Tag: sexual predators

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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71-Year-Old Romanian Yoga Guru Charged with Leading International Sex Cult Ring

A 71-year-old Romanian yoga guru and 14 others were handed preliminary charges by a Paris magistrate on a raft of counts linked to an international ring that for years allegedly subjected followers seeking enlightenment to sexual exploitation.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said that six of the 15 people interrogated were ordered held on Friday, while nine others were freed but under judicial surveillance.

Gregorian Bivolaru was among two of the six handed a string of preliminary charges that included human trafficking in an organized band, kidnapping, sequestration or arbitrary detention of numerous people along with rape and “abusing the weakness of a group” via psychological or physical subjection. None of the 15 was named but a judicial source said that Bivolaru was among the two facing the longest list of charges.

A trimmed-down version of the preliminary charges were handed to the other suspects. An investigation will now determine whether the preliminary charges lead to a formal indictment and a trial.

The arrest this past week of Bivolaru and 40 others in the Paris region ended a six-year manhunt in several countries. The police unit that combats sect-related crimes freed 26 people described by authorities as sect victims who had been housed in deplorable conditions.

Accounts from alleged victims detailed in the French media portray Bivolaru as a guru who coerced women into sexual relationships under the guise of spiritual elevation in a career spanning decades and continents.

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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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Creepy Colorado judge John Scipione is censured for telling clerk he was in ‘consensually non-monogamous’ relationship with shrink wife and that he liked to visit ‘ranch’ that ‘catered to his lifestyle’

A former Colorado judge has been publicly censured over inappropriate behavior that included boasting about his ‘non-monogamous’ lifestyle with his sex therapist wife and failing to disclose an extramarital affair.

John Scipione, a former 18th Judicial District Court judge, was suspended without pay in August 2022 .

The following January, the Colorado Supreme Court accepted his resignation after Scipione, 54, admitted to a year-long extramarital affair with a court clerk when he was a magistrate.

He was accused of using his position as a judicial officer ‘to seek intimate relationships with Judicial Department employees or court personnel’ on at least three occasions.

The inappropriate behavior emerged as part of a sexual harassment inquiry into Scipione.

He was publicly censured for the first time on November 19 this year.

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Mormon leaders accused of ‘silencing and THREATENING’ families who tried to expose sex offenders in their communities – as victims claim church ‘covered up’ an ‘epidemic’ of abuse

Mormon families who tried to expose cases of sexual abuse within their communities have alleged they were ‘silenced’ and threatened with disciplinary action by church leaders, DailyMail.com can reveal.

In one instance, two Idaho members claim they were warned they could be punished after the pair alerted others in their congregation to the fact that their former bishop faced child sex abuse charges dating back 10 years.

In another case in Minnesota, a church member and social worker claims he was stripped of his positions within the church after he spoke out about a registered sex offender who had been placed in a leadership position.

On both occasions, the dissidents felt compelled to raise the alarm after church leaders allegedly kept the abuse under wraps.

It comes after DailyMail.com revealed that victims have accused Mormon leaders of hiding an ‘epidemic’ of sexual abuse that rivals scandals within the Catholic church.

Around a dozen victims have taken the brave decision to tell their stories of abuse within the church, exposing decades of alleged cover-ups.

Meanwhile, the Utah-based religion faces a bombshell lawsuit in which it is alleged to ‘maintain a pattern and practice’ of ‘concealing’ sexual abuse from the police in a bid to avoid costly legal action and protect its reputation.

Today, DailyMail.com can reveal police records suggest church leaders failed to report a bishop who had confessed to sexually abusing a minor.

The church allegedly allowed him to remain an ‘active member of the church’ months after they had been made aware of the allegations against him, the records show.

Members of the congregation – known as a ward – in Nampa, Idaho, who tried to speak out about the case claim they were threatened with disciplinary action.

Kolby Reddish, 35, told DailyMail.com that the church’s silence was motivated by its desire to protect its reputation ‘at all costs’.

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THE “TERRORIST,” THE RAPIST, AND ME

THE FBI STING had elements of a B-movie production. Federal agents used a car chop shop in Seattle that was an FBI front, placed a prayer rug and a copy of the Quran inside the office, and designated it the scene for the final bust. The FBI’s informant was a registered sex offender named Robert Childs, who had told agents that his friend Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif had a vague plan for a terrorist attack on a military base in Washington state. The FBI furnished Childs with weapons, including assault rifles and grenades.

At the chop shop, Childs met with Abdul-Latif and his friend Walli Mujahidh, who had a mental illness, and showed them the weapons he’d acquired for their supposed attack. The guns and grenades had been disabled, and hidden FBI cameras captured Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh holding rifles, even though neither man knew how to use them. “He didn’t even understand how to work the breech,” Childs would later tell me, referring to Abdul-Latif’s inability to load the firearm.

Suddenly, FBI agents, dressed in tactical uniforms, tossed in a smoke grenade and charged toward the men; they handcuffed Childs as part of the show.

“When the feds rushed in, I knew it was Robert Childs,” Abdul-Latif later told me. “I knew he’d set us up.” As Abdul-Latif saw it, Childs had manipulated and betrayed him for money. The FBI, meanwhile, described Childs as valiant. “But for the courage of the cooperating witness, and the efforts of multiple agencies working long and intense hours, the subjects might have been able to carry out their brutal plan,” Laura Laughlin, then the FBI’s special agent-in-charge in Seattle, said in a 2011 press release. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer later described Childs as “the unlikely hero” of the bust.

