Free Republic

The Southern Poverty Law Center said Thursday that it had fired its co-founder and chief trial lawyer, Morris Dees, after nearly a half-century, during which he helped build the organization into a fearsome powerhouse that focused on hate crimes and with an endowment that approached half a billion dollars. The group’s president, Richard Cohen, did not give a specific reason for the dismissal of Mr. Dees, 82, on Wednesday. But Mr. Cohen said in a statement that as a civil-rights group, the S.P.L.C. was “committed to ensuring that the conduct of our staff reflects the mission of the organization and...

A Mexican national who records show has been deported from the U.S. four times was arrested Saturday for allegedly fondling a 9 year-old Texas girl. According to the Parker County sheriff’s office, 35 year-old Israel Andrade allegedly broke into a Springtown, Tex. home around 6 a.m. and molested the young girl while her family was asleep, WFAA reports. Following the attack, the girl ran screaming to wake her parents. Andrade allegedly stole the family’s computer and their cell phones, forcing the girl’s mother to have to call 911 from a nearby convenience store. According to Fox DFW, footprints led police...

Teacher faces trial in secret tapings By Malaika Fraley, STAFF WRITER REDWOOD CITY — Investigators found images of 3-year-olds engaged in sex acts with adults on former Central Middle School teacher Neal Sato's computer, a San Carlos police detective said. The detective's graphic testimony at the former middle school P.E. teacher's preliminary hearing Friday caused the mother of one of 11 girls Sato is accused of covertly videotaping while they undressed to gasp in horror. Detective Marti Overton was the only witness at the hearing where Judge John Runde ruled there is enough evidence to bring Sato, 34, to trial...

The victims were among the most vulnerable. Their plight brought one hospital official to tears and drew flashes of anger from another yesterday as they described a horrifying case of child molestation and pornography at Children's Convalescent Hospital. A 54-year-old respiratory therapist has been arrested on 40 counts of possession, manufacture and distribution of child pornography and two counts of lewd and lascivious acts on two children under 14. In all, the charges involve nine children. A cell phone allegedly was used to take photographs of bedridden children at the 59-bed convalescent center, which is part of the Children's Hospital...

CHULA VISTA – A 49-year-old high school English teacher has been arrested on suspicion of child molestation and jailed on $1 million bail, authorities said. Diego Davalos was arrested by sheriff's deputies Wednesday after classes on the Chula Vista High School campus. He is facing three counts of lewd or lascivious acts with force involving a child under 14 years old and is scheduled to be arraigned today. Sheriff's Sgt. James Bovet said Davalos is suspected of molesting family members in Jacumba, where Davalos had lived, starting in the late 1980s and continuing until 2002. "None of these charges are...

A former Rock Bridge High School teacher pleaded guilty today to molestation for sexually touching a 16-year-old student last summer while the two were on school property. Burke Judy Burke, 51, of Hartsburg received a six-month suspended sentence and was placed on two years of supervised probation after she admitted that she touched the teenager’s penis through his clothes. The former special education teacher was taken to the Boone County Jail, where conditions of her probation require a 30-day stay. However, Burke will most likely be released after 15 days and serve the remainder of her jail time on home...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A local church raised money to post bond for a choir director who is accused of molesting two boys, upsetting the boys' mother and surprising police, RTV6's Jack Rinehart reported Monday. The Refuge Temple Revival Center raised more than $5,000 during a yard sale last week to free 28-year-old Oshea Otis from jail. Otis, the son of the church's pastor, had been arrested Aug. 11 and is charged with molesting two boys over an 18-month period at the pastor's home. The boys' mother, a former member of the church who spoke to RTV6 on condition of anonymity, said...

TEXAS CITY, Texas -- Some parents were up in arms Friday after 10 students were strip-searched for a missing $10 bill at an award-winning charter school in Texas. The incident happened Thursday at Mainland Preparatory Academy near Texas City, The Galveston County Daily News reported. Principal Wilma Green said seven girls and three boys -- ages 11 and 12 -- had been in study hall when they were told to strip to their underwear. She said the boys were sent off with a male teacher and the girls with a female teacher for the searches. Green said the disrobing was...

Figure in Michael Jackson Case Says Threatened Thu Jan 22, 9:19 PM ET By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The boy Michael Jackson (news) is accused of molesting badly needs a kidney transplant and his mother is keeping him away from news about the sensational case for fear of triggering a relapse of his cancer, a family friend said on Thursday. Jamie Masada, owner of the Laugh Factory comedy club on the Sunset Strip, also told reporters at a news conference that the ailing teenager's mother had been threatened during visits to Jackson's Neverland Valley Ranch before the...

Sex assault suspect beaten in jail 07/18/2002 Associated Press Hampton Police Dept. photo Linwood Rainey was beaten by inmates in the Hampton jail, police say. (Hampton-AP) -- Six inmates at the Hampton jail are charged with maiming after an inmate charged with sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl was stomped and beaten. Police say inmates in the same cellblock attacked 42-year-old Linwood Rainey in a common area after one of them asked him if he was the man in the news for a sexual assault. Rainey was charged with forcible sodomy on Friday. Rainey was beaten on his face, head and...

Random Thoughts on Boston, Palm Beach and Related Matters One priest's take on scandal, scrutiny and accountability BOSTON - Recent judicial proceedings in Boston have returned public attention to the scandal of priests sexually abusing children and of inadequate and inappropriate responses from bishops to that crime. In the weeks of intense public scrutiny of the Church surrounding the Geoghan case, many voices of criticism have been raised to suggest that the discipline of celibacy is the reason why so many priests become sexually active in sinful and even criminal ways. This is most emphatically not the case, and the...