May 31, 2011
The San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task force and San Diego Police Foundation will kick off National Internet Safety Month with the launch of SafetyNet eLearning, a free online Internet safety guide for parents, educators and concerned adults. The launch event, on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 6:00 – 7:45 p.m at La Jolla Muirlands Middle School, will include a free Internet safety seminar where parents will learn information on cyberbullying as well as other online threats associated with social media outlets and online gaming.
The Safetynet eLearning guide was created by ESET North America as part of its Securing Our eCity initiative, with initial support from the AT&T Foundation. The guide allows busy adults and parents to learn how to keep kids safe online – at their own pace and schedule. The guide is available to all online users at www.smartcyberchoices.org.
Anyone interested in participating in the event can contact Darlene Kanzler with the San Diego Police Foundation at darlene@sdpolicefoundation.org or (858) 453-5066 for additional information.
Individuals who complete the SafetyNet eLearning guide will have an opportunity to win an iTunes gift card.
May 27, 2011
The Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center and the Dallas Police Department released the preliminary program for the 23rd Annual Crimes Against Children Conference scheduled for August 8-11, 2011, to be held once again at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel in the heart of downtown Dallas.
The goal of the Crimes Against Children Conference is to provide practical instruction, using current information, the newest ideas and most successful intervention strategies, to those professionals responsible for combating the many and varied forms of crimes against children. The conference is conducted for the sole purpose of providing training to only those people employed by governmental agencies or nonprofit agencies in the fields of law enforcement, prosecution, child protective services, social work, children’s advocacy, therapy, and medicine who work directly with child victims of crime.
The 2011 conference will feature Elizabeth Smart as Keynote Speaker. At the age of 14, Elizabeth was abducted at knife point early one morning while her parents slept in their Salt Lake City home. After nine months in captivity, she was recovered and returned to her family. Her survival inspired the belief that we can never stop searching for every missing child.
This year, the conference will have more than 23 workshops and 9 interactive computer labs operating concurrently. The exhibit hall, located on the ground floor, will feature over 75 booths of informational resources for all child abuse professionals.
Registration for the conference is now done entirely online at www.cacconference.org. The registration fee for the full conference is $450 if purchased by July 15th and $500 if July 16th or later. If you cannot attend the entire conference, a one-day pass is $150 and a two-day pass is $300.
The most current schedule and workshop descriptions may be found online at www.cacconference.org.
Click here to download the 2011 Preliminary Program.
May 12, 2011
The Innocent Justice Foundation will be giving away one Cellebrite UFED Forensic System, a $5,000 value, to one lucky attendee at our upcoming SHIFT Training at the 2011 National Strategy Conference on Combating Child Exploitation in San Jose, CA, May 16-20, 2011.
The 3 hour workshop, titled SHIFT: Mental Health & Wellness Solutions for Individuals Exposed to Child Pornography will be held on Wednesday, May 18 from 8:00am to 11:30am and Thursday, May 19 from 1:30pm to 5:00pm
Team taught by Special Agent Scotty Hughes, Commander of the Wyoming ICAC, and occupational health nurse Jane Stevenson, this course offers professionals who are exposed and who may interact often with child sex offenders (e.g., law enforcement officers, forensic analysts, prosecutors, etc.), the opportunity to learn about the causes and symptoms of the negative effects that may occur as a result of their duties and ways to mitigate them.
The UFED is the ultimate standalone mobile forensic device, ready for use out in the field or in the lab. The UFED system extracts vital information from 95% of all cellular phones on the market today.
To be entered you must attend either of the two workshop times listed above and be a member of a law enforcement agency with proper credentials to win. Drawing will take place at 5:00 pm on Thursday, May 19th, following the final workshop.
For a list of other trainings offered by The Innocent Justice Foundation at the San Jose conference, click here.
For a list of our ongoing trainings nationwide, visit www.shiftwellness.org.
May 5, 2011
Michael R. Aballo, 60, of Glocester, RI, has been charged with possession of child pornography when a recent unannounced probation visit to his home revealed child sexual abuse images on his computer. Aballo, a former youth coach, was on probation for a conviction nearly two decades ago for molesting two boys.
