CONVICTED FELON HIRED AS VICE PRINCIPAL OF CHESTER HIGH SCHOOL
Freddie Dean Smith has a lengthy record, but that hasn’t stopped him from bouncing around from state to state applying for jobs working with kids.
A quick Google search of his name easily turns up reports of his sordid past. So, we are asking how he slipped through the cracks and into a Delaware County high school.
Article after article written by New York journalist Robert Cox documents a decade of investigations into the elusive Freddie Dean Smith.
“This is a guy who keeps managing to keep slipping through the cracks, and to me is a dangerous, sick individual who does not belong anywhere near children,” Cox said.
Cox says Smith was denied teachers certifications in Maryland and Virginia, but somehow this convicted felon landed in Chester High School.
“This is somebody with a criminal record. I can’t imagine that any parent would want someone like that as an administrator at their child’s school,” said Cox.
A background check and records obtained by Action News show in 2002 he was found guilty of eluding police, which is a felony. And in 2001 and 2003 in two separate incidents in South Carolina he was charged with sex crimes for approaching women in two different stores, and exposing himself and touching himself in a lewd fashion.
We went to Chester High School looking for Smith and answers. Superintendent Dr. Juan Baughn directed us to a written statement they provided, which says in part: “Mr. Smith was only with the school district for one day as per diem assistant principal. He took part in training sessions, during which he had no unsupervised contact with students.” We told the superintendent how some people say Smith is unfit to be around kids.
“He is not around our kids. He is not around our kids. He is not here,” Baughn said.
Sources tell Action News that Smith was hired for the last six weeks of class at Chester High School using an emergency certification to fill a void after the principal left and a vice principal was promoted.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education could not tell us if Smith has a valid Pennsylvania teaching certification, and the Department of Human Services would not tell us if any background checks were run as required by law, citing privacy concerns.
The superintendent said the school district did a background check themselves. Smith worked there on May 2nd, last week for a single day, until his criminal past was revealed.
And while we were not able to track down Freddie Dean Smith, Cox says that is no surprise. He’s been trying for a decade, and he wonders if and when Smith will show up somewhere else.
“Freddie Dean Smith is a very elusive figure who understands how to game the system and avoid public scrutiny from the media,” Cox said.
Cox tells us that Smith is still licensed in the state of New York, and he has been able to get jobs using that certification in other states that have reciprocal agreements with New York.
Full statement from Chester Upland School District:
It is our standard procedure to conduct criminal background checks on all new hires before they begin employment with the school district. The check performed on Freddie Dean Smith did not reveal any misconduct related to sexual assault.
Mr. Smith was only with the school district for one day as per diem assistant principal. He took part in training sessions during which he had no unsupervised contact with students.
He is no longer with the district. As always, the safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority.
via: http://6abc.com/news/convicted-felon-hired-as-vice-principal-of-chester-high-school/1973641/
UNDERCOVER AGENTS FIND REGISTERED CHURCH TO BE SEX CLUB
Undercover inspectors have determined that a building registered as a church was being operated as a sex club.
WTVF-TV reports that the city of Nashville has filed a complaint against the owners for “maintaining a public nuisance by permitting acts of lewd conduct” and violating a state law banning sex clubs from operating within 1,000 feet of a school.
The longtime downtown swingers club underwent a conversion in 2015 when it relocated to a run-down office park in the community of Madison, calling itself a church because the new location is near the back of the private Goodpasture Christian School.
Two codes inspectors paid $40 to enter the facility in March and filed affidavits detailing sex acts they witnessed within.
The city is seeking to close the club.
via: http://abc7chicago.com/news/undercover-agents-find-registered-church-to-be-sex-club/1988838/
BOY, 8, BULLIED AT SCHOOL DAYS BEFORE KILLING HIMSELF
The 8-year-old hanged himself with a necktie in the bedroom of his Cincinnati home on Jan. 26. School officials called the boy’s mother the day her son was bullied and said he had fainted, attorney Carla Leader told The Associated Press.
“They didn’t tell her the whole story,” Leader said. “The school also said his vitals were fine and he was alert.”
