the things that was upsetting to the parent of the victims in
yesterday's case. ... she had 58 stitches, when she called in to get
her homework, she was told she was suspended. You decided to make a
change in that. What's the case right now?" Vallas: "The bottom line is, 'What idiot would suspend a girl
who was clearly the victim in this attack?' First of all, her
suspension has been rescinded. It was ridiculous to even suspend the
girl in the first place. "This girl
also was a girl who was jumped on her way to school. I think by the
same group of girls a number of weeks earlier and those girls should
have been expelled from the school district. It's as simple as that. "The bottom line is that procedures were not
followed and the general climate at that school is totally
unacceptable. It's going to cost the administrators their jobs." Previous Stories:
Sources: DNA Links
Ex-LaSalle Players To Alleged Rape
Men No Longer
Enrolled In School
POSTED: 6:21 pm EDT July 6, 2004
UPDATED: 7:16 am EDT July 7, 2004
Sources
tell NBC 10 that the DNA taken from two former LaSalle University
basketball players matches evidence found on an apparent rape victim at
the Philadelphia school. Slideshow: Cops Link
Basketball Players To Alleged Rape 
Video: DNA
Link To Alleged Rape
The same sources also said that the
evidence is being turned over to the Philadelphia District Attorney,
and charges could come by end of week in the case.
A 19-year-old woman alleged that she
was raped in late June by two men at a campus townhouse. At the time,
they were enrolled at LaSalle and members of the men's basketball team.
Last week, sources told NBC 10 that
investigators also recovered physical evidence linking the men to the
alleged assault. On July 3, school
officials told NBC 10 that the two men were no longer enrolled at
LaSalle and were no longer living on campus. Officials also said that the men wouldn't be back next
semester, but made no further comment about why the students left the
school. Previous Stories:
Another Alleged Sex Assault
Occurs At Philly School
Boy Arrested After
Incident At Elementary School
POSTED: 5:57 pm EST November 19, 2004
In
the latest incident of alleged sexual assault in the Philadelphia
School District, police say a 12-year-old is under arrest for indecent
assault against an 8-year-old girl.
The girl was allegedly assaulted at Wilson
Elementary School at 46th and Woodland, police said Friday.
Investigators said an officer
noticed inappropriate sexual behavior between the 8-year-old girl and
the 12-year-old boy last week. The
officer told police he pulled the boy inside the Police Athletic League
Center about 5:30 p.m. one day last week. The officer immediately talked to the 8-year-old girl and
instructed her to phone her mother. At that point, police said they
were officially called in. Police
then interviewed the 12-year-old boy and the 8-year-old girl, and the
12-year-old was arrested and charged with indecent assault and taken to
a juvenile detention center in Philadelphia. Also, police sources told NBC 10 that $1 was exchanged
between the two children, and that force may have been used in the
incident. The girl also allegedly
told the officer the suspect pulled her hair. In a separate incident on Tuesday, police officials said that
an 11-year-old raped another student at Stetson Middle School and
allegedly has confessed to the crime.
Body Found In Strawberry
Mansion High School Yard
Victim Not Yet
Identified
POSTED: 11:46 a.m. EST December 10, 2003
PHILADELPHIA -- A disturbing discovery was made
in a north Philadelphia school yard over Tuesday night. Police found the body of man outside Strawberry
Mansion High School shortly before midnight. Investigators said he had
been shot to death, but so far that is all the information they have. The victim has not been identified.
Slashing Reported At
Center City Elementary School
Police: One
15-Year-Old Allegedly Slashes 13-Year-Old
POSTED: 4:47 pm EST February 19, 2004
UPDATED: 5:38 pm EST February 19, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- A 13-year-old boy was slashed at
a Philadelphia school late Thursday afternoon, according to
authorities. Police said the
13-year-old boy was slashed in the face by a 15-year-old student at
Albert Greenfield Elementary School at 22nd and Chestnut streets in
Center City. The stabbing happened
just before 3:30 p.m. as students were about to leave school.
"I'm just shocked. I'm shocked. I
know there is a lot of trouble in a lot of neighborhood schools, but up
here I don't expect that up here. You know, Center City, somebody is
getting stabbed," said one mother. "No
child is safe nowhere. Somebody could walk up the street shooting. It
don't have to be on the school grounds. It can be in the area," said
another mother. "It has me worried.
My daughter is in school and at her age there is a lot of things
happening with kids getting smashed and violence in schools. You have
to send them to public school, but I'm thinking of taking her out of
public school, one dad said. Police
are looking for the attacker, who they say is armed with a knife. The
attacker is described as being 15, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt
and tan pants. Stay tuned to NBC 10
News and NBC10.com for updates on this developing story.
List Of 'Persistently
Dangerous' Philadelphia Schools
POSTED: 4:37 p.m. EDT September 24, 2003
Bartram
John HS
Boone Daniel School
Clemente Roberto MS
Fels Samuel HS
Fitzsimons Thomas MS
Frankford HS
Germantown HS
Gillespie Eliz D MS
Gratz Simon HS
Harding Warren G MS
Jones John Paul MS
Kensington HS
King Martin Luther HS
Lincoln/Swenson HS
Olney HS
Overbrook HS
Penn Treaty MS
Penn William HS
Shallcross Day School
South Philadelphia HS
Stetson John B MS
Strawberry Mansion HS
Sulzberger Mayer MS
Tilden William T MS
Vare Edwin H MS
Washington George HS
West Philadelphia HS
Boy Dies From Wounds
After Shooting At Philadelphia School
Faheem Taken Off
Life Support
POSTED: 6:24 a.m. EST February 17, 2004
UPDATED: 12:34 p.m. EST February 17, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- A 10-year-old boy who was caught
in the crossfire of a gunfight outside his Philadelphia elementary
school has died. Faheem
Thomas-Childs died from a gunshot wound he suffered last week during
the shootout.
He was pronounced dead Monday, but remained
on life support so his organs could be harvested. Two Philadelphia men had been arrested on
Saturday in connection with the gunfight. They were initially charged
with attempted murder. Those charges could now be upgraded following
the boy's death. Police said dozens
of shots were fired during the gunfight last week. Ballistics tests
indicate the shots were fired from six different guns. 
But
the search for suspects is far from over, according to police. They
continue to look for four more men in the shooting. Police say they're
having trouble making other arrests because witnesses are reluctant to
come forward, fearing some kind of retaliation. Police continue to get information and evidence
in the case, but an eyewitness to the crime has yet to come forward. 
