Category: Rape culture

#GoodCops, Rape culture

Pennsylvania Cop Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Third Woman During Traffic Stop

A police officer in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania is facing even more charges after a third woman came forth accusing him of sexual assault.

Two other women have made similar accusations against Mark Eric Icker.

Icker’s newest charges of official oppression and indecent assault were filed Friday.

The woman spoke with investigators on Dec. 26, and said she was pulled over by Icker in June on suspicion of DUI. Icker then transported the woman to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital for a blood alcohol content test, according to the report.

Icker then offered to take the woman to her home after having her car towed. While at the woman’s residence, Icker asked to use the woman’s restroom, which she allowed, the Times Leader reports.

Icker then reportedly asked the woman if she had any tattoos or body piercings, to which the woman replied she had her nipples pierced, according to the report. Icker then pulled the woman’s shirt down and exposed her bare chest, according to the report.

“Oh, they’re nice, they look like that would hurt,” Icker said to the woman, the Times Leader reports citing a criminal complaint. “And I wonder how they taste.”

Icker then put his number in the woman’s cell phone, and he repeatedly texted her saying “they could work something out,” according to the report. The woman’s BAC test came back in July, and Icker told the woman she was over twice the legal limit, and told her to reach out “if you wanna met up and try to work something out,” according to the report.

The charges came the same day that Icker fought to have his $1 million bail reduced.

Icker initially appeared before Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough via video on Friday as his attorney, Bernard J. Brown, argued the bail imposed last month by District Judge Joseph Spagnuolo Jr. was excessive, Times Leader reports.

Icker’s bail was then reduced to $100,000 straight cash – once he was arraigned on his new charges before District Judge Donald Whittaker later in the day, Whittaker denied bail for Icker, sending him back to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.

Icker had been working at three different police departments – Ashley and Sugar Notch in Luzerne County, and Jessup in Lackawanna County.

Times Leader reports Icker has been suspended from his job in Ashley, and fired from his part-time job in Sugar Notch.

Rape culture, Social Issues

Man Accused Of Raping 11 Year Old He Met On Tinder

DEARBORN COUNTY, Ind. – A 21-year-old man in southeastern Indiana is accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl.

Jail records show Travis McAdams of Greendale has been charged with rape and child molesting.

Dearborn County Prosecuting Attorney Lynn Dedden told FOX19 that McAdams met the underage girl on Tinder, where she portrayed herself as a 16-year-old, before chatting on SnapChat.

According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Fox19, McAdams met the victim at the Greendale Cinema in December 2017 or early January 2018, where the girl claims he put his arm around her neck, covered her mouth and took her to the back of a building, where he raped her.

Greendale police told FOX19 that McAdams continued to see the girl after the alleged rape, knowing that she was only 11 years old.

“She advised me that she was scared of McAdams and that’s why she continued to see him a couple of other occasions after this because she was afraid of what he might do to her,” Det. Sgt. Kendle Davis said.

The affidavit says the victim’s mother was the one to report the rape to police after learning of it in March.

McAdams was taken into custody on Dec. 14. Police say the arrest was delayed because it took a while to obtain search warrants. Since then, more woman have come forward with similar accusations, according to police.

Rape culture

Police Investigate Nursing Home After Woman In Vegetative State Gives Birth

Phoenix police have opened an investigation into allegations that a woman in a vegetative state for more than a decade was sexually assaulted at a private nursing care facility — and recently gave birth to a baby boy.

Police spokesperson Sgt. Tommy Thompson confirmed on Friday that detectives were looking into the Hacienda Skilled Nursing Facility but declined to provide further specific information, citing the ongoing investigation.

Local news outlets reported that the woman patient — who has not been identified — has been in a vegetative state for 14 years after a near-drowning incident. She reportedly gave birth to a baby boy on Dec. 29.

The story was first reported Thursday by AZ Family, a Phoenix CBS affiliate, after it was approached by a woman “familiar with the situation” who wished to remain anonymous.

The whistleblower, whose face was hidden and voice disguised for the televised segment, told reporter Briana Whitney she felt “anger and sadness” when she learned what had happened to the patient.

She said that the patient requires round-the-clock care, with many of the facility’s employees having access to her room, and that the woman had no way to defend herself or communicate what had happened to her.

“None of the staff were aware that she was pregnant until she was pretty much giving birth,” she said. She told Whitney that staff were alerted that something was wrong with the patient when she began to vocalize in pain. “From what I’ve been told she was moaning. And they didn’t know what was wrong with her.”

She said that a nurse on duty was able to deliver the baby boy, who is apparently alive and healthy.