The mother learned of the bullying and the surveillance video after her attorneys obtained a Cincinnati police investigative file over her son’s death. The file included a copy of a Feb. 3 email from a homicide detective to an assistant principal at Carson Elementary School and other Cincinnati school officials describing what he saw on the video obtained from the school district’s security department.
Cincinnati Public Schools, in a statement issued Thursday, did not address the allegation that officials at the elementary school didn’t tell the boy’s mother what had happened. School district spokeswoman Janet Walsh said the detective “mischaracterized the events in the video,” the existence of which was first reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Leader said she watched the surveillance video and that it shows another boy acting aggressively toward students. When the 8-year-old approached him and tried to shake his hand, the boy threw him against the wall, knocking him unconscious, Leader said.
Other students stepped over the boy while others poked him with their feet as he lay unconscious for 7 minutes before an assistant principal and then a school nurse came to his aid, Leader said. The mother came to get the 8-year-old after the school called her.
The mother took him to a hospital that evening after the boy vomited and complained of stomach pains. Doctors said he had a stomach virus and sent him home. Neither doctors nor the boy’s mother knew what had happened earlier that day, her attorneys said.
The ages of the other children involved or present at the attack were not immediately available. The elementary school’s website shows that it serves children from prekindergarten through the sixth grade and has 750 students.
The Cincinnati Public School statement provides a different version of events. It says that “while we are concerned about the length of time that (the boy) lay motionless and the lack of adult supervision at the scene,” school administrators followed protocol by having the nurse evaluate him. The boy’s mother was asked to pick him up and take him to a hospital “to be checked out,” the statement said.
The mother’s attorneys said her sister, who was caring for the boy while she was at work that night, called to tell her the boy had been vomiting.
Leader described the boy as a “happy-go-lucky kid” who had shown no signs of mental issues. Leader said the boy came home from school on Jan. 26, spoke with his mother and went into his bedroom. She later discovered him hanging from his bunk bed.
The email from the homicide detective, which was shared with The Associated Press, describes what he saw in the surveillance video. The detective said it appeared that the “primary agitator” hit one child in the stomach, sending him to the floor on hands and knees. The 8-year-old then approached the aggressor and tried to shake his hand but was pulled to the floor, the detective wrote.
The aggressor “appears to celebrate and rejoice in his behavior as (the boy) lay motionless. For many minutes, many students step over, point, mock, nudge, kick” the boy, the email said.
The detective told school officials that while he had concerns about the bullying, which could be considered a criminal assault, he added that the school would be better suited to handle the situation because of the children’s ages.
Meanwhile, the coroner has reopened its investigation into the boy’s suicide, and his school district is expected to release video showing the incident.
A Hamilton County coroner’s office spokesman said Friday that new evidence has prompted the reopening of the case, but he wouldn’t say what that evidence is.
A Cincinnati schools spokeswoman says the video might be released Friday.
O.C. Man Gets Nearly 10 Years in Prison After Kidnapping Woman, Carving His Name on Her Chest
A Santa Ana man who carved his name on a woman’s chest was sentenced to nearly a decade in state prison on Friday.
Sergio Mendoza is shown in a booking photo provided to the Los Angeles Times by Santa Ana police in 2015.
Sergio Joaquin Mendoza, 27, kidnapped, threatened and physically harmed a woman he was in a “romantic relationship” with in 2015, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Over the course of four days in March 2015, he repeatedly punched the unidentified victim, forced her to sit in his car while he worked and threatened her if she tried to leave the vehicle.
Then, two days after that ordeal, he told the victim “he would let her leave if she allowed him to carve his name onto her chest,” the DA’s office said in a news release.
He used a razor blade to write his first name on her chest.
He drove her around, again threatening her with more violence if she left the vehicle, punched her and head-butted her, and tried to strangle her.
Nonetheless, the victim was able to escape, run into a local business and call police.
Mendoza was arrested three days after the woman escaped.
On March 9 of this year, he was convicted of felony kidnapping, criminal threats, false imprisonment, and two counts of domestic battery with corporal injury. He was also found guilty of misdemeanor false imprisonment.
