Tag: sexual abuse
Millionaire to be sentenced for having sex with teen on autopiloted plane
A New Jersey millionaire could be heading to the slammer for the next five years after engaging in sexual acts with a minor — including once on his private plane while it was in autopilot mode, according to a federal complaint.
Stephen Bradley Mell, of Somerset County, was allegedly introduced to the 15-year-old girl by her mother — who wanted the teen to take flying lessons, the Bridgewater Courier News reports, citing the complaint.
Mell, a 53-year-old father of three, began chatting with the girl in 2017 — exchanging text messages and SnapChat photos — before eventually arranging to meet up at his $3.8 million mansion in Bedminster, the complaint says.
Mell allegedly “performed oral sex acts” on the girl on June 20 and then again several weeks later after sending her a message that said, “Miss you so much.”
The two of them would often discuss having sex and using birth control, with Mell allegedly purchasing an emergency contraceptive pill on July 6, the complaint says.
“If you are nervous it will hurt more,” Mell allegedly told the girl in a text. “When you are turned on is when it will feel ok.”
The two of them would meet up weeks later — on July 20 — for their private flight out of Somerset Airport, the complaint says. They allegedly flew to Barnstable, Mass., on Cape Cod “for the purpose of engaging in illicit conduct, specifically, a sexual act.”
It was on the flight back that Mell — an active community member who did volunteer work for a number of charities, including the New Jersey Conservation Foundation — allegedly put the aircraft on autopilot.
He and the teen communicated throughout the summer of 2017 and up until that November, when the last correspondence was documented, the complaint says.
“Send me a nice naked pic cute thing,” Mell begged. His wife would eventually divorce him after the relationship was revealed, the Courier News reports.
Mell — who pleaded guilty last year to engaging in interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, as well as child pornography — is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday for sentencing.
In addition to federal prison, the millionaire philanthropist is facing a multi-year sentence in the state pen for endangering the welfare of a child by engaging in sexual relations with a female victim under the age of 16.
Mell will be sentenced for those crimes in July.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Mom allegedly had sex with both her daughters’ teen boyfriends
A California mom may serve time after she had sex with both of her own daughters’ boyfriends — who were each high school freshmen when she stole them away from the girls, officials said.
Coral Lytle, of Tulare, pleaded guilty in March to 21 sex-related charges including unlawful sexual intercourse, oral copulation and contacting a minor for sex, news station KFSN reported.
But a disagreement over the 41-year-old mom’s sentencing Monday has caused a delay in the case and could now allow her to withdraw the plea, according to KFSN.
Lytle was accused of having sex on multiple occasions with the two Redwood High School students between September and October 2017.
Prosecutors said the mom provided alcohol and cigars to the underage boys, and would drive from her home to them for the raunchy rendezvous.
“The crimes in this case committed by the defendant involved great cruelty and callousness especially considering the defendant took advantage of a position of trust to molest two boys who she met when they (were in) teenage dating relationships with the defendant’s daughters,” prosecutors wrote in recent filings.
Authorities were initially notified when one of teen boys reported the “inappropriate relationship” with Lytle.
“[The victim] stated this was the last time he had sex with [Lytle] because he felt bad shaking [Lytle’s] husband’s hand knowing what he was doing with [Lytle],” prosecutors said.
Lytle appeared in court Monday, where the initial plea agreements collapsed as multiple judges disagreed over her sentence.
A judge indicated at a hearing in early March that she would likely be sentenced to three years in prison, but then a different judge who oversaw her enter the plea last month said he would offer her one year in county jail with a suspended six-year sentence.
Then a third judge said Monday he didn’t believe the sentence was appropriate and set another hearing for the following week.
The new hearing will enable the mom to withdraw her plea, prosecutors said.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/17/mom-allegedly-had-sex-with-both-her-daughters-teen-boyfriends/
Brooklyn teacher allegedly molested 11-year-old student on field trip
The middle school teacher accused of molesting an 11-year-old East Flatbush student had sexual contact with her at least three times — including on a school bus during a field trip, a prosecutor said Tuesday at the disgraced educator’s arraignment.
Daniel Santiago stood cuffed as Assistant Brooklyn DA Wilfredo Cotto described how the 29-year-old — whose wife and infant child appeared in court with him — first grabbed the 11-year-old’s breast on a school bus, and then sat next to her and slid his hands down her pants on the return trip.
Santiago’s wife remained stone-faced as she heard Cotto tell the court how her husband later met the girl in a classroom at Brooklyn Science and Engineering Academy inside PS 224, where he allegedly tried to kiss her and had her touch his penis.