The Hacienda Skilled Nursing Facility is part of the larger Phoenix-based Hacienda HealthCare system. The organization’s website said this particular facility provides “comprehensive, individual, home-away-from-home care to children and young adults ages 45 or younger” with “profound disabilities and complex medical needs.”

They have since released a statement saying- “As an organization, Hacienda HealthCare stands fully committed to getting to the truth of what, for us, represents an unprecedented matter. We are already conducting a comprehensive internal review of our processes, protocols, and people to ensure that every single Hacienda resident is as safe and well cared for as possible. Anything less than that is unacceptable to our team, our company’s leaders and the communities we serve,”.

Rape culture, White Christians

Report Finds Names of 500 Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse Were Never Released to the Public

Chicago, IL- Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Wednesday issued a blistering report about clergy sexual abuse, saying that Catholic dioceses in Illinois has not released the names of at least 500 clergy accused of sexually abusing children.

The preliminary report found that the church’s six archdioceses have done a woefully inadequate job of investigating allegations and in some cases did not investigate them at all or notify the state’s child welfare agency. The report said accusations have been leveled against 690 priests, while Catholic officials have publicly identified only 185 clergy with credible allegations against them.

The determination is part of a preliminary report made public Wednesday by Madigan’s office, which has been investigating Catholic clergy sexual abuse of minors following revelations during the summer of widespread abuse and cover-ups by Catholic officials in Pennsylvania. The report was critical of the six Catholic dioceses that govern parishes across Illinois for their lack of transparency and flawed investigations.

Although the report says that “Clergy sexual abuse of minors in Illinois is significantly more extensive than the Illinois Dioceses previously reported,” it does not estimate how many of the allegations against the 690 clergy should have been deemed credible. Some of the allegations go back decades.

The report says Illinois dioceses “have lost sight of both a key tenet” of policies laid out by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as “the most obvious human need as a result of these abhorrent acts of abuse: the healing and reconciliation of survivors.”

“Long after legal remedies have expired, the Catholic Church has the ability and moral responsibility to survivors to offer support and services, and to take swift action to remove abusive clergy,” the report states.

Illinois church leaders expressed regret about the abuse, but pointed to steps they have taken to address what has become an international crisis.

Chicago’s archbishop, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, in a statement said that although he regretted “our failures to address the scourge of clerical sexual abuse,” the archdiocese has been a leader in dealing with the issue, including a policy since 2002 of reporting “all allegations of child sexual abuse to civil authorities.”

The Springfield diocese said that it reviewed paper files of clergy dating to its 1923 founding and provided Madigan’s office with documentation of each instance of abuse, regardless of whether it was deemed credible, according to a statement.

The Diocese of Joliet said in a statement that it took steps such as establishing in 1993 a review committee made up of people from law enforcement, social service agencies and others to investigate allegations of sexual abuse.

Madigan said her office’s findings make it clear that notifying authorities is critical, and pointing to instances when dioceses used personal information about people to discredit them and help them conclude accusations weren’t credible. “The preliminary stages of this investigation have already demonstrated that the Catholic Church cannot police itself,” she said.

Rape culture, White criminal

University of Michigan Researcher Charged in Child Porn Case

ANN ARBOR, MI — A University of Michigan researcher is facing child pornography charges after authorities say he shared a video of a young girl engaged in a sex act with a dog and other disturbing images.

Michael Zeidler, 48, has worked at the University of Michigan since 1999, and is alleged to have shared images of young children being sexually abused as well as recording foreign exchange students in his home, and using those videos to pleasure himself.

Zeidler worked on animals at a research lab at the university, and according to the FBI, he was using a work computer to view and share child porn.

Simultaneous FBI raids were conducted at Zeidler’s University of Michigan research office, and his Ann Arbor home, all related to child pornography.

According to these federal charging documents, the investigation began in November when an undercover detective was able to downloaded more than 400 images of child erotica, 187 images of child pornography and 51 child pornography videos from someone who was sharing them on a peer-to-peer network using two different IP addresses.

“Based on information provided by the FBI about the dates and times of the logins, as well as the source, port, and destination information, the University of Michigan was able to identify the internet user for both of the IP addresses at issue as Michael Zeidler,” according to FBI agent Susan Lucas.

Court documents show Zeidler allegedly confessed to downloading child porn as far back as 2012. And at his Ann Arbor home, he allegedly filmed foreign exchange students in the bathroom without their knowledge, and would later use the videos to pleasure himself. In a statement provided to Action News by Michigan Medicine, a spokesperson says Zeidler’s “job did not involve patient care.”

The statement went on to read: “We have cooperated fully with law enforcement on this investigation and will continue to do so. Zeidler was hired in August 1999 and is currently on suspension.”