In addition to his youth coaching, he also previously taught catechism at Holy Ghost Church in Tiverton, and was named Man of the Year in 1984 by the Tiverton-Little Compton Lions Club. Then allegations of his sexual assualt of two children landed him a 20 year sentence, with 7 years at the Adult Correctional Institutions, as the presiding judge wanted to give Aballo “an opportunity to set his life back on course.”
According to the state Department of Corrections, he was released on parole in 1998, less than five years after his sentencing.
May 4, 2011
Agents from Immigration & Customs Enforcement have arrested Corey James Loftin, 22, of El Cajon for child pornography. Loftin was working at a local preschool.
According to authorities, Loftin received child sexual abuse images between November 2009 and April 2011, and on several occasions, was chatting live online with a man in Pennsylvania and receiving images on his computer as the male was sexually assaulting children.
Prosecutors say that Loftin also had online babysitting ads on the Internet, in addition to working at a local preschool.
Anyone with information relating to the charges against Loftin was urged to call (619) 744-4633 and leave a confidential message, which will be returned by special agents investigating the case.
May 3, 2011
The Innocent Justice Foundation will present four workshops for law enforcement officers investigating Internet crimes against children at the 2011 National Strategy Conference on Combating Child Exploitation on May 17-20 in San Jose, CA.
A joint collaboration of Project Safe Childhood and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, this conference brings together over 1200 federal, state and local law enforcement investigators, forensic experts and prosecutors together to further their knowledge about combating the online exploitation of children.
The Innocent Justice Foundation will present the following workshops during the conference:
1) “Caring For Our Families” | Tuesday, May 17 from 3:30pm to 5:00pm.
Working on an ICAC task-force or other unit dealing with child pornography will have an impact on your family. This seminar, taught by Jane Stevenson, will address ways of talking to spouses and children about work you do and assuring your work does not have a negative impact on your family.
2) “SHIFT: Mental Health & Wellness Solutions for Individuals Exposed to Child Pornography”
Wednesday, May 18 from 8:00am to 11:30am | Thursday, May 19 from 1:30pm to 5:00pm
Team taught by Special Agent Scotty Hughes, Commander of the Wyoming ICAC, and occupational health nurse Jane Stevenson, this course offers professionals who are exposed and who may interact often with child sex offenders (e.g., law enforcement officers, forensic analysts, prosecutors, etc.), the opportunity to learn about the causes and symptoms of the negative effects that may occur as a result of their duties and ways to mitigate them.
Note: All law enforcement officers attend either of these workshops will be entered to win a free Cellebrite UFED System!
3) “Managing Welfare Issues within Your Unit” | Thursday, May 19 from 8:00am to 9:30am
Managing the emotional and mental health needs of professionals exposed to child pornography requires special skills and tools. This seminar, taught by Jane Stevenson, will introduce ICAC unit supervisors to effective management techniques to assure healthy longevity of exposed personnel. This seminar is relevant to managers in any profession which is exposed to child pornography including prosecutors, probation/parole, and law enforcement.
4) “Educating the Public about Child Pornography” | Thursday, May 19 from 1:30pm to 3:00pm
Child pornography evidence is among the most powerful tool against child predation ever discovered. This workshop, taught by Heather Steele, President & CEO of The Innocent Justice Foundation, explains what every law enforcement agent, probation and parole officer, prosecutor, social worker, therapist, and child advocate needs to know to understand how child pornography evidence revolutionizes the fight to keep children safe from child molesters.
For more information on The Innocent Justice Foundation and our trainings, please call (760) 944-1640 or visit www.shiftwellness.org or www.innocentjustice.org. To register for the conference, please click here.
Ronald Morgan, 48, from just outside Pittsburgh, PA, is charged with over 700 counts of child sexual abuse and child pornography, according to authorities.
