"There is virtually no popular or professional knowledge of dissociative identity disorder in China, and therefore professional and popular contamination cannot exist."
"Dissociative disorders were diagnosed in 24 respondents by structured interview, and 15 respondents fell into the dissociative taxon on the Dissociative Experiences Scale."
Trauma and Dissociation in China
Zeping Xiao, M.D., Heqin Yan, Zhen Wang, M.D., Zheng Zou, M.D., Yong Xu, M.D., Jue Chen, M.D., Haiyin Zhang, M.D., Colin A. Ross, M.D., and Benjamin B. Keyes, Ph.D.
Am J Psychiatry 163:1388-1391, August 2006
doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.163.8.1388
2006 American Psychiatric Association
OBJECTIVE: In order to determine whether pathological dissociation occurs in China, the authors conducted a survey among psychiatric inpatients, outpatients, and the general population in Shanghai, China. There is virtually no popular or professional knowledge of dissociative identity disorder in China, and therefore professional and popular contamination cannot exist.
METHOD: Chinese versions of the Dissociative Experiences Scale and the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule were administered to 423 inpatients, 304 outpatients, and 618 factory workers in Shanghai by Chinese psychiatrists working at the Shanghai Mental Health Center.
RESULTS: Dissociative disorders were diagnosed in 24 respondents by structured interview, and 15 respondents fell into the dissociative taxon on the Dissociative Experiences Scale. The outpatients reported the highest rates of childhood physical and/or sexual abuse and of pathological dissociation.
ONCLUSIONS: Pathological dissociation can be detected readily among psychiatric outpatients in China but is much less common in the general population. Pathological dissociation is more frequent in more traumatized subsamples of the Chinese population. The findings are not consistent with the sociocognitive, contamination, or iatrogenic models of dissociative identity disorder.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/163/8/1388
Trauma and Dissociation in China
Zeping Xiao, M.D., Heqin Yan, Zhen Wang, M.D., Zheng Zou, M.D., Yong Xu, M.D., Jue Chen, M.D., Haiyin Zhang, M.D., Colin A. Ross, M.D., and Benjamin B. Keyes, Ph.D.
Am J Psychiatry 163:1388-1391, August 2006
doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.163.8.1388
2006 American Psychiatric Association
quotes:
"China is a country in which there is little public or cultural
awareness of dissociative identity disorder or other forms of chronic, complex, pathological dissociation. We are not familiar with any representation of the disorder on television, in film, in novels or plays, or in popular folklore. The trauma model of dissociation is not taught at medical schools in China, and dissociative disorders are very rarely
diagnosed by mental health professionals. China, therefore, is virtually free of cultural or professional contamination concerning dissociative disorders."
"The results of our study support the epidemiological
prediction of the trauma model of dissociation and are not
consistent with the sociocognitive model. Pathological dissociation was reported by Chinese respondents, despite the lack of contamination, role demands, and iatrogenic suggestion in China."
"As shown in Table 1, there are hints in the secondary features of dissociative identity disorder that full or partial forms of dissociative identity disorder could affect more than 2.3% of the Chinese outpatient sample (the sum of the frequencies of these two diagnoses on the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule). For instance, 3.6% of the Chinese outpatients said that they have another person inside of them.
The outpatients reported more childhood trauma than the other two groups. The outpatients had more dissociative disorders on the Dissociative Disorders Interview
Schedule, more members of the dissociative taxon on the Dissociative Experiences Scale, higher average scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale, and more secondary features of dissociative identity disorder on the Dissociative
Disorders Interview Schedule. Thus, the outpatients were more dissociative than the other two groups on four different ways of assessing dissociation. The fact that they
also reported more childhood abuse is consistent with the trauma model of pathological dissociation."
"China provides an example of a culture largely uncontaminated by popular or professional knowledge of dissociative identity disorder and therefore is suitable for testing the epidemiological predictions of the trauma and sociocognitive models."
full text at http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/163/8/1388.pdf
WI lawmakers look to pass "Caylee's Law"
Jul 31, 2011 By Megan Wiebold
Eau Claire (WQOW) - After the acquittal of Casey Anthony in the death of her daughter, Caylee, many lawmakers clamored to create a law that would punish parents for failing to alert police when their son or daughter is missing. Wisconsin is just one of nearly two dozen states that are looking into creating a measure that would be called "Caylee's Law".
2-year-old Caylee Anthony had been missing for 31 days before police knew about her disappearance. Wisconsin lawmakers say they've gotten hundreds of e-mails and phone calls about creating a law to punish parents who do not report their child missing.
....There are currently no laws in Wisconsin that punish parents for failing to report a missing child. Lawmakers say it's an issue that's been discussed for years.
....Currently, there are two versions of the law being drafted.
http://www.wqow.com/story/15182706/wi-lawmakers-look-to-pass-caylees-law
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
National inquiry sought over missing and murdered aboriginal women, Rabbinical court opens sex abuse debate in orthodox community
National inquiry sought over missing and murdered aboriginal women
By NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN July 29, 2011
VANCOUVER -- The Native Women's Association of Canada is calling for a national inquiry into the growing number of missing and murdered aboriginal women after feeling shutout from B.C.'s Missing Women inquiry.
"The government of B.C. has shut us out of the British Columbia Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, and now we have no confidence that it will be able to produce a fair and balanced report," NWAC President Jeannette Corbiere Lavell said in a statement issued today.
"The decision of the BC government to restrict funding for counsel primarily to police and government agencies demonstrates how flawed and one sided this process has become."
Her comments came after B.C. Attorney General Barry Penner has repeatedly rejected calls for funding for 13 groups who have been granted standing at the Missing Women inquiry, including the NWAC.
The attorney general has only granted funding for a lawyer to represent the families of the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/National+inquiry+sought+over+missing+murdered+aboriginal+women/5180377/story.html
Rabbinical court opens sex abuse debate in orthodox community
By Marian Scott, Postmedia News July 26, 2011
MONTREAL — A rabbinical court has brought the long-hidden issue of sexual abuse in Montreal's Orthodox Jewish community out into the open.
In an advisory issued at the start of the summer-camp season, the Beit Din, a religious court, told parents to teach children about inappropriate touching, whether it's by another child, a relative or an authority figure.
The written notice said parents should explain to children it's an obligation — not a sin — to tell a parent or rabbi if an incident occurs.
The move is a departure for a community that's been accused in the past of sweeping the sensitive topic of sexual abuse under the carpet.
"That already is a huge step for the Orthodox community," said Diane Sasson, executive director of Auberge Shalom, a centre for women and children affected by conjugal violence.
That the Jewish court is acknowledging the existence of sexual abuse is a sign of progress, Sasson said.
But an expert on sexual abuse in the Orthodox community criticized the religious court for not telling parents to report incidents to police or youth-protection authorities....
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Rabbinical+court+opens+abuse+debate+orthodox+community/5162525/story.html
By NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN July 29, 2011
VANCOUVER -- The Native Women's Association of Canada is calling for a national inquiry into the growing number of missing and murdered aboriginal women after feeling shutout from B.C.'s Missing Women inquiry.
"The government of B.C. has shut us out of the British Columbia Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, and now we have no confidence that it will be able to produce a fair and balanced report," NWAC President Jeannette Corbiere Lavell said in a statement issued today.
"The decision of the BC government to restrict funding for counsel primarily to police and government agencies demonstrates how flawed and one sided this process has become."
Her comments came after B.C. Attorney General Barry Penner has repeatedly rejected calls for funding for 13 groups who have been granted standing at the Missing Women inquiry, including the NWAC.
The attorney general has only granted funding for a lawyer to represent the families of the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/National+inquiry+sought+over+missing+murdered+aboriginal+women/5180377/story.html
Rabbinical court opens sex abuse debate in orthodox community
By Marian Scott, Postmedia News July 26, 2011
MONTREAL — A rabbinical court has brought the long-hidden issue of sexual abuse in Montreal's Orthodox Jewish community out into the open.