During another classroom encounter, Santiago allegedly fondled the child’s buttocks and genitals over her clothing.
“There are multiple instances where the defendant asked the complainant to text pictures, and she sent photos of herself with panties and a shirt on,” Cotto said.
The prosecutor said that the inappropriate contact was only revealed when the girl’s friends started spreading rumors, and one eventually told an adult. The child at first told cops the rumors were false, but broke down and confessed after her cousin stole her cellphone and viewed the texts.
Defense attorney Michael Postiglione said his client “is well respected by his peers” and is “prepared to fight this case.”
Santiago’s wife declined comment as she left court with her mother and brother-in-law.
Judge Ellen Edwards ordered Santiago to stay away from the girl before ordering him held on $7,500 bond.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/16/brooklyn-teacher-allegedly-molested-11-year-old-student-on-field-trip/
Chicago Fire youth coach allegedly groomed girls for sex, including one he urged not to wear a bra to a training session so she could play better
Fernando Calderon, 49, is also accused of telling another teenage girl that having sex would translate to an immediate impact on the pitch, making her more “flexible,” the Chicago Tribune reports, citing Cook County prosecutors.
Calderon, who has since been fired by the team, then allegedly gave the 14-year-old girl his phone number during a practice in Chicago in July 2017 in case she wanted to accept his offer. He also is accused of telling her having sex with him would let her “do more” while playing soccer.
Calderon told the teen to contact him if she “ever felt lonely” before putting his number into the teen’s phone, prosecutors said.
Calderon then allegedly victimized a second Chicago Fire Juniors City player last July during a private training session in his garage, where he touched and rubbed the breasts of a 16-year-old girl under the guise of measuring her chest. Prior to the one-on-one session, Calderon told the girl not to wear a bra to his home in order to “get horny” — which he claimed would equate to better play thanks to increased hormone levels, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said a third teen, another 16-year-old girl, also reported that Calderon told her sometime last summer that he needed to massage her after a training session. He then showed the girl a video on his phone of a topless woman being massaged. Calderon also promised the teen that he could help her get into college but told her she needed to “work with him,” prosecutors said.
Calderon remained held without bail Monday at Cook County Jail on charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and indecent solicitation of a minor. His next date in court is scheduled for Tuesday, jail records show.
Calderon also told the girls that he needed to “manipulate” their bodies during the alleged incidents between July 2017 and last August.
Team officials said Calderon was immediately suspended after they learned of the disturbing accusations.
“We have since dismissed the coach,” the team’s president, Paul Caldwell, said in a statement obtained by The Post. “We have always maintained strict personnel safeguards including rigorous background checks, safe sport training, implementation of a code of conduct and guidelines governing interactions with minors. Nevertheless, we will reexamine our policies, practices and training to ensure we are fostering a positive and safe environment for every young player throughout our system.”
An attorney for Calderon, meanwhile, told WLS-TV that he had never been arrested before and had lived for three decades in Chicago.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/15/chicago-fire-youth-coach-allegedly-groomed-girls-for-sex/
Florida teacher allegedly used 1-year-old son to make child porn
A Florida elementary school teacher has been arrested for allegedly using her own 1-year-old son in sexually explicit videos shared with her ex-boyfriend — who is himself accused of molesting his own daughter, according to reports.
US Marshals arrested Audra Mabel, 34, Thursday for distributing child pornography to her ex Justin Ritchie, 36.
Police arrested Ritchie on March 8 after his 4-year-old daughter reported he had inappropriately touched her “vulva” several times — including with an electric toothbrush — and performed oral sex on her, Newsweek reported.
On his phone, investigators found 10 sexually explicit videos, including ones allegedly depicting Mabel and her 1-year-old son. One clip focused on the child’s genitals, and another included Mabel masturbating while breastfeeding, the outlet reported.
Another reportedly depicts Mabel shoving a camera up her skirt only to later turn the camera around and reveal a classroom full of children.
Investigators say Mabel shot the illicit videos while working as a first-grade teacher in Lansing, Michigan, but sent them to Ritchie in Florida.
She admitted to producing the videos, according to Newsweek.
“Mabel and [Ritchie] also read stories to each other about sex between children and adults,” a criminal complaint states.
She later moved to Florida, but the pair broke up last year after Ritchie refused to leave his wife.
She was hit with federal charges of creating child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child, while state officials are charging Ritchie with sexual assault of a child, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Southern Baptist Leaders Promise ‘Change’ After Report Uncovers Rampant Sexual Abuse
Article via HuffingtonPost
Almost 400 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct since 1998, according to a damning report.
