Former USOC fundraiser faces child pornography charges

A former top fundraiser for the Colorado Springs-based U.S. Olympic Committee faces child pornography charges in Connecticut.

Sixty-8-year-old John F.-Krimsky Junior pleaded not guilty in Connecticut state court this week to four counts, including promoting a minor in an obscene performance, criminal attempt at possession of child pornography, and third-degree possession of child pornography.

The arrest resulted from a 2005 tip from New York’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. State police say it prompted an investigation that found Krimsky had traded child pornography images with another person.

Investigators seized Krimsky’s home computers and found 329 images that appeared to be child pornography.

A warrant for Krimsky’s arrest indicates some of the images appeared to be of children between ages 5 and 15 posing, or involved in sexual acts.

Krimsky was released on $50,000 bond. He’s due back in court December 20th.

There’s been no comment from Krimsky, his lawyer, or the USOC.

Pedophile behind bars indefinitely after kids found in home

A SERIAL pedophile found with five children at his Townsville unit will remain behind bars indefinitely.

A decision handed down in the Queensland Supreme Court today strips Desmond George Buckby, 60, of his freedom and orders he “be detained in custody for an indefinite term for control, care and treatment”.

Buckby was released from prison in April after spending more than a decade behind bars for child sex crimes, including the sodomy of a 10-year-old girl.

He has a history of similar offences dating back to 1990.

Prior to his release, psychiatrists warned Buckby was at a high risk of re-offending.

He was, however, released under a 40-point supervision order that prohibited him from having any contact with children.

Just six months after his release he was re-arrested after officers from the Department of Corrective Services found his neighbour’s five children watching a DVD inside his unit at Townsville, in far north Queensland.

Buckby told the Supreme Court in Brisbane earlier this week that he simply wanted “to be friends” with the children, and that he regularly bought them presents and cooked for them.

Justice Margaret White today rescinded the original supervision order made on April 12 and ordered Buckby remain behind bars.

Justice White stated that Buckby had “demonstrated bad judgment” by making friends with the neighbours’ children.

Justice White noted supervision orders only protected the community if the released prisoner was able to make value judgments about their own conduct.

Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine, who sought the continuing detention order, said the case proved the government’s supervision of sex offenders in the community was working.

“The good work of Queensland Corrective Services officers led to this man being caught before he could commit an offence against these children,” Mr Shine said in a statement.

“He has been in prison since being detained by Queensland Corrective Services officers when he was detected with the children in October.”

Mr Shine said the government would not tolerate breaches of supervision orders by sex offenders.

“If an offender is brought back before the court for breaching their supervision order then I will apply for them to be subject to a continuing detention order, as I have in this case,” he said.

“If the Supreme Court decides to release these offenders back into the community we will watch them like a hawk, they will be subject to strict conditions including electronic monitoring and a curfew.”

Convicted Pedophile Says He Drugged Wife

An Orange County man serving a 50-year-to-life term for videotaped sex with a 4-year-old girl testified Thursday that he drugged his wife to make her join in and told her the tape would convict her, too, if she went to authorities.

David Shouthy Hwang — who was sentenced in October 2006 after pleading guilty to 60 charges — was the first defense witness in the trial of 28-year-old Sheila Marie Sikat.

Her niece was videotaped four times between Jan. 1. 2001, and Feb. 1, 2003 — on occasions when the Rancho Santa Margarita couple was baby-sitting the girl. According to prosecutors, four hours of tapes were produced.

The two were arrested on Sept. 3, 2003, after Orange County sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at their home.

Hwang, 36, said the idea of having sex with the girl “germinated” in his mind and he “took advantage of an opportunity.”

Under questioning by defense attorney Ed Munoz, Hwang said he did not share his intent with Sikat, but instead blended two “roofies” — a drug which dulls the senses and causes loss of memory — into a margarita and gave it to her without her knowledge.

