Posted on 02/15/2005 7:59:37 AM PST by HMFIC
LOS ANGELES Seven members of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (search), including two teachers, were arrested in Southern California and charged with allegedly planning to travel to Mexico to have sex with boys, authorities said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Irwin
Educational choice: Home schooling or Homo schooling.
Teacher arrested on trip for teen sex
Photo Gallery
Steven K. Irvin
Tools
Print this article
E-mail this article
Subscribe to this paper
Larger / Smaller Text
By Michael Hasch
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
A special education teacher at Carrick High School was one of seven men arrested in California over the weekend after authorities in Los Angeles accused them of planning a five-day trip to Mexico to have sex with teenage boys.
Steven K. Irvin, 46, of Voskamp Street, North Side, was arrested Saturday by the FBI as he placed his luggage on a boat he believed was going to take him to Ensenada for several days of "bed, boys and breakfast," according to an affidavit of probable cause released Monday.
Irvin has been with the Pittsburgh Public Schools for about 10 years, and previously taught at Arsenal Middle School in Lawrenceville, said Sherman Shrager, vice president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.
Irvin, who is charged with interstate travel for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with a minor, is a member of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, the affidavit states. The organization, known as NAMBLA, advocates sex between men and boys.
Irvin and six other men are accused of making arrangements with an undercover agent to travel to Mexico to engage in sexual relations with minors, said Richard T. Garcia, assistant director in charge of the FBI in Los Angeles. An eighth man involved in the case is charged with distributing child pornography.
Irvin is the only defendant from the Northeast.
According to the affidavit, Irvin -- whose e-mail name is "gypsywisdom" -- told the undercover agent that he made a similar trip to Santo Domingo about 15 years ago and had "one of the best times of my life."
The arrests were made after an investigation by the Southern California Regional Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team, a multiagency child exploitation task force.
According to the affidavit:
After the FBI created an undercover travel company purporting to make arrangements for individuals interested in traveling to Mexico to engage in sex with minors, an undercover agent met Irvin and others on Nov. 13 at a NAMBLA conference in Florida.
The agent told them about the boat trip to Ensenada, about 70 miles south of San Diego.
"The beauty is we go by boat ... and avoid customs and inquiring eyes," the agent told them.
Irvin sent the agent an e-mail on Dec. 31 stating: "I just keep smiling. Really looking forward to the trip. Went to Santo Domingo several years ago with someone from the conference and had one great time. One of the best times of my life. ... I am so happy I was invited along."
Irvin told the agent in another e-mail that he attended NAMBLA conventions in the late 1980s and got away from it because, as a teacher, he "didn't need the problems."
When asked what age of teens he preferred in Ensenada, Irvin sent an e-mail saying, "Uhm I would say 14 to, oh around 14." In another e-mail, he stated: "12 to 18, anywhere in there."
Irvin, who told undercover agents he lives with a woman, also sent an e-mail saying he is interested in boys for "light sex."
He arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, stayed at a hotel in nearby Marina del Rey and went the next morning to a boat in a local marina, where he was arrested when he put his luggage on the craft.
Irvin, who started out as a substitute teacher in the district in 1994, has received half pay since going on a study sabbatical on Feb. 2, said Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman Pat Crawford.
"We are going to cooperate fully with the investigation," Crawford said. "It's very important to us. It's very important to the future of Pittsburgh Public Schools."
School police Chief Robert Fadzen said there is "absolutely no indication" that any students from the school district are involved.
FBI agents searched Irvin's home on Saturday.
School board member Jean Fink, whose district includes Carrick, said: "The FBI wanted to look in his computer for child pornography and that kind of stuff."
Fink said Irvin has been at Carrick High School for about a year, adding, "I know he got good evaluations."
J. Kaye Cupples, executive director of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Program for Students with Exceptionalities, declined to comment.
Carrick Principal Luke Holzen also would not comment.
"It's a total shock," Shrager said. "I hope (the allegations are) not true."
Craig Poljak, 27, a 1995 graduate of Carrick, said he, his girlfriend and her 5-year-old son live near the high school.
"It's very disturbing," Poljak said. "Who knows what could happen with these kids? That really irritates me."
Not sure about other states, but background checks are already part of the cost right now in CA. Notice that the two teachers in this group are "special ed" and a "sub", not full-time classroom - that probably helped them get beneath the radar a bit.
Background checks can only do so much, really. When you can have cops go bad and commit cold-blooded murder (e.g., the Craig Peyer case her in San Diego), it seems almost inevitable that a few scumbags will slip through the filters and checks in the educational system as well. We just have to stay vigilant and listen to our kids.
I've often wondered if the authorities didn't let them exist to act as a sort of honey pot.
Excuse me, but I think that's a bit far...
I do NOT support enfranchising crooks.
In TX they are investigated. They is a criminal and reference backgound check.
>> "Where is George Bush on this subject now?" <<
How about giving credit to the FBI for taking some of these perverts off the street.
Absolutely revolting, but part of the Homosexual, pro gay-marriage, anti-Christian, water-down-traditional marriage and relationships agenda...
Check this site out.....very interesting. They are doing stellar work against paedophile wannabes on the net:
http://perverted-justice.com/
Great bunch of people...they even refuse to take any donations. P.S.: I have no affiliation with this site.....
I agree. Some Libertarians will quietly speak of entrapment, but these sickos (the NAMBLA bunch) are out to destroy families and society.
thanks for the names. now if they can be printed in the LA times????
thanks for the names. now if they can be printed in the LA times????
The FBI arrested Phillip Todd Calvin, 43, of Dallas. Calvin, who is married with two children, has a thriving dental practice in the Dallas suburb of Lakewood and now faces serious charges of traveling across state lines to have sex with a minor.
Calvin is known to many in Dallas as the "singing dentist" because of his musical past as well as his penchant for singing while at work.
An undercover FBI agent said he met with Calvin and several other men at a convention for the North American Man/Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA. The FBI said he spoke to them about their lifestyle, including trips they'd taken to Acapulco and Southeast Asia to have relations with boys.
The agent then volunteered to make arrangements for a trip to Mexico, and that is what the led to the arrest of the men.
Also arrested on a boat dock on Harbor Island in San Diego, Calif., were David Corey Mayer, 49, of Chicago and Paul Ernest Zipszer, 38, of Deland, Fla.
"This investigation was part of an undercover operation for the past year in which a San Diego FBI agent became a trusted member of an organization known as NAMBLA," said Daniel R. Dzwilewski, the special agent in charge of the San Diego Division of the FBI.
On Saturday, the FBI executed a search warrant and searched the Lakewood home that Calvin shared with his wife and two children.
Calvin remains in a San Diego jail.
It's against the law to plan to leave the country and have sex with boys?!
This is a textbook example of conspiracy to commit a crime. Even with my libertarian leanings, I have no problems with busting criminals as they're getting ready to commit a crime.
LOL
who the hell would be so stupid as to FORM such an organization and how do they find people stupid enough to become MEMBERS?
geez- your just begging to be arreested.
Is there an actual member list? meetings? dues? Why can we round them up and arrest them all?
If you and 6 of your buddies make plans to rob a bank...It's a crime. ~ Drango
As long as you just talk it's legal. The instant any one of you take any action. Look at a map, case da joint, procure a disguise, etc. it becomes a conspiracy.
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.