Tag: child abuse

Florida Teacher Facing Federal Charges After Making at Least 28 Sex Tapes With 8th-Grade Student

A teacher in Orange County, Florida, is facing federal charges after the parents of an 8th-grade student found 28 sex videos of them together on his phone.

The teacher, Marie-Jo Gordo, was indicted on three counts of sexually exploiting a minor on Wednesday. The jury determined that she “(enticed) a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct” and then “(produced) a visual depiction of such conduct.”

The Orlando Sentinel reports, “Federal investigators said the student’s parents found video of Marie-Jo Gordo and their underage son, whom she taught in 2019, having sex in what appeared to be vehicles and hotel rooms throughout Central Florida. The videos were taken between June and September of 2023 and three were described in court filings.”

At least one of the videos was over 13 minutes long.

According to court records obtained by WESH, the sex crimes happened in hotel rooms “throughout Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.”

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Transgender ‘lolicon’ pedophile arrested in Indiana

A 27-year-old trans pedophile drove 70 miles across state lines to meet who she thought was a 13-year-old girl. Instead, a camera crew with “Predator Catchers” was there to meet her with the police.

Aaron Blaze Clark, who uses the name “Alice,” was arrested on Nov. 4 at a Walmart in Winchester, Ind. Clark drove from Liberty Township, Ohio to meet who she thought was a child from the “Her” lesbian, queer dating app. Clark was charged with child solicitation and attempted child molesting, both felonies. 

In the “Predator Catchers” sting video published on YouTube, Clark admits to being a pedophile.

“You said you were okay with having sex with a three-year-old,” said one of the men from the “Predator Catchers” group, referencing alleged text exchanges.

“Yes, and it sounds so wrong, but there’s grey areas to it,” Clark responded. When questioned about her pornography habits, Clark says she is into “lolicon,” a genre named after the Vladimir Nabokov novel character “Lolita,” where prepubescent girls are placed in sexual contexts.

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Tennessee police took part in multiyear sex trafficking conspiracy to shield a serial rapist — whose victims included children — in exchange for ‘hundreds of thousands’ in cash, lawsuit claims

Multiple Tennessee police officers took large sums of money from an accused rapist — whose victims included children — in order to protect him from criminal prosecution, a lawsuit filed in federal court alleges.

The shocking allegations are the latest wrinkle in the often dramatic, yearslong, multi-chapter effort to bring Sean Williams, 52, to justice.

Women in Johnson City had complained to law enforcement about the wealthy man’s allegedly predatory behavior since at least November 2019, according to the 85-page filing obtained by Law&Crime.

The defendant was ultimately arrested in April on wholly unrelated drug charges. In September, he was indicted on myriad state and federal child sex offenses. The apparently slow pace of those concomitant investigations was due, at least in part, by a local law enforcement conspiracy of cash and silence, the lawsuit claims.

“For years, Sean Williams drugged and raped women and sexually exploited children in Johnson City, Tennessee, and for years, officers of the Johnson City Police Department (‘JCPD’) let him get away with it,” the second amended complaint begins.

Filed by nine unnamed Does in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the lawsuit alleges that “at least eight” reports about Williams drugging and raping women in his downtown apartment were swept under the rug by numerous police officers, who, instead, treated the business owner and sports car collector like he was “untouchable.”

”In exchange for turning a blind eye, JCPD officers took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from Williams, all while refusing to take meaningful steps to protect women and children in Johnson City and to stop his known sexually predatory behavior,” the filing continues. “JCPD was not only turning a blind eye to Williams’ crimes, but also engaging in a pattern and practice of discriminatory conduct towards women who reported rape and sexual assault by Williams.”

The lawsuit claims that Johnson City police, at the highest level, were knowing participants in a sex trafficking operation.

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Prominent transgender activist Kendall Stephens is charged with raping children in Philadelphia

A prominent transgender activist in Philadelphia has been accused of raping two children.

Kendall Stephens, 37, was arrested on Monday and charged with a slew of sex crimes against the minors.

Exact details of the allegations have not been released, but she appeared at a preliminary arraignment in Philadelphia Municipal Court the same day.

Sources told ABC7 the alleged offences were committed against two boys under the age of 13.

Police said its Special Victims Unit received reports of previous sexual assaults on two minor children in September 2023. Stephens was arrested following a ‘comprehensive investigation’.

She is charged with rape, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with minors, indecent assault against people less than 13 years of age, obscenity to minors and endangering the welfare of children.

The LGBTQ+ campaigner became known in her local community after she turned to activism following a vicious hate crime against her.

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Former sheriff’s deputy pleads guilty to child sex abuse, child porn charges

A former San Diego County sheriff’s deputy Wednesday changed his plea to guilty on multiple charges, including child sex abuse and possession of child pornography.