Saturday, police charged Kareem Johnson, 20, and Kennell
Spady, 19 (pictured, right), with attempted murder and aggravated
assault. "We believe that the
puzzle will come together and all the arrests will be made and the
folks will be brought to justice," said State Rep. Jewell Williams, who
was taking his own child to school when the shooting took place. Police told WCAU-TV in Philadelphia that one of
the suspects gave a videotaped confession and sources say that suspect
had to be moved Monday to another facility for safety reasons after
word got out he had confessed. Police
have not determined whether either man fired the bullet that struck the
third grader in the face and crossing guard Debra Smith in the foot. Officials said that the gun battle is believed
to be between two rival drug gangs and one group may have retaliated
against the other over a shooting three weeks ago. In the meantime, police continue to put pressure
on suspected drug dealers in hopes of getting them to turn over the
other suspects. Nobody in the
community has come forward with information, but Williams believes it
is just a matter of time. "There
are people who are afraid. There are a lot of mechanisms where people
don't have to physically be out front. They can make some phone calls,
they can call the hotline, they can call the different programs to give
information," Williams said. A
group of community leaders say that Tuesday they will announce a plan
to announce a fund set up in Thomas-Childs' name. He has eight brothers
and sisters. Previous Stories:
No Change In
School Shooting Victim's Condition
Crossing Guard Shot In Foot
POSTED: 9:07 AM EST February 11, 2004
UPDATED: 11:52 AM EST February 12, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- A
10-year-old boy clings to life after being shot Wednesday morning near
a North Philadelphia school yard filled with children.
Slideshow (Updated):
Community Reacts To Shooting
According to police, two men in a car and two men on foot were arguing
and then exchanged gunshots near Thomas M. Pierce Elementary School at
23rd and Cambria streets. Police are searching for a gray Lincoln
Continental that witnesses reported fleeing the scene, police
department spokesman Cpl. Jim Pauley said. Police commissioner
Sylvester Johnson said Faheem Thomas-Childs was walking to school when
he was shot -- apparently caught in the crossfire. Johnson didn't say
where the child was in proximity to the school. Police officers
transported the child to Temple University Hospital. Thomas-Childs is
in the pediatric intensive care after surgery for a bullet lodged in
his brain.
Johnson said a crossing guard, Deborah Smith, 56, was shot in the foot
about a block away from Thomas-Childs. She was treated and released.
Neighbors told NBC 10 News that a group of men have been shooting at
each other over the last few days near the school. Some said they gave
police the names of people they believe were involved in the shooting,
but authorities are not talking about potential witnesses because they
fear for their safety. School officials said there were no other
injuries at the school, but the school implemented a safety plan,
including locking down the building.
Several hundred people marched to the school yard to stage a rally
early Wednesday night. State Rep. Jewell Williams was walking his child
to school when the violence took place. He is urged men in the
neighborhood to come to the school Thursday morning to reassure
children that they are safe. The Citizens Crime Commission has
announced that they are offering a reward of $10,000 for information
leading to Thomas-Childs's shooter. The school district is offering a
$5,000 reward and the
Daily News is also offering a $5,000
reward. If you have a tip, call (215) 546-TIPS. Local businessmen who
want to put a stop to the group of men who have been shooting and
intimidating people in the neighborhood have reportedly added an
additional $50,000 to the reward. Philadelphia schools chief executive
officer Paul Vallas rushed to the school to meet with the principal and
parents. Counselors were brought to comfort the school community.
During a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Johnson made a plea to
the public for help. He asked anybody who knows anything about the men
involved in the shooting to call (215) 686-3334.
Teen Surrenders In
Fatal Philadelphia School Shooting
Argument Over Rap
Contest May Have Led To Incident
POSTED: 8:26 am EST November 28, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- Police say a teen sought for
allegedly killing a 10th grader as school let out at a North
Philadelphia high school has surrendered. Authorities say 16-year-old Desmond Keels, accompanied by a
lawyer, turned himself in early Sunday morning at police headquarters. He's suspected of exchanging gunfire with
another teen Monday over a $50 debt that stemmed from a street rap
contest.
The melee left 16-year-old Jalil
Speaks dead and three others injured, including two female students who
were shot. Keels is facing murder
and related charges. In the wake of
the shootings, Mayor John Street and schools chief Paul Vallas are
pledging renewed efforts to make city schools safer.
Rape Victim
Describes Attack To NBC 10
Girl Helps Police
With Sketch Of Rapist
POSTED: 6:38 pm EST November 10, 2004
UPDATED: 7:35 pm EST November 10, 2004
CAMDEN, N.J. -- A South Jersey teen who was
raped on her way to school helped police draw a sketch of her attacker.
The assault happened in broad daylight in a
busy area of Camden Monday morning. The
17-year-old honors student from LEAP Academy University Charter School
shared her horrifying experience with NBC 10 reporter Monique Braxton.
"He told me not to scream. I asked
him not to hurt me. Then, he covered up my mouth," the girl said. The girl said that the man was armed with a
knife when he pulled her into an alley in the shadow of Rutgers
University, off 4th Street. "He
told me to take all my jewelry off. He told me to take my blazer and my
jean jacket off. I was scared. I didn't want him to hurt me," the girl
told Braxton. The victim's
neighbor, Maite Ruiz, took NBC 10 News to the scene of the crime and
pointed out where she found the girl's clothing and makeup. "She said that he put her underwear in a cup. So
we came back to the scene, we just started searching under the cars.
... He stuffed leaves inside (the cup). We took the leaves out and her
panties were there," Ruiz said. Ruiz
said that there were cameras on buildings all around the area where the
attack allegedly took place. "There's
cameras in the building right on the other side. You have the federal
courthouse -- they have surveillance cameras. You also have the post
office which has surveillance cameras," Ruiz said. Police said the cameras on the federal buildings
near Market and 4th Streets showed the victim and the suspect, but they
are not in focus. Police Lt.
Michael Lynch told NBC 10 News that police hope the sketch will help
them find the girl's attacker. "The
suspect is still identified as a white male, thin build, unshaven face,
wearing all black," Lynch said. The
aspiring teacher is now coping with the violence she survived. "I try to forget about it because I have a lot
of support from my friends," the girl said.
