Tag: sexual predators

Sex Crime Victim Denied $69,000 Settlement Because Cops Seized Her Abuser’s Cash Through Civil Forfeiture

A North Carolina teenager was hoping to get her life back on track after a state judge ordered a man who sexually abused her to pay her $69,000. Instead, she got a nasty surprise.

The local police department had already seized the cash through civil asset forfeiture, and it was already gone. Despite a judge’s order, she will get nothing.

The case is a stunning example of the misplaced priorities and perverse incentives that asset forfeiture creates for police—and of how the federal government allows state and local police to evade reforms to stop forfeiture abuse.

As originally reported by local news outlet WCNC Charlotte, the Mint Hill Police Department (MHPD) investigated Mario Alberto Gomez-Saldana II for sexual abuse in 2019. Saldana pleaded guilty to multiple sex crimes years later in 2023 and is currently serving a prison sentence. The now-17-year-old teenage victim’s family filed a civil suit against Gomez-Saldana shortly after and secured a consent order for $69,130 to be turned over to her.

WCNC reports:

Records show when MHPD investigated the sex abuse case in July 2019, they found suspected marijuana, drug paraphernalia and cash inside the suspect’s home. The victim’s family and their attorney said, at the time, an officer assured them the money would be available to one day pursue in a civil suit and in the years after, continued telling them the money remained held in property….

Unbeknownst to them, investigators seized the cash and partnered with a federal agency to apply for asset forfeiture, citing probable cause of illicit drug activity. MHPD investigators never charged the suspect with any drug crimes, only sex offenses, but that didn’t prevent the department from eventually collecting more than $45,000 of the seized money in 2020 through what’s called the Equitable Sharing Program, according to records. The federal government received the rest of the money.

“I’ve been dealing with this since I was 5 years old and I’m almost 18 and I just want to move on to the next chapter of my life,” the teenager, who is unnamed in the story, told WCNC Charlotte. “That money was going to help me do it and without it, it just feels like three steps back. It’s honestly so frustrating and difficult.”

Under civil asset forfeiture laws, police can seize property suspected of being connected to illegal activity even if the owner isn’t charged with a crime. MHPD could use the drugs in Saldana’s house as a premise to take his money, even though, as WCNC reports, a simple Google search shows Saldana won the lottery in 2018, collecting $70,507 in winnings after taxes.

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Drunk dental receptionist who groped schoolboy, 13, and told him she wanted to ‘ride him till morning’ before exposing herself and waking up ‘remembering nothing’ after a white wine binge is spared jail

A dental receptionist sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy after she began chatting him up at random following a white wine binge.

Jade Berry, 27, was staggering through Rivacre Valley Country Park in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, at 9pm when she accosted the child as he sat on a woodland bench talking with a friend about his forthcoming 14th birthday.

Berry sat between the two boys and began stroking the 13-year-old’s genitals over his clothing before offering him sex and saying she would ‘ride you till morning’.

As the shocked youngster and his friend got up to leave, she pulled down her trousers and exposed herself before passing out in a drunken stupor.

The two boys took videos of Berry before getting up to leave. She was identified after leaving her bank card and phone on the bench. 

When interviewed by police, Berry exclaimed: ‘Oh My God, I do not recall anything’ – but was later picked out by the boy at an identity parade.

The 13-year-old, who has ADHD, said he was so traumatised by the encounter that he tried to take his own life.

At Chester Crown Court, Berry – who lives in the village of Little Sutton near Ellesmere Port – pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was sentenced to 12 months in jail suspended for 18 months. 

Berry was also ordered to wear an electronic ‘sobriety’ tag for 120 days as part of an alcohol abstinence monitoring programme and will have to complete 35 rehabilitation activity days. 

She was told to sign on the Sex Offenders’ Register for ten years.

Berry had told the court she had mental health issues. 

The incident occurred on October 3 last year after Berry was making her way through the 300-acre nature reserve after a drinking session with friends. 

James Coutts, prosecuting, said: ‘The victim was seated on a bench in woodland when the defendant approached him. 

‘She was unknown to him and was clearly intoxicated. She sat between the two boys and began to touch and rub his genitals and the upper area of his thigh over his clothing whilst making highly inappropriate and sexualised comments. 

‘She said she was going to “ride him till morning”.

‘They had in fact been talking previously about his upcoming 14th birthday – and it was quite clear to them she knew how old he was.

