TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Social Media Crime

  • David Leonard charged once again

    David Leonard charged once again

    Sex-Assault Suspect Faces More Charges:

    David Leonard is one of the few recurring characters here. You can check out his previous transgressions here, here, and here. This scumbag has had so many charges of child molestation leveled against him, I’ve lost track if this is a new charge or not. I believe it is, but don’t quote me on that.

    VERNON — A local man in custody the past year on charges that he had sex with several underage girls he met on the social networking website MySpace.com has been charged with having sex with a 15-year-old Plymouth girl.

    David F. Leonard, 23, of Vernon, was charged Tuesday by state police with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and two counts of impairing the morals of a minor. During his brief arraignment before Judge Patricia L. Harleston, his bail was set at $75,000 and the case was continued to July 13. Leonard is being held, with bail totaling $715,300.

    In the new case,

    Well, that clears that up.

    the 15-year-old girl told state police that she met Leonard through another website, FaceTheJury.com. Leonard had sex with the girl on several occasions – at her Plymouth home, his dormitory room at Central Connecticut State University and his brother’s dormitory room at the University of Connecticut, police said. The arrest warrant served Tuesday is for the incidents that allegedly occurred in Leonard’s brother’s dorm room at UConn in Storrs.

    Police found the Plymouth girl after executing a search warrant on Leonard’s computer and finding images of the girl in various states of undress. The girl had sent the photos to Leonard via America Online’s instant messaging service.

    Police also found five photographs of Leonard’s penis that they say he sent to the girl via instant messaging.

    I want to say that this is the 11th or 12th charge against him. And as far as I know, all of his acts took place in the state of Connecticut. The same state where Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has pressured MySpace into implementing all sorts of impossible age verification checks. I guess when Leonard gets sentenced, it will be a litmus test to see how Mr. Blumenthal really handles child molesters.

    Thanks to Debbie for the tip.

  • West Philly man arrested for luring teens on MySpace

    West Philly man arrested for luring teens on MySpace

    Man Charged with Luring Teens on Myspace:

    27 or 28-year-old Jerome Booker of West Philadelphia was arrested for luring teens to his apartment while posing as a teenage girl named Jasmine and promised the boys sexual favors.

    Police are investigating to see if there have been any other victims.

    A word of advice for teens from your Ol’ Uncle Trench. The hot girl on MySpace doesn’t really want to have sex with you.

  • Joshua Innes

    Joshua Innes

    Man guilty of luring teens over Internet:

    25-year-old Joshua Innes of Montreal pleaded guilty to charges of luring a child under 18 on the Internet, extortion, and distributing child pornography.

    Court heard in an agreed statement of facts that Innes posed as a 16-year-old girl named Nicky from Calgary on the popular social networking site Nexopia.

    Innes began exchanging messages with the Edmonton girl, complimenting her and eventually turned the topic toward sex.

    He sent her a video that showed a teenage girl performing a sex act which the victim believed was Nicky.

    After persistent coaxing, the girl took off her clothes and performed sexual acts in front of her web camera, which Innes recorded in Montreal on his computer.

    About a week later, “Nicky” asked the girl what was the worst thing she’s ever done. She said she once talked about a friend behind her back and asked Nicky the same question. He replied, “I pretended to be a 16-year-old girl on the Internet.”

    Innes then demanded she perform more sex acts for the webcam or he would upload the video on the web and send it to people listed as friends on her Nexopia profile.

    The victim told a friend who alerted her parents, who called police.

    When an Edmonton police officer, Det. Randy Wickens, posed online as the victim, Innes aggressively demanded the girl perform again or he would send out the video.

    Innes was arrested in his home, where he lived with his parents.

    Sentencing will take place in August.

  • Conn. MySpace SO arrest

    Conn. MySpace SO arrest

    Sex Offender Accused Of Using MySpace:

    Now that the AGs have the names of the sex offenders on MySpace, it’s time to round them up.

    Our first contestant is 30-year-old Christopher Montefusco (MySpace deleted). Of course, it happens in the MySpace predator capital of the U.S., Connecticut.