Decision Won't Come Soon
For Oaklyn Teens
Judge To Decide If
Boys Will Be Tried As Adults
POSTED: 2:23 p.m. EDT July 15, 2003
UPDATED: 9:09 p.m. EDT July 15, 2003
CAMDEN, N.J. -- A court hearing is now set for
two young teens in an alleged murder plot in Oaklyn, N.J. The hearing
will determine if two teens will join Matt Lovett, 18, in being tried
as adults. All three boys are accused of planning a town-wide killing
spree. The father of the accused
14-year-old declined comment as he entered the courthouse. His son, a
15-year-old and Lovett have been charged with carjacking and conspiracy
to murder. The future of the
younger teens not only rests with their attorneys, it rests with
Superior Court Judge Louis Hornstine. Hornstine must decide if they
will be tried as juveniles or adults. If they are tried as juveniles
and found guilty, the penalty is 10 years. If they are tried as adults
and found guilty, the penalty is 40 years.
Hornstine set a hearing for
arguments on the issue for August 26, but said he was willing to grant
the defense lawyers more time if they needed it to line up expert
witnesses to testify. "These are
boys. These are not men. My client just turned 15 last month. The New
Jersey state law requires I prove my client can be rehabilitated by age
19 with the services available through the New Jersey juvenile system,"
said John Underwood, the lawyer for the 15-year-old boy. Underwood said he would likely put psychiatric
experts on the stand. He is also planning to interview someone who
could talk about evidence that investigators are trying to find on the
hard drives of computers taken from each of the boys' homes. "Given the nature of these crimes, given the
seriousness of them, these are crimes where rehabilitation isn't
necessarily appropriate," said Vince Sarubbi, the Camden County
prosecutor. There are a lot of
differences in public opinion. "Somewhere
along the line they have to be held accountable -- maybe not just them.
Maybe the parents and maybe somebody else," said Bill Bunting, of
Oaklyn, N.J. "I have thoughts both
ways. I mean, it's a shame because they're children, because they're
both under 18. But then it's a shame what they might have been trying
to do that would have killed innocent people, so it's hard to say,"
said Ilene Kimble, also of Oaklyn. Lovett,
who is being held in Camden County Jail on $1 million bail, is also
accused of aggravated assault. The two boys have been in the county's
juvenile detention center since they were arrested. Without spelling out exact defense strategies,
lawyers or parents of each of the boys -- all aspiring artists
fascinated by science fiction and Japanese anime -- have emphasized
different key points in the case. Lovett's
father, Ronald, said he believed his son and his friends were play
acting -- not planning to kill. The father of the 14-year-old said
there was a plan to kill, but that his son was intimidated into going
along. Underwood said there was no plot, but also talked about how the
three boys were picked on at school. "These
are children who were being bullied, and now they're fighting for their
lives," Underwood said after Tuesday's court hearing.
Police Charge Teen In
Deliveryman's Killing
Second Suspect Sought
POSTED: 5:57 pm EST April 1, 2004
UPDATED: 11:14 pm EST April 1, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- Police told NBC 10 News that
they have charged a 16-year-old student in the killing of a pizza
deliveryman. Investigators are also
looking for a second suspect connected to the crime, also 16-years-old,
sources told NBC 10 News.
Martique Daughtry, a student at Martin
Luther King High School, was picked up around noon Thursday and taken
to police headquarters. He was charged Thursday night. Investigators said robbery appeared to be the
motive in Cisse's killing. The West African immigrant was shot once in
the head Sunday night while delivering a pizza to a house in West Oak
Lane in Philadelphia. The killers took the pizza, but left behind
Cisse's wallet and cell phone, which were in his car. Sources told NBC 10 News that they have evidence
that the suspects planned the crime in advance. Monday, police searched a house on Venango
Street in Kensington. Police said the suspects had friends call in the
pizza order from that house, while they waited on West Oak Lane to
commit the robbery. The owner of
Papa's Perfect Pizza, Abdul Hidourr, called the killing senseless. "If he come over here to the store and ask for
free pizza, I (would have) given him free pizza. He don't have to kill
person because of pizza," Hidourr said.
Pottsgrove Teacher
Accused Of Sex With Student
Teacher Removed From
Classroom
POSTED: 4:43 pm EDT May 4, 2004
UPDATED: 12:42 pm EDT May 5, 2004
POTTSTOWN, Pa. -- A male teacher at Pottsgrove
High School near Pottstown surrendered to authorities and was arraigned
Wednesday morning on charges related to an alleged affair with a female
student on school grounds. "They
were physically engaged," explained Chief Raymond Bechtel Jr., of the
Lower Pottsgrove police. Bechtel
said the girl's mother suspected something was wrong when her daughter
started acting moody and withdrawn.
"She began to find out what was
going on in her daughter's life, and she finds out that her daughter
had been engaged with this teacher and she brought that to our
attention and to her daughter's attention," Bechtel said. The girl's mother said she seemed to feel
relieved to share the information. Police
have not released the name of the teacher. The school's superintendent told NBC 10 News that the faculty
member is not coming to work and another teacher is taking over his
classes. The superintendent urged
parents and the public to not jump to any conclusions until police have
finished their investigation. Meanwhile,
police said they have seized the faculty member's computer and other
evidence at the school that they said backs up the girl's claims that
they were having a relationship. The
faculty member faces a number of sexually related crimes as well as
corruption against minors.
Arrests Made After 2
Kids Partially Decapitated; 1 Beheaded
POSTED: 5:55 am EDT May 28, 2004
UPDATED: 4:13 pm EDT May 28, 2004
BALTIMORE -- Two arrests are reported in the
slayings of three children in Baltimore Thursday. Investigators announced that they arrested Adan
Espinoza Canela, 17, and Piolicarpio Espinoza, 22, early Friday morning
in the death of two 9-year-olds and a 10-year-old. 
Acting Baltimore City Police
Commissioner Kenneth Blackwell said they took the two men into custody
late Thursday night after receiving what he called "a major break" in
the case. He said the men were questioned Thursday night and Friday
morning. Blackwell said
investigators consulted with the state's attorney office and filed
charges on Friday morning. He said they do not have a clear motive for
the killings. The first officer at
the scene "couldn't handle it." Baltimore
police said one child was completely decapitated and two were partially
beheaded. The children were
identified as 9-year-old Ricardo Espinoza; his 9-year-old sister,
Lucero Quezada; and their 10-year-old cousin, Alexis Quezada, a boy.
