March 6, 2010
As Chelsea King is remembered as a beloved daughter of the San Diego community, her grieving and devastated parents have vowed to fight to tighten sex offender laws in the state. Their tortured promises echo so many who have gone before them – Megan’s Law, Jessica’s Law. But how many children must die before we decide that child molestation is unacceptable to us?
We have the tools and the means to stop this now. Child molesters belong in jail after a first offense against a child for the rest of their lives. Treatment, even according to treatment professionals, does not work. Child pornography investigations, which track child sex offenders on the Internet, do work.
Quite simply, we need to increase first-time offense jail sentences to life in prison, and we need to fund our Internet Crimes Against Children task forces in their mission of taking dangerous child sex predators off the streets.
We can catch many of these offenders before they rape, maim, and/or kill again. What are we watiting for?
February 19, 2010
Every day law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to ensure our safety and the safety of our children. Now, we have lost another shining light. Chattahoochee Hills police officer Michael Vogt stopped talk to a group of people by the side of the road and was shot and killed earlier this week. According to Atlanta’s wsbtv.com, a manhunt is underway to find the killer.
Without these brave and courageous officers, we would not enjoy the great American society that most of us take for granted every day. Please join us in offering our condolences to Officer Vogt’s family and the small, 14-officer Chattahoochee Hills Police Department.
January 20, 2010
University of Florida sports broadcaster Steve Babik, 50, has been charged with federal child sexual abuse image possession and distribution. Apparently, the University fired Babik. According to Fanhouse, Babik was the sideline reporter for Gators football games and handled other radio duties. He had been at UF since 1987.
January 7, 2010
Robin Michael Alarcon, 35, a soccer coach at the 4S Ranch-area school in Poway, California (San Diego County), a girls’ lacorsse coach at Mt. Carmel High School, and a girls’ club soccer coach in Rancho Penasquitos was captured after texting one young girl on one of his teams his wish and intent to commit a sexual act with her. He was jailed with bail set at $75,000.
According to San Diego’s 10 News, Alarcon’s arrest was the second in just over a month involving a one-time physical education instructor with Poway Unified School District. On Dec. 4, 2009, former Westview High volunteer wrestling coach Ryan Paul Carnell was jailed on suspicion of molesting an underage female student. Carnell, 28, had pleaded no contest to lewd behavior three months earlier for sending a picture of his genitals to a 16-year-old female student.
We thank San Diego’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force for the amazing work they’ve done in capturing coaches who move into positions of trust in order to prey upon the children they are supposed to care for.
December 31, 2009
Aaron Brian Sands, 41, of Tampa, Florida, is a married math teacher at King High School. He resigned his position after he was caught possessing images of children, some as young as two-years-old, being sexually abused. As is unfortunately common, some of the images may include bestiality.
According to Tampa Bay Online, he was discharged from the U.S. Army in 1993 after three years and nine months as an infantryman. He received several citations, including the Army Service Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal and Overseas Service Ribbon. Before joining the Army, he lived in Maine.
He also reported in his application that he had worked in schools in Pasco and Polk counties.
Sands told federal agents he had child pornography on his laptop and said his wife didn’t know anything about it, documents state.
If convicted, Sands faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
December 17, 2009
The Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force has made a sweep to clean out pedophiles and child rapists from 26 Cuyahoga County, Ohio, cities. The Ohio ICAC was able to find the offenders by following the digital trail of those trading in and enjoying the pain, misery and humiliation of young American children being sexually assaulted.
Ohio ICAC Commander Frankie Goldbery warns, “Individuals that have this sick interest in viewing and collecting child pornography can be your next door neighbor, a family member or individuals in the community. As parents we have to educate our children and be vigilant,” according to WKYC.com.
If the ICAC could pick up 50 offenders in one county in Ohio at one time, how many are there in your county, in your town, in your neighborhood?
December 13, 2009
Gary Becker, former mayor of Racine, Wisconsin, has apparently decided to plea guilty this month to at least some of the charges filed against him last January. He was arrested for going to meet a 14-year-old girl with whom he planned to have sex, possessing child sexual assault images, and misconduct in public office. His predilection to rape children was discovered when he asked city workers to fix his computer.
According to the Journal Times, Becker has been out on bond since the days after his arrest. He spent several weeks at a sex addiction treatment program in Pennsylvania. Since his return he has been wearing a GPS monitoring device which allows officials to track his whereabouts. He was allowed to leave the county for therapy and group sessions.
We certainly hope Judge Stephen Simanek and Racine County District Attorney Mike Nieskes understand that sex offender treatment has not been proven successful in stopping child molesters, and that a study from Butner Federal Prison has shown that most, if not all, child pornography possessors had raped at least one child before being caught with child sexual abuse images.
December 10, 2009
Gary Kendall, Jr., pastor of Bridge Street Church of Christ in Chillicothe, Ohio, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for the possession and distribution of images of children being sexually abused. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Kendall was intercepted by an undercover FBI agent in an Internet chat room where pedophiles swap child pornography.
November 24, 2009
School janitor Paul B. Garland, 54, of Phoenix, Arizona, was captured after a weeks-long investigation by the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
Since studies show a high correlation between viewing child sexual assault images and being a child molester, we congratulate the Phoenix Police Department’s ICAC in making a significant move towards keeping Arizona children safe.
If you know anyone who could have been a victim of Garland, or have any other further information, please call 602-650-3170.
November 23, 2009
From July 28, 2008 to August 11, 2008, Robert William Godwin, 31, a navy sailor of Jacksonville, Florida, did his best to entice a young child – age 14 – to have sex with him. He travelled to meet the child, but instead of satisfying his pedophilic desires, he met up with Clay County Sheriff’s Office detectives working in conjunction with the Florida Attorney General’s Child Predator CyberCrime Unit and the FBI.
According to the California Chronicle, he received 10 years and 1 month in federal prison and will be under supervised release for his entire life following his sentence.