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West Virginia State Police Investigation: 10 more minors, 42 more women in total to sue West Virginia State Police over hidden cameras

Wheeling West Virginia Attorney Teresa Toriseva sent a notice of legal action to Interim WVSP Superintendent Colonel Jack Chambers and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on April 21 saying 42 women, including 10 minors, plan to file lawsuits against the West Virginia State Police.

The minors attended Junior Trooper Academy.

According to a letter sent by Cpl. Joseph Comer, a member of the WV State Police, to state lawmakers, Governor Jim Justice, and the office of the Attorney General on February 16, a hidden camera or cameras were placed and operated inside the female locker room at the State Police Academy. Toriseva says her clients and other female Junior Trooper program attendees accessed and used the female locker room at the Academy during the time the anonymous letter states the cameras were in use. Toriseva also says the taping of the females in the Academy did not end until 2020, the same time the Junior Trooper Program was discontinued in 2020.

“Our ongoing investigation shows rampant sexual misconduct, including hidden videotaping, toward female cadets and others, while they attended the Academy,” Toriseva told 7News. “Much of the conduct is through witness provided evidence.”

Toriseva says these women that were videotaped have experienced varying levels of physical and emotional abuse

“All of these women were victims of a civil conspiracy perpetrated by instructors, staff and leadership at the West Virginia State Police Academy,” the letter states. “Accordingly, these women will bring suit seeking all available damages under the law.”

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The predators’ playground

Clara didn’t think much of it when the social science teacher gave her his phone number.

She’d met Alex Rai in her fifth-period journalism class. He was friends with the journalism teacher, Eric Burgess, and often stopped by Room 16 during his prep period to kill time. Burgess introduced Rai to Clara, telling her that Rai had been his student a decade before. Burgess thought they’d get along.

In the weeks that followed, Rai would perch on Clara’s desk, leaning over as he asked about her day and who she hung out with after school. He’s only a few years older than my sister, Clara thought when Rai texted her one day after volleyball practice. It was a hot Southern California afternoon in 2008, the kind where dry heat radiates off the asphalt. She was bored. Why not pass the time by chatting with the cool teacher?

Soon, Rai was texting her regularly. At first, the messages were flirtatious. Before long, he was calling Clara late at night. She recalled him asking whether she’d had sex yet with any boys her age. Halfway through her senior year, Clara dropped her humanities class so she could become his teacher’s aide.

She loved her humanities class. But Rai had encouraged her to make the switch. They could spend more time together, she recalled him telling her, and he could make her truancies from ditching other classes disappear.

Clara remembers her sister warning her not to get too close. She’d heard stories about Rai from girls who’d attended Rosemead with him, when he was a wrestler on a team known as much for its aggressive pursuit of teenage girls as its state champions. But Clara brushed the concerns aside. She didn’t show her sister the texts Rai sent, teasing her — “you wish you were sleeping next to me” — and asking if she missed him.

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NY Teacher Who ‘Prefers’ Underage Girls Hid Disturbing Content in Secret Application on Phone

A New York educator has been apprehended for his alleged involvement in child exploitation.

Kostas Fekkas, 34, was employed at a Manhattan charter school at the time of his arrest on September 14. His teaching career also spans several other schools in the Bronx and neighboring Westchester County.

Court documents reveal that Fekkas communicated with an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent, who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. During this interaction, Fekkas allegedly stated his preference for underage girls and even claimed to have had sexual relations with a 10th grader.

“Cool. I usually cut off at 9th grade but you’re insanely gorgeous,” Fekkas allegedly told the undercover agent, who identified herself as an 8th grader. Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was unequivocal in his condemnation.

“Kostas Fekkas’s alleged conduct is despicable,” Williams said. “As a teacher, Fekkas was entrusted with the care and well-being of children, who he in turn allegedly sought to victimize.”

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Doomsday cult leader who says he is reincarnation of Jesus is turning 1,500 children into sex slaves on remote Philippines island, lawmakers say

Clad in a white suit with gold watch and aviator sunglasses, the leader of quasi-religious cult Omega de Salonera looks more pop star than a Messiah.

But Jey Rence B Quilario was this week accused of heading a doomsday cult where ‘rape, sexual violence, child abuse, forced marriage was perpetrated on minors’.

Quilario, who claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus, was named using congressional privilege as well as his group in connection to ‘widespread exploitation’.

