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Cardinal Newman High School officials said Friday they were surprised to hear that former KGO Radio talk show host Bernie Ward allegedly had sexual contact with two Ursuline High School students while he was a priest teaching at the schools.Ward, who pleaded guilty Thursday to distributing child pornography over the Internet, was the subject of a KGO-TV, ABC Channel 7, report Thursday.

Tony the Twister won't be shaping balloons into animals at children's parties anytime soon. Anthony Stelter, who performs for children as Tony the Twister, was charged Monday with repeated sexual assault of a child and, if convicted, faces 25 years to life in prison. But that is not the end of Stelter's problems with the law. The Dane County Sheriff's Office has forwarded information on assaults of two other victims to the Dane County District Attorney's Office. Those charges could be filed this week, and at least two other cases are being looked at for possible charges. At Stelter's initial...

The British government wants to ban convicted pedophiles from using social networking Web sites such as Facebook, the Home Office said Friday. The plan involves forcing sex offenders to give any e-mail address they use to police, who will then ask the Web sites to block their access, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said. Smith said the proposal is aimed at sending out the message that the Internet is ''not a no-go area when it comes to law enforcement.'' ''We are changing the law ... so that we have got better control over the way in which child sex offenders are...

A man who claims that he was molested by Bigfoot as a child was ordered to serve 20 years in prison yesterday for his own molestation-related activities. Gene R. Morrill, 57, of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, had previously pleaded guilty in Stafford Circuit Court to 20 charges stemming from his efforts to solicit 13-year-old boys over the Internet. According to the Freelance Star, Defense Attorney Terrence Patton cited Morrill's mental health issues in seeking leniency from Judge J. Howe Brown. Morrill reportedly told an investigator preparing his pre-sentence report that he had been sexually assaulted by the legendary Bigfoot. Patton...

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A 52-year-old man jumped to his death from a Southern California courthouse balcony hours after being convicted of child molestation, authorities said. Carlos Edward Tello was facing more than 20 years in prison when he jumped from a ninth-floor balcony of the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana Tuesday afternoon. A suicide note was tucked into his clothing, authorities said. A jury in a Fullerton courtroom earlier Tuesday convicted Tello of repeatedly molesting a young girl between 1989 and 1994. Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown tried to have Tello's bail revoked and have him taken...

MARION COUNTY, Fla. -- A man who kidnapped and molested a Marion County boy choked to death in prison. Frederick Fretz died at a federal prison in Atwater, California after choking on a hot dog. In 2005, Fretz kidnapped 11-year-old Adam Kirkirt from Dunellon Elementary School. At the time, he told Kirkirt he was going to take him to his father, who had been arrested in Kentucky. Fretz and the child were later found in Georgia.

A Sunday school teacher at a Chandler church has been arrested on suspicion of molesting a child in his care. Terry Greenwood, 62, of Chandler is accused of forcing a 5-year-old girl to perform oral sex on him last month, according to a police report released Monday. Under questioning by detectives, Greenwood admitted he sexually assaulted the girl twice at Chandler United Methodist Church, 251 W. Chandler Blvd., police said. Greenwood was taken into custody on Dec. 21, the report said. He was booked into jail on suspicion of four counts of child molestation, one count of sexual conduct with...

CHANDLER, Ariz. -- A Sunday school teacher who was arrested on suspicion of molesting a 5-year-old girl at a church blamed his actions on his “high blood pressure,” according to a police report. Terence James Greenwood, 62, a married father of two children, also cast blame on his “medication,” or the possibility he had “mental problems,” the report said. Greenwood faces six felony charges, including child molestation, sexual conduct with a minor and indecent exposure. Greenwood has been a member of the Chandler United Methodist Church for years, but just started helping in the classrooms in September, according to the...

JACKSONVILLE - After 14 years of leading a Jacksonville church, the Rev. Darrell Gilyard had put behind a messy chapter in his life when reports of affairs with church members forced his resignation from a Dallas, Texas-area church. But during the weekend, allegations of sexual misconduct again put a cloud over Gilyard's ministry. Gilyard, 45, took a voluntary paid leave of absence from Shiloh Baptist Church after a mother's report to the sheriff's office that she found obscene text messages on her daughter's cell phone from a phone owned by the preacher. Gilyard, who lives in a gated community and...

BY MICHELLE BRADFORD (nwanews.com) Posted on Saturday, October 6, 2007keeparkansaslegal linkThe first person arrested by Northwest Arkansas’ newly formed immigration task force was charged Friday with a federal crime. Heriberto Gonzalez-Rodriguez, 44, was charged in U. S. District Court in Fayetteville with illegal re-entry by an aggravated felon. He’s being held without bond. A complaint alleges Gonzalez-Rodriguez returned to the United States after being deported to Mexico in 2006. He was arrested Sept. 24 when he went to the Washington County sheriff’s office (before going to the welfare office), to register as a sex offender (he must have been confident...

