Deciding What to do After a Crime

If you are a victim of crime, you may have to cope with challenges you never expected to face. You may have been wounded or lost property you can’t afford to replace. You may be overwhelmed by fear or anger. And you may not know what to do next or where to turn for help. Victim advocates can help you figure out what steps to take and what choices you may need to make. Victim advocates include paid and unpaid service providers working in a variety of settings to respond to crime victims’ mental, physical, financial, social, emotional, and spiritual needs. Advocates can offer advice on how to stay safe and give you information on medical, mental health, and victim services in your community. Below are some of the options you may want to explore, either on your own or with the help of a victim advocate. READ MORE HERE

• Find Local Assistance – Connect Directory
• Get Help Bulletins for Crime Victims
  • Options for Victims
  • Victims’ Rights
  • Bulletins for Teens
  • When a Youth Is Victimized
  • Civil Justice for Victims of Crime
  • Victim Impact Statements
  • Crime Victim Compensation
  • Restitution
  • How Crime Victims React to Trauma
  • Trauma of Victimization
  • The Criminal Justice System
  • What is a Victim Advocate?
  • Community and Victimization
  • Grief: Coping with the Death of a Loved One
• National Hotlines and Helpful Links
• Civil Litigation – National Crime Victim Bar Association
• Coping with Trauma and Grief
• Sexual Assault Awareness Month

The ‘killer nanny’ who beheaded a four-year-old girl in Moscow kept her schizophrenia a secret and was ‘kicked on to the streets’ after a divorce, a police source has revealed. Gyulchekhra Bobokulova had been registered at a psychiatric clinic in her homeland Uzbekistan – and her condition had been deteriorating in recent months, the source said. In scenes that shocked the world yesterday, the hijab-wearing nanny, 38, was seen walking the streets of Moscow brandishing the head of Nastya Meshcheryakova for an hour before she was detained by police. READ MORE HERE

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Nanny suspected of brutal child murder questioned in Moscow

Woman held for Moscow child ‘beheading’

Jurors convict former Spokane VA doctor of child rape

SPOKANE, Washington – The jury in the trial for former Spokane VA doctor Craig Morgenstern has found him guilty on all charges after beginning deliberations only hours earlier on Tuesday. Jurors began deliberating around 8:30 a.m. and had a verdict shortly after 10:30 a.m. Morgenstern will be sentenced on June 15 at 9:00 a.m. The former doctor sat straight-faced and did not show any emotion while the verdict was read. READ MORE HERE

Pennsylvania – Two bishops who ran a Catholic diocese in western Pennsylvania systematically covered up decades worth of child abuse committed by priests and other religious leaders they supervised, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday by the state attorney general’s office. The statewide grand jury investigation, which started in 2014 with a referral from the Cambria County District Attorney’s office, discovered the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown kept a secret archive detailing hundreds of abuse claims against 50 priests and other religious leaders since the mid-1960s, the attorney general says. READ MORE HERE

A former children’s television show host who vanished decades ago amid allegations he sexually abused children on a camping trip in Louisiana was indicted Thursday on rape charges. Rapides Parish Assistant District Attorney Brian Mosley says a grand jury indicted 76-year-old Frank John Selas III on two counts of aggravated rape, three counts of sexual battery and eight counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile. Mosley said the charges relate to one alleged victim, who testified before the central Louisiana grand jury. READ MORE HERE

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – San Antonio police are investigating alleged child abuse after a young boy suffered a skull fracture and a lacerated liver, among other injuries. Marc Gutierrez, 18, was charged over the weekend with intentionally assaulting and causing bodily injury to a child. READ MORE HERE

SAN ANTONIO – A mother and owner of a northwest side day care was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday in a child abuse case stemming from 2012. That year, Iliana Archuleta’s 8-year-old son was taken to a hospital after suffering a seizure. Hospital staff reported signs of abuse to authorities, prompting a larger investigation. That investigation revealed that Archuleta’s three adopted children, 10-year-old twins- a boy and a girl- and the 8-year-old boy, were malnourished. READ MORE HERE

Washington state authorities on Saturday were seeking to confirm the relationship between a man who fatally shot four people at a rural home west of Seattle then turned the gun on himself following a tense standoff with law enforcement. Details of the slayings in Belfair, about 25 miles west of Seattle, remained under investigation, including when the victims were killed and why the gunman might have targeted them. READ MORE HERE

Five dead in Washington state murder-suicide

Washington State Shooting: Five Dead In Murder-Suicide

(Photo image: Police officers take cover behind vehicles lining the road during a standoff at a rural property near Belfair, Washington, February 26, 2016 in this handout photo provided by Mason County Sheriff’s Office in Shelton, Washington. REUTERS/Mason County Sheriff’s Office/Handout via Reuters)

A Scranton man has been arrested on 25 different charges of child sexual abuse covering a 5 1/2 year long period. Jim Thorpe police say James Matthew Acevedo-Schneider was arrested on 144 counts of sexual abuse of a child, including rape, sexual assault, and indecent assault of a person under the age of 13. Police say the incidents occurred in Jim Thorpe from April 2000 until January 2006. READ MORE HERE

A Pratt man was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison for murder in the second-degree and abuse of a child, according to a news release from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. Joseph D. Sponaugle, 29, was sentenced in Pratt County District Court to serve 220 months by Judge Francis Meisenheimer. Sponaugle was convicted in January of one count of second-degree murder, one count of abuse of a child and one count of endangering a child. READ MORE HERE

Boy then cleaned her up, put her in a white dress and dumped her in a field

FLORIDA – Disturbing new details emerged this afternoon in the case of a Florida teenager accused of murdering his 10-year-old sister, with the 15-year-old suspect claiming he shot the girl by accident and then dumped her body in a field. Fredrick Matthew Lochridge, 15, was arrested Sunday in the murder of his 10-year-old sister, Isabella Heffernan, after she was reported missing by her family and was later found behind her home in Fountain. According to an arrest affidavit released this afternoon, Lochridge admitted to shooting Heffernan with a .22 caliber rifle at around 3am on Sunday. READ MORE HERE

OKLAHOMA – The stepfather of a toddler who died from head trauma on Tuesday has been arrested on complaints of child abuse and child neglect. Branden Taylor, 30, of Tulsa, Oklahoma told police he kicked his wife’s 2-year-old son Michael Rigney in the face the day before he died and that the boy was ‘out cold,’ but he did not seek medical treatment. The boy was discovered with multiple bruises on his body, including the left side of his face, when police arrived to the home after his mother Tina called to report the boy was unresponsive. Branden is not facing any additional charges at this time because authorities have yet to determine if the child’s death was a homicide. READ MORE HERE

Man Found as Youth Leader With New Name

Yreka, California — Yreka Police arrested 48-year old CHP officer Daniel Deal Tuesday night on child molestation charges. Deal is currently charged with Lewd Acts With a Child between the ages of 14 and 15, though the investigation is ongoing. YPD tells NBC5 News the alleged abuse occurred in the last year in Yreka on multiple occasions. YPD, along with the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office made the arrest. Deal has since bailed out of Siskiyou County Jail. READ MORE HERE