Zeidler also admitted to also recording his kids’ play dates, according to documents. However, he said he deleted those videos. He is currently in jail with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday in federal court.

Rape culture, Sex Workers Rights, Women's Rights

Ohio Supreme Court Decides Lower Court Failed By Trying Trafficking Survivor As An Adult, But Still Upholds Conviction

The Summit County Juvenile Court in Ohio didn’t follow the law when it allowed a 15-year-old girl who was a human trafficking victim to be tried as an adult in the robbery and murder of the man who trafficked her, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The high court, however, upheld the girl’s conviction and sentence to prison for the rest of her life.

The court ruled Alexis Martin couldn’t prove that the judge’s decision to bind her over to adult court would have changed if the juvenile court had further explored her human trafficking history.

Attorneys across Ohio working on Martin’s behalf were disappointed in the decision, which they called “illogical.”

“I believe in the court. I believe in the system,” said Megan Mattimoe, a Toledo attorney whose agency, Advocating Opportunity, assists human trafficking victims. “Here, the system failed her [Martin)] at every turn.”

Martin, who is originally from Canton, pleaded guilty to murder and felonious assault in the 2013 robbery and slaying of Angelo Kerney, 36, of Akron. She was sentenced in March 2015 to life in prison with possible parole after 21 years.

Prosecutors say Martin, Travaski Jackson and Dashaun Spear organized a robbery in November 2013 that left Kerney dead and another man with a bullet wound in his head.

Janae Jones and Martin went into the home of Kerney, and they distracted him and his brother, Alecio Samuel, by having sex with them so Jackson and Spear could rob them. Spear shot and killed Kerney. Samuel, 20, was shot in the head but survived. The four people involved were sentenced to life in prison.

Jennifer Kinsley, Martin’s Cincinnati attorney, argued before the Ohio Supreme Court that the juvenile court judge should have determined that Martin was covered by safe harbor, a 2012 law that protects children whose crimes are tied to them being human trafficking victims. This would have triggered a requirement for the juvenile court to appoint a guardian ad litem to explore Martin’s history and make a recommendation to the court on what was best for her.

Martin, who is now 20, had a troubled childhood, with both of her parents and her stepfather involved with drugs. Her mother went to prison for drug trafficking and her father abused her. She was shuffled between family members and the foster care system. At 14, she was kidnapped and forced into exotic dancing, according to court records.

Martin told authorities Kerney forced her to dance, sell drugs, prepare other girls for prostitution and collect money from them.

Summit County Juvenile Court Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio considered Martin to be a human-trafficking victim but neither she, Martin’s attorney nor the prosecutors invoked the safe harbor law.

Martin didn’t challenge this decision in juvenile court, but raised it when her case was transferred to Summit County Common Pleas Court. The adult court ruled it lacked jurisdiction.

Martin raised the issue again on appeal, with the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the case.

The justices, in a 6-1 decision, agreed the safe harbor law should have been triggered, but they also said — even with this step — that Teodosio may still have bound Martin over as an adult.

“The specific facts and evidence in this case do not show that her [Martin’s] offenses were ‘related to’ her victimization,” Justice Judith L. French wrote.

Justice Terrence O’Donnell, however, disagreed.

He said failing to appoint a guardian was a “manifest miscarriage of justice” that should be corrected by vacating Martin’s sentence, returning the case to juvenile court and appointing a guardian.

Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, though, was pleased with the majority’s decision.

“Alexis Martin conspired with others to rob Angelo Kerney and Alecio Samuel,” she said in an email. “Her actions led to Kerney’s death after both he and Samuel were shot in the head.

“We must hold people accountable.”

Summit County Juvenile Court officials declined to comment Tuesday. In 2016, the court was the first juvenile court in Ohio to start a special program, called Restore Court, that is aimed at helping human trafficking victims.

Mattimoe said the court’s decision points to a need to clarify the safe harbor language and her organization plans to push for that through a pending bill. She and others also will continue doing all they can to free Martin.

“We can’t allow her to sit in prison,” she said. “It’s not right.”

Rape culture

Man Offers to Help Woman Get Home, Sexually Assaults Her in Park Instead

The NYPD is searching for a man who raped a woman in Brooklyn early Saturday morning. The suspect pretended to be a good samaritan  by offering to help the victim get a drunken friend home safely, then attacking her once she was alone.

The 20-year-old victim was trying to get her inebriated friend home safely from a Brownsville house party around 2:20 a.m. Saturday when the suspect approached them near Herzl Street and Dumont Avenue and asked if they needed help, sources said.