Police earlier identified the victims as two girls and a boy, but said
Friday morning that they had made a mistake. The gruesome discovery was made by one of the mothers. The
killing occurred an apartment complex in the Fallstaff neighborhood of
northwest Baltimore. The mother,
who neighbors said speaks little English, notified a neighbor, who
called 911. Police said the two
families lived together. Authorities said the children were found about
5:40 p.m. Thursday. Detectives said
they are making progress in the case and continue to interview a man
they call "a person of interest." He was picked up several blocks from
the crime scene after being identified by one of the children's
mothers. Blackwell described the
scene as heart breaking and the worst he has seen in 35 years. Sources from WBAL-TV in Baltimore said police
found a butcher's knife covered in blood behind the apartment complex. Friends and neighbors said the two families
living in the apartment were from Mexico and have lived there for at
least three years. The children
were in school on Thursday and police said they returned home around
3:30 p.m.
Gang Videotapes Beating Of
Boy
Two Boys In Custody
POSTED: 1:43 a.m. EST November 6, 2002
UPDATED: 2:04 a.m. EST November 6, 2002
PHILADELPHIA -- Police say it is a common story
-- a gang of kids beat up a helpless child who was walking home from
school. But this cruel assault case featured something new -- the
attackers videotaped themselves in the act. Police have the tape and now the Feltonville area gang is in
big trouble. "I just can't believe
someone would do that particular thing as far as taping somebody being
beaten," said Ralph Talarico, the father of the beaten boy.
Outraged that his son was beaten up
after school, Talarico is appalled that the attackers actually
videotaped the crime. "Doctors
believe he has a possible concussion, he has a bruised cheek, neck
(and) head," Talarico said. School
had just ended for the day on Oct. 22 when 14-year-old Anthony Talarico
left Central East Middle School. Anthony
was walking home, just a block or so from school, when a group of guys
surrounded him. Some of the alleged attackers were as young as 12 years
old. They had a video camera and started taunting and punching him. "The next thing you know one kid hit him, the
next one kid followed up and hit him again and then there was another
one. I saw at least three hit him," Talarico said. The tape is evidence and not available for air,
but Capt. Len Ditchkofsky described it as vicious. "They beat him up just for the sake of filming
it. They asked him to comment on what had happened to him. It was just
a sick, stupid thing to do," Ditchkofsy said. Anthony has impaired vision, so he couldn't see the punches
coming from the side. According to police, he just started running and
his attackers followed him into a nearby pizza shop and continued to
taunt him. "The one that was
holding the camera every time he got hit he asked, 'How did that feel?
Did that hurt?'" Talarico said. "The
victim does have a handicap. He bothered no one. He did nothing to
contribute to this, to cause it. They did it for the sheer joy of doing
it. Self-entertainment is what it comes down to," Ditchkofsy said. Police have increased patrols in the area during
school dismissal times. They have arrested two people so far -- a
16-year-old and a 12-year-old boy. They are looking for three more
teens in connection with the beating. Police said that one of the suspects was from the school, one
does not go to school and the rest were from other schools. Parents
talked about organizing a safe-corridor program where parents come to
the school and help out during dismissal. Police are asking anyone with
information about the beating to call East Detectives at (215) 686 3243.
Friends School Student
Faces Rape Charges
Accused Is Connected
To Three Attacks
POSTED: 10:29 a.m. EDT April 8, 2003
UPDATED: 10:31 a.m. EDT April 8, 2003
WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- A 15-year-old student at
the Delaware Valley Friends School is accused of raping two 13-year-old
students and indecently assaulting a third. The accused student is charged with rape, attempted rape,
involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and related offenses. He was 14
at the time of the alleged offenses. Although
juvenile proceedings are generally held behind closed doors, Monday's
hearing was open to the public because of the seriousness of the crime.
The first victim testified that the
accused followed her into a girls' bathroom and forced her to perform
sex acts. Tredyffrin Township
Detective Mary Jane Teti said the accused maintained his innocence
during a videotaped interview with his parents present. Later, Teti
said he was left alone to write a statement in which he admitted to
some of the charges. Teti said she
learned that a friend of the first victim had also been forced to
allegedly have sex with the accused on two occasions. The third victim said the accused put his hand
down her underwear on two separate occasions.
Teens Arrested In Alleged
Rape Of Mentally Challenged Woman
Girl Says She Was
Attacked After Trip To Movie Theatre
POSTED: 5:59 pm EDT June 23, 2004
UPDATED: 7:16 pm EDT June 23, 2004
Two
Philadelphia teens are under arrest, charged with allegedly gang-raping
an 18-year-old mentally challenged woman. Police have arrested a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old in the
alleged crime. A third suspect is still on the loose. According to investigators, the alleged victim
went to the RiverView Plaza Theater in south Philadelphia Monday night
with a girlfriend. After the movie, the girl and her friend separated.
Then the alleged victim met the three boys, who she knows from school.
They walked to a house on Christian Street where the girl said she was
sexually assaulted.
"After the movie was over, they went
home, they were on their way home. They stopped at the male's house.
When they were in this male's house, the female was not permitted to
leave. She was then sexually assaulted by the three males that she had
been with earlier in the evening," said Capt. Charles Bloom of the
Philadelphia Police Department's special victims' unit. The girl then ran home and told her parents what
had happened. They took her to the hospital. On the way home, the girl
recognized the house where she said she had been assaulted. "Basically, on their way back from the hospital
they passed the location -- she recognizes the location where it took
place. And based on that, the person living in that house was
arrested," Bloom said. Once a
search warrant was obtained for a house on the 400 block of Christian
Street, the pieces of the crime started to fall in place, police said.
Because the school was a common denominator between the victim and
attackers, there were quick identifications and arrests followed. "We have two suspects in custody who have been
charged. We have a tentative ID on a third, but there still more
investigative work has to be done before we make a positive
identification," Bloom said.
Teens Arrested In Alleged
Columbine-Style Attack Plots
Dad Defends Teen In
H.S. Bomb Plot Case
POSTED: 6:19 am EDT October 7, 2004
UPDATED: 9:07 am EDT October 7, 2004
Police
have arrested two Texas teenagers in an alleged plan to re-create the
Columbine massacre. The boys, aged
15 and 16, have been charged with making terroristic threats. Their
names were not released. Police say
the boys planned to carry out a shooting during a pep rally at Vista
Ridge High in Austin. They allegedly were planning to wear trench coats
to hide their weapons just as the Columbine High School killers did.
Authorities said, "Their words were,
they wanted to 're-create Columbine."' Columbine, in Littleton, Colo., was the scene of the nation's
worst school shooting on April 20, 1999. That's when Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 students and a teacher before
committing suicide.
