Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is bragging that 14 Texas sex offenders were caught violating parole by using MySpace. He says that part rather proudly.
Mr. Abbott called Web sites like MySpace a “lions’ den” for sexual predators who use them “literally looking for the person they can next victimize.”
I bet he said the next part really really quiet.
Mr. Abbott said, however, that “there was no evidence” that the 14 people arrested last month had used MySpace to locate potential victims. Instead, all 14 were arrested after using the Internet, a violation of their parole.
While I’m happy that 14 sex offenders are off the streets Mr. Abbot falls into the same category as his contemporaries from Connecticut, North Carolina, and New York. Instead of demonizing sites like MySpace how about doing something about the parents that allow their kids unfettered access to the internet. Oh, that’s right, because they’re the ones who vote. You wouldn’t want to piss them off, would you?
Pictured at left is one James C. Hart. He’s a coach, a youth volunteer, and a champion powerlifter. Since I’m posting about him here you know he’s not being profiled as a pillar of the community. He’s accused of making child porn. Apparently he used MySpace to find some of his victims.
Hart allegedly used the website My Space.com to persuade girls as young as 14-years-old to take nude pictures of themselves and send them to him.
Using a screen name “J-C”, with a profile that said he was 18-years-old, investigators said Hart went so far as to tell the teens to write those initials on their bodies before taking the pictures.
The affidavit shows that the allegations against Hart stemmed from a mother’s discovery. The paperwork shows that she found sexually explicit images of her 16-year-old daughter on the home computer.
Hart was allegedly coercing the 16-year-old using MySpace.com to have her send more images. In a chat, the affidavit shows, Hart messaged the girl, saying, “Maybe I will just print the pics (another girl) sent me and pass them around town with your name on them.” The girl responded: “I don’t like it when people are so controllive.” Hart responded: “Look, I am not asking. I am telling you, send the pics now,” the affidavit shows. Sgt. Scott Christensen could not talk about Hart’s case, but said that in other Internet sex cases he investigates, it is common for predators to coerce children into sending more photographs.
It seems he had the prerequisite hidden camera too.
Police said that Hart would have the girls over to his duplex, where he would coach them and have them change their clothes in a dressing room where he hid the camera. “Parents need to be aware,” said Christensen. “They need to be involved. Unfortunately, our coaches aren’t some place like you drop your kids off for baby-sitting.”
There were three different girls videotaped in Hart’s basement, police said, and all three have been identified and notified.
Since he was using a bogus MySpace account I could not locate it but…
Hart’s MySpace.com profile listed himself as an 18-year-old male. He had over 1,000 friends.
That’s one sick dude right there.
And from that picture doesn’t he look like he should be looking for his red Swingline stapler?
I’ve posted about Malvin Parker Jr. before. He’s the guy from California who was arrested for allegedly pimping out an underage girl he groomed on MySpace. Well, he just found himself in a whole new world of trouble. He’s now looking at 10 to life on federal charges of sex trafficking children.
The federal government has an interest in the case because Parker allegedly enticed the victim, a 16-year-old runaway from Washington state, across state lines through MySpace, a social networking site. Federal law prohibits using “force, fraud or coercion” to get a minor across state or national boundaries to engage in a “commercial sex act.”
A 15-year-old Florida girl who was reported missing and given an Amber Alert this week is now safe at home. The girl ran off with 46-year-old William Joe Mitchell whom she met on MySpace. The girl had thought that Mitchell was a lot younger than he was.
It turned out Mitchell is 46 and has been arrested 14 times on many charges, many of them violent, ranging from robbery to lewd and lascivious behavior, Judd said.
“This is what pedophiles and predators do best,” Judd said during a televised press conference. They use their charisma and charm to groom and lure children, he said.
“We are thankful he didn’t kill her,” Judd said of the man he refers to as “Billy Mitch.” “We are grateful to he took her to a populated area,” he said referring to the Wal-Mart.
Mitchell is still on the loose. I could not find a definitive MySpace for Mitchell.
Parents, do you need another one of these stories to get you to check up on your kids’ online habits?
This article from a Northern California newspaper has some pretty sobering statistics about craigslist prostitution.
Determining just how many prostitutes are operating on the Web is tricky. The erotic services section of Craigslist’s Stockton-area section has had nearly 5,115 posts since Aug. 13, many of them duplicates. Some have been posted by those who offer services for free.
For reference, there were 998 posts for furniture for sale by owner in that period.
The trend locally mirrors what’s happening in the nation’s largest cities. Craigslist erotic services postings totaled 97,243 in New York, 27,174 for Los Angeles and 7,435 for Chicago in a similar timeframe.
craigslist’s resident mouthpiece had the usual to say.
Craigslist relies on its users to report posts that are deemed inappropriate, wrote Susan MacTavish Best, a spokeswoman for the Web site, in an e-mail response to questions.
The Web site’s staff is not legally obligated to monitor the millions of posts it receives each month, but it does remove prohibited content – anything unlawful or pornographic, according to MacTavish Best.