Jose Soto Jr. was arrested in May and charged with possession of child pornography and an assault weapon.

In addition to his guilty pleas on the child pornography charge, Soto pleaded guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious acts on a child and one count of continuous child sexual abuse.

Under California code, a “continuous sexual abuse of a child” charge applies to a person who has regular access to a child under 14 and has committed three or more lewd acts on them for three or more months.

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Facebook and Instagram content enabled child sexual abuse, trafficking: New Mexico lawsuit

Facebook and Instagram created “prime locations” for sexual predators that enabled child sexual abuse, solicitation, and trafficking, New Mexico’s attorney general alleged in a civil suit filed Wednesday against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The suit was brought after an “undercover investigation” allegedly revealed myriad instances of sexually explicit content being served to minors, child sexual coercion, or the sale of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez said in a press release.

The suit alleges that “certain child exploitative content” is ten times “more prevalent” on Facebook and Instagram as compared to pornography site PornHub and adult content platform OnlyFans, according to the release.

“Child exploitation is a horrific crime and online predators are determined criminals,” Meta said in a statement to CNBC. A spokesperson said that the company deploys “sophisticated technology, hire child safety experts, report content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and share information and tools with other companies and law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to help root out predators.”

The New Mexico suit follows coordinated legal actions against Meta by 42 other attorneys general in October. Those actions alleged that Facebook and Instagram directly targeted and were addictive to children and teens.

New Mexico’s suit, by contrast, alleges Meta and Zuckerberg violated the state’s Unfair Practice Act. The four-count suit alleges that the company and Zuckerberg engaged in “unfair trade practices” by facilitating the distribution of CSAM and the trafficking of minors, and undermined the health and safety of New Mexican children.

The lawsuit argues that Meta’s algorithms allegedly promote sex and exploitation content to users and that Facebook and Instagram lack “effective” age verification. The suit also alleges that the company failed to identify child sexual exploitation “networks” and to fully prevent users it had suspended for those violations from rejoining the platform using new accounts

“In one month alone, we disabled more than half a million accounts for violating our child safety policies,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

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Wyoming Cop Assaulted a Disabled 8-Year-Old, Then Deleted the Body Camera Footage, Lawsuit Claims

Last spring, a disabled Wyoming 8-year-old was assaulted by a school resource officer, who pinned the boy facedown on the floor of a school conference room seemingly unprovoked. According to a lawsuit filed by the boy’s family last week, after the incident, the resource officer deleted body camera footage showing the most egregious parts of the attack and even accessed the child’s private school records without his parents’ or school administrators’ knowledge.

Last February, an 8-year-old with a “diagnosed neurodivergent disability” was sitting in the principal’s office of Freedom Elementary School in Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the school’s lunch period. The boy, named in the suit as “J.D.,” had been doing this for days, in accordance with his Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The complaint states that Principal Chad Delbridge and another faculty member began to quietly speak to J.D. about comments he made to a school cafeteria cashier and whether he should apologize to the cashier. Deputy Benjamin Jacquot, the school resource officer, was standing nearby during the discussion. J.D. was calm during this period.

According to a report later filed by Delbridge, when J.D. stood up to return to class moments later, Jacquot grabbed J.D.’s arm. Delbridge had not asked for Jacquot’s assistance in any way. 

“J.D. was not a threat to himself or to anyone else. There was no reason at all for Deputy Jacquot to become involved with J.D. during this interaction with Principal Delbridge,” the lawsuit notes. “Deputy Jacquot, nevertheless, forcibly wrestled J.D. into a nearby conference room using an armlock where the assault grew violent.”

The suit claims that Jacquot repeatedly “slammed” J.D.’s face into the conference room floor, causing numerous lacerations and bruises. The undeleted portion of Jacquot’s body camera footage shows the 250-pound Jacquot pinned on top of 68-pound J.D.

“At this point, J.D. is bleeding from wounds on his face, and his smeared blood is visible on the video,” the complaint reads. “As shown on the video, Deputy Jacquot is out of control, pinning J.D. by his arms face down to the ground in a prone restraint position and yelling threats at J.D. J.D., meanwhile, is struggling to breathe, and is coughing.”

According to the suit, Jacquot screamed at J.D.: “Do you understand me! I should be taking you to jail!”

Eventually, Delbridge called J.D.’s father, Ishmael DeJesus, to pick him up. When he arrived, DeJesus asked Jacquot why he grabbed J.D. even though the boy wasn’t causing a disruption. 

“Because, as a law enforcement officer, that’s my primary function,” Jacquot replied.