Asked if his wife ever became aware of what happened on the tape with the girl, Hwang said, “She remembered some of it. It came back to her. We had an argument about it.”

Sikat threatened to go to authorities, Hwang said, but “I made reference to the fact she was also on the tape and that she would be in trouble, as well.”

Earlier, Hwang admitted that he was manipulative, that Sikat was a dependent person eager to please him, and when she resisted certain demands such as joining with her husband in “three-way” sex, he hit her.

“If we got into an argument over certain things or she didn’t do things a certain way, my temper got the best of me,” Hwang testified.

He said he would hit her “on her arms, legs, her back, sometimes on … the top part of her chest” with both an open and a closed hand. He also admitted punching her in the stomach.

Sikat had faced the same 60 sex-related charges to which her husband pleaded guilty until Wednesday, when Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer dismissed five counts of kidnapping for the purpose of child molesting.

Those charges carried the threat of an indeterminate life-in-prison term that Hwang is now serving, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Beth Carmichael.

But with those counts dismissed, Sikat faces a determinate term, although it can be up to 94 years in prison, Carmichael said.

The prosecutor said outside the courtroom there is “absolutely no evidence on the tape that she [Sikat] is under the influence of a narcotic.”

She told jurors earlier that Sikat was a willing participant who is just as guilty under the law as Hwang.

Sikat is expected to testify when the trial resumes next week, Carmichael said, and closing arguments may take place next Wednesday.

Prosecutors said earlier that the tapes show Hwang, Sikat and the girl engaged in sex, with the wife having sex with her husband, and he having sex with the child.

The girl, who appears to be unconscious on the tapes, has no memory of the molestation, and she did not testify, Carmichael said.

Hwang, who will be eligible for parole when he is 77 or 78 years old, also faces charges of having sex with five young girls in Texas, one as young as 8 months old. But Texas authorities never extradited him, Carmichael said.

Sikat, who met Hwang when he came to California to work in an information technology post at Pacific Mutual in 1998, does not face any charges in Texas, Carmichael said.

Jessica’s Law works

The author of Proposition 83 objects to a Times’ editorial claiming that the sex offender law is unworkable.
By George Runner

It’s been a little more than one year since California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 83, known as “Jessica’s Law,” a measure that strengthens sex offender laws and makes our neighborhoods safer.

As one of the authors of California’s Jessica’s Law, I am confident to say the measure is working well in our legal system — although The Times has said otherwise, all but declaring Jessica’s Law a failure based on the state’s slow execution of two provisions — distancing and GPS monitoring of offenders. While the sluggish approach to put these provisions in place has frustrated me, Jessica’s Law is far from a failed law. In fact, almost every other aspect of the law is fully in place.

California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation can now evaluate incarcerated sex offenders who fit the profile of a sexually violent predator after one felony sex offense has been committed. Prior to the Jessica’s Law, the agency had to wait for a second victim.
District attorneys now have the ability to file new petitions every two years to demonstrate that the offender still poses a danger to society.
Sexually violent predators are now required to serve their full parole in the event they are released from a mental facility.
Sex offenders who lure minors online for sexual purposes, posses child pornography or administer date-rape drugs face increased penalties.
Law enforcement officers are allowed to act as decoys to engage and capture Internet predators.
To date, 2,000 of the 3,000 paroled sex offenders are wearing global positioning satellite ankle bracelets.
A handful of local law enforcement agencies have publicly wondered how GPS monitoring will be funded once the sex offender’s parole has expired and the state hands monitoring duties to communities. I have always said the state should pay for the expense of the tracking system regardless of the agency with the monitoring oversight. A 2008 ballot initiative that I am sponsoring would (among other things) guarantee funding for all GPS ankle bracelets in the state, whether they are worn by sex offenders or gang members.