After years of talking to both men and sorting through conflicting claims, I can finally explain the origins of this high-profile case that the FBI and the Justice Department have misrepresented to the public and the courts. The FBI hired a convicted sex offender as an informant, even as a rape kit with his DNA sat untested on a shelf. They paid him $90,000 to set up his friend and his friend’s mentally ill buddy in a terrorism plot concocted from nothing more than an over-the-top statement by Abdul-Latif, landing both Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh in prison. A decade later, Childs is in prison as well, serving a life sentence for the crime documented by the rape kit that the Seattle Police Department left untested for 13 years.

Last winter, with nothing left to lose, Childs contacted Abdul-Latif and me to come clean about the FBI terrorism sting he’d helped engineer.

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Texas A&M University Employee Arrested on Child Pornography Charges, FBI Uncovers Use of “PIZZA” as Code Word in Chats

A Texas A&M University (TAMU) employee, Clinton Harnden, has been arrested by the FBI on charges related to child pornography.

The arrest came after agents executed a search warrant at Harnden’s residence and found evidence of his involvement in receiving and possessing child pornography materials, KBTX reported.

Harnden held the position of Senior Administrative Coordinator at Texas A&M University. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he had been employed at the university for more than a decade, but only took on the senior administrative role in July 2020.

Harnden’s profile is still available on TAMU’s website.

According to the FBI affidavit obtained by Current Revolt, the investigation began following the arrest of Sarah Chadwick in Michigan on November 8 for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

During her post-arrest interview, Chadwick revealed her communication with Harnden via WhatsApp, where they exchanged significant amounts of CSAM.

Further analysis of the chat between Chadwick and Harnden revealed that Harnden used the term “pizza” as a code word to discuss CSAM.

According to FBI Special Agent Dimitri Willis, “CHADWICK and HARNDEN used the term “pizza” to talk about CSAM during this interaction. I know from my training and experience that “pizza” and/or “cheese pizza” is a known slang/code-word used by individuals to discuss CSAM in public forums without detection. After sharing the CSAM, CHADWICK asked HARNDEN if he thought she was horrible because of all the “pizza.” HARNDEN replied that “Pizza is one of my favorite foods.””

The investigation further revealed Harnden’s involvement in online communities dedicated to sharing CSAM, including groups on Tumblr and Wickr.

“Agents reviewed HARNDEN’s “ATXAGGIE2007” Tumblr page. The page was filled with posts and responses about pornographic material, including CSAM. One post by HARNDEN on Tumblr asked “Anyone give out free pizza today.” As stated before, I know from my training and experience that “pizza” and/or “cheese pizza” is a known slang/code- word used by individuals to refer to CSAM,” the affidavit read.

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Former Maryland mayor, prominent Democrat sentenced to 30 years for possession and distribution of child sex abuse images

Disgraced former Maryland mayor and prominent Democrat Patrick Wojahn was sentenced to 30 years of prison after he pleaded guilty to dozens of child porn charges. 

Wojahn, who formerly served as the first openly gay mayor of College Park, Maryland received the sentence after he was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography in March, reports Fox News.

Court documents said that Wojahn used the social media app Kik to load and distribute child pornography. Police later confiscated a storage device, several cell phones, a computer, and a tablet from his residence all due to suspicions they contained child pornography. 

The longtime Democrat was a mentee of Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who himself was also a small-town mayor. Wojahn also has made numerous appearances at the White House, often being seen in photographs with Buttigieg in Washington, DC.

Wojahn has referred to Joe Biden as “the most pro-LGBTQ President in US history.”

Despite Wojahn’s charges, the City of College Park put out a public statement thanking him for “his many years of dedicated service.”

CBS reports that Wojahn pleaded guilty to over 100 counts linked to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material back in August. 

This plea deal calls for Wojahn to serve 30 years in prison, according to the office of Prince George County State Attorney Aisha Braveboy.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson campaigned with disgraced reality TV Star Josh Duggar, one of several accused sex offenders connected to his ‘mentor’ Tony Perkins

Like many self-identified Christian conservatives, House Speaker Mike Johnson has long been preoccupied with sex — who’s having it, how they are having it, and why they are having it. In 2004, he proclaimed that “sex outside of the marriage of one man and one woman is ultimately destructive.” In 2022, he introduced the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act, a bill premised on the notion that Democrats were on a “crusade to immerse young children in sexual imagery.”

But a Business Insider review of Johnson’s social media postings and political affiliations found that while he was busy seeking to regulate private sexual behavior and castigating his opponents as “groomers” of children, the Louisiana Republican was associated with a coterie of right-wing activists with a history of overlooking, tolerating, or ignoring the sexual abuse of children and teens in their own midst.

Most notably, according to a photo posted to his Facebook account and unearthed by Business Insider, Johnson proudly campaigned in 2014 with a man who would become one of the most notorious sex offenders in recent history — disgraced reality TV star Josh Duggar.

Duggar, who was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2021, worked as a lobbyist for the Christian evangelical activist group Family Research Council from 2013 to 2015, when allegations surfaced that the former “19 Kids and Counting” star molested several minors, including his own sisters.

The man who recruited Duggar, FRC president Tony Perkins, is a long-time friend and political ally of Johnson. The new Speaker recently described Perkins as his “original mentor” on a recent episode of his “Truth Be Told” radio show. According to the Washington Post, “Perkins goes way back with the Duggar family.”

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