Dad Defends Son In Other 'Columbine
Plot'
Meanwhile, The father of a 16-year-old
Marshfield, Mass., boy arrested in connection with an alleged plot to
bomb Marshfield High School said authorities have the wrong boy. Toby Kerns' father, Ben, said Wednesday that his
son was not the ringleader in an alleged plot to kill students and
teachers at the high school in a Columbine High-style attack next
April. Kerns showed media a
videotape of his son that was made after the teen was arrested Sept. 17
when police found a device he allegedly detonated in the woods near his
house. Kerns had a dangerousness hearing Sept. 30 and was ordered held
at a state Department of Youth Services facility without bail for 90
days. The teen is charged with attempting to commit a crime -- murder
-- and two counts of promoting anarchy. In the home video, Kerns speaks to the camera about his
arrest saying, "People just love to slap some dirt right in your face.
But I'm going to keep trying. That's all you really can do and
everything will work out for the best, because when you're a good
person things will work out for you." Kerns father insists his son was not the mastermind behind
the alleged plot to blow up Marshfield High. "To this day, Toby has still not been questioned about this.
His side of the story has still not been told," Ben Kerns said. He claimed his son was framed by another teen he
would only identify as "Joe." He said the teens got in a fight over a
girl and Joe went to the police and told them about the plot, fingering
Tobin as the mastermind. "Joe lived
in our house for a month, in the room that the police searched, so Joe
lived here and during that time Joe shaved his head and eventually my
son shaved his head, and they both, you know, Joe is a skinhead guy,"
Ben Kerns said. After several
informants told police of the alleged plot, detectives put Kerns under
surveillance. Upon his arrest they executed a search warrant at his
home, seizing from the Kerns' house and computer a shopping list for
guns and ammunition, materials for fire and explosive bombs, bike locks
for doors, and gas masks. Police also found evidence that plans for
making homemade bombs had been downloaded from a computer. There was also allegedly a list of eight people,
teachers and students, who were marked for murder and hand-drawn plans
of the high school that detailed the planned attack -- including the
doors that would be locked to prevent the faculty and students from
fleeing. The plot was allegedly set for next April on the anniversary
of the Columbine High killings. Marshfield
Police Department Chief William Sullivan said that no other students
have been charged and that the high school is safe. Classses were
scheduled to resume Thursday.
Police Link Md.
School Shooting To Spree
Maryland Boy, 13, In
Critical But Stable Condition After Surgery
POSTED: 8:43 am EDT October 7, 2002
UPDATED: 6:02 pm EDT October 7, 2002
BOWIE, Md. -- A projectile recovered from a
school shooting of a 13-year-old boy this morning in Bowie, Md., is
linked to other cases in the area from last week, authorities in the
region say. Prince George's County
(Md.) Police Chief Gerald Wilson said evidence recovered after the
shooting at Benjamin Tasker Middle School that left the victim in
critical condition establishes a "probable link" between Monday's
shooting and an apparently random shooting spree that killed six people
and wounded another in the region last week. Wilson said the information came from the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms agents, who performed analysis of bullet
fragments.
Wilson said he has heard different
descriptions of the vehicle the suspect might be in, noting the gunman
may no longer be in the white box truck described last week. The 13-year-old boy is listed in critical but
stable condition after being shot outside the school, which was
immediately placed on lockdown mode. Dr.
Martin Eichelberger at Children's Hospital in Washington said the
bullet entered the boy's abdomen and passed through his chest, causing
damage to his spleen, stomach, pancreas, lung and diaphragm.
Eichelberger said portions of some of the boy's organs -- not critical
organs -- had to removed during the surgery. The doctor said the surgical team removed a "significant
portion" of the bullet that wounded him. The bullet broke into several
pieces, and the other pieces were left in the boy. Joe Riehl, a spokesman for the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said evidence from the victim was
recovered and sent to a lab for analysis. ATF Special Agent Mike Bouchard said dogs trained to detect
gunpowder residue will be used at the school to try to find out where
the shooter may have been positioned. Wilson said the boy was shot after his guardian dropped him
off at school this morning. Wilson
said there weren't many witnesses because it was still early and school
hadn't opened yet. But he said there were some other youths in the area
that police are questioning. Wilson
said after the guardian, believed to be the boy's aunt, dropped him
off, she saw him slump over and she went back to him. Wilson said the
boy then told the aunt he believed he had been shot. When asked about reports the boy had been in a
dispute earlier with other kids, Wilson said police are looking into
the boy's conduct and why his guardian was taking him to school. But he added that, regardless of the
circumstances, "this young man did nothing to be shot." After the shooting, the boy's aunt drove her
nephew to Bowie Health Center, a small hospital. The boy then was flown
by helicopter to Children's Hospital. Officials said he's in critical, but stable, condition after
losing a lot of blood. Hospital spokeswoman Jacqueline Bowens declined
to discuss the extent of the boy's injuries. A teacher inside the middle school said she heard a very loud
gunshot and ran outside to investigate. She said she saw the child on
the ground just in front of the school. According to police department spokesman Cpl. Robert Clark,
the call came in at 8:09 a.m. EDT. Clark
said the boy may have been walking toward the school. The Bowie, Md.,
mayor said that police have not been able to talk to the boy about the
incident because of his condition. Montgomery
County police spokeswoman Capt. Nancy Demme said the county's school
system has gone to code blue status, which means no after-school
kindergarten and no outdoor activities at any county school. A man who lived nearby was walking his dog when
he said he heard a sound "like a car backfiring." He said soon after
the loud bang, he heard a woman screaming. Classmates described the young victim as the "quiet, class
clown." One 13-year-old who says
he's a friend of the victim was in tears. "He's funny, he's always around friends," the boy said of the
victim. "He helps you out when you need it." Anyone with information on this shooting is being asked to
call (800) 673-2777.
Student:
School Expelled Me For Non-Consensual Sex
Kentucky Teen Files
Lawsuit
COVINGTON,
Ky. -- A Kentucky teenager has filed a lawsuit against her former
high school.
At issue is the school's policy against students having sex. While
Jessica Frietch and her family admit that she had sex, Freitch says the
sex she had wasn't consensual, Cincinnati TV station WLWT reported.
Frietch, an 'A' student, filed the suit against Calvary Christian
School Tuesday. She was expelled nearly a year ago, but waited until
she turned 18 so she could personally file the suit in Kenton County
Court, WLWT reported. "She felt very deeply that she had been wronged
by the school," Jessica's mother, Sarah Frietch, said Tuesday. "She has
always said, and maintains, that this was not consensual. And for her
to be expelled is completely the wrong step for this school to take."