In an advisory issued at the start of the summer-camp season, the Beit Din, a religious court, told parents to teach children about inappropriate touching, whether it's by another child, a relative or an authority figure.
The written notice said parents should explain to children it's an obligation — not a sin — to tell a parent or rabbi if an incident occurs.
The move is a departure for a community that's been accused in the past of sweeping the sensitive topic of sexual abuse under the carpet.
"That already is a huge step for the Orthodox community," said Diane Sasson, executive director of Auberge Shalom, a centre for women and children affected by conjugal violence.
That the Jewish court is acknowledging the existence of sexual abuse is a sign of progress, Sasson said.
But an expert on sexual abuse in the Orthodox community criticized the religious court for not telling parents to report incidents to police or youth-protection authorities....
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Rabbinical+court+opens+abuse+debate+orthodox+community/5162525/story.html
Friday, July 29, 2011
Jeffs Case: Polygamist Leader Fires Lawyers, 10 yr old Killed For Taking Popsicle
Warren Jeffs Case: Polygamist Leader Fires Lawyers, Represents Himself In Bizarre First Day Of Child Sex Assault Trial 7/29/11
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs broke his silence Friday, delivering before jurors a 55-minute sermon defending plural marriage as ordered by God and protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Jeffs, 55, is accused of sexually assaulting two underage girls and could face life in prison if convicted. He fired his high-powered defense team on Thursday and has been representing himself, but he made no opening statement and spent hours sitting alone at the defense table staring into space in silence while prosecutors made their case.
That changed, however, as FBI agent John Broadway testified about seizing eight desktop computers and 120 boxes and large folders of documents from the sect's West Texas compound in April 2008. Broadway was about to describe a list of names and birthdates for those living at the compound when Jeffs suddenly cried "I object!"
"There is sacred trust given to religious leadership not to be touched by government agencies," he said.
Jeffs is ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The church's 10,000 members see Jeffs as a prophet who speaks for God on Earth....
"We cannot surrender these principles based on the laws of man trying to convince us that our religion is not necessary in practice," he said, referring to freedom of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Jeffs later added, "this must stop in a land of freedom if all others are to receive a similar guarantee against their freedom of religion being trampled."
Jeffs said his church has practiced polygamy for five generations and believes it is the will of God, who is a higher power than courts, state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Jeffs is scheduled to be tried for bigamy in October....
When Jeffs finished, lead prosecutor Eric Nichols rose and said the Supreme Court has found since the 1890s that religious freedom does not extend to polygamy....
Jeffs and 11 other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy.
All seven sect members prosecuted so far have been convicted. They received prison terms of between six and 75 years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/warren-jeffs-case-polygamist-leader-fires-lawyers_n_913008.html
article describes severe and graphic abuse
Ame Deal, Arizona 10-Year-Old, Killed By Family For Taking Popsicle: Police
7/29/11
The family of a 10-year-old found dead in a trunk outside an Arizona home initially claimed the child died while playing hide-and-seek. But investigators now believe Ame Deal suffocated after her family locked her in the box because she took a popsicle from the freezer without permission.
Phoenix police claim Deal's grandmother, aunt and two cousins regularly subjected the child to horrific treatment, ultimately culminating in her July 12 death.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/ame-deal-killed-over-popsicle_n_913646.html
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs broke his silence Friday, delivering before jurors a 55-minute sermon defending plural marriage as ordered by God and protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Jeffs, 55, is accused of sexually assaulting two underage girls and could face life in prison if convicted. He fired his high-powered defense team on Thursday and has been representing himself, but he made no opening statement and spent hours sitting alone at the defense table staring into space in silence while prosecutors made their case.
That changed, however, as FBI agent John Broadway testified about seizing eight desktop computers and 120 boxes and large folders of documents from the sect's West Texas compound in April 2008. Broadway was about to describe a list of names and birthdates for those living at the compound when Jeffs suddenly cried "I object!"
"There is sacred trust given to religious leadership not to be touched by government agencies," he said.
Jeffs is ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The church's 10,000 members see Jeffs as a prophet who speaks for God on Earth....
"We cannot surrender these principles based on the laws of man trying to convince us that our religion is not necessary in practice," he said, referring to freedom of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Jeffs later added, "this must stop in a land of freedom if all others are to receive a similar guarantee against their freedom of religion being trampled."
Jeffs said his church has practiced polygamy for five generations and believes it is the will of God, who is a higher power than courts, state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Jeffs is scheduled to be tried for bigamy in October....
When Jeffs finished, lead prosecutor Eric Nichols rose and said the Supreme Court has found since the 1890s that religious freedom does not extend to polygamy....
Jeffs and 11 other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy.
All seven sect members prosecuted so far have been convicted. They received prison terms of between six and 75 years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/warren-jeffs-case-polygamist-leader-fires-lawyers_n_913008.html
article describes severe and graphic abuse
Ame Deal, Arizona 10-Year-Old, Killed By Family For Taking Popsicle: Police
7/29/11
The family of a 10-year-old found dead in a trunk outside an Arizona home initially claimed the child died while playing hide-and-seek. But investigators now believe Ame Deal suffocated after her family locked her in the box because she took a popsicle from the freezer without permission.
Phoenix police claim Deal's grandmother, aunt and two cousins regularly subjected the child to horrific treatment, ultimately culminating in her July 12 death.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/ame-deal-killed-over-popsicle_n_913646.html
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Casey Anthony Case Videos - Abuse Allegations, 25% of women will experience domestic violence
Casey Anthony /Casey Alleges Family Abuse, Chloroform Use In Jail Letters
cfnews13.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM36-UNP8wI
Video vault: The case against Casey Anthony
http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2011/june/257670/
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Facts (NCADV)
One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
....An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by
an intimate partner each year.
The majority (73%) of family violence victims are female. Females
were 84% of spousal abuse victims and 86% of abuse victims at
the hands of a boyfriend.
The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each
year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health
services.
Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse
their own partners and children when they become adults.
....children who are exposed to domestic violence are more
likely to exhibit behavioral and physical health problems including depression, anxiety, and violence towards peers. They are also more likely to attempt suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, run away from home, engage in teenage prostitution, and commit sexual assault crimes.
http://www.ncadv.org/files/Massachusetts.pdf
cfnews13.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM36-UNP8wI
Video vault: The case against Casey Anthony
http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2011/june/257670/
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Facts (NCADV)
One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
....An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by
an intimate partner each year.
The majority (73%) of family violence victims are female. Females
were 84% of spousal abuse victims and 86% of abuse victims at
the hands of a boyfriend.
The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each
year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health
services.
Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse
their own partners and children when they become adults.
....children who are exposed to domestic violence are more
likely to exhibit behavioral and physical health problems including depression, anxiety, and violence towards peers. They are also more likely to attempt suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, run away from home, engage in teenage prostitution, and commit sexual assault crimes.
http://www.ncadv.org/files/Massachusetts.pdf
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
US Child Maltreatment 2009 Statistics
US Child Maltreatment 2009 Statistics
Child Maltreatment 2009
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Administration for Children and Families
Administration on Children, Youth and Families
Children’s Bureau
....Victims in the age group of birth to 1 year had the highest rate of victimization at 20.6 per 1,000 children of the same age group in the national population.
Victimization was split between the sexes with boys accounting for 48.2 percent and girls accounting for 51.1 percent. Less than 1 percent of victims had an unknown sex.
Eighty-seven percent of victims were comprised of three races or ethnicities—African-American (22.3%), Hispanic (20.7%), and White (44.0%).
What were the most common types of maltreatment?