The man hailed a taxi for them, loaded the drunken friend into the cab and then offered to walk the remaining woman home, sources said.

According to the New Yorl Post’s account, he propositioned her as they walked through the park, and after she rejected his advances, he sexually assaulted. Afterward, the suspect allegedly stole her phone and fled. The woman reportedly caught the attention of a driver, who called 911 for her. An ambulance brought her to a local hospital for treatment.

The suspect, described as in his mid-30s to early 40s, had a ponytail, facial hair and a black jacket with an orange lining, cops said.

As of Sunday night, the suspect was still at large.

 

Rape culture, Social Issues, WTF

Nicki Minaj Faces Backlash Over New Sex Offender Boyfriend

Nicki Minaj’s new boyfriend has quite an extensive rap sheet. Along with a conviction for attempted rape of a minor, he has also served hard time for murder.

According to the criminal complaint for Kenny “Zoo” Petty from the Queens County District Attorney, Petty pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of a man named Lamont Robinson.

The complaint claims on April 27, 2002 at 12:30 AM, Petty shot Robinson “with a loaded handgin (sic) multiple times thereby causing his death.”

A police blotter posted at the time of the shooting also describes an unknown man who was shot three times in the stomach and died at a nearby hospital.

Petty pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge in March 2006 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, for which he served 7. Court records indicate Petty was released in May 2013, and had been on supervised release for 5 years, until May of this year.

Petty remains a registered sex offender in the state of New York. Prosecutors said he used a sharp object when he tried to force the girl to have sexual intercourse. Petty served almost 4 years in NY state prison for the crime.

Minaj responded by saying “He was 15, she was 16 … in a relationship,” she replied. “But go awf, Internet. Y’all can’t run my life. Y’all can’t even run y’all own life. Thank you boo.”

Minaj was also recently criticized for collaborating and touring with Tekashi 6ix9ine, who was convicted of ‘using a child in a sexual performance’ when videos of him and another man groping and spanking a nude 13 year old girl surfaced.

Minaj was once again the subject of outrage after posting family pictures with her brother Jelani Miraj while he was waiting for his trial to begin. Miraj, 37, was accused of raping a 12 year old girl, who was his steppdaughter. He has since been convicted of sexual assault.

Rape culture, White Terrorist

Former Frat President Avoids Jail Time in Sexual Assault Case

A former Baylor University frat president accused of raping a woman repeatedly in 2016 will not face jail time after a Texas judge accepted a plea deal in the case on Monday.

This marks at least the third time the judge has approved probation for men accused of sexually assaulting Baylor students.

Judge Ralph Strother’s decision to accept the plea deal sparked outrage from the woman who accused Jacob Walter Anderson of repeatedly raping her. The woman says she was plied with a drink of punch at the party in 2016 and became disoriented. Anderson, the woman said, led her behind a tent and assaulted her while she was gagged and choked.

“He stole my body, virginity and power over my body,” the woman said in court.

“I am devastated by your decision to let my rapist Jacob Walter Anderson go free without any punishment,” the woman added.

Anderson had been indicted on sexual assault charges and the deal allowed him to plead no contest to a lesser charge of unlawful restraint. A no contest plea means a person does not admit guilt, but will offer no defense. Anderson was expelled from Baylor after a university investigation.

The deal allows Anderson to receive deferred probation. The ex-Phi Delta Theta president agrees to seek counseling and pay a $400 fine. Anderson will not be forced to register as a sex offender.

The woman told authorities she was assaulted until she lost consciousness and police reported Anderson left her alone. Police said she had vomited on herself and could have choked to death in the backyard.

“I not only have to live with his rape and the repercussions of the rape, I have to live with the knowledge that the McLennan County justice system is severely broken,” the family statement quoted the woman as saying. “I have to live with the fact that after all these years and everything I have suffered, no justice was achieved.”

Anderson’s attorneys declined to comment Monday.

McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna defended the plea deal in October.

“This office stands by the plea offered and believes we have achieved the best result possible with the evidence at hand,” Reyna said..

Judge Strother said Monday that in making the decision he had the benefit of arguments filed by attorneys on both sides and a background report assembled by a probation department. He said much of the comments he saw on social media or in emails were “not fully informed, misinformed or totally uninformed.”

The decision Monday was not the first time that Strother has sentenced men accused of sex crimes to probation. Last year, he sentenced a man to deferred probation after he pleaded guilty in the 2013 rape of a former Baylor student. The judge ordered the man to pay for the woman’s counseling. The man told police the woman had been drunk, according to an affidavit.