An Orange County judge sentenced him to nine years and eight months in state prison. When he was arraigned in 2015, the DA’s office said he faced a maximum sentence of 11 years and eight months.
Woman arrested for switching formula for flour in twisted refund scam
TUCSON, Ariz. — A Tucson woman is accused of substituting flour for infant formula in containers returned to several local stores for refunds, and police have warned the public to check formula containers’ seals for tampering.
One child got sick from ingesting tampered formula but is in good condition after being treated at a hospital and released May 5, police said late Thursday.
Police Chief Chris Magnus held an unusual nighttime news conference to disclose the arrest and to warn the public. “We’re concerned about this and wanted to get the information out as quickly as possible to avoid any other children from becoming sick,” Magnus said.
Police said the alleged scheme apparently was motivated by money and apparently took place over at least several days and possibly for up to two months. The formula was either purchased or stolen, police said.
Dr. Francisco Garcia, chief medical officer for Pima County, said tests are being conducted to determine whether other substances were put in formula containers along with flour, such as something to make it more palatable.
Police said Jennifer LaPlante, 30, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of fraudulent schemes and artifices and child endangerment.
LaPlante remained jailed Friday. It wasn’t immediately known whether she has an attorney who could comment on the allegations.
Police listed two Fry’s grocery stores and two Wal-Mart stores, all on Tucson’s eastside, that are linked to the incident.
Officials at Arkansas-based Wal-Mart said they don’t restock baby formula and are “deeply disturbed” by the Tucson incident.
“Our customers deserve safe, quality foods, and we have policies in place to help ensure that returned baby formula is not put back on our shelves,” Wal-Mart spokesman Ragan Dickens said in a statement.
A police department spokesman, Sgt. Pete Dugan, said Friday he wasn’t aware of additional reports of tampered formula.
However, detectives remained “smack-dab in the middle of the investigation,” Dugan said. “They need to find out if there’s others involved. They need to find out if there’s other stores involved.”
Officials advised recent purchasers of infant formula from Tucson businesses to check seals on containers and to see whether the formula smelled normal.
Parents shouldn’t feed infants with any formula if there’s any question of possible tampering, Garcia said. “Those seals should be intact,” he said.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/05/13/woman-arrested-for-switching-formula-for-flour-in-twisted-refund-scam/
Man admits to tricking women into sex for ‘porn rehearsals’
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City-area man has pleaded guilty to duping dozens of women into having sex with him on camera by telling them they were rehearsing for roles in pornographic movies.
The U.S. attorney’s office says 34-year-old Mario Antoine, of Raymore, pleaded guilty to one wire fraud count and will be sentenced to 10 years in prison under the terms of the deal he agreed to Friday. He also will be required to pay restitution to his victims. Formal sentencing is set for Sept. 13.
Prosecutors said Antoine created online aliases as a talent manager, photographer and videographer and claimed to work for fictitious companies in the pornography industry. Investigators say he promised to pay the women thousands of dollars.
Prosecutors say when the women complained about not being paid, Antoine forwarded images of the sexual activity to their employers or significant others.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/05/13/man-admits-to-tricking-women-into-sex-for-porn-rehearsals/
South L.A. Man Used Online Gaming to Lure Children Into Sending Him Sexually Explicit Videos
A 22-year-old South Los Angeles man used his online gaming personality to entice children to send him sexually explicit videos, Los Angeles police said Wednesday, hours after his arrest following a multi-agency investigation.
Cushqader Warren was taken into custody during a search of his South L.A. home Wednesday morning. He is being held on $1 million bail.
Warren preyed on young children he befriended through Wizard101, a massively multiplayer online game, Los Angeles Police Department detectives said at the scene of his arrest.
Warren allegedly uploaded YouTube videos to get children to contact him to try to win a free Wizard101 game card. The victims were instructed to produce sexually explicit videos so Warren could download them, according to LAPD.
“I didn’t know it was illegal at the time,” Warren told KTLA as he was placed into a patrol car Wednesday morning. “I had no idea. … I’m so sorry.”