    Montefusco, 30, of West Haven, was convicted of first-degree sexual assault on Aug. 30, 1996. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, suspended after two and half years served. Montefuso had two years of special parole remaining on his sentence when he was picked up by state Department of Correction officials Wednesday, Blumenthal said. Special parole usually involves close supervision and sometimes mandatory participation in support programs.

    While Blumenthal had no details about Montefusco’s underlying criminal charge, he said that one of the conditions of Montefusco’s parole was that he not use a computer, the Internet or access social networking sites such as MySpace without first obtaining permission from his parole officer.

    Of course, Attorney General Blumenthal is using this one arrest to stroke his own ego…

    “The results here demonstrate the urgent and clear need for this kind of information from MySpace and other social networking sites,” said Blumenthal, one of two attorneys general serving as chairman of a national task force on Internet safety. “Clearly, offenders like this are just the most visible tip of the predator iceberg.”

    Still no word from Mr. Blumenthal’s office about what they’re going to do about parents who don’t monitor their children’s internet usage.

  • NC legislation on parental consent passes committee

    NC legislation on parental consent passes committee

    Bill on parental consent for MySpace advances:

    North Carolina is slowly starting to turn into New Jersey as far as over-regulation is concerned.

    RALEIGH – Children under 18 would have to get parental consent to join MySpace.com and other social networking Web sites under a bill approved today by a state Senate appropriations committee.

    N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper has been pushing for the legislation, saying it would protect children from sexual predators who target victims online. Cooper is co-chairman of a group of 50 state attorneys general trying to negotiate with MySpace.com on the issue.

    I have yet to hear not only how they plan on implementing this, but also how they plan on enforcing it. What do they propose happens to a child who gets on without parental permission? Will the child be prosecuted, or the parent? Will it result in jail time or fines? Will there be a special task force that will be in charge of making sure that all NC kids on MySpace have parental permission? Will this law discourage predators from trolling MySpace?

    Again, I say this is nothing more than feel-good legislation preying on the fears of those that are not tech-savvy in order to gain re-election. None of it actually keeps our kids any safer.

  • What does Australia know that the US doesn’t?

    What does Australia know that the US doesn’t?

    MySpace hands over known sex offenders; how many unknown?:

    One of the problems I’ve had with all the blustering from state attorneys general about MySpace is what are the AGs doing about the predators that haven’t been caught yet? I never see anyone in the American media asking that question, yet the Australian media has no problem seeing the same problems that I do.

    MySpace, with 180 million registered profiles and still growing, is possibly the world’s largest social networking phenomenon. The US with a population approaching 300 million has an estimated 600,000 registered sex offenders and quite possibly some multiple of that who are unknown and unregistered. This then begs the question of how many unregistered sex offenders and potential would be predators still have profiles on the MySpace site.

    In most places, there are more criminals at large than in jails. If MySpace truly is a virtual representation of the physical world, then it stands to reason that wiping the profiles of 7,000 known sex criminals may well be just lopping off the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully, that is not the case.

    Yet, we still don’t hear what the AGs are doing to keep sex offenders off the streets. Personally, I just hear them pointing the finger at MySpace. Maybe they should clean up their own “house” first before worrying about MySpace.

  • MySpace caves to AGs

    MySpace caves to AGs

    MySpace in deal with 8 state attorneys general:

    If you haven’t heard by now, MySpace has acquiesced to the 8 state attorneys general asking for all the information MySpace has on each state’s sex offenders. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have no interest in protecting SOs. However, I do have a problem with politicians putting on a big show and pointing the finger at something that’s not the problem while preying on the fears of uninformed voters.

    For example…

    But some attorneys general urged the company to take more actions to protect minors.

    “While conveying this information to us is a good first step, MySpace needs to do more, including implementing an effective age verification system that will make the site considerably safer,” Ohio AG Marc Dann said in a statement.

    I say parents need to do more to keep their underage kids off of MySpace. I say that Attorneys general need to do more to keep sex offenders behind bars. Unfortunately, talk like that doesn’t get AG’s re-elected.

    Thanks to Pat for the link.