Officials say that Morgan began sexually abusing and taking pornographic photographs and videos of a girl when she was 12 and the abuse continued for years. The girl told police that Morgan would accompany the family to events or on trips where sometimes the abuse would occur. According to the girl, one instance of abuse occurred on a trip when Morgan took her to a Justin Bieber concert.
Law enforcement say they collected 137 photos and videotaped evidence of the crimes – images of the victim naked or engaged in sexual acts – including one video in which the offenders face can be seen.
Law enforcement authorities are concerned there could be more victims who haven’t come forward.
April 28, 2011
According to the Utah Attorney General’s Office, authorities have just completed the largest child pornography bust in that state’s history. Operation FrostyLime Squeeze, led by the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children’s Task Force which coordinated participation from over 37 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, the investigation resulted in nearly 40 arrests and a staggering amount of child sexual abuse images.
“What Operation FrostyLime Squeeze seized in terms of volume and depravity is simply mind-blowing,” says Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. “If a stack of documents was made with each child pornography image seized, the stack would be 1,909 miles high or the height of 347 Mount Everests.”
According to authorities, below is the operation by the numbers:
- 39 individuals arrested, 31 additional investigation and 114 people notified they are under investigation.
- 52 home and 39 computer search warrants executed.
- 124 computers, 118 external hard drives, 31 cell phones, 5 Xbox game consoles and more than 1,000 CDs/DVDs seized.
“If a person spent eight hours a day, in chunks of 15 seconds downloading and viewing each image seized during this operation, the person would be viewing child pornography non-stop for 55 years,” says Ken Wallentine, Director of Law Enforcement for the Attorney General’s Office. “We could probably add a few more years for all of the images found on cell phones and Xboxes.”
April 25, 2011
Thomas Gordon, Jr., a TSA agent working at the Philadelphia International Airport, has been arrested and charged with distributing more than 100 child sexual abuse images on the social networking site Facebook. Officials say he uploaded pornographic images of young girls to various Facebook accounts, and even appeared in one image wearing his blue TSA uniform.
The TSA has come under scrutiny recently for its controversial pat down procedures. Last week at an airport in New Orleans, the parents of a 6-year old girl claim their daughter was “groped” by a female TSA agent during a pat down – and a video of the procedure surfaced on YouTube.
The indictment against Gordon alleges he used as many as six separate Facebook accounts and multiple names “to upload and store images of sexual exploitation of minor children.”
Authorities, acting on a tip by the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, began investigating Gordon on March 10.
April 19, 2011
David Csanadi, 34, of Newton, CT, appeared in Danbury court on Monday for sexually assaulting multiple child victims and was described by the presiding Judge Susan Quinn Cobb as a “predator and danger to society.” Judge Cobb declined the bail commissioner’s request to lower his $1 million bond amount by half.
Csanadi was charged with three counts of first-degree sexual assault, six counts of risk of injury and one count of possession of child pornography.
“The allegations are very, very serious and all the allegations have not been fully investigated,” Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen Zingaro said.
Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe said the investigation first began at the beginning of April when Monroe police gave them a tip about Csandadi’s involvement in an alleged child pornography case. “They gave us a tip and they gave us information that possibly one of our residents was in possession of child pornography,” Kehoe said of Monroe police.
On April 8, police served a search warrant on Csandi’s residence, and a week later, he was taken into custody based on materials seized at the home and additional investigation, Kehoe said.
“From that search and seizure warrant, we further investigated and came up with these charges that were issued last Friday,” Kehoe said.
“We got to a point where we knew we needed to make an arrest now,” he said. “We felt we needed to safeguard society. We had enough information with the preliminary part of the investigation that we said we need to arrest this guy now…But the investigation is continuing and ongoing and so I can’t say much right now.”
The San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task force and San Diego Police Foundation will kick off National Internet Safety Month with the launch of SafetyNet eLearning, a free online Internet safety guide for parents, educators and concerned adults. The launch event, on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 6:00 – 7:45 p.m at La Jolla Muirlands Middle School, will include a free Internet safety seminar where parents will learn information on cyberbullying as well as other online threats associated with social media outlets and online gaming.
