Child Prostitutes Rescued Over Super Bowl Weekend

Sixteen children as young as 13, and some of whom who had been reported missing by their families, were rescued from the sex trade in a law enforcement sting operation that targeted alleged pimps who brought the victims to New Jersey for Super Bowl weekend….More than 45 pimps and their associates were arrested in the operation conducted by law enforcement….Some admitted traveling to New Jersey from other states for the purpose of forcing women and children to have sex with Super Bowl tourists for money….The victims rescued during the sting operation range in ages 13 to 17 years old….

"Missing Children Rescued From Super Bowl Sex Trade in FBI Sting," February 4, 2014 

Criminal Justice Quote: Say Goodbye to Suzanne Basso

A woman is scheduled to be executed in Texas for the torture slaying of a mentally impaired man she lured to the state with the promise of marriage before siphoning his benefits and money. If 59-year-old Suzanne Basso is lethally injected as scheduled for Wednesday, February 5, 2014, she would be only the 14th woman executed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976. By comparison, almost 1,400 men have been put to death. Texas has executed four women and 505 men. Basso was convicted in the 1998 slaying of 59-year-old Louis "Buddy" Musso. His beaten body was found in a ditch outside Houston….[The execution was carried out as scheduled, and without a hitch.]

Michael Graczyk, "Woman Set to be Executed in Texas for 1998 Killing," Albany Democrat-Herald, February 5, 2014 

Teacher Decks Student for Playfully Insulting His Favorite Football Team

     On November 8, 2013, 13-year-old Reginald Wells, a seventh grade student at Willie Ray Smith Middle School in Beaumont, Texas, got the surprise of his young life. In the hallway between classes he encountered 24-year-old substitute math teacher, Michael Fisher. Reginald, in a jovial attempt to attract the teacher's attention, made an insulting remark about Fisher's favorite professional football team, the Houston Texans.

     The teacher's immediate response to the boy's innocent comment shocked everyone who witnessed it. Fisher punched the student hard in the shoulder. This act alone, at the very least, constituted grounds for dismissal. But the incident didn't end with the shoulder punch. When Reginald reacted by pushing the teacher away, Michael Fisher struck the boy twice in the face then delivered an uppercut that sent the 4-foot-eleven inch eighty-pounder sprawling across the hallway floor. The teacher's big punch also knocked the boy unconscious for a few seconds.

     When Reginald regained consciousness his face was numb, his lips sore and swollen, and the inside of his head pounded in pain. Someone at the scene summoned a school security police officer who escorted Fisher out of the building. The officer did not, however, take the teacher into custody. Later that day the principal fired Michael Fisher.

     Reginald Wells' mother, the moment she learned of the assault, filed a complaint with the Beaumont Independent School District Police Department. She assumed that school officials would in turn report the incident to the Beaumont Police Department.

     At some point, an officer with the Beaumont Police Department questioned the fired teacher who said he felt remorse over his actions. The county prosecutor's office, however, did not followup with criminal charges. Moreover, no one from law enforcement interviewed the victim of the assault. Reginald's mother had no recourse but to hire an attorney.

     On December 19, 2013, six weeks after the middle school assault, attorney Kevin Laine told a reporter with a Beaumont television station that the school district had still not reported the crime to the local police. According to the lawyer, a school surveillance camera had recorded the attack on video tape. Mr. Laine said he had been unable to acquire a copy of that footage.

     The lawyer also told the television correspondent that, "statutory law in Texas requires a reporting of such an act to child protective services and the local police department."

     Melody Chappell, an attorney with the Beaumont Independent School District, told a reporter that the district was not required by law to make the surveillance tape available to Wells' attorney or to the public. Chappell said the school district had acted correctly by notifying the boy's mother of the incident. Notifying the police was her responsibility.

     If a local prosecutor has charged Michael Fisher with Reginald Wells' assault, there has been no coverage of it in the media.  

Criminal Justice Quote: Public School Sexual Abuse Underreported

     Sexual abuse of children by teachers and other public school employees is likely underestimated because of a patchwork reporting system and involvement of numerous local, state and federal agencies in investigating such claims, according to a new government report….The report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) raises numerous questions about how closely public schools are following federal requirements for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse allegations or suspicions involving the public school employees who oversee the 50 million children enrolled in the nation's public K-12 schools. The report also raises doubts about the accuracy of the data on the scope of the problem….

     Even when state law requires reports to be made to outside agencies, sometimes the information never goes beyond a school district--whether because of uncertainty about whether a report is necessary, delays in reporting or outright failure to report allegations or suspicions of abuse….

     GAO investigators said they found that most states do not require training of educators on sexual abuse, even though experts say it's critical to preventing abuse. The report said such training might keep school officers from discounting their own suspicions or observations….

Gil Aegerter and Joel Seidman, "Reporting of School Sexual Abuse Plagued by Confusion, Spotty Data, GAO Says," NBC News, January 30, 2014

Criminal Justice Quote: Free Government Crack Pipes?

     Crack pipe distribution programs have been successful in Canada, said Laura Thomas, a member of the HIV Prevention Planning Council [HPPC), the group that recently suggested San Francisco consider a similar program. Why give out free crack pipes? Unlike used needles, which pierce the skin and can immediately infect someone who shares it, the sharing of crack pipes doesn't have that same likelihood of physical contamination of HIV.

     Instead, officials said, the main focus of this program would be as an outreach effort. Crack users are a population identified as a major risk to have HIV and they often become disconnected from medical services and stop taking their medicine. "It may seem counter intuitive, but it's a great program," says Thomas. "Once you can bring people into your program, make them feel respected, taken care of, then they're more likely to come back and get on HIV meds and want to be engaged and taking care of their health."… [What a load. These people are drug addicts.]

