James Shepherd surrendered to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Friday afternoon. A Grand Jury indicted Shepherd on one count of first degree sodomy. He also faces four counts of first degree sexual abuse of a child under the age of twelve. All of the allegations involve the same victim. Shepherd is out of jail on a sixty thousand dollars bond.

SALISBURY — A Salisbury man is facing child abuse charges after allegedly beating two children with a rod, according to court documents. One victim alleged Sun J. Kim beat him with a 2-foot wooden rod after he lied about his grades, according to charging documents. Kim is accused of beating the child before and after school Nov. 4. A second boy, the victim’s brother, also alleged Kim beat him Nov. 2. In addition to child abuse, Kim has been charged with reckless endangerment and assault.

SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco man is trying to get an initiative on an upcoming city ballot that would make circumcision a crime. Lloyd Schofield, the author of the measure, calls circumcision ?genital mutilation.? His proposed measure would “make it a misdemeanor to circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the foreskin, testicle or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18,” ?Tattooing a child is banned as a felony and circumcision is more harmful than a tattoo,? said Schofield.

COMPTON ( KTLA) — A 2-year-old girl died at a hospital Friday afternoon after she was found unresponsive at a home in Compton. Homicide detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were called to the 500 block of Crane Street, near Alondra Blvd around 3:45 p.m. The cause of death is unknown at this time. The girl’s name has not been released.

A 3-year-old boy had to get surgery after he was brutally beaten by a man known to him. According to the magistrate’s complaint, the toddler received bruising to his stomach and the abuse was so severe that a surgeon noticed that the child’s intestine and other portions of his stomach had been torn. The child also had bruising and swelling on his forehead, his eyes, and leg. 27-year-old Vanderray Barcinas Mundo was arrested and charged with family violence, child abuse and aggravated assault. According to court documents, the boy’s mother told police that she had observed injuries on her son on three prior occasions. Police have not charged the child’s mother with any crimes yet. She told police that Mundo would babysit her son when she went to work.

BRENTWOOD, Pa. — A French teacher at Brentwood High School and her husband have been charged with abusing their infant son, but their defense attorney said the boy merely suffers from a condition that makes his bones brittle.Stephanie Faust, 31, and her husband, Scott, are charged with aggravated assault and child endangerment because of broken bones and head trauma Children’s Hospital doctors discovered in June when their son was just 10 weeks old.The couple also has a 2-year-old daughter who has no injuries.Their attorney, Patrick Thomassey, said the baby has a rare brittle bone disease and hasn’t been abused. The attorney said the condition “always ends with these unexplained injuries, and people will go to jail.”

LOS ANGELES—A top official says Los Angeles County’s child welfare service says a crisis is brewing because of a backlog in abuse investigations. In a report this week, county Chief Executive William Fujioka said shifting workers to handle the backlog of more than 10,000 cases has pulled them from other duties such as foster care placement.

Acworth, Georgia – Joshua Wilson, 29, and his fiancee’ Tosha Jacobs, 25, were jailed Monday after police arrived at their home to find their three children locked inside a urine soaked room with bite marks and a 100-pound Rottweiler. According to Acworth Police, officers were called out to the couple’s home on a report of a possible dog attack, however when they arrived on the scene, they found three children living in dangerous and deplorable conditions.

Santa Cruz, California – Eric Lamb, a 38-year-old Live Oak man was jailed Monday after he allegedly threatened to run over a toddler on his bike, and then proceeded to do just that. According to Santa Cruz police, Lamb was riding a bicycling through San Lorenzo Park around 11:00 a.m. when he reportedly encountered two small children. Lamb began shouting profanities at the children, threatening to run them over if they didn’t get out of his way. Investigators say Lamb allegedly veered about 8 feet from his path and intentionally hit the 3-year-old boy, knocking him on the ground and running him over. Deputies found tire marks on the toddler’s sweatshirt.

HICKORY, N.C. – A source close to the investigation tells NewsChannel 36 Hickory Police will hold a 4 p.m. news briefing on Friday in which investigators will announce that remains found Wednesday are in fact that of Zahra Baker. Hickory police confirmed that they will hold a press conference, but did not say anything specific about the reason or topic of the conference. Zahra Baker was reported missing by her father and stepmother, Adam and Elisa Baker, on Oct. 9.

HURON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Samantha Kelly endured merciless taunting from classmates after they learned that the high school freshman had accused a senior of rape. The weeks of harassment eventually became too much. Samantha went home from school Monday and hanged herself in this community southwest of Detroit. With their key witness dead, prosecutors on Wednesday dropped criminal charges against the older student, saying they had no case without the accuser’s testimony.

What Is the Extent of Human Trafficking in the United States ?

Contrary to a common assumption, human trafficking is not just a problem in other countries. Cases of human trafficking have been reported in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and some U.S. territories. Victims of human trafficking can be children or adults, U.S. citizens or foreign nationals, male or female. According to U.S. government estimates, thousands of men, women, and children are trafficked to the United States for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. An unknown number of U.S. citizens and legal residents are trafficked within the country primarily for sexual servitude and, to a lesser extent, forced labor.

Eric Justin Toth, a former private-school teacher, is wanted for allegedly possessing child pornography in Washington, D.C. It is alleged that in June 2008, pornographic images were found on a school camera that had been in Toth’s possession. Toth also allegedly produced child pornography in Maryland. In December 2008, Toth was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for the United States District Court, District of Maryland, for production of child pornography. In addition, Toth is facing a state charge for a sex crime in Maryland. Warrants have been issued in D.C. and Maryland for Toth’s arrest.

Toth may advertise online as a tutor. Toth attended Cornell University for a year and transferred to Purdue University where he graduated with an Education degree. Since June 2008, Toth is believed to have traveled to Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Toth is believed to have lived in Arizona in 2009.

A former Mountain Home man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for rape and creating pornographic images of a child. Federal judge Jimm Hendren sentenced Kirk Harry Demeyer, 52, formerly of Mountain Home, to four consecutive prison terms of 30 years each — 120 years total — following guilty pleas from Demeyer to four counts of production of child pornography, according to Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery, who attended the trial.

Demeyer was arrested by federal and local authorities May 8, 2009, at his residence. He was charged with four counts of raping a pre-pubescent girl. Demeyer was already serving a 40-year sentence at Wednesday’s bench trail in Harrison. Demeyer pleaded guilty to state charges parallel to federal counts that all stem from a search of Demeyer’s residence at 298 Garden Terrace Drive.