Police occasionally come knocking about posts.
“We are contacted by law enforcement from time to time,” MacTavish Best wrote, “and Craigslist cooperates fully with the police and other authorities.”
Yet they keep their erotic services section up and running and continue to facilitate in all forms of prostitution and possibly human trafficking.
Before I get to the headline police are saying that the single shot-gun carried by Omesh Hiraman on to the St. John’s campus was loaded and ready to fire.
Now on to the headline. Hiraman’s lawyer, the amusing Anthony Colleluori, has added another part to the story of why Hiraman brought the gun to campus.
“My client is suffering badly from health issues — both mental and physical,” Mr. Colleluori said.
“His big dream was to join the Navy and become an astronaut, and his dream was crushed,” he added.
Mr. Hiraman has suffered from scoliosis since childhood, the lawyer said, which forced him to drop his plan to enter the Navy. He then became depressed, left Cornell University, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Mr. Colleluori said. After a year off, Mr. Hiraman was trying to restart his academic career at St. John’s this fall.
“The pain, I don’t think he was up for it,” Mr. Colleluori said, adding about his purchase of a gun last week: “My thinking on that is it was a protective action, but I can’t rule out suicide.”
Ok, for those keeping score we’ve had schizophrenia, unmedicated schizophrenia, bad reaction to pain meds, 9/11, and now broken dreams of becoming an astronaut as possible reasons that Mr. Colleluori has given for the reason Hiraman took the gun on campus.
As far as going for the suicide defense I’m not buying it. Granted it was a single shot-gun but then why wear a mask as well?
I really want to give Omesh Hiraman the benefit of the doubt. I do believe he was legitimately mentally ill. But the more his lawyer speaks the more I fear for Hiraman’s well-being.
Convicted sex offender and the last man seen with Donna Jou alive, John Steven Burgess, has been arrested yet again. For those of you who don’t know Donna Jou met Burgess on craigslist and went on a date with him and that was the last time she was seen. He was last arrested for failing to report as a sex offender.
Now he’s been arrested for using a fake ID to steal DVDs from a Jacksonville, Florida Blockbuster.
Since Donna Jou has not been found authorities are still unable to file charges against Burgess for Jou’s disappearance.
This may just be the lowest thing a lawyer has ever tried in the 7-year-history of this website.
The lawyer for St. John’s gunman Omesh Hiraman is claiming that 9/11 caused Hiraman’s schizophrenia which caused him to take a gun onto the St. John’s campus.
Moments before the Sept. 11 terror attack, Omesh Hiraman and his classmates at nearby Stuyvesant High School gathered outside to take their senior class pictures, his lawyer said Thursday.
The subsequent mayhem, with Hiraman running north for two miles until he was lost, sent him on a downward spiral from which he’s never recovered — an argument likely to be made in court now that he has been accused of carrying a loaded rifle onto the campus of St. John’s University.
“It’s 9/11 aftermath,” said his lawyer, Anthony Colleluori, of Woodbury. “He changed after 9/11 and went downhill. It’s not Columbine. This is not Virginia Tech. This is something that goes on every day on the streets of America, someone who is mentally ill and needs help.”
This bottom feeder is not only disrespecting the victims of 9/11 he’s also disrespecting his client. If he thinks a 9/11 defense is going to fly with a New York City jury he’s dreamin’.
I’m actually a little sympathetic towards Hiraman. So far it sounds like he may have had legitimate mental and medical problems. His lawyer would do better if he used that as a defense instead of pulling the 9/11 card.
Hiraman’s family seems like they care about him an awful lot. If they care that much they may want to look into getting him new representation.
Our favorite website has been mentioned in the same breath as human trafficking once again.
There was a human trafficking conference in Minnesota and this is what someone in the know had to say.
Heather Weyker, a 10-year veteran of the St. Paul Police Department had this to say.
“We’re on Craig’s List constantly, looking for girls who look young,” Weyker said at the conference, describing the popular online classifieds site. “They always have captors. How many 13-year-old girls think, ‘Hey, I think I’ll put myself on Craig’s List.”‘
And this is what you’re supporting when you use a craigslist or any other kind of prostitute.
They don’t have the option to quit their “work” without suffering physical or sexual punishment, conference participants said. They can’t even walk out the door unaccompanied by one of their captors.
“We’re not just talking about illegal aliens or about people who are disadvantaged,” said U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose. “These are also girls from the suburbs. It can affect anyone.”
Back in July of 2006 27-year-old Guadalupe “Wally” DeLaGarza used MySpace to sexually solicit a 14-year-old girl. When he arrived to meet her he was in possession of a handgun, rope restraints, condoms, and a digital camera. Luckily the 14-year-old girl was the Cyber Crimes Unit and DeLaGarza was promptly arrested. Now he’s been sentenced to 7 years behind bars.
DeLaGarza pleaded guilty to attempted sexual performance by a child, a third-degree felony. Upon release, he will be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
It seems a little light for someone who showed up with a gun and restraints.
