Lancaster, Kentucky  – Curtis Howard, a 32-year-old Kentucky man was jailed Thursday – accused of committing 250 sex offenses including rape, sodomy and incest. According to Kentucky State Police, an investigation was launched Wednesday when Howard’s wife contacted police while the family was preparing to move to Mercer County. Investigators say Howard is accused of physically and sexually abusing his wife and a family relative. The alleged sexual abuse was occurred on an ongoing basis over a 5-6 month period. READ MORE HERE

Top Penn State officials- including the school’s former president- now face criminal charges for perjury and obstruction of justice because of their role in allegedly covering up Jerry Sandusky’s years of child sex abuse.  The Pennsylvania state’s attorney general focused her attention on the school’s former president Graham Spanier, announcing his eight criminal charges including three felony counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and child endangerment. ‘This was not a mistake, oversight of misjudgment. This was a conspiracy by top officials at Penn State,’ attorney general Linda Kelly said at a Thursday press conference. READ MORE HERE

Amid disturbing accusations an elementary school teacher molested his students while blindfolding them in seclusion it was the principal who took the stand in her own defense on Thursday. Former San Jose Principal Lyn Vijayendran testified that Craig Richard Chandler told her it was all a lesson plan on Helen Keller. ‘Now looking back, I have a different lens,’ the former principal of O.B. Whaley Elementary School told the courtroom according to MercuryNews.com.  READ MORE HERE

ATHENS, Ga. – Police in north Georgia say an infant was stabbed to death at an Athens house, hours after being born. Athens-Clarke police say the newborn’s 21-year-old mother, Cassandra Elyse Norwood, was charged with murder in connection with the baby’s death on Thursday afternoon. The Athens Banner-Herald reports that Norwood was under guard at a hospital, where she was being treated for blood loss from giving birth. It wasn’t clear early Friday whether she has an attorney. READ MORE HERE

A young boy lost his life for not studying hard enough. 7-year-old Yaseen Ali Ege died after his mother allegedly beat him to death and set him on fire because he failed to learn the Koran fast enough. Sara Ege has been accused of brutally beating her son and then setting his corpse on fire to hide her crime. It was initially believed that Yaseen’s death had been an accident, however a post-mortem revealed that he had been suffering beatings for months leading up to his July 2010 death. READ MORE HERE

According to the W.Va. State Police Dept., a doctor, who is also a pastor, was charged with battery and child abuse creating risk of injury to a child. Sgt. Hammack, with the W.Va. State Police Dept., says he received a complaint in Sept. from the daughter of a 77-year-old patient with Parkinson’s, dementia and a broken hip. Dr. Kenneth Seen operates a practice in Spencer, W.Va. Through an investigation and search warrants, it was revealed that Dr. Seen’s account of events could not have happened.  The investigation discovered that a significant portion of Seen’s tongue had been bitten off. READ MORE HERE

Illinois Mom Stabbed Son and Girl 150 Times

The Illinois woman charged with the murder of her 7-year-old son and a 5-year-old girl she was babysitting stabbed them dozens of times in order to get attention from her husband, according to police. Elzbieta Plackowska, 40, of Naperville, Ill., was denied bail by a Chicago-area court today on two counts of first-degree murder. She was ordered held in DuPage County. Plackowska, who was babysitting Olivia Dworakowski, was arrested after the 5-year-old and her son Justin Plackowski, 7, were found by police slashed and stabbed “numerous, numerous times” at approximately 10:15 p.m. Tuesday at Dworakowski’s family home. READ MORE HERE

Kids told to ‘get on their knees and pray’

Woman charged in fatal stabbing of 2 children

Erin Merryn: The Guardian Angel

WIU social work alumna Erin Merryn was recently recognized as a 2012 “Woman of the Year” by Glamour.com for her personal crusade to educate children about sexual abuse prevention. “I’m really scared,” reads a passage from Erin Merryn’s diary, written when she was just 11 years old. “Something happened last night, but I don’t know who to tell.” The untellable secret: She’d been molested by an older cousin. Time and again he preyed on her at family gatherings—locking her in closets, bathrooms, basements. Shockingly, it wasn’t the first time Merryn had endured such horrors; from the ages of six to eight, she’d been molested and raped by a friend’s uncle. But when her younger sister revealed that she, too, had been a victim of their cousin’s abuse, Merryn decided it was time to tell their parents. Then, after years of graphic flashbacks and even a suicide attempt, “it just hit me that I did nothing wrong,” she says. “I didn’t need to be ashamed.” READ MORE HERE