As in prior years, the greatest proportion of children suffered from neglect. A child may have suffered from multiple forms of maltreatment and was counted once for each maltreatment type. CPS investigations or assessments determined that for unique victims:
More than 75 percent (78.3%) suffered neglect;
More than 15 percent (17.8%) suffered physical abuse;
Less than 10 percent (9.5%) suffered sexual abuse; and
Less than 10 percent (7.6%) suffered from psychological maltreatment.
....Child fatalities are the most tragic consequence of maltreatment. Yet, each year children die from abuse and neglect. Forty-nine States reported a total of 1,676 fatalities. Based on these data, a nationally estimated 1,770 children died from abuse and neglect.
....Four-fifths (80.9%) of duplicate perpetrators of child maltreatment were parents, and another 6.3 percent were other relatives of the victim;
Of the duplicate perpetrators who were parents, four-fifths (84.7%) were the biological parents of the victim;
Women comprised a larger percentage of all unique perpetrators than men, 53.8 percent compared to 44.4 percent;
and Four-fifths (83.2%) of all unique perpetrators were between the ages of 20 and 49 years.
....Forty-four States reported that more than 3 million children received preventive services;
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm09/cm09.pdf
Child Maltreatment 2009
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Administration for Children and Families
Administration on Children, Youth and Families
Children’s Bureau
....Victims in the age group of birth to 1 year had the highest rate of victimization at 20.6 per 1,000 children of the same age group in the national population.
Victimization was split between the sexes with boys accounting for 48.2 percent and girls accounting for 51.1 percent. Less than 1 percent of victims had an unknown sex.
Eighty-seven percent of victims were comprised of three races or ethnicities—African-American (22.3%), Hispanic (20.7%), and White (44.0%).
What were the most common types of maltreatment?
As in prior years, the greatest proportion of children suffered from neglect. A child may have suffered from multiple forms of maltreatment and was counted once for each maltreatment type. CPS investigations or assessments determined that for unique victims:
More than 75 percent (78.3%) suffered neglect;
More than 15 percent (17.8%) suffered physical abuse;
Less than 10 percent (9.5%) suffered sexual abuse; and
Less than 10 percent (7.6%) suffered from psychological maltreatment.
....Child fatalities are the most tragic consequence of maltreatment. Yet, each year children die from abuse and neglect. Forty-nine States reported a total of 1,676 fatalities. Based on these data, a nationally estimated 1,770 children died from abuse and neglect.
....Four-fifths (80.9%) of duplicate perpetrators of child maltreatment were parents, and another 6.3 percent were other relatives of the victim;
Of the duplicate perpetrators who were parents, four-fifths (84.7%) were the biological parents of the victim;
Women comprised a larger percentage of all unique perpetrators than men, 53.8 percent compared to 44.4 percent;
and Four-fifths (83.2%) of all unique perpetrators were between the ages of 20 and 49 years.
....Forty-four States reported that more than 3 million children received preventive services;
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm09/cm09.pdf
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Vatican Recalls Ireland Envoy, Ritual Abuse Conference Scotland, Caylee's Law
Vatican Recalls Ireland Envoy Amid Abuse Uproar
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON 07/25/11
VATICAN CITY -- Chafing under extraordinary criticism, the Vatican made the rare move of recalling its ambassador to Ireland on Monday following accusations that the Holy See sabotaged efforts by Catholic bishops to report clerical sex abuse cases to police.
A Vatican spokesman said Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza was recalled to help prepare an official response to Irish complaints, but that the decision "does not exclude some degree of surprise and disappointment at certain excessive reactions."
The spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, acknowledged the recall of an ambassador was a measure rarely used by the Holy See, underlining "the seriousness of the situation."
The deepening crisis follows a July 13 report that the Irish diocese of Cloyne failed to act on complaints against 19 priests from 1996 to 2009. It further alleged the Vatican encouraged bishops to ignore child-protection guidelines including the requirement that abuse claims be reported to civil authorities....
Prime Minister Enda Kenny denounced to lawmakers last week what he called "the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism – and the narcissism – that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day."
It was the first time in the past 17 years of pedophile-priest scandals in Ireland that parliamentarians have taken on the Vatican rather than local church leaders. Revelations of widespread abuse have eroded Catholic authority in a nation where the church still owns most schools and several hospitals, and state broadcasters still toll a twice-daily call to Catholic prayer....
A confidential 1997 Vatican letter – originally published by The Associated Press in January – instructed Irish bishops to handle child-abuse cases strictly under terms of canon law. It warned bishops that their 1996 child-protection policy, particularly its emphasis on the need to start reporting all suspected crimes to police, violated canon law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/vatican-recalls-ireland-envoy_n_908462.html
10TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE ON RITUAL ABUSE
Host organisation IZZY’S PROMISE
Location DUNDEE, Scotland
November 3, 2011 09:30 AM
Izzy’s Promise is hosting a conference for survivors, support workers and organisations on the subject of RITUAL ABUSE IN THE UK 10 YEARS ON. Izzy’s Promise formerly (Tayside Ritual Abuse Support and Helpline Project TRASH) has been up and running for 10 years. It was started in 2001 by volunteers and service users out of a direct demand for services by survivors of ritual/organised abuse.
The main speaker will Laurie Matthew, who has 30 years of experience working with ritual abuse survivors. The charges are £50 for statutory/funded organisations, £25 smaller charities and £10 for survivors.
Website http://www.izzyspromise.org.uk
Enquiries josephlumbasi@aol.com
http://www.thirdforcenews.org.uk/2011/07/10th-anniversary-conference-on-ritual-abuse/
Lawmakers will study Wyoming 'Caylee's Law'
By JOSHUA WOLFSON Star-Tribune staff writer Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Public outcry following Casey Anthony’s acquittal has prompted Wyoming lawmakers to explore legislation that would punish parents who fail to report missing children within a certain time frame.
The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Interim Committee will study the need for a “Caylee’s Law” when it meets next month in Sundance, a committee chairman said.
More than 20 states are considering versions of Caylee’s Law, which would make it a felony for parents or guardians to wait more than 24 hours to notify authorities of missing children. Other states are also contemplating making it a felony to wait more than an hour to report a child’s death.
An Oklahoma woman proposed the legislation in an online petition created after a jury acquitted Anthony of murdering her daughter, Caylee. Anthony waited a month before reporting her daughter missing.
The online petition has collected more than 1.25 million signatures. Many state lawmakers have also received emails from constituents urging passage of a Caylee’s Law in Wyoming, said judiciary co-chairman Sen. Drew Perkins. Instead of individual lawmakers pursuing a bill, the Legislature’s Management Council assigned the judiciary committee to study the issue.
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_8c07f961-0e6b-5af0-995d-b83bd396333f.html
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON 07/25/11
VATICAN CITY -- Chafing under extraordinary criticism, the Vatican made the rare move of recalling its ambassador to Ireland on Monday following accusations that the Holy See sabotaged efforts by Catholic bishops to report clerical sex abuse cases to police.
A Vatican spokesman said Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza was recalled to help prepare an official response to Irish complaints, but that the decision "does not exclude some degree of surprise and disappointment at certain excessive reactions."
The spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, acknowledged the recall of an ambassador was a measure rarely used by the Holy See, underlining "the seriousness of the situation."
The deepening crisis follows a July 13 report that the Irish diocese of Cloyne failed to act on complaints against 19 priests from 1996 to 2009. It further alleged the Vatican encouraged bishops to ignore child-protection guidelines including the requirement that abuse claims be reported to civil authorities....
Prime Minister Enda Kenny denounced to lawmakers last week what he called "the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism – and the narcissism – that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day."
It was the first time in the past 17 years of pedophile-priest scandals in Ireland that parliamentarians have taken on the Vatican rather than local church leaders. Revelations of widespread abuse have eroded Catholic authority in a nation where the church still owns most schools and several hospitals, and state broadcasters still toll a twice-daily call to Catholic prayer....
