Free Republic

LARGO — This is what the world saw: An emergency medical technician from Kansas who lived with his mother in a tidy brick house, where he helped her care for a 14-year-old boy. A stay-at-home dad who lived with his wife in California and built a jungle gym next to his home for the couple's two adopted children, 6 and 8. A puppeteer in Florida who performed in community centers, schools and churches and hosted kids-only pizza parties every Wednesday in his mobile home. Bruce Foucart, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, saw something else....

Two people were in custody Wednesday in connection with what authorities say is "some of the worst child pornography" that has been seized in Johnson County in at least 35 years. The case involves a 7-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, and Johnson County investigators will be serving search warrants elsewhere in Texas and in other states to find other possible victims, said Johnson County sheriff's Lt. Tim Jones. The man and woman in custody are accused of photographing themselves having sex with the children. The couple knew each other, Jones said. . . "The sheriff [Bob Alford] has...

After a 2009 state recommendation that Duval County schools remove a teacher from vulnerable students, he was reassigned to another elementary school. Last week he was arrested on six sexual charges against a child. One of the problems: neither the state nor the school district defined “vulnerable student population.” And Monday, the state Department of Children and Families put the responsibility for defining the phrase squarely on the Duval County Public Schools. Christopher Robert Bacca, Windy Hill Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year, was charged with three counts of sexual battery against a child under 12 and one count...

CRYSTAL, Minn. - A 44-year-old Minneapolis man faces multiple charges after he tried to contact members of the Crystal Little League via Facebook, according to the Crystal Police Department. "I was on my son's facebook and noticed a message from this person," said Marcie, a mother of a little leauge ballplayer in Crystal. "He had sent my son a message asking to go to a movie at the Mall of America." It was Marcie that helped tip off police. On Monday, Marcie, along with the league's safety officer reached out to police after noticeing the same man had contacted...

'I'm not protecting anyone that made my life a living hell': Teen faces jail time after lashing out on Twitter and naming the boys who sexually assaulted her. 17-year-old sexual assault victim is facing a jail sentence for tweeting the names of her attackers in anger at their light punishment. Savannah Dietrich named and shamed the boys on the social messaging site, writing: 'There you go, lock me up. I'm not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell.' The Louisville, Kentucky teen told The Courier-Journal she was frustrated by what she feels is a lenient deal for her...

SALT LAKE CITY — A GOP activist who prosecutors say kidnapped and raped women that he met online and at church functions has been arrested and charged with 23 felonies. He appears to have targeted mostly LDS young adult women. Gregory Nathan Peterson, 37, of Orem, was charged Wednesday with seven counts of rape, three counts of object rape, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, nine counts of forcible sexual abuse, forcible sodomy, assault, burglary and sexual battery. Peterson is a GOP activist who held political events at his cabin in Heber City, 10160 E. Ridge Pine Drive, the same place...

PORTLAND – Court documents obtained by KGW Tuesday outline details of the kidnapping, stabbing and strangling of a 10-year-old boy in a restaurant’s restroom. According to the affidavit, the victim's family was on the way home from from a camping trip and got a flat tire, which was why they stopped. They initially parked at the Les Schwab next door to the Wendy's, but the store wasn't open. Then, they boy walked over to the Wendy's on Northeast Sandy Blvd. to go to the restroom, while an older cousin waited outside. Charges filed into court allege Adam Brown, 49,...

November 2012 Statewide Ballot Measures Proposition 30 Initiative Constitutional Amendment 1578. (12-0009) - Final Random Sample Update - 06/20/12 Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Qualified: 06/20/12 Proponent: Thomas A. Willis c/o Karen Getman (510) 346-6200 Increases personal income tax on annual earnings over $250,000 for seven years. Increases sales and use tax by ¼ cent for four years. Allocates temporary tax revenues 89 percent to K-12 schools and 11 percent to community colleges. Bars use of funds for administrative costs, but provides local school governing boards discretion to decide, in open meetings...

Police say they arrested 66-year-old Larry Brinkin, the high-profile gay activist, on possession of child pornography on Friday night.

Since October 2011, El Centro [CA] Sector Border Patrol agents have arrested 23 criminal sex offenders illegally in the country, according to a press release. All were apprehended near Calexico and are all males with prior felony convictions for sex offenses such as sexual intercourse with a child, rape and sodomy. Many have extensive criminal histories, and all were presented for prosecution on federal immigration charges. Five of those sex offenders, all Mexican nationals, have been convicted and sentenced for illegally entering the United States after being previously removed. They are Filemon Jaimes-Rios who was given six months jail time...