The GPS systems should cost far less than the $90 million per year reported by a recent Times article. I have encouraged the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to engender competition among bidders and get the best prices and services. I understand the use of GPS is cutting-edge technology for many of California’s law enforcement agencies, but I believe it is time we bring our public safety tools into the 21st century to keep up with California’s growing population and savvy criminals. Monitoring parolees is not akin to monitoring air traffic as some critics have suggested. Instead, GPS allows local law enforcement to obtain daily reports on sex offenders to make sure they are not hanging around places where children gather. GPS is also a deterrence measure and will cut the recidivism rate of sex offenders.

Distancing sex offenders 2,000 feet from schools, parks and other places where children gather is another contemporary idea, and one that California voters have embraced. Parents simply don’t want sex offenders living across the street from schools and parks. Again, a few cities have cried foul, claiming that it is nearly impossible to find housing with the distancing restriction and thus homelessness among sex offenders is sure to occur in abundance. But so far, the claims have been based on guesswork, not actual incidents of homelessness. Densely populated San Francisco County may be the exception. But I have always said if there is a bona fide problem with housing, then I would support revisiting the distancing for that county — maybe adjust the distance to meet San Francisco’s needs.

In the meantime, let’s give Jessica’s Law time to work. In doing so, we will heed the will of the people who believe in this law.

Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster) is the chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus and the author of Jessica’s Law.

Sex Offender Charged in Boy’s Death

A convicted sex offender was charged Wednesday with murdering a 4-year-old boy whose body was found in a garbage truck in July.

The boy disappeared from outside his family’s apartment near Churchill Downs on June 29. A city trash collector found the body of Cesar “Ivan” Aguilar-Cano in the back of a garbage truck eight days later.

Cecil Eugene New II, 46, who lived across an alley from the boy’s family, was arrested Wednesday morning, Louisville police spokesman Phil Russell said.

A grand jury indicted New on charges of murder, kidnapping, tampering with physical evidence and unlawful transaction with a minor.

New’s public defender, Jay Lambert, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Police searched more than a dozen apartments in the area, including New’s, after Ivan disappeared. Louisville Police Lt. Barry Wilkerson, who oversees the homicide unit, has said officers went through an entire truckload of trash searching for evidence in the case.

Ivan’s mother, Rosa Cano, told The Associated Press in an interview in October that whoever killed her son should receive a death sentence.

“What they did to him, that’s not right,” she said then.

Cano cried when she was told about New’s arrest, said family spokesman Christopher 2X.

“She said, ‘I just want to know why this person did this,'” 2X said.

Neighbors told police that Ivan was a curious boy who would sometimes run around the complex unsupervised. It wasn’t uncommon for the boy to go through open apartment doors, they said.

Ivan was buried in August in his mother’s hometown of San Juan Tapalapa, Guatemala. Cano, an illegal immigrant, was granted special permission to leave the country and return while the investigation and case were pending.

His mother had worked at Churchill Downs, walking with thoroughbreds before and after races and workouts. She left that job after her son disappeared and it became publicly known that she was in the United States illegally.

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has granted her a special visa allowing her to stay in the country temporarily as a material witness in a criminal investigation.

New has been on the Kentucky Sex Offender Registry since March 2000 after being convicted of sodomy involving 11- and 9-year-old victims.

Although he was not charged until Wednesday, his name was heavily publicized locally over the summer after a court clerk accidentally released a search warrant for his apartment.

New, who is indigent, lost his job and his personal safety was in jeopardy because of the publicity, Lambert said in July.

Don MacDermott Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

Former Birmingham City Councilor Don MacDermott has plead guilty to with two counts of child pornography charges.

Originally, MacDermott’s plea was not guilty but has now asked for the judge to reverse that plea.

The judge asked MacDermott if he was guilty of receiving and possessing child pornography. MacDermott’s answer was a simple “yes”.

A plea bargain read by the prosecution stated that MacDermott paid for two different child pornography websites with his credit card and that the defendant had over 100 images and 4 videos on computers and hard drives seized by federal agents.