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the second-largest faith group in the U.S., have vowed real “change” in the aftermath of a damning investigative report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News that uncovered decades of sexual abuse by hundreds of church leaders and volunteers.
According to the three-part investigation, the first installment of which was published on Sunday, about 380 Southern Baptist pastors, ministers, youth pastors, Sunday school teachers, deacons and church volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct since 1998. More than 200 of them have been convicted or took plea deals, the newspapers reported, and nearly 100 are currently in prisons across the nation.
The victims of the accused number more than 700, the report said. They include teenagers and children, some as young as 3, who were “molested or raped inside pastors’ studies and Sunday school classrooms.”
Many victims said their stories of abuse were ignored or silenced by church leaders. One victim, who alleged she was raped and impregnated by her pastor when she was a teen, said her church leaders had urged her to get an abortion. When she refused, they threatened her and her child, she said.
Dozens of pastors, employees and volunteers were reportedly allowed to return to work in Southern Baptist churches despite being dogged by sexual abuse allegations.
In the aftermath of the Chronicle’s and Express-News’ report, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have promised to crack down on abuses in the church and to provide a safe space for victims to come forward.
In a multipart tweet on Sunday, J.D. Greear, SBC’s president, said he was “broken” by news of the rampant sexual abuse and vowed to “pursue every possible avenue” to “stopping predators in our midst.”
“We — leaders in the SBC — should have listened to the warnings of those who tried to call attention to this,” Greear wrote, though he did not indicate whether he had been approached personally by victims. “I am committed to doing everything possible to ensure we never make these mistakes again.”
“As a denomination, now is a time to mourn and repent,” Greear added. “Changes are coming. They must. We cannot just promise to ‘do better’ and expect that to be enough. But today, change begins with feeling the full weight of the problem.”
Russell Moore, president of SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said in a blog post on his website that “no church should be frustrated” by the newspapers’ reporting but should instead “thank God for it.”
“The report is alarming and scandalous, the courage and grace of these survivors is contrasted with the horrific depravity of those who would use the name of Jesus to prey on them,” Moore wrote.
Michael Criner, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Bellville, Texas, tweeted that he was “grieved” by the report and called for change in the convention. Hance Dilbeck, the executive director-treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, said in a statement that he welcomed the investigation’s findings.
“Jesus teaches us to be more critical of ourselves than we are of others. In as far as this article helps us to deal more honestly and clearly with sexual abuse in our churches, and more redemptively with survivors, I welcome it. We need strong voices from within our fellowship and from the outside pushing us to strive to do better,” Dilbeck said.
The SBC, which was also shaken last year by a series of sexual abuse allegations, is a fellowship of more than 47,500 autonomous Baptist churches. With 15 million members across the United States, it’s the country’s second-largest faith group after the Roman Catholic Church, The Washington Post reported.
In his blog post, Moore insisted that “church autonomy is no excuse for a lack of accountability.”
“Yes, in a Baptist ecclesiology each congregation governs its own affairs, and is not accountable to anyone ‘higher up’ in a church system. And yet, the decisions a church makes autonomously determine whether that church is in good fellowship with others. A church that excuses, say, sexual immorality or that opposes missions is deemed out of fellowship with other churches. The same must be true of churches that cover up rape or sexual abuse,” he wrote.
Feds Launch Sex Abuse Probe Of Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic Church
The Department of Justice has launched an investigation of child sex abuse within Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic Church, sending subpoenas to dioceses across the state seeking private files and records to explore the possibility that priests and bishops violated federal law in cases that go back decades, NPR has learned.
In what is thought to be the first-ever such inquiry into the church’s clergy sex-abuse scandal, authorities have issued subpoenas to look into possible violations of the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, also known as RICO, according to a person close to the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The source did not elaborate on what other potential federal crimes could be part of the inquiry, which could take years and is now only in its early stages.
RICO has historically been used to dismantle organized-crime syndicates.
Officials at six of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses — Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Scranton and Harrisburg — have confirmed to NPR that they have recently received and are currently complying with federal subpoenas for information. The two remaining dioceses did not return requests for comment.
A Justice Department representative in Washington, D.C., would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the investigation.
Legal experts said accruing enough evidence to build a RICO case against the Roman Catholic Church — basically treating the influential institution as a crime syndicate — will be a burdensome task.