A confidential 1997 Vatican letter – originally published by The Associated Press in January – instructed Irish bishops to handle child-abuse cases strictly under terms of canon law. It warned bishops that their 1996 child-protection policy, particularly its emphasis on the need to start reporting all suspected crimes to police, violated canon law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/vatican-recalls-ireland-envoy_n_908462.html
10TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE ON RITUAL ABUSE
Host organisation IZZY’S PROMISE
Location DUNDEE, Scotland
November 3, 2011 09:30 AM
Izzy’s Promise is hosting a conference for survivors, support workers and organisations on the subject of RITUAL ABUSE IN THE UK 10 YEARS ON. Izzy’s Promise formerly (Tayside Ritual Abuse Support and Helpline Project TRASH) has been up and running for 10 years. It was started in 2001 by volunteers and service users out of a direct demand for services by survivors of ritual/organised abuse.
The main speaker will Laurie Matthew, who has 30 years of experience working with ritual abuse survivors. The charges are £50 for statutory/funded organisations, £25 smaller charities and £10 for survivors.
Website http://www.izzyspromise.org.uk
Enquiries josephlumbasi@aol.com
http://www.thirdforcenews.org.uk/2011/07/10th-anniversary-conference-on-ritual-abuse/
Lawmakers will study Wyoming 'Caylee's Law'
By JOSHUA WOLFSON Star-Tribune staff writer Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Public outcry following Casey Anthony’s acquittal has prompted Wyoming lawmakers to explore legislation that would punish parents who fail to report missing children within a certain time frame.
The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Interim Committee will study the need for a “Caylee’s Law” when it meets next month in Sundance, a committee chairman said.
More than 20 states are considering versions of Caylee’s Law, which would make it a felony for parents or guardians to wait more than 24 hours to notify authorities of missing children. Other states are also contemplating making it a felony to wait more than an hour to report a child’s death.
An Oklahoma woman proposed the legislation in an online petition created after a jury acquitted Anthony of murdering her daughter, Caylee. Anthony waited a month before reporting her daughter missing.
The online petition has collected more than 1.25 million signatures. Many state lawmakers have also received emails from constituents urging passage of a Caylee’s Law in Wyoming, said judiciary co-chairman Sen. Drew Perkins. Instead of individual lawmakers pursuing a bill, the Legislature’s Management Council assigned the judiciary committee to study the issue.
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_8c07f961-0e6b-5af0-995d-b83bd396333f.html
Monday, July 25, 2011
Texas Town Braces For Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs' Trial
Texas Town Braces For Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs' Trial
(WATCH) WILL WEISSERT 07/25/11 SAN ANGELO, Texas
The first hint of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs' defense strategy came Monday when his attorney said his right to freedom of religion was trampled by Texas prosecutors, who claim he sexually assaulted two underage girls after manipulating them into "spiritual marriages."
Jury selection began Monday in the case of the 55-year-old ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The church's 10,000 members see Jeffs as a prophet who speaks for God on Earth....
Jeffs is accused of sexual assaulting two girls, one younger than 17 and one younger than 14. The charges against him include aggravated sexual assault of a child, which is punishable by up to 99 years to life in prison.
He faces a separate trial for bigamy in October.
The charges stem from an April 2008 police raid on a church compound known as Yearning For Zion outside the town of Eldorado, about 45 miles south of the West Texas oil and gas town of San Angelo. Authorities who believed girls were being forced into polygamous marriages removed more than 400 children living at the compound, and TV images of women wearing frontier-style dresses and 19th century hairdos were shown across the country.
The original call to a Texas domestic abuse hotline that sparked the raid turned out to be a hoax. Most of the children seized from the compound have since been returned to their families, but the evidence collected proved enough to charge Jeffs and 11 other church men with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy.
Seven church members have been convicted and received prison sentences of between 6 and 75 years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/warren-jeffs-polygamist-trial_n_908442.html
(WATCH) WILL WEISSERT 07/25/11 SAN ANGELO, Texas
The first hint of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs' defense strategy came Monday when his attorney said his right to freedom of religion was trampled by Texas prosecutors, who claim he sexually assaulted two underage girls after manipulating them into "spiritual marriages."
Jury selection began Monday in the case of the 55-year-old ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The church's 10,000 members see Jeffs as a prophet who speaks for God on Earth....
Jeffs is accused of sexual assaulting two girls, one younger than 17 and one younger than 14. The charges against him include aggravated sexual assault of a child, which is punishable by up to 99 years to life in prison.
He faces a separate trial for bigamy in October.
The charges stem from an April 2008 police raid on a church compound known as Yearning For Zion outside the town of Eldorado, about 45 miles south of the West Texas oil and gas town of San Angelo. Authorities who believed girls were being forced into polygamous marriages removed more than 400 children living at the compound, and TV images of women wearing frontier-style dresses and 19th century hairdos were shown across the country.
The original call to a Texas domestic abuse hotline that sparked the raid turned out to be a hoax. Most of the children seized from the compound have since been returned to their families, but the evidence collected proved enough to charge Jeffs and 11 other church men with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy.
Seven church members have been convicted and received prison sentences of between 6 and 75 years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/warren-jeffs-polygamist-trial_n_908442.html
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The Book No Pope Would Want You To Read, Irish prime minister attacks Vatican
The Book No Pope Would Want You To Read by Tim C. Leedom and Maryjane Churchville - Historical and recent information on the Catholic Church.
EWorld Inc. ISBN: 978-1-61759-029-0
http://www.nopope.com/
NO POPE Book Trailer HD
http://www.youtube.com/user/popebook
Irish prime minister attacks Vatican
Enda Kenny says Cloyne report on child sex abuse by priests highlights dysfunction and elitism in Rome
Henry McDonald in Dublin guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Ireland's prime minister has launched an unprecedented attack on the Vatican, accusing it of downplaying the rape and torture of Irish children by clerical sex abusers.
Enda Kenny said in parliament that the Cloyne report, released on 13 July, had exposed the Vatican's attempt to frustrate the inquiry into child sex abuse.
During a debate on the fallout from the Cloyne findings, the taoiseach said the report had illuminated the dysfunction and elitism still dominant in the Vatican....
Kenny said the rape and torture of children had been downplayed or "managed" to uphold the institution's power and reputation.
The all-party motion being debated in the Dáil "deplores the Vatican's intervention which contributed to the undermining of child protection frameworks and guidelines of the Irish state and the Irish bishops".
One of the most damning findings of the Cloyne report was that the diocese failed to report nine out of 15 complaints made against priests, which "very clearly should have been reported".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/20/irish-prime-minister-attacks-vatican
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has strongly criticised the Vatican for what he said was an attempt to frustrate the Cloyne inquiry, accusing it of downplaying the rape of children to protect its power and reputation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo5MXrqbDeA
EWorld Inc. ISBN: 978-1-61759-029-0
http://www.nopope.com/
NO POPE Book Trailer HD
http://www.youtube.com/user/popebook
Irish prime minister attacks Vatican
Enda Kenny says Cloyne report on child sex abuse by priests highlights dysfunction and elitism in Rome
Henry McDonald in Dublin guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Ireland's prime minister has launched an unprecedented attack on the Vatican, accusing it of downplaying the rape and torture of Irish children by clerical sex abusers.
Enda Kenny said in parliament that the Cloyne report, released on 13 July, had exposed the Vatican's attempt to frustrate the inquiry into child sex abuse.
During a debate on the fallout from the Cloyne findings, the taoiseach said the report had illuminated the dysfunction and elitism still dominant in the Vatican....
Kenny said the rape and torture of children had been downplayed or "managed" to uphold the institution's power and reputation.
The all-party motion being debated in the Dáil "deplores the Vatican's intervention which contributed to the undermining of child protection frameworks and guidelines of the Irish state and the Irish bishops".