Warren wore a turquoise T-shirt featuring the “Sesame Street” character Cookie Monster as he was arrested.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted authorities that Warren had been uploading photos and videos of child pornography, prompting the investigation, according to an LAPD news release. Authorities at the scene of the arrest said Facebook tipped investigators to the alleged child pornography.
Detectives said they have identified at least 67 victims from all over the world.
Warren was booked just before 10 a.m. on suspicion of felony lewd and lascivious acts.
LAPD investigators who are part of the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force worked with federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations on the case.
LAPD believes there may be additional victims, and anyone who has information on Warren is asked to call task force Detective Lisette Garcia at 562-624-4085 or HSI Special Agent Kimmesia Sampson at 562-624-4037.
Woman charged after great-grandson dies after being left in hot car for 7 hours
POINT PLEASANT, W.Va. — Police say a 67-year-old West Virginia woman has been charged in the death of her great-grandson, who was left in a hot car for seven hours.
WSAZ-TV in Huntington reports Carolyn Davis of Point Pleasant was charged with child neglect resulting in death.
Police say the 19-month-old died of heat exposure after he was left in the car after Davis dropped the boy’s mother off at work and returned home. Police say Davis got the child’s 4-year-old sibling out of the car but left the 19-month-old inside, although investigators don’t believe she intentionally left the child.
Police said the boy was inside the car from 7:30 a.m. until around 2:30 p.m. with no windows down.
Davis was picked up May 5 in Ohio and is awaiting extradition. It was not clear whether she had a lawyer.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/05/10/woman-charged-after-great-grandson-dies-in-hot-car/
Woman claims God told her to ‘throw bricks at white men
PITTSBURGH — Police in Pittsburgh say a homeless woman attacked a man’s car because she received a “prophecy from God” urging her to “throw bricks at white men.”
Police say a motorist caught 31-year-old Jasmine Fox throwing bricks at his car on Monday morning and chased her into an abandoned Roman Catholic school in the city’s Carrick neighborhood. Police arrived and found her hiding in the school’s locker room.
Fox, who is white, was charged with propulsion of missiles, criminal mischief and defiant trespass.
Police say she told them she received the prophecy telling her to attack white men with bricks.
She faces a preliminary hearing May 17.
Online court records don’t list an attorney for her.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/05/10/woman-claims-god-told-her-to-throw-bricks-at-white-men-cops/
Dad allegedly threw booze-bash for teen daughter, engaged in sex act with her friend
Two parents and their teen daughter were arrested for throwing a booze-fueled party for high school students.
Authorities said that Geoffrey Boylan, 39, not only provided alcohol for his daughter’s friends, but had sexual relations with one of her 16-year-old classmates at his home in Williamsburg, Michigan.
Boylan will not be charged with criminal sexual misconduct because the girl was of age, according to the Grand Traverse County Attorney’s Office.
“There’s a difference between something that’s morally or ethically wrong and something that violates the criminal law,” Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Bob Cooney told the Record-Eagle. “Given the age difference between the two and the circumstances of this case, I certainly can’t condone what happened but at the same time, it did not violate criminal law.”
He and his wife Duanne Boylan, 37, were charged on Wednesday with furnishing alcohol to minors. Duanne also faces charges for allowing minors to consume alcohol in her home. Their 18-year-old daughter Hannah Boylan faces one count of both of the charges.
According to the Record-Eagle, the 18-year-old collected money from her friends for beer supplied by her parents at the March 3 party. Party-goers told investigators that they smoked pot and played drinking games at the home.
Her father maintained in March that he did not throw the party.
“I did not (have a party),” Geoffrey Boylan told the Record-Eagle. “There was a party at my house that my child had.”
He admitted to authorities that he had sexual relations with a teen girl who he spotted on the couch early on the morning of the party. She allegedly performed oral sex on him, but he said he stopped her during the encounter, telling her it “wasn’t right.”
The teen girl told investigators that the sex act was consensual, but wouldn’t have likely happened if she hadn’t been drunk.
Geoffrey, who volunteered as a Elk Rapids Schools assistant football coach, was asked by the district not to return.
District Superintendent Stephen Prissel said the 39-year-old father “has no business being around kids.”