Added family attorney Edwin Kagin: "To expel a young lady under these
conditions and put a mark of shame on her life that seems somehow
profoundly immoral." The Frietch family went to police and reported
that the sex wasn't consensual, Hamrick reported. But after
investigators looked at the case, they came to the same conclusion that
the school came to: No crime had been committed.
"We're very sorry for
the young lady, that she feels wronged," Calvary Christian attorney Tom
Kerr said. "But I believe as the facts come forward that the school
will be vindicated." Kerr added that all students and their parents are
aware of the strict
rules at the school at the time of their enrollment, and Freitch's
claim notwithstanding, must adhere to them at all times. "No one forces
a student to come to Calvary," Kerr said. "When the parent enrolls the
student, they sign an agreement saying they will abide by those
standards and that the student will abide, too." Meanwhile, the teen's
mother said their family has been devastated, WLWT reported. "It's not
easy to have a Christian institution do more to you than what's already
been done, then have to pull your family back together again," Sarah
Frietch said.
Chinese Police Detain Man In
Bloody Knife Attack At School
POSTED: 7:21 am EST November 26, 2004
UPDATED: 9:42 pm EST November 26, 2004
BEIJING -- Chinese police have detained a man
accused of hacking to death as many as nine boys as they slept in a
high school dormitory in central China.
The official Xinhua News Agency said a
21-year-old man was reported to police by his mother after he tried
unsuccessfully to commit suicide following the attack.
The news agency said he confessed
and said he acted out of hatred for the students, but didn't give
details. The China News Service
cited a survivor as saying that during the attack, the man with the
knife said, "Don't blame me." Xinhua
put the death toll in the attack at eight, but another state-run news
agency, the China News Service, said nine students were killed. Xinhua says four other students were injured in
the attack. The school assault is
the bloodiest of a series of knife attacks at Chinese schools in recent
months. It's the fourth knife
attack at a Chinese school or day-care center since August. The reason for the surge in knife attacks isn't
clear. They have taken place in areas throughout China and involve
attackers from different backgrounds Earlier
this week, China executed a man who had slashed 25 children with a
kitchen knife in September at a grade school in eastern China. The children all survived but a court ordered
the man executed, calling the crime "especially cruel."
Police: Four Dead In Apparent
Murder-Suicide
Investigators At
Crime Scene
POSTED: 6:16 pm EST January 23, 2004
UPDATED: 8:31 am EST January 24, 2004
In
rural Berks County Friday night, police were still on the scene of a
shooting rampage that left four people dead. It happened at a trailer home on Blimline Road in Brecknock
Township. Police were called to the scene on Brimline Road around 4:30
p.m. to respond to a report of a shooting at a house, which is located
about 3 miles northeast of Adamstown, Pa. Police said 60-year-old school bus driver Richard Jenks
fatally shot three people then turned the gun on himself.
One victim is identified as Jenk's
18-year-old daughter. She was able to call 911 before she died. The two other victims are believed to be Jenk's
wife and his daughter's boyfriend. Three victims died at the scene.
Officials said that a fourth victim was transported to a local hospital
by helicopter before dying. We'll
have updates on this story as more information becomes available.
Vandals Disable 68
Pennsbury School District Buses
Reward Offered For
Information
POSTED: 12:32 pm EDT May 3, 2004
UPDATED: 5:03 pm EDT May 3, 2004
LOWER MAKEFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Vandals shut
down a suburban school district Monday by trashing so many school buses
that classes had to be canceled. Officials
said bus service will resume Tuesday, but there could be delays. Police believe the vandalism took place between
4 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. Sunday at the Charles Boehm bus yard in Lower
Makefield Township.
Police and school district officials combed
through dozens of school buses Monday morning to find out the extent of
the damage. "This is probably the
most significant incident that I can recall since I've been serving
here as superintendent," said Ralph Nuzzolo, superintendent of the
Pennsburg School District. School
officials said 68 of 113 school buses were out of service Monday
morning, leaving 12,000 to 13,000 students without a ride. Police believe the vandals climbed over a fence.
"This is way out of the realm of a
senior prank. This was a criminal act," Nuzzolo said. Whoever vandalized the buses put epoxy glue on
top of the locks. They also opened some of the side panel doors and cut
the wires inside. It completely disabled the buses. "This was cutting the wires, segmenting it and
throwing pieces away so you just couldn't splice wires back together,"
Nuzzolo explained. As police dusted
for fingerprints, officials notified parents. Authorities said the
damage amounted to at least $10,000. The
Citizens Crime Commission is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who can
help police solve this crime. Call (215) 546-TIPS, if you have
information.
South Jersey Football
Star Arrested For Sexual Assault
Crime Allegedly
Happened At Party
POSTED: 6:35 p.m. EDT April 23, 2003
UPDATED: 7:26 p.m. EDT April 23, 2003
A
South Jersey community is in shock after a star high school athlete is
arrested on sexual assault charges. Police say Isaac Redman, 18, of
Paulsboro will be charged as an adult. Redman had just signed a letter of intent to play football
for Temple University. Now, the Paulsboro High School senior is out of
jail on $25,000 bond. His neighbors
and friends refuse to believe the sexual assault charges.
"I don't think it happened at all.
Not at all," said Marie Killmer of Paulsboro, N.J. "He's a great kid. He's good in school. He's
never caused any problems," said Stephanie Kinnaird of Paulsboro. Pittman Police, however, see Redman differently.
"Mr. Redman was charged with
aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of
children, criminal restraint ... He's being charged as an adult," said
Capt. Robert Zimmerman. Pittman
police will only say the assaults happened early Friday morning in a
car, right after a teen's party. That party was unsupervised by any
adult. Pittman police got word of
the assault off North Broad Street and interviewed the 15-year-old
victim before filing charges against Redman and a juvenile. Redman was a senior running back and lineman at
Paulsboro High School in Gloucester County. He just became state
wrestling champion a month ago. Mike
Helvitson played football with Redman and refused to believe the
charges: "I'm really surprised, you
know. He's a good guy too. He's a great athlete and a good guy,"
Helvitson said. "(I'm) sick over
it. His mom is a great lady, cares about her kids. Isaac was brought up
in a loving home. And I just can't believe that," said Blanche Gurlin
of Pittman. Paulsboro School
officials said that the arrest is a police matter and would not
comment. Redman is free on $25,000
dollars while the charges are presented to a grand jury.