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA — A high school principal in San Bernardino County has been arrested on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a former student. Brian Garrett Joseph, 38, the principal of Etiwanda High School, was arrested Tuesday at his home on suspicion of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Investigators say Joseph is involved in a relationship with the victim, who is now 18 years old, but they say the sexual relationship began when the girl was still a minor and student at the school. READ MORE HERE

Some people would give this kid a medal, but Prosecutors couldn’t deny that it was a cold-blooded, calculated murder. 12-year-old Joseph Hall of Riverside County, CA, returned to court recently to be tried for the murder of his 32-year-old father, Jeff Hall; a notorious neo-Nazi regional leader. According to IB Times, Hall’s public defender claimed that the boy suffered from psychological and physical abuse at the hands of his father, and further stated that the boy should not be imprisoned because he believed his actions to be morally sound. READ MORE HERE

Halloween Safety

Can a convicted sex offender participate in Halloween/Trick-or-Treat activities? If the convicted sex offender is on supervision – which means restrictions have been placed on them as they relate to probation/parole and not state law – then they may not be participate in trick-or-treat activities (i.e. porch lights must be turned off; not permitted to open the door to trick-or-treaters, etc.). This restriction only applies if that offender’s conditions of probation/parole prohibit contact with children. Questions regarding an individual’s probation/parole status and any restrictions placed on them as a result of that status should be directed to your local Probation and Parole office or the Department of Corrections.

What can I do to protect my children? Parents and guardians are encouraged to visit the The National Sex Offender Registry or FAMILY WATCHDOG (you can search by an address or a name) to identify the relevant addresses of convicted sex offenders. This enables adults and guardians to make informed decisions on what residences/businesses to approach for trick-or-treating.

MICHIGAN–There are more than 40,000 people listed on Michigan’s registry of sex offenders. A tool from the state allows you to search for registered sex offenders in your neighborhood and see them on a map. According to the state, registered sex offenders are required to update their address in the the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry within three days of moving to a new home. READ MORE HERE

Search Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry & View Map:
http://www.mipsor.state.mi.us/ 

Halloween Sex Offender Laws

Sex offenders spend Halloween at IMPD

Police make Halloween sex offender plans

Registered sex offenders being watched on Halloween

• Halloween Safety Infographic (PDF)
• Halloween Research Report 2012

• Halloween Safety Tip Sheet
• Halloween Safety Tip Sheet-Spanish

A Westport man convicted of raping a girl over a period of five years has been sentenced to spend the next 25 to 35 years at the state prison at Cedar Junction in Walpole. Edward Pacheco Jr., 42, of 70 Forge Road, had been found guilty by a jury after a four-day trial in September on two counts of statutory rape, one count of child rape by force, one count of rape of a person age 16 or over, and counts of intimidating a witness and violating a restraining order.  READ MORE HERE

What motivates a sex offender to do charity work is an important question; various agencies involved will be reeling from the continuing spate of allegations regarding Jimmy Savile. It is well known that sex offenders often target deserving causes, in order to get close to a pool of vulnerable victims. Such predators appear outwardly altruistic, in order to gain access. But in the case of recent allegations over Jimmy Savile, who it is suggested may have raised around £40 million for charity over a lifetime of apparently ‘good works’, and who seemed to labor for so many different causes, over decades, this doesn’t seem an adequate explanation. It could be charity work acts as a smoke screen which fulfils many other warped objectives as well.  READ MORE HERE

Up and coming rapper, Angel Haze, released a song titled Cleaning out My Closet which has left critics in shock at the brutal honesty that pervades through the track, chronicling Haze’s experience as a sexually abused child. The song is a personalized rendition of Eminem’s 2002 hit song, “Cleanin’ Out My Closet,” where the rapper goes into graphic detail of his troubled childhood and resentful feud with his mother.

Haze’s version lays out a harrowing narrative about being repeatedly raped and sexually abused from the age of seven by a much older man. According to her account, the pattern of abuse lasted well over a decade and spiraled the now 21-year old into an emotional whirlwind of depression, anorexia, and suicidal attempts. The song is gut-wrenching and cuts through the façade of mainstream rap revealing an intense and personal story that much of the rap audience can relate to. The song is part of a six-track mixtape titled, Classick released this past Thursday. READ MORE HERE

(WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT, VULGAR LANGUAGE)