(CNN) -- A new Louisiana law requires sex offenders and child predators to state their criminal status on their Facebook or other social networking page, with the law's author saying the bill is the first of its kind in the nation. State Rep. Jeff Thompson, a Republican from Bossier City, Louisiana, says his new law, effective August 1, will stand up to constitutional challenge because it expands sex offender registration requirements, common in many states, to include a disclosure on the convicted criminal's social networking sites as well. Thompson, an attorney and a father of a 13-year-old daughter and 9-year-old...

Since February, workers hired by a union to picket First Baptist Church of Dandridge have held up a sign reading, "Shame on Pastor Brown," to protest nonunion workers building a new addition at the church. Each day the church's pastor, Dr. Robert Brown, waved at the men and waved off the criticism they leveled at him and the church. On Friday, Jefferson County Sheriff G.W. "Bud" McCoig arrested the two men and charged them with violating the sex offender registry act. "It's hard to miss the irony, isn't it?" Brown said. "I've said to several folks that I've done a...

PUYALLUP, Wash. -- A controversial state law that prevents school districts from warning parents about student sex offenders is drawing criticism with news that a 19-year-old sex offender allegedly raped a fellow student near Vancouver. After news broke about the Vancouver incident, more parents came forward to say they had discovered sex offenders in their children's schools. Kathleen Britt said she was sad and horrified when she learned about the recent attack on a Clark County campus. The shocking news reminded the Puyallup mom of her own horror upon learning that her daughter was also going to school with...

Federal Sex-Offenders to Tap N.J. Transit for Treatment AccessBREAKING NEWS: Your Tax Dollars Give Sex Offenders Free Ride...While Sitting Right Next to You. The Revered Review, April 12 A new batch of federal sex offenders soon will receive treatment in Newark — and New Jersey Transit (NJT) rail and bus lines specifically will carry the ex-convicts in and out of the city, courtesy U.S. taxpayers... An estimated 21,120 trips could be taken by such predators during that time, factoring in the BOP’s prediction that an increasing number of sex offenders could receive treatment each year through 2017... This sex offender...

This site is a good tool to check for lowlifes in your neighborhood.

The Lord may be forgiving. Sex offender laws? Not so much. A Baptist church in Jacksonville has hired a registered sex offender as its new pastor, but because a court has ruled the he's not allowed to have "unsupervised contact with children under 18 years old," the church has decided to ban kids from its Sunday services. Back in 2009, Darrell Gilyard pleaded guilty to charges of lewd conduct and lewd molestation according to News4Jax.com. At the time Gilyard was a pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church. His victims were female members of his congregation under 18. He molested one 15-year-old...

RICHMOND, Va. — Having already served their sentences, hundreds of Virginia sex offenders are held behind bars for months — some for years — while waiting to see whether they'll be sent to a psychiatric center indefinitely, an Associated Press review has found. Judges acting on the requests of both prosecutors and defense attorneys routinely shrug off the legal deadline for making that decision, leaving the inmates in limbo well beyond their designated punishment and without access to the very kind of treatment the state says they may need. Attorneys and authorities blame the delays on court backlogs and note...

The General Assembly's investigative arm is set to release its months-long review of Virginia's costly program to indefinitely detain sex offenders considered likely to offend again. Legislators ordered the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to review Virginia's civil commitment program for those deemed sexually violent predators when the program experienced budget shortfalls due to the dramatic increase in offenders committed for treatment after their release from prison

NEW YORK (AP) — On "Saturday Night Live," even the devil was offended by the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. "SNL" cast member Jason Sudeikis reprised his role as Satan, appearing with red horns and pitchfork. The devil was informed by "Weekend Update" host Seth Meyers of sex charges against a former defensive coordinator and allegations that university officials failed to report the abuse. Even he was disturbed by the news. Addressing Penn State students who protested football coach Joe Paterno's firing, the devil spoke directly into the camera, asking, "Do you know how bad that made you look?"...

The two most talked about scandals this week have a lot in common. The sexual harassment allegations being made against Herman Cain expose a peculiar phenomenon also present in the scandal of Penn State icon Joe Paterno. Although both of these men are being accused of despicable behavior, people have rallied to their sides as if they are unfortunate victims. The revelation that Paterno, an icon in the sport of college football, had knowledge that his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was allegedly sexually abusing boys should have been devastating to the students at Penn State. These students should have...