Prank Or
Serious Crime? Hearing Held In Poison Cake Case
One Girl Released, The Other Detained
POSTED: 11:05 AM EST November 19, 2004
UPDATED: 6:54 PM EST November 19, 2004
MARIETTA, Ga. -- One of
the two girls accused of bringing a cake to school that sickened about
a dozen students will not return home to her parents after a judge
denied a motion Friday to give them custody as she awaits trial. Are
Charges Too Harsh? Both teens were charged with 12 counts of aggravated
assaultwith intent to commit murder. One girl was also charged
withterroristic acts and interference with government property. Do you
think these charges are too harsh?YesNo The 13-year-old girl has been
charged with 12 counts of aggravated assault with intent to commit
murder, one count of terroristic acts and one count of interference
with government property for allegedly baking and distributing a
cornbread cake made with bleach, glue, tobasco sauce and other
substances. Cobb County Juvenile Court Judge J. Stephen Schuster
ordered the girl returned to the custody of the youth detention center
where she has been since her arrest Wednesday. However, he allowed the
Department of Juvenile Justice to place her in a non-secure shelter
where she will live under state supervision.
Scuster, meanwhile, released the other 13-year-old girl accused in the
case to the custody of her parents. District Attorney Pat Head said the
decision was made after hearing testimony describing her as an honor
roll student and competitive cheerleader with no history of discipline
problems, that girl is believed to only have taken part in baking the
cake, but not distributing it to classmates. The father of the other
East Cobb Middle School student said Thursday his daughter has a mild
form of autism that sometimes causes her to make inappropriate
statements and makes it difficult to relate to others.
Bad Cake GirlsTwo
13-year-old girls accused of serving poisoned cake to their classmates
made their first appearance in Cobb County Juvenile Court on
The father said his daughter was diagnosed this summer with Asperger's
syndrome, and that doctors told him the girl should not be in a
conventional school setting. Asperger's is an autism-related condition
characterized by social and communication deficiencies. He said his
daughter did not mean to harm anyone with the cake. "It was a horrible
prank that went too far and a lot of people have suffered," the father
told The Associated Press. The man asked that he not be identified by
name to protect his daughter. Some of the students started vomiting
after eating the cake in the school cafeteria Tuesday. Eleven students,
mostly seventh-graders, were treated at a hospital and released. The
father said the two girls began playing around in the kitchen Tuesday
after growing bored. "It was not any kind of malicious intent," he
said. "They thought it would be funny. They know it's not funny now."
Police said they are baffled as to why the girls would bring a poisoned
cake to school. "At this point we don't have any motive," said Cpl.
Dana Pierce, a police spokesman. "That's part of the mystery." School
system spokesman Jay Dillon said the girls apparently did not target
anyone in particular when they offered it to classmates. "They were
offering the cake to anyone who would take it," he told the newspaper.
Dillon said regardless of the outcome in court, the girls face long
suspensions and possibly could be expelled.
Previous Stories:
Penn Professor Charged
With Rape
Professor Under
Investigation Since November
POSTED: 8:58 p.m. EDT April 30, 2003
PHILADELPHIA -- University of Pennsylvania
professor Tracy McIntosh has been charged with raping a 23-year-old
woman. Police say he took a family
friend to dinner back in September. Then they went back to his office
in Hayden Hall, where he allegedly provided marijuana and raped her. The incident has been under investigation since
it was reported in November. McIntosh continued to teach until last
week when he put on leave.
McIntosh 's attorney says that
evidence will show that the professor is not guilty. The University of Pennsylvania said in a
statement, "We responded immediately and appropriately when we learned
of the allegations. We conducted an investigation into the matter and
took appropriate action based on the information we were able to
learn." McIntosh has been a
researcher at the Penn since 1992. He was arrested April 24. He's out
on bail and has a preliminary hearing Thursday morning.
Police: Link Possible
Between Philly, Rutgers Rapes
Police In Both
Cities Set To Compare DNA Samples Next Week
POSTED: 3:16 p.m. EDT August 23, 2003
PHILADELPHIA -- A man suspected of raping six
women near the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick may be
linked to rapes in Philadelphia, police said Friday. 
Police in Philadelphia and New
Brunswick, N.J., are are comparing notes and DNA samples to see if the
man who sexually attacked the women at Rutgers raped and killed a
medical student in Philadelphia.
Police in Philadelphia are seeking
information about a suspect who is wanted in connection with the July
13 rape and murder of Rebecca Park while she was jogging in
Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. Police
have linked this suspect by DNA with at least one other rape that
targeted a 21-year-old woman jogging on Fairmount Park's Kelly Drive on
April 30. This suspect (pictured in
sketch, at left) is described as a Latino man in his late 20s to early
30s, with an olive complexion, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing
150 pounds. He is described as having a medium build, short tight curly
hair, a thin mustache, a hoop earring in his left ear. He also
reportedly speaks broken English. At
Rutgers, the suspect's description is similar, and police say there
were similarities in the incidents in Philadelphia and in New
Brunswick. The man also reportedly
apologized to one or more of his victims after the crimes, both in New
Brunswick, and Philadelphia, police say. DNA samples from both police departments will be compared
sometime next week.
St. John's Takes Action
In Rape Case
One Player Expelled
POSTED: 6:45 am GMT February 6, 2004
QUEENS, N.Y. -- St. John's expelled one player
and permanently suspended two others from its men's basketball program
Thursday as a result of the rape allegations against them in
Pittsburgh. The announcement was
made in a statement on the school's Web site. "Although Pittsburgh police officials have not filed any
charges against any basketball team member, St. John's has determined
that the conduct of three players was inconsistent with the University
mission and values, as well as a violation of team rules," the school
said.
Senior Grady Reynolds, having been
involved in a previous disciplinary matter, was expelled, while the
school will seek the expulsion, pending a hearing, of leading scorer
Elijah Ingram, a sophomore, and senior Abraham Keita. Two other players, Lamont Hamilton and Mohammed
Diakite, have been suspended from the team pending a further
investigation into the matter, while Tyler Jones faces disciplinary
action from head coach Kevin Clark. Meanwhile,
the alleged victim, Sherri Ann Urbanek-Bach, 38, of Astoria N.Y., was
charged with making fictitious reports to police as well as attempted
extortion and prostitution. Other
members from the team are under investigation for rape following an
incident that occurred early Thursday morning. Pittsburgh police are investigating an incident
which took place in the Westin Convention Center Hotel. The group of
St. John's players met Urbanek-Bach at an adult nightclub in McKees
Rocks, according to a statement from Commander Maurita Bryant released
Thursday afternoon. The alleged
rape came after Pittsburgh dominated St. John's, 71-51, Wednesday night
at the Petersen Events Center. No charges have been filed by police. Ingram is averaging 13.2 points and 3.7 rebounds
per game for the Red Storm, who are 5-14 this season. St. John's also
is the only team in the Big East without a conference win (0-8).