Strother earlier this year sentenced a man to felony probation for the sexual assault of a former Baylor student, a punishment that came with 30 days in jail. The man, who was a student at the time and told authorities the sex was consensual, was allowed to serve the jail time on the weekends.

The alleged assault by Anderson happened around the same time that Baylor was engulfed in a sexual assault scandal surrounding its football team in 2016. It resulted in the firing of then-football coach Art Briles and the demotion of the university’s president, Ken Starr. Athletic Director Ian McCaw was disciplined by the school and resigned.

The university has since settled several lawsuits from women who said their allegations of sexual assault by football players were mishandled or ignored.

The outrage over Anderson’s plea deal also mirrors reaction to the case involving ex-Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner, who was convicted in 2016 of sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman outside a fraternity party. A judge in that case rejected a prosecutor’s demand for a lengthy prison term and instead sentenced Turner to six months in jail. He was released from jail in September 2016 after serving three months.

Rape culture

Man Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison For Making Secret Sex Tapes

MIAMI, FL- Saying she had never seen a case quite like it, a federal judge Monday sentenced a South Florida man to three years in prison for taping himself having sex with at least 80 unsuspecting men to produce internet porn videos.

Bryan Deneumostier, 33, admitted engaging in sex with 150 men — with just over half unaware of his production of the secret videos, according to his plea agreement. The images were distributed on a Spain-based website, “StraightBoyz,” that promised gay men videos of real straight men being conned into accepting sex acts, all while blindfolded or wearing blacked-out goggles.

“It’s quite unusual and I can’t say I’ve ever had one like this before,” U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga said.

Altonaga increased Deneumostier’s punishment by more than one year above the federal sentencing guidelines because she believed they were too lenient for his actual crime. But the judge refused to impose an eight-year sentence sought by prosecutors. Assistant Federal Public Defender D’Arsey Houlihan asked for a sentence between one and two years, which fell within the guidelines.

Deneumostier, known by the screen name “susanleon33326,” pleaded guilty in September to two counts of failing to comply with record-keeping requirements when producing videos with sexual activity — which combined carried up to 10 years in prison.

But that bureaucratic-sounding violation did not begin to capture the nature of his sex-video business. One victim testified in court that he had sex with Deneumostier multiple times at his Homestead home but didn’t have a clue he was secretly recording their encounters.

“My parents started looking at me a lot differently — they actually saw the videos,” the victim told the judge. “I was a laughing stock. … When I saw those tapes, I even attempted to take my own life.”

Deneumostier followed his victim’s statement, apologizing to him and all the others who answered online ads to come to his house to have sex but were unaware that he was videotaping their encounters. Some of his victims were drugged or unconscious during oral and anal sex, prosecutors said. Some were also tied down during the sexual activity.

“I am deeply and sincerely sorry for all my actions,” Deneumostier said. He added that while he has been in detention since his arrest, he has come to realize the severity of his “mistakes” and he promised not to “harm anyone” again.

Deneumostier has been held without bond after being charged in July with luring the men to his Homestead home, making the sex tapes without their knowledge and then uploading them on the StraightBoyz porn site that charged customers $35 a month.

In a separate state case, Deneumostier faces a statutory rape charge of having sex with a 16-year-old male but that encounter allegedly happened in a Homestead hotel, not as part of the sex-video business run out of his home.

In the federal case, Deneumostier was arrested in July on initial charges of making unlawful recordings of commercial sex acts for an adult website. Investigators believe Deneumostier helped operate the subscription-based adult site, StraightBoyz, which featured about 620 video hookups produced by him over the past four years. The Madrid-based company that owned the site paid Deneumostier $3,000 a month, according to prosecutors.

Although the website is no longer in operation, many of the videos can still be viewed on other porn sites.

Federal prosecutors Cary Aronovitz and Mona Sedky argued that some of the victims were “vulnerable,” despite the inherent risk of answering online ads to have sex with a stranger. They also said Deneumostier threatened some men with posting their sexual encounters on the internet if they didn’t continue their encounters.

“These are highly compromised videos for this population,” Sedky told the judge, who declined to find that any of the victims were actualy “vulnerable” for the purposes of increasing Deneumostier’s prison sentence.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations found that at least 80 of the men depicted on the StraightBoyz site were victims, never knowing their sexual encounters were being recorded and uploaded to the web.

Agents believe Deneumostier posed as a “real, heterosexual female” and posted ads on Craigslist seeking flings at “her” house near the Homestead Reserve Air Base.

“When the men ask for assurances that there are no cameras, he assured them that ‘she’s’ married to someone in the Army and she would never photograph or video them,’ ” according to a law enforcement document.

In reality, the document says, “Deneumostier is video- and audio-taping the entire sexual encounter.”