Daniel Greenfield, "San Francisco May Hand Out Free Crack Pipes," The Daily Caller, January 26, 2014 

Criminal Justice Quote: Wrongful Convictions Exonerations

     A nationwide push by prosecutors and police to re-examine possible wrongful convictions contributed to a record number of exonerations in 2013….The National Registry of Exonerations says 87 people falsely convicted of crimes were exonerated last year, four more than in 2009, the year with the highest total. The joint effort by the Northwestern University and University of Michigan law schools documented more than 1,300 such cases in the U.S. since 1989 while also identifying another 1,100 "group exonerations" involving widespread police misconduct, primarily related to planted drug and gun evidence.

     The new report shows that nearly 40 percent of exonerations in 2013 were either initiated by law enforcement or included police and prosecutors' co-operation. One year earlier, nearly half of the exonerations involved such reviews….

    Texas topped the state-by-state breakdown with 13 exonerations in 2013, followed by Illinois, New York, Washington, California, Michigan, and Missouri….

     Fifteen of the 87 documented cases in 2013 involved convictions obtained after a defendant pleaded guilty, typically to avoid a longer prison sentence. Forty of the cases involved murder convictions, with another 18 overturned convictions for rape or sexual assault….

Alan Sacher Zagier, "U.S. Prosecutors Help Set Record Number of Exonerations in 2013," Associated Press, February 4, 2014

     

Criminal Justice Quote: Airport Peeping Toms: Confessions of a TSA Agent

     A former Transportation Security Administration Agent has stepped forward and is offering up more information about the nation's airline security agency, sure to send a shiver up a passenger's spine. "Dear  America, I saw you naked and yes, we were laughing. Confessions of an ex-TSA agent," Jason Edward Harrington, a former TSA agent turned author, titles his article in Politico Magazine. Harrington--who initially wrote about his experiences as an agent on an anonymous blog--walks readers through troubling circumstance after troubling circumstance.

     "Just as the long-suffering American public waiting on those security lines suspected, jokes about the passengers ran rampant among my TSA colleagues: Many of the images we gawked at were of overweight people, their every fold and dimple of full awful display," Harrington writes of the full-body "nude" scanners the TSA pulled in 2013. "Piercings of every kind were visible. Women who'd had mastectomies were easy to discern…. Hernias appeared as bulging, blistery growths in the crotch area."…

     "We knew the full-body scanners didn't work before they were even installed. Not long after the Underwear Bomber incident, all TSA officers at O'Hare [Chicago] were informed that training for the Rapiscan System's full-body scanners would soon begin. The machines cost about $150,000 a pop," Harrington wrote, recalling one instructor who told a class of TSA officers that the scanners were "shit."…

Caroline May, "Former TSA Agent: Your Worst Fears About Us Were True," The Daily Caller, January 31, 2014  

What Did Federal Judge Boyce F. Martin Do With All That Government Money?

     The former chief judge of Cincinnati's federal appeals court is under scrutiny for receiving almost $140,000 in travel expenses during four and a half years on the bench. A judicial conduct committee has found that the expenses of Judge Boyce F. Martin, a Louisville judge who for years led the U.S. 6th Court of Appeals, should be investigated by the public integrity section of the U.S. Department of Justice….

     The case is significant because complaints against federal judges are rarely made public, and most do not result in disciplinary action. Referrals to the Department of Justice, which conducts criminal investigations, are rare….According to court records, the case began when the current chief judge, Alice Batchelder, complained about "questionable travel reimbursement requests" made by Martin. The reimbursements--made between January 1, 2008 and August 2, 2012--totaled $138,500. The records do not specify the nature of the travel or which parts of the total expenses were questioned. The expenses average about $2,500 a month.

Dan Horn, The Cincinnati Inquirer, January 21, 2014  

Criminal Justice Quote: Locked Up in Indiana

     What's worse than going to jail? Being stuck there for 77 times your original sentence. That's what happened to a 34-year-old woman from Jeffersonville, Indiana who was ordered to serve two days in the Clark County Jail…in August 2013. Destiny Hoffman was released on January 31, 2014, 154 days after she got locked up.

     Judge Jerry Jacobe oversees the Clark County Drug Court Treatment Program that Hoffman was part of, and ordered the Sheriff's Office to hold Hoffman "until further order of the court." But the order was never issued….

     Hoffman eventually did get legal help, from Deputy Prosecutor Michaelia Gilbert, who was going through old case files….Hoffman got a hearing the next day. The presiding judge called the screw-up, well, "a big screw-up." What Hoffman did or didn't do about the mix-up while in jail is unclear. The judge asked her why she didn't alert officials about her situation. She didn't give an answer….

Kate Seamons, "Woman Sent to Jail for 2 Days Stuck There for 154," Newser, January 27, 2014.  

Criminal Justice Quote: The Fake Cop Scam

     Police are cautioning senior citizens who live in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood after two men posed as police officers to con residents out of large amounts of money. In the two reported incidents, a man posing as an officer called elderly persons and told them a relative of theirs was under arrest….The man claimed that, to help in the investigation, the elderly people had to withdraw a large sum of money from their banks. Then, a second phony cop met the victims outside their banks to pick up the money.

     The two con men told their victims that no one can be told about the money in order not to jeopardize their investigation….

     The two suspects were described as black men between the ages 40 and 55.

CBS News, January 19, 2014