  • MySpace refuses AGs’ requests

    MySpace refuses AGs’ requests

    MySpace won’t release list of sex offenders to states:

    In a follow-up to my post about 8 attorneys general who have demanded that MySpace give up all their information about sex offenders using their site, MySpace has flatly denied the request.

    MySpace’s chief security officer said the company regularly discloses information to law enforcement officials but the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act says it can only do so through proper legal channels .

    Christian Genetski, an attorney who has represented MySpace, said the Electronic Communications Privacy Act requires subpoenas, court orders, or search warrants.

    Um…aren’t attorneys general supposed to be knowledgeable of the law? Then why did MySpace’s lawyers just give them the legal smackdown?

  • AGs pressure MySpace for info

    AGs pressure MySpace for info

    8 States Seek Sex Offender Data From MySpace:

    Attorneys General from eight states, including North Carolina’s Roy Cooper and Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, sent what I’m sure is a strongly worded letter to MySpace demanding they turn over sex offender information.

    In a letter, the attorneys general asked MySpace to provide information on how many registered sex offenders are using the site, and where they live. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper signed the letter, along with attorneys general from Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

    In a statement, Cooper’s office said media outlets in 2006 “reported almost 100 criminal incidents across the country involving adults who used MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children.”

    In December, MySpace announced it was partnering with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. to build a database with information on sex offenders in the United States. Software to identify and remove sex offenders from the site was launched in early May, MySpace officials said Monday in a statement.

    “It is our understanding that the data from Sentinel reveals that thousands of known sex offenders have been confirmed as MySpace members,” the letter said.

    In an interview, Cooper said the information was provided by “absolutely credible” sources, whom he declined to identify.

    This is how I imagine the press conference in Raleigh went…

    AG Cooper: It is our understanding that the data from Sentinel reveals that thousands of known sex offenders have been confirmed as MySpace members.

    Reporter: Who provided you that information?

    AG Cooper: Um…a guy.

    Here’s a thought. Rather than having MySpace do your work for you, why don’t you keep better track of your sex offenders? Especially you, Mr. Blumenthal. Connecticut seems to have a serious problem with SOs if this site is any indication.

    While you’re at it, why don’t you keep them behind bars longer?

  • The Metal Molester strikes again

    The Metal Molester strikes again

    Randall S. Shesto II

    Wisconsin Heavy Metal Singer Charged With Having Sex With Underage Girl:

    Well, well, well. A few months ago, I posted about Randall S. Shesto II. He is the 20-year-old lead singer of the Wisconsin-based “metal” band Nailwounds. Previously, he was caught with an underage girl, and I dubbed him The Metal Molester. All sorts of people came to his defense, stating things like that the girl was lying about her age. To that I say…

    It turns out that RJ Shesto’s first arrest was not his first dalliance into jailbait.

    Randall S. Shesto II (photo) — a.k.a. RJ Nailwounds, lead singer of NAILWOUNDS (MySpace page) — was charged in a criminal complaint with having sex with a 15-year-old Town of Mukwonago girl three weeks before his encounter with a Sheboygan County girl that led to his conviction there.

    Like the earlier case, Shesto is charged in a complaint that says he met the 15-year-old through MySpace.com, had ensuing meetings with her and the two eventually agreed to have sex. The girl was not legally old enough to make that decision, however, and the complaint indicates that she did have some qualms about her decision after making it.

    From another article…

    The Town of Mukwonago girl’s sexual encounter with him in her home occurred on Dec. 22, and for a time remained a secret. The girl’s father had met Shesto during a visit he made to her home, and the father was led to believe that Shesto was 18 and attended Mukwonago High School.

    After the father learned of Shesto’s arrest on sex charges in Sheboygan County, he became suspicious and decided to look into his daughter’s MySpace.com account. After seeing indications there that the two had sexual contact, the father brought her in to speak with Mukwonago police.

    The girl detailed her relationship with Shesto to police and explained that he knew she was 15, and she knew he was 20. She also explained how the two had sex in her home on Dec. 22.

    I might be able to buy the “she said she was 18” defense once. But what are the odds of lightning striking twice here? Slim to none and Slim just left.

    Thanks to Blabbermouth for linking to here.