A former Arlington County youth sports coach and civil rights lawyer who once headed Virginia's American Civil Liberties Union chapter was sentenced today to seven years in federal prison for buying child pornography that prosecutors labeled sadistic and masochistic. Charles Rust-Tierney, 51, pleaded guilty in June to downloading hundreds of pornographic images of children as young as 4. Authorities said Rust-Tierney used a computer in his 11-year-old son's bedroom to view the files, which included a six-minute video that depicted sexual torture of children, set to a song by the rock band Nine Inch Nails.

A former KELOLAND pastor is accused of molesting children in the 1970s and 80s. Rev. Floyd Bacon died in 1997. The South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has recently received a number of complaints from alleged victims of innappropriate sexual contact.  The Synod will not release any information involving the number of victims, what they claim, or for how long the alleged molestation happened. In a written statement, the Synod writes in part: "We have been in contact with victims and have been disclosing information as we can to several congregations. This disclosure is part of...

Board won't bar alleged molester from schools School psychologist won't lose his license. The alleged victim's mother is 'outraged.' By Garrett Therolf, Times Staff Writer June 28, 2007 A former educational psychologist for Los Angeles schools who allegedly molested a boy hundreds of times two decades ago will not lose his state license and will be able to continue working with children. In a terse letter last month, the California Board of Behavioral Sciences informed the alleged victim's mother that it had concluded a nearly yearlong investigation, and no action would be taken against Peter J. Ruthenbeck because the statute...

A convicted sex offender is accused of molesting five boys, including at least one he met on MySpace, police said Friday. Joseph Burkett, 41, of Sound Beach, was arrested Thursday. The police investigation began several weeks ago when officers received an anonymous tip "that an adult male may have a MySpace page and (may) be looking for young boys to sexually exploit," said Suffolk County Police Detective Sgt. John Cowie. Cowie said the tipster, possibly a woman who feared her son was being abused, provided good information when she called and left a message, but some of the details were...

A former president of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union pleaded guilty Friday to federal child pornography charges. 51-year-old Charles Rust-Tierney entered his plea to one count of receipt of child pornography in US District Court in Alexandria. He had been indicted last month on one count each of receipt and possession of child pornography. Prosecutors say from March 2005 until October 2006, Rust-Tierney bought at least five subscriptions to child pornography Web sites and downloaded other illegal materials offered at additional cost. Rust-Tierney, who also coached Little League baseball in Arlington, has been in jail since...

BRUNSWICK, Ga. Three days before young Christopher Michael Barrios disappeared, a child molester suspected in the six-year-old's killing was sentenced to probation instead of prison for violating conditions of Georgia's sex offender registry. The suspect, George David Edenfield, also never served prison time for his 1997 child molestation conviction after he struck a plea deal with prosecutors, according to a review of court records by The Associated Press. Stephen Kelley, district attorney for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, said today that it was not a breakdown in the system -- just a tragic situation. Still, Christopher's father and grandmother blamed the...

Frank D. Atherton appeared in court last month on child molestation charges. What's he going to do now? He's going to Disney World. Atherton, accused in Boone County outside Rockford of sexually assaulting three children under the age of 13, was given approval by a judge Feb. 26 to travel to Florida for a two-week vacation. Then Tuesday, when Atherton provided the court clerk with an itinerary, Associate Judge R. Craig Sahlstrom was called and authorized the 46-year-old felon's plans to spend three days of his trip at Walt Disney World. Atherton's vacation was scheduled to begin Tuesday, court records...

"...The White County school board and the ACLU reportedly have reach a tentative agreement to settle a suit growing out of attempts to for a gay support club at White County High School...The paper, quoting sources close to the matter, says the school board, through its insurance company, has agreed to pay the ACLU $168,000 to cover court costs and another $10,000 to the student plaintiffs...White County must also set up an anti-bullying program at both the high school and the ninth grade academy, according to the report..."

New laws intended to make life safer for children The Ohio legislature dropped the hammer on sex offenders during the two-year session that just ended, particularly on those who prey on kids. Their work culminated last week in the passage of a law that sets tougher mandatory minimum sentences for rapists whose victims are younger than 13. Lawmakers weary of stories about abuse of children, often by repeat offenders, acted in a number of areas. While many of those efforts were already under way, the desire for stronger punishments got a boost in March when a storm erupted over Franklin...

SYLMAR - After learning that 25 registered sex offenders were living in a local motel, Sylmar residents took to the streets, protesting with handmade signs and booming megaphones until state officials relocated the parolees. Now, some say a proposed measure on the Nov. 7 ballot would create similar clusters of sex offenders in communities around California. Proposition 83 - also known as Jessica's Law - would prohibit registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks and similar locations. With communities now striving to make themselves as family-friendly as possible, officials say offenders will find themselves limited to...