Free Republic

There's one name you won't see in any of the stories about Pfleger. It starts with an "O" and ends with an "A". It's funny because those names used to be associated quite a bit. When I broke the Pfleger story back in the day, I called him the white Jeremiah Wright. It was a fitting description because the two men were linked by their ties to Farrakhan and their racist bluster. Obama was forced to cut ties with both Wright and Pfleger. Even though Pfleger used to be Obama's "moral compass". Friends and advisers, such as the Rev. Michael...

A federal lawsuit was filed against social media giant Twitter on Wednesday on behalf of a teenager, who claims that the company waited for days to remove sexually graphic videos of himself and another minor posted to its platform by sex traffickers. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California is done so on behalf of the minor, who is identified in the legal filing as a 16-year-old Florida resident. Withholding the child’s real name for privacy concerns, the plaintiff is referenced in the filing by the name John Doe. Doe is being represented...

While the United States was reeling last week from an utterly chaotic election, the Vatican decided it was the right moment to publish its long-awaited report into disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The mammoth document is a nauseating account of clerical coverup, cowardice, and complicity that prioritizes subtle finger-pointing and deflection over real accountability. Those expecting an explanation of how a serially accused predator was catapulted through the church hierarchy despite serious allegations and rumors of assault and indecent behavior will be left not merely disappointed but disillusioned.Equally unsatisfactory is its failure to disclose the extent to which this highly...

Inside the Vatican Slams McCarrick Report as Exercise in ‘Cover-Up, Evasion, and Scapegoating’ ROME — Veteran Vatican journalist Robert Moynihan blasted the Vatican’s long-awaited “McCarrick Report,” writing Tuesday that the text brings injury and obfuscation rather than healing and clarity.In his scathing review, Moynihan — founder and president of Inside the Vatican — declares that after two years of careful investigations, the 460-page report on former cardinal Theodore McCarrick and his serial homosexual abuse “leaves us still in the ecclesial swamp of cover-up, evasion, and scapegoating of others.”Instead of exploring the true causes of the disgraced former cardinal’s meteoric rise...

A second man has accused Fox News personality and former Judge Andrew Napolitano of sexual abuse, claiming the judge forced him to engage in strange BDSM sex games over the course of a number of years. Napolitano, who faces another sexual abuse lawsuit filed earlier this month, categorically denied the new allegations, calling it a smear campaign. The alleged victim, James Kruzelnick, claims in the suit filed in New Jersey state court that he met Napolitano while working as a waiter at the Mohawk House restaurant in Sparta, NJ, in 2014. During one of his visits, Napolitano allegedly followed Kruzelnick...

A Navarre High School teacher has been arrested after she allegedly had sex with one of her students at the school last summer. Meghan Mary Rodriguez, 37, was arrested Thursday and charged with sexual assault. She was booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail without bond. Rodriguez quit her job with Santa Rosa County School District on May 28, according to Connie Carnley, the school district’s assistant superintendent for human resources. “It was under investigation, and she chose to leave our employment,” Carnley said. According to Rodriguez’s arrest report, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office received an anonymous tip on...

A man from Water Valley, Texas, was sentenced today to serve 60 years in prison for producing hundreds of videos and images of himself sexually abusing a child. Douglas Stephen Groover, 37, was sentenced after pleading guilty in February 2020 to two counts of production of child pornography.  The sentence, which was imposed by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas, also included a lifetime term of supervised release and a restitution award of $53,000. According to court documents, in addition to the hundreds of videos and images he created of himself sexually abusing a minor,...

Many Democrats who once loudly proclaimed that we must believe all women when it comes to sexual assault allegations are now changing their tune. Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a potential vice presidential pick, is one of them. CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Whitmer on Sunday why she believes Joe Biden’s denial of the alleged assault but did not extend the same courtesy to Justice Brett Kavanaugh over allegations from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. “Just because you’re a survivor doesn’t mean that every claim is equal,” she said. “I have read a lot about this current allegation, I know Joe Biden,...

A woman says she was sexually harassed by presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden when she was 14 years old. The woman, Eva Murry, told Law&Crime that Biden complimented her on the size of her breasts at the First State Gridiron Dinner & Show in 2008, a long-running roast of and party for politicians, journalists and prominent business figures held each year in Delaware. Murry says she remembers the event occurring sometime around May of that year. One friend and her sister said that Murry told her details of the alleged incident more or less immediately after it happened....

California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks says he wants to protect victims. Shielding victims from “further damage,” is why he decided to bury the party’s official investigation of the sexual misconduct charges that ended former party chair Eric Bauman’s reign in 2018, he says. Which victims is Hicks talking about? The five former party staff members who filed lawsuits that the party settled for a reported $2.9 million last year? Or the numerous other alleged victims who declined to sue but still demand justice? “In terms of talking about victims or survivors of abuse by Eric Bauman, we’re talking about...

