The Thin Blue Line at MySpace:
How’s your Memorial Day? Mine is kicking ass. Why, you ask? Well, in case you didn’t click the link, yours truly has made the pages of Time Magazine. I haven’t read the entire article myself, but so far, it looks promising. So be sure to pick up the June 6th issue of Time.
Mother: Ashley Reeves neck not broken:
Good news for Ashley Reeves, the 17-year-old girl who was assaulted and left for dead in the woods by gym teacher Samson Shelton. It was originally thought that Shelton had broken her neck. He confessed to hearing her neck snap when he assaulted her. However, her parents are reporting that is not the case…
“Her neck was injured in the attack, but there are no fractures and no paralysis,” her mother, Michelle Reeves said.
No word yet on how this will affect the charges against Shelton.
AG wants MySpace.com to make Web safer for kids:
Add Texas to the list of states whose Attorneys general want MySpace to crackdown on predators. The other states so far have been New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
AUSTIN — An investigator posing as a 13-year-old girl with a profile on MySpace.com helped officers nab a man for the second time in five months on charges that he was using the Internet to solicit sex from a minor.
The second arrest of John David Payne prompted Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to urge MySpace and other social networking Web sites to increase efforts to protect children and teenagers from explicit images and sexual solicitations.
“This shows how aggressive and how dangerous these child predators are,” Abbott said Monday at a summit he hosted to discuss online criminal activity. “Even a one-time law enforcement arrest is not going to stop predators like this.”
About 300 government officials, law enforcement officers and representatives from technology companies attended the summit to talk about ways to make the Internet safer.
Payne was arrested in December after he arrived in Bastrop for an alleged sexual rendezvous with what he thought was an underage teen he met on the Internet.
While he was awaiting trial, he was arrested again May 10, after he allegedly engaged in graphic sexual conversation with an investigator posing as a teen on MySpace. He also solicited sex from a different investigator posing as another girl in a separate chat room.
A spokeswoman for Abbott said their office has had MySpace profiles for some time, but Payne’s arrest was one of the first to stem from that site.
Abbott said Web sites like MySpace, a social networking hub with more 72 million members, should make it harder to find profiles belonging to underage youth and should use software that automatically scans all uploaded photographic images and blocks those that are pornographic.
A spokesman for Myspace did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has been working with MySpace to identify ways to make it more difficult for young people to put up too much information about themselves, said Michelle Collins, director of the center’s exploited children unit.
The center also has partnered with the site for a campaign to teach teenagers how to protect themselves online.
“There isn’t any one solution that’s going to solve the problem,” she said. “It’s really going to be by joining collective forces that we can have the biggest impact.”
At least they’re not making ridiculous demands like Massachusetts.
Suspect in attack has teen visitor:
Samson Shelton, the Missouri gym teacher who was arrested for breaking the neck of 17-year-old student Ashley Reeves and leaving her to die in the woods, hasn’t learned his lesson. Apparently, the local girls haven’t either…
SMITHTON – Just a few hours after being released Monday from the St. Clair County Jail, Samson “Sam” R. Shelton pleaded on the telephone with a teenage girlfriend to visit him at his mother’s house, where he is confined until trial.
Tuesday, the 18-year-old Columbia girl visited Shelton at the house just south of Smithton, said Lt. Steve Johnson, lead investigator for the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department. Shelton is charged with kidnapping and attempting to murder 17-year-old Ashley Reeves of Millstadt.
The Columbia girl’s parents called the sheriff’s department to complain, Johnson said. They were told their daughter’s visit to Shelton’s mother’s home did not violate conditions of the $80,000 bond set by St. Clair County Circuit Judge John Baricevic.
“It is not a violation, but it is certainly a concern,” Johnson said. “The parents called us, and they were worried.”
Besides being confined to his mother’s home, Shelton must wear an electronic monitoring anklet, Baricevic ordered.
Why this scumbag is out on bail is beyond me anyway. And ladies, if a man confesses to breaking a girl’s neck, it’s probably a good idea not to go to his house.
Shelton’s MySpace has since been removed.
MySpace predator suspect faces new charges:
Patrick Buss, who was arrested back in April for trying to lure teenage girls to a motel room, has been arrested again…
A Hubbard, Ore., man, arrested late last month for allegedly arranging to meet two high school girls at a LaPine motel was arrested Friday at the Deschutes County Courthouse on new, more serious charges involving a Tillamook County victim.
Patrick Nicholas Buss was taken into custody when he showed up at Circuit Judge Ed Perkins’ courtroom for arraignment on the original charges that included computer crime, contributing to the sexual abuse of a minor and third-degree charges of attempted sex abuse, attempted rape and attempted sodomy.
The new charges include two third-degree counts each of rape, sex abuse and sodomy, as well as furnishing alcohol to a minor and using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.
The investigation led to discovery of an additional victim in the Tillamook area, Edwards said Friday. At the request of Tillamook County authorities, sheriff’s detectives contacted Buss and took him into custody on the Tillamook County charges. He was lodged in the county jail, pending transport to Tillamook County.
Again, here and here are Buss’ MySpace profiles. He’s still getting comments from girls even after his initial arrest. I wonder if some vigilante commenting is in order.