The complaint further alleges that “immediately after his assault on J.D., Deputy Jacquot went to his vehicle, and, upon information and belief, destroyed evidence by deleting his body cam video which showed the most violent portion of the assault, as well as the footage of his improper intervention into and escalation of this situation.”

Later, Jacquot obtained J.D.’s “private and protected” school records and included excerpts of those records in the police report of the incident. An investigation from the school later concluded that Jacquot had “no need to access these records in his work with this situation.”

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Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims

Paul Rytting listened as a woman, voice quavering, told him her story.

When she was a child, her father, a former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had routinely slipped into bed with her while he was aroused, she said.

It was March 2017 and Rytting offered his sympathies as 31-year-old Chelsea Goodrich spoke. A Utah attorney and head of the church’s Risk Management Division, Rytting had spent about 15 years protecting the organization, widely known as the Mormon church, from costly claims, including sexual abuse lawsuits.

Rytting had flown into Hailey, Idaho, that morning from Salt Lake City, where the church is based, to meet in person with Chelsea and her mother, Lorraine.

After a quick prayer, he introduced himself and said he was there “to look into” Chelsea’s “tragic and horrendous” story.

Chelsea and Lorraine had come to the meeting with one clear request: Would the church allow a local Idaho bishop, which in the Mormon church is akin to a Catholic priest, to testify at John Goodrich’s trial? Bishop Michael Miller, who accompanied Rytting to the meeting, had heard a spiritual confession from Chelsea’s father shortly before John Goodrich was arrested on charges of sexually abusing her.

While the details of his confession remain private, the church swiftly excommunicated Goodrich.

Audio recordings of the meetings over the next four months, obtained by The Associated Press, show how Rytting, despite expressing concern for what he called John’s “significant sexual transgression,” would employ the risk management playbook that has helped the church keep child sexual abuse cases secret. In particular, the church would discourage Miller from testifying, citing a law that exempts clergy from having to divulge information about child sex abuse that is gleaned in a confession. Without Miller’s testimony, prosecutors dropped the charges, telling Lorraine that her impending divorce and the years that had passed since Chelsea’s alleged abuse might prejudice jurors.

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“Non-Binary Queer” Artist And Former VICE Contributor Sentenced For Child Pornography Possession After Arranging To Meet 9-Year-Old Boy For Rape

A “non-binary queer” artist and former VICE contributor has been sentenced to 90 months in federal prison for the possession of child pornography after arranging to sexually abuse a 9-year-old boy. Efrem Zelony-Mindell, 35, was initially arrested in Manhattan, New York, on December 16, 2022.

According to the criminal complaint reviewed by Reduxx, Zelony-Mindell began communicating with an undercover FBI agent in early 2022 after meeting him on Scruff, a hook-up app for homosexual men. During these conversations, Zelony-Mindell slowly began to introduce more extreme topics, and questioned the agent if he was “into taboo.”

Soon after, Zelony-Mindell asked if the agent had a Telegram account, where the two then began corresponding. He expressed an interest in “[young] incest,” and repeatedly stated his desire to sexually abuse children.

Approximately one month later, the undercover agent offered to introduce Zelony-Mindell to another agent posing as a father of a 9-year-old boy offering his son for rape. He immediately affirmed his desire to sexually abuse the child, and arrangements were made for the two to meet after they had spoken both through an encrypted messaging service, text message, and on the phone.

Zelony-Mindell also sent videos and images of child pornography to the undercover agent after admitting his interest in pedophilia. Within the FBI special agent’s complaint, graphic descriptions of the materials Zelony-Mindell sent to the first undercover agent were provided.

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Oklahoma teen testifies how a former pastor referenced the Bible during abuse

A teen who says she was sexually abused testified for almost two hours on Tuesday. She told the court how a former pastor would dialogue with her about biblical issues while allegedly abusing her.

Fred Gammon, Jr, 42, of Miami, is charged with child sexual abuse.  His trial in Ottawa County began its second day on Wednesday (11//29) before a 7-woman, 5-man jury.

At the time of the alleged abuse, Gammon was serving as Wayside Assembly of God pastor. 

The jury listened to prosecutor Chris Garner methodically question the teen as she outlined the abusive behavior that began when she was 15 years old, allegedly at the hands of Gammon. Three witnesses, including the teen, testified for the state on Tuesday.

The accuser, now 19 years old, is studying to be a missionary at a faith-based college..

“He would come into my bedroom and make small talk about the Bible while touching me,” the teen testified.

The alleged sexual abuse began after Gammon saw photographs of the teen wearing a bikini, according to the accuser’s testimony.

She said they were photographs sent to her boyfriend.

“He treated me differently – he was more interested in me,” according to her testimony.

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