One of the most damning findings of the Cloyne report was that the diocese failed to report nine out of 15 complaints made against priests, which "very clearly should have been reported".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/20/irish-prime-minister-attacks-vatican
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has strongly criticised the Vatican for what he said was an attempt to frustrate the Cloyne inquiry, accusing it of downplaying the rape of children to protect its power and reputation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo5MXrqbDeA
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Former Daycare Worker Gets 40 Years In Prison For Sexually Abusing Preschoolers
Benjamin Janicki, Former Daycare Worker, Gets 40 Years In Prison For Sexually Abusing Preschool Kids
7/22/11 Benjamin Janicki, 20, a former Denver church daycare worker, has been convicted of sexually molesting nine preschool children and sentenced to 40 years in prison, the maximum allowed under a plea agreement, according to The Denver Post.
The plea agreement was arranged so the nine young girls would not have to testify about the horrifying abuse they faced at the hands of Janicki, who was a summer hire aide for pre-Kindergarten aged kids at the daycare center, according to 9News....
Janicki plead guilty to to two counts of first degree assault and two counts of attempted sexual assault on a child, according to CBSDenver.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/22/benjamin-janicki-former-d_n_907343.html
Plea Deal Announced In Church Day Care Molestation Case
May 9, 2011 Benjamin Janicki entered a guilty plea in court Monday morning to two counts of first degree assault and two counts of attempted sexual assault on a child. He was charged after being accused of molesting four preschool-aged children at the Park Hill United Methodist Church.
Janicki worked as an aid at Park Hill United last summer when he was 19.
Originally the charges Janicki faced stemmed from four victims. On Monday during court proceedings it was revealed that five more victims were added to the list.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2011/05/09/plea-deal-announced-in-church-day-care-molestation-case/
7/22/11 Benjamin Janicki, 20, a former Denver church daycare worker, has been convicted of sexually molesting nine preschool children and sentenced to 40 years in prison, the maximum allowed under a plea agreement, according to The Denver Post.
The plea agreement was arranged so the nine young girls would not have to testify about the horrifying abuse they faced at the hands of Janicki, who was a summer hire aide for pre-Kindergarten aged kids at the daycare center, according to 9News....
Janicki plead guilty to to two counts of first degree assault and two counts of attempted sexual assault on a child, according to CBSDenver.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/22/benjamin-janicki-former-d_n_907343.html
Plea Deal Announced In Church Day Care Molestation Case
May 9, 2011 Benjamin Janicki entered a guilty plea in court Monday morning to two counts of first degree assault and two counts of attempted sexual assault on a child. He was charged after being accused of molesting four preschool-aged children at the Park Hill United Methodist Church.
Janicki worked as an aid at Park Hill United last summer when he was 19.
Originally the charges Janicki faced stemmed from four victims. On Monday during court proceedings it was revealed that five more victims were added to the list.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2011/05/09/plea-deal-announced-in-church-day-care-molestation-case/
Friday, July 22, 2011
Casey Anthony Trial: Former Fiance Says Lee Anthony Groped Sister, Affair Denied
Casey Anthony Trial: Former Fiance Says Lee Anthony Groped Sister
By JESSICA HOPPER June 28, 2011
A former fiance of Casey Anthony testified today that the Florida woman's brother once groped her while she slept and that she wanted to keep her daughter Caylee away from him.
Jesse Grund testified at Casey Anthony's murder trial without jurors in the room. Judge Belvin Perry will decide Wednesday whether the testimony is admissible.
If his testimony is allowed, it could help the defense's claims that Casey Anthony suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her brother and father. Casey Anthony, 25, is accused of murderinig daughter Caylee and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Her father, George Anthony, has denied the abuse accusations. Lee Anthony has never been asked directly by the prosecution or defense if he abused his sister.
Another former boyfriend of Casey Anthony, Tony Lazzaro, previously testified that the Florida woman said her father was physically abusive and that Lee Anthony had tried to "feel her up" but didn't succeed....
George Anthony Denies Affair With Caylee Search Volunteer
Casey Anthony's father also took the stand today and was questioned about reports that he had an affair with a volunteer searcher named Krystal Holloway and once confessed to her that Caylee's disappearance was an "accident that snowballed out of control."
George Anthony denied ever saying that. He also denied ever having a romantic or intimate relationship with Holloway who also goes by the name River Cruz.
George Anthony laughed off the accusations, saying it was funny to him that the defense would think he had an affair. However, he attacked Holloway's character.
"I never had a romantic affair with Krystal Holloway or River Cruz…she has a questionable past…she is not a good person," George Anthony said.
He admitted to going to Holloway's home by himself. He said he was consoling her because she had revealed to him and his wife, Cindy Anthony, that she had a brain tumor.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/casey_anthony_trial/casey-anthony-trial-fiance-lee-anthony-groped-sister/story?id=13947225
By JESSICA HOPPER June 28, 2011
A former fiance of Casey Anthony testified today that the Florida woman's brother once groped her while she slept and that she wanted to keep her daughter Caylee away from him.
Jesse Grund testified at Casey Anthony's murder trial without jurors in the room. Judge Belvin Perry will decide Wednesday whether the testimony is admissible.
If his testimony is allowed, it could help the defense's claims that Casey Anthony suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her brother and father. Casey Anthony, 25, is accused of murderinig daughter Caylee and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Her father, George Anthony, has denied the abuse accusations. Lee Anthony has never been asked directly by the prosecution or defense if he abused his sister.
Another former boyfriend of Casey Anthony, Tony Lazzaro, previously testified that the Florida woman said her father was physically abusive and that Lee Anthony had tried to "feel her up" but didn't succeed....
George Anthony Denies Affair With Caylee Search Volunteer
Casey Anthony's father also took the stand today and was questioned about reports that he had an affair with a volunteer searcher named Krystal Holloway and once confessed to her that Caylee's disappearance was an "accident that snowballed out of control."
George Anthony denied ever saying that. He also denied ever having a romantic or intimate relationship with Holloway who also goes by the name River Cruz.
George Anthony laughed off the accusations, saying it was funny to him that the defense would think he had an affair. However, he attacked Holloway's character.
"I never had a romantic affair with Krystal Holloway or River Cruz…she has a questionable past…she is not a good person," George Anthony said.
He admitted to going to Holloway's home by himself. He said he was consoling her because she had revealed to him and his wife, Cindy Anthony, that she had a brain tumor.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/casey_anthony_trial/casey-anthony-trial-fiance-lee-anthony-groped-sister/story?id=13947225
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Caylee's Law: Closing the Loopholes, Archbishop Martin - church failures
Caylee's Law: Closing the Loopholes in Florida Law
Senator Mike Fasano (R), New Port Richey, has draft legislation for the 2012 legislative session after the Casey Anthony verdict came down.
By Analyn Megison 7/21/11
....“Over and over, from the beginning of this, Sen. Fasano kept asking about the 31 days: why is it that this child was missing for 31 days and no one reported it?” said Greg Giordano, Fasano's chief legislative aide.
"As we know now, there is no law in Florida that requires that missing children be reported to law enforcement within a certain time-frame. If there had been such a law on the books this case may have turned out quite differently."
Fasano hopes to close this loophole in Florida law, and I think it would get law enforcement involved in a timely fashion when there is a missing child. Also, it is another tool that could be used in a prosecutor's arsenal whenever someone is eventually charged by the state for this type of crime....
"Senator Fasano is proposing legislation that will require a caretaker (someone in a custodial role, i.e. parent, grandparent, babysitter, guardian, etc) who willfully or by culpable negligence fails to make contact or verify the whereabouts of a child 12 years of age or younger for a period of 48 hours will be guilty of a third degree felony if he/she fails to report the child’s absence to law enforcement at the end of said 48 hours.