Or, as I like to call them, Massholes. (Relax, I’m just kidding.)
Anyway, your Attorney General Tom Reilly is calling on MySpace to beef up their security when it comes to minors. He’s making some good and some not so good requests.
First, he wants MySpace to change its minimum user age to 18. I have no problem with that, but he doesn’t say how MySpace should do that. I suggest credit card number validations. That won’t keep every minor out, but it will keep most of them out.
He also wants every MySpace page equipped with a “Report Inappropriate Content” link. That’s actually a great idea.
He wants MySpace to respond to all reports of inappropriate content within 24 hours and significantly increase the number of employees who review images and content. Sounds reasonable. Newscorp does have assloads of cash.
He wants MySpace to immediately delete any profiles that violate MySpace’s Terms of Use Agreement and permanently banning those members from using the site. I also agree with this because MySpace is notoriously bad at enforcing their TOS. Banning members is harder, though. How do you ban a member from getting another account?
He wants MySpace to immediately remove all advertisements and other MySpace-sponsored content that are inappropriate for children. Yeah, that’ll happen.
And lastly, like the Conn. AG he wants MySpace to offer free, downloadable software that allows parents to block the use of MySpace. I don’t think that should be MySpace’s responsibility. With just a little knowledge, any parent can have MySpace blocked on their computer.
AG Reilly is also trying to educate parents…
As part of an effort to enhance parental awareness of online safety for children, AG Reilly’s Office is leading a series of workshops throughout Massachusetts to educate parents about the dangers that children face when using the Internet. Today AG Reilly will conduct an Internet Safety program for parents in Weymouth warning them of the potential dangers that exist when their children use the Internet.
How many parents actually attend these workshops remains to be seen. My guess is, there won’t be enough.
H.S. Teacher Accused Of Trying To Kill Student:
A high school teacher in Belleville, Ill., was arrested and charged with breaking the neck of a 17-year-old student and then leaving her to die in some woods, according to police.
Investigators said Samson Shelton, 26, who is a teacher at Columbia High School, tried to strangle Ashley Reeves and then left her to die.
Shelton was with St. Clair County detectives when they found Reeves in a park in Belleville. She survived in the woods for 30 hours before she was found.
“They worked all night, never let up, and they found her and they saved her life,” St. Clair County Sheriff Mearl Justus said. “It’s that simple.”
Police said Shelton apparently used his forearm to break Reeves’ neck.
Here is Shelton’s MySpace.
Welcome to the Rogues Gallery, Sammy. Hope those wrestling skills come in handy in prison.
H/T to Steve Huff.
Chaplin man arrested; allegedly met girl, 13, on MySpace.com:
A 27-year-old Chaplin man was arrested and a missing 13-year-old Hebron girl was found in a Portland motel room late Monday night. State police say the pair allegedly began a relationship after she used the Web site Myspace.com.
Aaron Whitney was charged with second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. He is being held on $750,000 bond and was to appear in Middletown Superior Court today.
State police responded to a complaint of a missing girl Monday afternoon. Troopers learned the girl never got on her school bus and did not go to school. After finding out about the alleged relationship, police identified the suspect and put out descriptions of the suspect, his car and the missing girl. A Portland police officer located the car at the Portland Motel just before midnight. Police say both Whitney and the girl were in the room.
Whitney was taken into custody and the girl was transported to Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, was treated and released to her parents.
What is up with Connecticut? It seems like they have more of these stories than any other state.
Anyway, here is more than likely Aaron Whitney’s MySpace. The only thing that doesn’t match is his age. Plus, it’s all stripped down. Maybe he was clearing it in case of an arrest.
MySpace predator suspect caught in LaPine:
A 24-year-old Hubbard, Ore. man was arrested after knocking on the door of a LaPine motel room, allegedly to meet two high school girls he chatted up in sexually explicit fashion at the online site MySpace.com, police said Friday.
Patrick Nicholas Buss was lodged in the Deschutes County Jail in Bend on several charges but released early Friday on his own recognizance, pending a court date next month, officials said.
Last month, two LaPine High students contacted the sheriff’s school resource officer and reported receiving sexually explicit e-mails from an unknown man at MySpace.com, said sheriff’s Capt. Tim Edwards.
The contact initially was only “friendly conversation, but changed to sexually explicit language over the course of a few weeks,” Edwards said.
Sheriff’s detectives began an investigation and identified the man as Buss, the captain said.
Buss allegedly made arrangements to come to LaPine “for the purpose of having sexual contact with the girls,” Edwards said in a news release.
Thursday evening, Buss allegedly knocked on a motel room door “where he believed one of the girls was present, but instead was (greeted) by sheriff’s detectives who took him into custody without incident,” Edwards said.
Early Friday, Deschutes County sheriff’s detectives raided Buss’s home in Hubbard, a small town between Salem and Portland, and seized additional evidence, Edwards said.
Buss was lodged in the Bend jail on charges of computer crime, contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor and third-degree charges of attempted sex abuse, attempted rape and attempted sodomy, Edwards said.
But a jail officer said he was released from the crowded jail Friday morning on his own recognizance pending a May 19 court date.
And we have two MySpace profiles for Buss, here and here.
Welcome to the Rogues Gallery, Paddy.
