Posted on 02/23/2006 5:45:23 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Two plead guilty in man-boy sex case
FBI sting led to several arrests
By Onell R. Soto STAFF WRITER
February 23, 2006
Two members of a group advocating sexual relationships between men and boys pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court yesterday to sex-tourism charges.
Phillip Todd Calvin, 44, a Dallas dentist, and Paul Ernest Zipszer, 40, a personal trainer from Deltona, Fla., were arrested in San Diego a year ago in a sting initiated by an FBI agent who infiltrated the North American Man/Boy Love Association, also known as NAMBLA.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors asked a federal judge to sentence the men to no more than two years in prison followed by 12 years of supervised release, a condition similar to parole.
A third man arrested in the case, David Cory Mayer, 50, a Chicago flight attendant and psychologist, remains in custody without bail. A judge has not set a trial date.
Mayer's lawyer is arguing before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller that NAMBLA is a political organization protected by constitutional freedoms of speech and association, and that federal agents illegally infiltrated it to “instigate” crimes.
Lawyer Benjamin Coleman also is arguing that the undercover San Diego FBI agent who joined NAMBLA and attended two conventions had no probable cause to suspect criminal activity and shouldn't have been allowed to join.
Prosecutor Anne Perry said the agent acted appropriately.
The now-retired agent, Robert Hamer, testified yesterday that he joined NAMBLA in 2001 while investigating a Los Angeles travel agency suspected of arranging trips to Thailand for men seeking sex with children.
Hamer said he wanted to understand the mind-set of such men in order to better impersonate one.
“We were not investigating NAMBLA,” he said.
Hamer said that as part of his membership, he participated in a program in which the organization sends holiday cards to incarcerated members and attended a convention in New York City.
In 2004, he attended a convention in Miami, where he talked to several members about traveling overseas for sex with boys.
Eventually, seven men signed up with a bogus travel agency the FBI set up and arranged a trip to Ensenada. They were arrested as they prepared to board ships in San Diego and Los Angeles, according to court documents.
An Orange County man also was arrested on child-pornography charges by Los Angeles agents in connection with the investigation.
Four of the five men charged in Los Angeles pleaded guilty, with the longest sentence being 14 years in prison. The fifth man was convicted by a jury and has not been sentenced.
Onell Soto: (619) 293-1280; onell.soto@uniontrib.com
My hat is off to the FBI agent who went undercover to bust these creeps.
He must have had to scrub himself under scalding hot water everyday that he came home from work.
I hope that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are setting up more undercover stings to catch these perverts.
They should be put down like an aggressive, rabid dog.
OMG - don't you know that was an unpleasant asignmnet....
>>sting initiated by an FBI agent who infiltrated the North American Man/Boy Love Association, also known as NAMBLA<<
Maybe they thought they were at the National Association of Marlon Brando Look Alikes convention.
I had the same thought. Guess he drew the short straw on that one.
If I travel to Asia and set off the more powerful fireworks available to the public there, will I be arrested by the BATF when I come back?
An FBI bump indeed
They conspired on US territory to commit a crime and took an actual step toward completing the crime (boarding a vessel bound for their sex tourist destination). That is enough under federal law to establish a criminal conspiracy over which the US has jurisdiction. It is not a crime to explode fireworks, so you won't be arrested by BATF if you "conspire" to do so abroad and take an actual step toward the completion of such. My fee for this smart legal opinion: $100. When can I expect payment?
there is a fairly recent federal law making "sex-tourism" involving children illegal, no matter where the perv hies off to to do it, period.
From the HBO stand-up comedy special, "The Raw Deal". It's a few years old, but I never forgot that line....lol.
Therefore, if I board a plane for Holland, so that I can smoke pot and partake in prostitution, I can be arrested by US authorities?
That is my point though, in that the US is trying to establish its jurisdiction beyond its borders.
You take what you can get when it comes to prosecuting this stuff. If you wait until the perps actually do find children to use you've waited too long. If you pop them on the basis of an expressed opinion you haven't waited long enough. And there may not be a great deal of time between the two.
LOL and still laughing
Planning for your next vacation?
No. Don't need to go to Europe to do those things. 'Medicinal' marijuana can be had in California and prostitutes can be had in Nevada.
Both of those activities are legal in Holland. Child prostitution is not legal in Ensenada, Mexico, where these NAMBLA guys were headed. As another poster pointed out, there are new federal laws against child sex tourism. I believe the statute provides that a US citizen having sexual relations with anyone under sixteen in a foreign country is prosecutable in the US. This is relevant as a few countries have age of consent laws with a minimum age of 12. And a US citizen having sex for money with anyone under 18 anywhere is prosecutable under the new law. The new statute gets around the sometimes difficult aspect of trying to prove a conspiracy (requiring at least two people with an illegal objective) and an overt manifestation of carrying out the conspiracy. Now don't have too much fun in Holland. I bet it is over-rated.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.