Cardinal George Pell is to be released from prison after he won his appeal, and Australia’s highest court on Tuesday overturned his convictions for child sexual abuse. A full bench of seven judges ruled that Pell’s conviction for child sex abuse should be overturned and he should walk free immediately. They unanimously determined that the jury should have had reasonable doubts as to Pell’s guilt and that the jury had not properly considered all the evidence at his trial. Pell, 78, became the highest-ranking Catholic clergyman worldwide to be imprisoned for child sex offenses after he was arrested in 2018...

TUESDAY, March 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Lesbian, gay and bisexual teens are far more likely than their straight peers to suffer physical and/or sexual violence, new research warns. The warning stems from surveys of nearly 29,000 teens, aged 14 to 18, conducted in 2015 and 2017 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, LGBQ teens (lesbian, gay, bisexual and teens who are questioning their sexuality) face roughly twice the risk of physical violence compared with straight youth, the surveys revealed. And that risk can come from a romantic partner -- or anyone else.

Philip Cerone, 29, of Maywood, is a former teacher's aide serving probation for criminal sexual contact. The victim is suing Cerone and two districts where he worked.Bergen County Prosecutor's Office A 20-year-old woman has sued two school districts in Bergen County claiming she was sexually assaulted by a teacher’s aide and officials at two schools did nothing to intervene. The woman claims Philip Cerone, of Maywood, carried on an illegal relationship with her from April 2016 to October 2017 while she was a student at Hackensack High School and a volunteer under Cerone’s supervision at South Hackensack Memorial School...

A school bus driver accused of sexually assaulting two young Kinnelon students bribed them with candy and donuts so they would not to reveal the months of molestation during daily games of “hide-and-seek” on the bus after they parked outside the school in Morris County, authorities said. Thomas Thomasevich, 70, of Oakland, was arrested Tuesday on charges of sexual assault, child endangerment and multiple counts of neglect. He is being held in the Morris County jail, according to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.The sexual assaults began in October and continued near-daily until one of the girls reported the abuse by...

Planned Parenthood lobbyists may have killed a California bill that would help protect young women from sexual abuse. California Assembly Bill 1030 received bipartisan support when it passed the state Assembly earlier this year. It was written in response to sexual abuse allegations against a University of Southern California (USC) gynecologist who is accused of abusing at least 700 patients in the past 30 years. The bill is informed consent legislation. It would ensure first-time gynecological patients understand what is supposed to happen during a pelvic examination and provide contact information to report abuses. Despite seemingly strong support, the bill...

(TNS) Under the guise of “protecting LGBTQ” individuals, a group of California Democrats has introduced legislation that would protect adult sexual offenders who prey upon minors. If you were wondering why we refer to Democrats as the Garbage Party, this is yet another of the many reasons. As reported by the California Globe: State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton) introduced recent legislation “to end blatant discrimination against LGBT young people regarding California’s sex offender registry.” However, under their bill, SB 145, the offenders would not have to automatically register as sex offenders if the offenders...

Author Ronan Farrow in an interview Friday with ABC News said he has seen a paper trail of documents that show "multiple secret settlements and non-disclosures" were struck by NBC News with women making sexual misconduct allegations against former "Today" anchor Matt Lauer. Farrow's new book, "Catch and Kill," documents the Lauer case and has already made news by reporting on new allegations from one NBC News employee who alleges the former "Today" anchor raped her in a hotel room at the Sochi Olympics. Lauer has firmly denied the allegations, saying it was a consensual affair. The book is already...

A ninth woman has come forward to allege she was groped by former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), according to The Cut. The woman, who asked for her name not to be used, is now a senior staffer at an unnamed progressive organization, and said the incident occurred in 2006 shortly after she graduated from college and was working for Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). While being photographed with Franken, who was then still exploring his eventual 2008 run for Senate, the woman said he placed his hand on her buttocks. “He’s telling the photographer, ‘Take another one. I think I blinked....

In the third lawsuit filed against the Church of Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige, in three months, a 25-year-old woman alleges she was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a child in Scientology’s care, including at the church’s Clearwater Academy. On top of the abuse, the lawsuit explains how church officials allegedly knew it was occurring and did nothing to stop it or alert law enforcement, actions rooted in policy written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. When the woman spoke of her alleged abuse after leaving Scientology in 2018, the church deployed a campaign of harassment against her, a tactic...

Queens, NY – On the thirteenth day of testimony, the prosecution rested its case against abortionist Robert Rho, who is being tried for Second Degree Manslaughter (Reckless Homicide) for causing the death of Jaime Morales, 30, during a horrifically botched late-second trimester abortion. Judge Gregory Lasak quickly denied a motion made by defense attorney Jeffery Lichtman to dismiss the case. Yesterday, it became clear that those involved in the trial have become aware of Operation Rescue’s coverage of the case, with Rho appearing to be particularly upset by the news. But it was tension between Rho and his attorney that...