Hamilton of Child USA, for one, said she thinks using federal RICO as a weapon against the church would be a stretch, since the 1970 law is not designed to deal with problems such as sex abuse and other personal injury cases. Instead, she said, most RICO cases involve financial crimes. “I hope that they can find a way to make it fit, but it will be challenging,” she said.
However, Hamilton said a federal statute called the Mann Act, which prohibits moving people across state lines for the purpose of illegal sex acts, could be a more promising legal avenue.
“As we know, there have been plenty of priests who took children across state lines,” she said.
Tobias, the law professor who specializes in federal courts, said whatever comes of the investigation, the issuing of the subpoenas has likely sent a jolt across the country. If the inquiry of the Pennsylvania church results in criminal charges, it could be used as a road map for federal prosecutors hoping to pursue abusers in other states.
“Pennsylvania might be the first state where the federal government does this,” Tobias said. “But then they build on the lessons they’ve learned there, as DOJ often does when they have a national issue, and go to the other states and use that template again.”
Article via NPR
Man faked Down syndrome to con caregivers into baths, diaper changes
An Arizona man is accused of pretending to have Down syndrome so he could hire caregivers who bathed him and changed his diapers, authorities said.
Police arrested Paul Anthony Menchaca, 31, at his parents’ home in Gilbert on Sept. 6 after his female caregivers discovered he didn’t have special needs, news station KTNV reported.
The first caregiver responded in May to an ad on CareLinx, a site designed to help families find licensed help.
Menchaca contacted and hired the helper while allegedly posing as a woman named “Amy,” who claimed to be the mother of a man with Down syndrome, according to AZFamily.
“’Amy’ asked all three victims to ‘punish’ [Menchaca] when he soiled his diaper by putting him in timeout and taking away his privileges,” an arrest affidavit obtained by AZFamily said.
The caregiver told police that she helped bathe and change the man’s diapers on 30 separate occasions. In five separate incidents, Menchaca reportedly told her that his genitals were not cleaned well enough.
She then referred the second caregiver in July and the third the following month.
All three women agreed to the same terms, and claimed that Menchaca would become sexually aroused when he was being washed.
The first victim told police she became suspicious and followed Mechaca back to his parents’ home.
“[The victim] was greeted by [Menchaca’s] actual mother and father and discovered [Menchaca] did not have Down syndrome and did not require diaper changes,” the police report said.
When the three caregivers confronted Menchaca, he reportedly admitted to lying about having Down syndrome.
Menchaca now faces charges for fraudulent schemes and sexual abuse.
Family of pedophiles raped kids for 30 years before being caught
A sick family raped children during a 30-year campaign of abuse branded the “worst ever case of its kind” by a judge.
Twisted Antony Potts and three members of his family carried out a string of child abuse offenses over the course of three decades.
The 49-year-old was described as a “deeply depraved man” as he was jailed for life at Birmingham Crown Court.
He was convicted of 13 counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and nine counts of inciting a child to perform a sexual act and cruelty.
Antony was joined in the docket by his dad, Keith Potts, who was caged for eight years alongside his wife, Julie, both for child cruelty.
Antony’s wife, Elaine, and family friend Joanne Hoye were also both jailed for four years after pleading guilty to neglect.
Brother Joshua Potts admitted to multiple counts of rape and sexual assault against children, while his sibling Nathan, 26, was jailed for 16 years for two counts of rape of a child, four counts of sexual assault, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and sex with another adult.
Jailing Antony Potts, Judge Carr told him: “You are a deeply depraved man who has taken many, many opportunities to abuse children and corrupt them.
“These are horrendous offenses.
“In 50 years practice and presiding over cases like this, I cannot think of a worse one.”
The court heard how the sickening abuse first came to light in 1989 when a girl came forward and told cops what Antony had done to her.
But the case was never brought to trial and in May 2015, three more children – all aged under 14 – said they had been abused by Antony and others.
Police were once again called but it was decided there was insufficient evidence to bring charges. However, the case was reopened in January 2016 when a fifth victim came forward.
The full extent of the abuse began to unravel and a further three victims were identified – meaning the vile family could be brought to trial.
Jurors were read emotional victim impact statements giving harrowing details of how the victims were “groomed and brainwashed” by their abusers.
One said the abuse had a “major impact” on her life and she felt she was “let down as a child” by the police.
She also said she has suffered from “constant and daily panic attacks,” has post-traumatic stress disorder and has “reduced self-worth.”
Another victim said: “I want Antony to go to prison all his life so he can’t hurt anyone else.”
Joshua Potts will be sentenced in August.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/07/18/family-of-pedophiles-raped-kids-for-30-years-before-being-caught/