"If the child suffers great harm, disability or permanent disfigurement while missing the charge will be raised to a second degree felony.
http://clearwater.patch.com/articles/caylees-law-closing-the-loopholes-in-florida-law-2
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin 'ashamed' at church failures -
The Archbishop of Dublin said there are groups in the Vatican and the Irish hierarchy trying to undermine child protection measures. 21 July 2011
Speaking on RTE on Wednesday, Dr Diarmuid Martin said there were systems in place that were ignored.
His comments come after Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny launched an attack in parliament on the Catholic Church.
Mr Kenny said the recent Cloyne Report into allegations of priest sex abuse showed change was needed.
In an unprecedented attack, the taoiseach said the historic relationship between church and state in Ireland could not be the same again and the report exposed the "elitism, dysfunction, disconnection, and narcissism that dominated the Vatican".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14230086
Irish PM in unprecedented attack on Vatican 20 July 2011
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has launched an unprecedented attack in parliament on the Catholic Church.
He said the recent Cloyne Report into how allegations of sex abuse by priests in Cork had been covered up showed change was urgently needed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14224199
Dublin Archbishop 'ashamed' of church
21 July 2011 The Archbishop of Dublin said there are groups in the Vatican and the Irish hierarchy trying to undermine child protection measures.
Speaking on RTE on Wednesday, Dr Diarmuid Martin said there were systems in place that were ignored.
His comments come after Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny launched an attack in parliament on the Catholic Church. Mr Kenny said the recent Cloyne Report into allegations of priest sex abuse showed change was needed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14234488
Senator Mike Fasano (R), New Port Richey, has draft legislation for the 2012 legislative session after the Casey Anthony verdict came down.
By Analyn Megison 7/21/11
....“Over and over, from the beginning of this, Sen. Fasano kept asking about the 31 days: why is it that this child was missing for 31 days and no one reported it?” said Greg Giordano, Fasano's chief legislative aide.
"As we know now, there is no law in Florida that requires that missing children be reported to law enforcement within a certain time-frame. If there had been such a law on the books this case may have turned out quite differently."
Fasano hopes to close this loophole in Florida law, and I think it would get law enforcement involved in a timely fashion when there is a missing child. Also, it is another tool that could be used in a prosecutor's arsenal whenever someone is eventually charged by the state for this type of crime....
"Senator Fasano is proposing legislation that will require a caretaker (someone in a custodial role, i.e. parent, grandparent, babysitter, guardian, etc) who willfully or by culpable negligence fails to make contact or verify the whereabouts of a child 12 years of age or younger for a period of 48 hours will be guilty of a third degree felony if he/she fails to report the child’s absence to law enforcement at the end of said 48 hours.
"If the child suffers great harm, disability or permanent disfigurement while missing the charge will be raised to a second degree felony.
http://clearwater.patch.com/articles/caylees-law-closing-the-loopholes-in-florida-law-2
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin 'ashamed' at church failures -
The Archbishop of Dublin said there are groups in the Vatican and the Irish hierarchy trying to undermine child protection measures. 21 July 2011
Speaking on RTE on Wednesday, Dr Diarmuid Martin said there were systems in place that were ignored.
His comments come after Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny launched an attack in parliament on the Catholic Church.
Mr Kenny said the recent Cloyne Report into allegations of priest sex abuse showed change was needed.
In an unprecedented attack, the taoiseach said the historic relationship between church and state in Ireland could not be the same again and the report exposed the "elitism, dysfunction, disconnection, and narcissism that dominated the Vatican".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14230086
Irish PM in unprecedented attack on Vatican 20 July 2011
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has launched an unprecedented attack in parliament on the Catholic Church.
He said the recent Cloyne Report into how allegations of sex abuse by priests in Cork had been covered up showed change was urgently needed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14224199
Dublin Archbishop 'ashamed' of church
21 July 2011 The Archbishop of Dublin said there are groups in the Vatican and the Irish hierarchy trying to undermine child protection measures.
Speaking on RTE on Wednesday, Dr Diarmuid Martin said there were systems in place that were ignored.
His comments come after Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny launched an attack in parliament on the Catholic Church. Mr Kenny said the recent Cloyne Report into allegations of priest sex abuse showed change was needed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14234488
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Not all mothers love their children
WENDY J. MURPHY: Not all mothers love their children
GateHouse News Service Jul 17, 2011
COMMENTARY — This is part one of a three-part series about a real person whose story is at once desperately sad and profoundly hopeful. She asked me to write it in the first person – but without using real names – so her voice could be heard. The facts are all true....
The first time grandpa touched me I was 4 years old. I was on a bed at my grandmother’s house. It was the middle of the night and I was wide-awake. I must have known it was safer not to fall asleep. He said if I told anyone, I would never be believed because my mother hated me.
He was right....
Grandpa molested mom, too, when she was a little girl, but she didn’t tell me about it until I was grown. She tried to tell her mother, but she called mom a “liar” and hit her with a wooden spoon.
Grandpa touched my older sister, too, when she was seven, but she screamed when it happened and ran around telling everyone. So he stopped for a while. He tried again when she was 14. She smacked him and they had a fist-fight. After that, he left her alone for good.
He didn’t leave me alone until I was 11. That’s when I started fighting back. In the meantime, he got me pretty good every time I was at his house, sometimes once a week, for seven years. When I wasn’t being abused by grandpa, I was home with a mother who beat me. Grandpa’s abuse was far worse, even though my mother did unspeakable things....
Mom made sure we had the best clothes, doctors, etc. On the first day of second grade, I had brand new cranberry colored tights. My best friend was upset because her mother refused to buy her a pair. She had no idea that I’d have gladly traded those tights to live with almost any other family in the world.
By the time I was in junior high, I was in a locked psychiatric ward. I had severe dissociation and almost no memories of being sexually abused. After intensive treatment, I started remembering things but the more I remembered, the more I felt like jumping off a bridge. I finally had a breakthrough when my doctor tried to explain why mom kept sending me to stay with grandpa. I asked him how a mother who was supposed to love her child could send her child to stay with a man she knew was a monster.
I was crushed to hear his response:
“Just because she gave birth to you, doesn’t mean she likes you.”
Hearing this made me very sad, but it needed to be said and, frankly, it helped me to move on....
http://www.patriotledger.com/opinions/x1510859918/WENDY-J-MURPHY-Not-all-mothers-love-their-children
GateHouse News Service Jul 17, 2011
COMMENTARY — This is part one of a three-part series about a real person whose story is at once desperately sad and profoundly hopeful. She asked me to write it in the first person – but without using real names – so her voice could be heard. The facts are all true....
The first time grandpa touched me I was 4 years old. I was on a bed at my grandmother’s house. It was the middle of the night and I was wide-awake. I must have known it was safer not to fall asleep. He said if I told anyone, I would never be believed because my mother hated me.
He was right....
Grandpa molested mom, too, when she was a little girl, but she didn’t tell me about it until I was grown. She tried to tell her mother, but she called mom a “liar” and hit her with a wooden spoon.
Grandpa touched my older sister, too, when she was seven, but she screamed when it happened and ran around telling everyone. So he stopped for a while. He tried again when she was 14. She smacked him and they had a fist-fight. After that, he left her alone for good.
He didn’t leave me alone until I was 11. That’s when I started fighting back. In the meantime, he got me pretty good every time I was at his house, sometimes once a week, for seven years. When I wasn’t being abused by grandpa, I was home with a mother who beat me. Grandpa’s abuse was far worse, even though my mother did unspeakable things....
Mom made sure we had the best clothes, doctors, etc. On the first day of second grade, I had brand new cranberry colored tights. My best friend was upset because her mother refused to buy her a pair. She had no idea that I’d have gladly traded those tights to live with almost any other family in the world.
By the time I was in junior high, I was in a locked psychiatric ward. I had severe dissociation and almost no memories of being sexually abused. After intensive treatment, I started remembering things but the more I remembered, the more I felt like jumping off a bridge. I finally had a breakthrough when my doctor tried to explain why mom kept sending me to stay with grandpa. I asked him how a mother who was supposed to love her child could send her child to stay with a man she knew was a monster.