Teen Accused Of Raping
2-Year-Old Stepsister
Family Member
Witnesses Alleged Attack
POSTED: 8:23 pm EST February 15, 2004
UPDATED: 8:30 am EST February 16, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- On Monday morning, a 13-year-old
boy is in custody and accused of raping his 2-year-old stepsister in
South Philadelphia.
Police said they believe the little
girl's father caught the teen in the act. Neighbors interviewed by NBC 10's Beth McDonough reacted to
the crime that allegedly happened over the weekend. "That's a baby," said Ina Owens. "I got a niece
that's 2 years old. ... I wouldn't let nobody near that child." Investigators are not revealing too much
information about the incident because the suspect is a minor, and so
is the victim. But authorities do
confirm that a family member witnessed the alleged attack and called
the police. The girl was treated at
a local hospital. She is back home with her family. The stepbrother is being held in a youth center
and awaits a hearing Monday.
College Basketball
Recruit From Philly Accused Of Dorm Rape
Incoming Freshmen
From Baltimore, Philadelphia Face First-Degree Rape Charges
POSTED: 3:10 pm EDT September 2, 2004
UPDATED: 3:29 pm EDT September 2, 2004
MORRISVILLE, N.Y. -- Two basketball recruits at
a college in New York state have been arrested and accused of raping a
student in her dorm. The two
incoming freshmen are roommates at Morrisville State College and live
in the same residence hall as the woman alleging rape. They have been
suspended from the school pending a campus judicial proceeding. Donta Ridley, 19, of Baltimore, and Eric Lawton,
21, of Philadelphia, were arraigned Wednesday on first-degree rape
charges.
A school spokeswoman said the
suspects threatened to harm the woman's boyfriend if she didn't have
sex with them. Ridley and Lawton
were recruited to play on the college basketball team, though neither
had officially made the team yet.
Boy Claims He Was
Sexually Harassed By Other Students
Mother Says Teacher
Should Be Disciplined
POSTED: 5:29 pm EST December 15, 2003
UPDATED: 5:46 pm EST December 15, 2003
PHILADELPHIA -- A 10-year-old boy at a
Philadelphia elementary school claims he was almost sexually assaulted
inside a school bathroom. Now,
police investigators and the boy's mother have different opinions on
what really happened. School
officials are still investigating the allegations, and they have taken
action against at least two boys involved in the incident. But the
10-year-old boy's mother said that she also wants his teacher
disciplined.
"I feel that the teacher and these
children should be punished," said Sharon Veney. According to Veney, last Friday three students
at Bryant Elementary School threatened to rape her 10-year-old son and
two friends. "He said there were
three boys. They came inside the bathroom and they held him and they
said, 'We should rape you.' And he said, 'Get off of me,'" Veney said
her son reported. The 10-year-old
said that he and his two friends were threatened that if they didn't
perform a sex act on the boys they would put their heads in the toilet.
The boy said he and his friends fought and got away. He told his mother
that he reported the incident to a teacher and she told him to sit in
his seat. "This is the teacher and
she should have reported it. These same children walked into the class
and threatened him and said, 'If you tell, we're going to beat you up
after school,'" Veney said. Police
said the teacher reported the incident to police Friday and that Monday
police met with school officials and the children involved. Police have
dropped their investigation. However, two of the students who were
allegedly involved -- two 6th graders -- were suspended. The length of suspension has not been
determined. A spokesperson with the school district said they are still
investigating how the teacher handled the incident. In the meantime,
they have sent letters home to all of the parents of students at the
school to explain what happened.
La Salle Basketball
Players Held For Trial On Rape Charges
Woman Says Two Men
Raped Her While She Vomited
POSTED: 4:02 pm EDT August 26, 2004
UPDATED: 8:41 pm EDT August 26, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- The woman who told police that
two La Salle basketball players raped her on campus this summer said
Thursday that she was vomiting in a sink when both men sexually
assaulted her at the same time. The
woman, a 19-year-old college player from Connecticut, testified at the
pretrial hearing in Philadelphia, when a judge held Michael Cleaves and
Gary Neal for trial. The defense
lawyers for the players, who have since withdrawn from La Salle, could
not immediately be reached for comment.
In court, the defense argued that
the case was about the woman's regret, not of rape. The woman said that
she was in and out of consciousness after drinking about eight shots. The woman said that after drinking the shots,
she and other women working at a summer basketball camp ran into the
male players, who were taking summer classes. She said that she started feeling sick and went to the
players' room when they offered her pretzels to settle her stomach. Neal, 19, and Cleaves, 22, are free on bail
pending a scheduled Sept. 16 arraignment.
Student Allegedly
Planned To Kill, Rape 19 People
Police Said Boy Had
Drawn Up Hit List
POSTED: 4:58 p.m. EDT October 24, 2003
A
local high school student is accused of threatening to rape and kill
classmates and teachers after officials allegedly found a hit list on
his computer.
Officials in Spring Township say the
17-year-old boy was suspended from school and then arrested by police
after the alleged threats made to teachers and students at Wilson High
School in West Lawn, Pa.
"The threats were to kill people,"
said police Officer Jim Surgeoner. "There were threats to sexually
assault females." The school
district also has sent a letter home to parents alerting them to the
terroristic threats. Police found
out about the chilling letter from another student who happened on it
when he clicked on the icon of a classroom computer. Sources said the letter was a sort of hit list,
naming 19 people, including classmates and teachers, as targets. Police say the 17-year-old student was
officially charged with making terroristic threats. The student is not
in school anymore, and he will be in court next month.
"It's weird because you don't expect
anybody to do that in our school," said student Matt Franklin. "But I
guess it happens everywhere." "In
today's world you have to take everything seriously," said school
Superintendent Lee Fredericks. "Parents are concerned that once their
children are out of their homes, that they're being cared for. That's
our responsibility, to make sure that's happening." Police were not identifying the student because
he is a minor.
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