MacDermott could face up to 30 years but currently will remain out on bond citing medical issues. So far, there has been no sentenced passed.

MacDermott was indicted by a grand jury back in September. His Trussville home was raided in August by federal agents. They seized computers, hard drives, video cameras that were all connected to those charges. He also faces state charges.

MacDermott was a one term Birmingham City Councilor.

Don MacDermott Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

Former Birmingham City Councilor Don MacDermott has plead guilty to with two counts of child pornography charges.

Originally, MacDermott’s plea was not guilty but has now asked for the judge to reverse that plea.

The judge asked MacDermott if he was guilty of receiving and possessing child pornography. MacDermott’s answer was a simple “yes”.

A plea bargain read by the prosecution stated that MacDermott paid for two different child pornography websites with his credit card and that the defendant had over 100 images and 4 videos on computers and hard drives seized by federal agents.

MacDermott could face up to 30 years but currently will remain out on bond citing medical issues. So far, there has been no sentenced passed.

MacDermott was indicted by a grand jury back in September. His Trussville home was raided in August by federal agents. They seized computers, hard drives, video cameras that were all connected to those charges. He also faces state charges.

MacDermott was a one term Birmingham City Councilor.

‘Former GOP aide fesses up to ‘imaginary’ teen trysts’

Defense attorney had claimed boy made it up; said client was ‘conservative guy, caring’
A former GOP congressional aide has pleaded guilty to molesting two male teens, including the 13-year-old son of a family with whom the staffer lived while working on Capitol Hill.

37-year-old Jeffrey Ray Nielsen, who has worked previously for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), as well the Republican chair of California’s Orange County, agreed to two felony counts of lewd acts upon a child, reports the Associated Press. A jury had deadlocked at an earlier trial this year — in which Nielsen was accused of engaging in sexual acts with a 14-year-old boy he met on the internet — and prosecutors were prepared to bring additional charges in a retrial.
The plea deal is expected to bring a sentence of three years in state prison, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Prosecutors contended that Nielsen had met the 14-year-old victim on a gay Internet site and driven the boy to his Ladera Ranch condominium, where the two engaged in oral sex,” the Times reports. “The boy, a high school freshman, told a friend who alerted school authorities.” After his arrest in 2003, police found “thousands of images” of child pornography on his home and work computers.

Following his initial mistrial, and a subsequent confession, prosecutors also “filed charges involving a 13-year-old they said Nielsen had molested repeatedly while living at the boy’s family’s Virginia home in 1994,” according to the paper.

As reported by California’s Orange County Weekly during Nielsen’s first trial, the defendant’s legal team had originally argued that the 14-year-old boy’s claims of a sexual relationship were imaginary.

“Did Mr. Nielsen and Mr. Doe meet? Yeah, they did. Did they go to his house? Yeah, they did. But it’s a hopeful leap to believe that they must have had sex,” said Nielsen defense attorney Paul Meyer in February, according to the Weekly. Claiming the boy “built a fantasy,” Myer warned the jury not to be misled. “Jeff Nielsen is a conservative guy, responsible, caring and very family-oriented. He cares about people.”

The Weekly also claims some vindication in seeing Nielsen cop to a plea agreement. In a Tuesday story, the paper’s R. Scott Moxley writes that Nielsen’s retrial was founded on charges “based partly on the Weekly’s 2006 exposes detailing Nielsen’s relationship with the Virginia seventh-grader. Meyer, who has specialized in representing pedophiles, angrily claimed the public couldn’t trust this ‘tabloid’ paper’s reporting.”

A Democratic aide to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) was arrested last week for allegedly attempting to arrange a sexual rendezvous with an FBI informant posing as a 13-year-old boy. James Michael McHaney, who worked as a scheduler for Cantwell, was fired from the job on Friday and subsequently charged with violating the Attempted Child Exploitation Act.
Read the Orange County Weekly’s full account of the case here.