I was crushed to hear his response:
“Just because she gave birth to you, doesn’t mean she likes you.”
Hearing this made me very sad, but it needed to be said and, frankly, it helped me to move on....
http://www.patriotledger.com/opinions/x1510859918/WENDY-J-MURPHY-Not-all-mothers-love-their-children
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Casey Anthony case sheds new light on child abuse
Casey Anthony case sheds new light on child abuse in southeast Wisconsin
There is help for parents feeling overwhelmed
Tami Hughes
FOX6 Reporter July 6, 2011 WITI-TV, MILWAUKEE
The Casey Anthony trial in Florida shed new light on the issue of child abuse in Wisconsin; an issue that affects thousands of kids every single year.
In 2009, there were more than 38,000 reports of child abuse in Wisconsin - and there were likely thousands more that went unreported. Here are a couple cases -- and please note, the details are rather graphic....
Eloise Anderson is the Secretary of the Department of Children and Families. She said on Wednesday, "We need to pay attention to our own communities because we have a lot of mothers that are close to this, because of stress, who need our help." http://www.fox6now.com/news/witi-20110706-child-abuse-prevalence,0,4807319.story
There is help for parents feeling overwhelmed
Tami Hughes
FOX6 Reporter July 6, 2011 WITI-TV, MILWAUKEE
The Casey Anthony trial in Florida shed new light on the issue of child abuse in Wisconsin; an issue that affects thousands of kids every single year.
In 2009, there were more than 38,000 reports of child abuse in Wisconsin - and there were likely thousands more that went unreported. Here are a couple cases -- and please note, the details are rather graphic....
Eloise Anderson is the Secretary of the Department of Children and Families. She said on Wednesday, "We need to pay attention to our own communities because we have a lot of mothers that are close to this, because of stress, who need our help." http://www.fox6now.com/news/witi-20110706-child-abuse-prevalence,0,4807319.story
Monday, July 18, 2011
Caylee Anthony – sealed photographs and warrants
describes crimes
NOT GUILTY VERDICT IS THE RIGHT RESULT – BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET
2011 July 8 by Wendy Murphy
People outside the courthouse in Orange County Florida, and across the country, are outraged by the acquittal of Casey Anthony in the murder of her toddler daughter, Caylee, and they have every reason to feel angry. But their energy is misplaced. Justice for Caylee is still possible, notwithstanding the acquittal, if people call for full disclosure of the entire investigative file – including an unsealing of the evidence thus far hidden from public view.
Release of the photographs of Caylee that were seized from the Anthony home and placed “under seal” by the court would be a good place to start. Many people are not even aware that a lot of evidence in the case is under seal, which itself is problematic. But the simple fact is, there’s far more to be said about what hasn’t been revealed in this case than what we’ve seen thus far.
In addition to the sealed photographs, there are search warrants under seal. Assuming the sealed photographs of Caylee involve sexual content, warrants would have been issued authorizing a search for child pornography in computers and elsewhere. The public may have had no right to see this evidence while the case was pending because it might have prevented Casey from getting a fair trial, but now that she’s been acquitted, everything should be released. And if the photographs can’t be released lawfully because of what they show, a description of what they reveal is an acceptable substitute. Courts describe inappropriate photographs of children all the time without releasing the images….
And while the state opined that the child was killed so that Casey could go out partying, didn’t it seem a bit of, um, overkill that a mother would seal her child’s entire face shut with three levels of duct tape, then put her in a trunk, as a way of keeping the child quiet so she could have fun? If it was an accidental killing, wouldn’t it have been enough to put her in the back seat with one piece? The prosecutor said Casey intentionally killed Caylee so she could be free to go out partying, but on the day the child was last seen alive, Casey stayed home all night watching movies. Where was the party?
The style of Caylee’s death was more mob hit than parental homicide. And though the state claimed that Casey was the only one who could have killed the child, which is a compelling argument that often proves murder beyond a reasonable doubt in cases where there is no reasonable basis for believing that anyone else was involved, there were too many gaping holes in the timing of the state’s theory of what happened to sustain that idea in this case….
As Casey’s brother Lee testified at trial, Casey was told that Caylee was taken from Casey to “teach her a lesson”. If, as I wrote in an earlier column, Casey knew the people who had Caylee, and stayed quiet in the hope they would give her child back, her failure to report Caylee missing makes sense.
All of this provides some explanation for the not guilty verdict, but it also leaves us with the new responsibility of demanding immediate and full disclosure of the case file. When a child is killed, her mom or dad can be expected to lead the fight for justice and demand that state officials tell the truth about what they know. But when a parent is involved, the rest of us have to step up. Millions of people have watched this case unfold from day one, riveted by the story of a little girl who was tossed away like trash and a mother who didn’t seem to care. If we paid attention because our concern is sincere, we will keep fighting for Caylee until the whole truth is known. If we watched, instead, out of some sadistic voyeurism or need to feel better as mothers and fathers by jabbing a judgmental finger of blame at a worse parent, there will never be justice for Caylee – or any child – and it will our fault. http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/front-page/2011/07/not-guilty-verdict-is-the-right-result-but-were-not-done-yet/#axzz1RrCRW6vd
Caylee Anthony – killed for child pornography? By James R. Marsh on July 11, 2011
Child advocate Wendy Murphy has a compelling blog entry about the Casey Anthony acquittal entitled “Not Guilty Verdict is the Right Result – But We’re Not Done Yet.”
Murphy argues that “Justice for Caylee is still possible, notwithstanding the acquittal, if people call for full disclosure of the entire investigative file – including an unsealing of the evidence thus far hidden from public view. Release of the photographs of Caylee that were seized from the Anthony home and placed “under seal” by the court would be a good place to start.”
Law enforcement may have discovered “sexualized” images of Caylee on the Anthony family computers which were placed under seal to avoid prejudicing the jury. Murphy believes that “The style of Caylee’s death was more mob hit than parental homicide.”…. http://www.childlaw.us/2011/07/caylee-anthony-killed-for-ch.html
NOT GUILTY VERDICT IS THE RIGHT RESULT – BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET
2011 July 8 by Wendy Murphy
People outside the courthouse in Orange County Florida, and across the country, are outraged by the acquittal of Casey Anthony in the murder of her toddler daughter, Caylee, and they have every reason to feel angry. But their energy is misplaced. Justice for Caylee is still possible, notwithstanding the acquittal, if people call for full disclosure of the entire investigative file – including an unsealing of the evidence thus far hidden from public view.
Release of the photographs of Caylee that were seized from the Anthony home and placed “under seal” by the court would be a good place to start. Many people are not even aware that a lot of evidence in the case is under seal, which itself is problematic. But the simple fact is, there’s far more to be said about what hasn’t been revealed in this case than what we’ve seen thus far.
In addition to the sealed photographs, there are search warrants under seal. Assuming the sealed photographs of Caylee involve sexual content, warrants would have been issued authorizing a search for child pornography in computers and elsewhere. The public may have had no right to see this evidence while the case was pending because it might have prevented Casey from getting a fair trial, but now that she’s been acquitted, everything should be released. And if the photographs can’t be released lawfully because of what they show, a description of what they reveal is an acceptable substitute. Courts describe inappropriate photographs of children all the time without releasing the images….
And while the state opined that the child was killed so that Casey could go out partying, didn’t it seem a bit of, um, overkill that a mother would seal her child’s entire face shut with three levels of duct tape, then put her in a trunk, as a way of keeping the child quiet so she could have fun? If it was an accidental killing, wouldn’t it have been enough to put her in the back seat with one piece? The prosecutor said Casey intentionally killed Caylee so she could be free to go out partying, but on the day the child was last seen alive, Casey stayed home all night watching movies. Where was the party?