And Save the Children has urged the Filipino government to take immediate action to free the estimated 1,500 children held by the cult on a remote island.

On Monday the chairman of the senate committee on women and children senator Risa Hontiveros said: ‘This is a harrowing story of rape, sexual violence, child abuse, forced marriage perpetrated on minors by a cult in the municipality of Socorro, Surigao del Norte.

‘We are talking about over a thousand young people in the hands of a deceitful, cruel, and abusive cult… real children are in danger, and time is of the essence. We cannot, we must not, look away.’

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Tortured and raped in a soundproof dungeon as they were slowly starved to death: How killer paedophile Marc Dutroux abused children as young as eight with the aid of his wife in ‘house of horror’

Last year, authorities in Belgium ordered a modest red brick house in the south-west city of Charleroi to be torn down.

For anyone not in-the-know, the destruction of the property – which sat on a street corner yards away from a railway track and a busy flyover – would have seemed wholly unremarkable. Just another old building making way for something new.

But the move had been in the making for more than a quarter of a century, and even to this day, the local community in Charleroi and those affected by the events that unfolded there in the mid-90s are continuing to process their grief.

As of Tuesday, as part of these efforts, anyone passing the site will find a newly-opened memorial: a tree-filled garden surrounded by white walls that are decorated with a mural of a child watching a kite soar into the sky.

Underneath the memorial lies something more sinister: a soundproofed dungeon that was once used to imprison young girls who were tortured and raped by the former owner of the house and Belgium’s most notorious criminal, Marc Dutroux.

The memorial is a homage to Dutroux’s victims, and at the request of their parents, the basement will remain preserved underneath for potential future investigations that some believe could uncover a wider criminal network.

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Confirmed: Man Who Raped His 10-Year-Old Daughter Housed With Female Prison Inmates

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections is housing a man who raped his own daughter in a women’s prison because he said he identifies as a woman himself—and the DOC is refusing to offer any kind of insight or explanation on the matter.

Mark Campbell is currently incarcerated in Taycheedah Correctional Institution, a women’s prison in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, inmate records show. He is a registered sex offender convicted of first-degree sexual assault of a child.

That child was his own 10-year-old daughter, court documents allege.

Born in 1971, Campbell is currently 52 years old, weighs 225 pounds, and stands at 5 feet 9 inches, according to the DOC inmate locator.

Under Campbell’s listed “sex,” the Wisconsin DOC states in bold, “FEMALE.” The department has not responded to many requests for comment from The Daily Signal.

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‘Real Genius’ Actor Caught in Child Predator Sting, Accused of Trying To Meet 14-Year-Old Girl for Sex

Actor Gabriel Jarret has been implicated in a pedophile sting operation conducted by an online anti-predator group known as Creep Catcher Unit (CC Unit).

Jarret, 53, known for his roles in “Real Genius” and “Karate Kid III,” reportedly messaged a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl hoping to arrange for a sexual liaison.

The “girl,” however, was a decoy created by the CC Unit to ensnare potential predators.

KTTV reported that Jarret engaged a CC Unit staffer in sexually focused text conversations for approximately one year.

Jarret reportedly asked the girl to message him on Kik, an app favored by online pedophiles due to its anonymity features.

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Tim Ballard’s Departure From Operation Underground Railroad Followed Sexual Misconduct Investigation

Tim Ballard’s exit from Operation Underground Railroad earlier this year followed an investigation into claims of sexual misconduct involving seven women, according to sources with direct knowledge of the organization.

Sources familiar with the situation said that the self-styled anti-slavery activist, who appears to be preparing for a Senate run, invited women to act as his “wife” on undercover overseas missions ostensibly aimed at rescuing victims of sex trafficking. He would then allegedly coerce those women into sharing a bed or showering together, claiming that it was necessary to fool traffickers. Ballard, who was played by Jim Caviezel in the hit film Sound of Freedom, is said to have sent at least one woman a photo of himself in his underwear, festooned with fake tattoos, and to have asked another “how far she was willing to go,” in the words of a source, to save children. These sources requested anonymity because they fear retaliation.

The total number of women involved is believed to be higher than seven, as that would only account for employees, not contractors or volunteers. One source close to OUR has detailed knowledge of Ballard making sexual advances to a volunteer using methods similar to those he allegedly used with OUR employees. Those methods are also consistent with his conduct toward another former volunteer who spoke to VICE News.

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