The style of Caylee’s death was more mob hit than parental homicide. And though the state claimed that Casey was the only one who could have killed the child, which is a compelling argument that often proves murder beyond a reasonable doubt in cases where there is no reasonable basis for believing that anyone else was involved, there were too many gaping holes in the timing of the state’s theory of what happened to sustain that idea in this case….
As Casey’s brother Lee testified at trial, Casey was told that Caylee was taken from Casey to “teach her a lesson”. If, as I wrote in an earlier column, Casey knew the people who had Caylee, and stayed quiet in the hope they would give her child back, her failure to report Caylee missing makes sense.
All of this provides some explanation for the not guilty verdict, but it also leaves us with the new responsibility of demanding immediate and full disclosure of the case file. When a child is killed, her mom or dad can be expected to lead the fight for justice and demand that state officials tell the truth about what they know. But when a parent is involved, the rest of us have to step up. Millions of people have watched this case unfold from day one, riveted by the story of a little girl who was tossed away like trash and a mother who didn’t seem to care. If we paid attention because our concern is sincere, we will keep fighting for Caylee until the whole truth is known. If we watched, instead, out of some sadistic voyeurism or need to feel better as mothers and fathers by jabbing a judgmental finger of blame at a worse parent, there will never be justice for Caylee – or any child – and it will our fault. http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/front-page/2011/07/not-guilty-verdict-is-the-right-result-but-were-not-done-yet/#axzz1RrCRW6vd
Caylee Anthony – killed for child pornography? By James R. Marsh on July 11, 2011
Child advocate Wendy Murphy has a compelling blog entry about the Casey Anthony acquittal entitled “Not Guilty Verdict is the Right Result – But We’re Not Done Yet.”
Murphy argues that “Justice for Caylee is still possible, notwithstanding the acquittal, if people call for full disclosure of the entire investigative file – including an unsealing of the evidence thus far hidden from public view. Release of the photographs of Caylee that were seized from the Anthony home and placed “under seal” by the court would be a good place to start.”
Law enforcement may have discovered “sexualized” images of Caylee on the Anthony family computers which were placed under seal to avoid prejudicing the jury. Murphy believes that “The style of Caylee’s death was more mob hit than parental homicide.”…. http://www.childlaw.us/2011/07/caylee-anthony-killed-for-ch.html
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Casey Anthony trial – Child Abuse Connection, Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment
WENDY J. MURPHY: Casey Anthony trial an exercise in absurdity
By Wendy J. Murphy GateHouse News Service
Jun 27, 2011
Recently dubbed the “Trial of the Century”, the prosecution of Florida mom Casey Anthony for the murder of her toddler daughter, Caylee, could more aptly be called the Trial of the Absurd. The prosecution seems desperate to prove Anthony’s innocence while the defense can’t manage a single reference to the evidence that actually proves Casey did not kill her child.
Casey knows more than she’s saying about who and why Caylee is dead, which is why she was offered immunity early on. The prosecution squeezed her very hard – even putting the death penalty on the table – but Casey resisted and the prosecution all but conceded defeat last week when they rested their case after presenting a woefully small pile of evidence.
….The prosecution’s case raised more questions than it answered, and it failed address the following important issues:
….3. In May and June of 08, when Caylee was sleeping with Casey at a friend’s apartment, Casey got a phone call in the middle of the night, in response to which, she roused Caylee from sleep and delivered her to some unknown location. Then she returned to her friend’s apartment and went to sleep. Casey also delivered Caylee to unknown locations on other occasions when she claimed to be bringing Caylee to a “nanny.” Where did she bring her? Why?
4. Why is the docket sheet in the case under seal? It would show what motions were filed to “seal” certain evidence. It would also show that the case has been designated a sex crime prosecution – which is important given that a sex crimes detective was involved in the early stages of the investigation. Why?
5. Casey searched the internet to learn how to make chloroform; a substance commonly used to sedate children in the making of child porn. The public thinks Casey used chloroform to kill her child, but the drug is popular among parents who pimp their kids because it’s cheap and it causes amnesia so that victims can’t remember being abused.
Pimping kids is dangerous business and Casey apparently made someone very angry. Maybe she cut out an earlier “business” partner or ripped someone off. A “Zenaida Gonzales” reported her laptop stolen in early June.
The distortion of truth in this strange case will lead to Casey’s acquittal, which begs the real question: will the prosecution then have the guts, and the political will, to file new charges against Casey for what she REALLY did to that poor little girl. http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x898079778/WENDY-J-MURPHY-Casey-Anthony-trial-an-exercise-in-absurdity
WENDY MURPHY: Why Casey Anthony will be acquitted
GateHouse News Service
Jun 09, 2011
There has never been a more reviled criminal defendant than Casey Anthony, the Florida mom on trial for murdering her nearly 3-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008. Casey behaved like a raving psychopath after her child went missing. She went out partying, didn’t shed a tear, and got a tattoo that read “beautiful life.”
Her lawyer claims she acted weird because she was sexually abused as a child.
Maybe she was, which would help explain evidence uncovered during the murder investigation that showed Casey may have been working as a prostitute at the time Caylee was killed. Studies show that well over 90 percent of prostituted women were sexually abused as children. http://www.patriotledger.com/opinions/x1459481866/WENDY-MURPHY-Why-Casey-Anthony-will-be-acquitted
Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment by Janet Heimlich
High-profile cases such as the child sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church and “faith healing” deaths in certain fundamentalist Christian congregations have made the public aware that religion can sometimes mask deviant and harmful behavior. But the extent of the problem is far greater than most people realize. In this revealing, disturbing, and thoroughly researched book, award-winning journalist Janet Heimlich exposes a dark side of faith that most Americans do not know exists or have ignored for a long time—religious child maltreatment.
After speaking with dozens of victims, perpetrators, and experts, and reviewing a myriad of court cases and studies, Ms. Heimlich explains how religious child maltreatment happens. She then takes an in-depth look at the many forms of child maltreatment found in religious contexts, including biblically-prescribed corporal punishment and beliefs about the necessity of “breaking the wills” of children; scaring kids into faith and other types of emotional maltreatment such as spurning, isolating, and withholding love; pedophilic abuse by religious authorities and the failure of religious organizations to support the victims and punish the perpetrators; and religiously-motivated medical neglect in cases of serious health problems.
In a concluding chapter, Ms. Heimlich proposes changes in societal attitudes and improved legislation to protect children from harm and pushes for more people to recognize and acknowledge children rights.
http://religiouschildmaltreatment.com/breaking_their_will/
Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment by Janet Heimlich Prometheus Books 2011 ISBN: 978-1-61614-405-0
http://www.prometheusbooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=90_199&products_id=2047
By Wendy J. Murphy GateHouse News Service
Jun 27, 2011
Recently dubbed the “Trial of the Century”, the prosecution of Florida mom Casey Anthony for the murder of her toddler daughter, Caylee, could more aptly be called the Trial of the Absurd. The prosecution seems desperate to prove Anthony’s innocence while the defense can’t manage a single reference to the evidence that actually proves Casey did not kill her child.
Casey knows more than she’s saying about who and why Caylee is dead, which is why she was offered immunity early on. The prosecution squeezed her very hard – even putting the death penalty on the table – but Casey resisted and the prosecution all but conceded defeat last week when they rested their case after presenting a woefully small pile of evidence.
….The prosecution’s case raised more questions than it answered, and it failed address the following important issues:
….3. In May and June of 08, when Caylee was sleeping with Casey at a friend’s apartment, Casey got a phone call in the middle of the night, in response to which, she roused Caylee from sleep and delivered her to some unknown location. Then she returned to her friend’s apartment and went to sleep. Casey also delivered Caylee to unknown locations on other occasions when she claimed to be bringing Caylee to a “nanny.” Where did she bring her? Why?
4. Why is the docket sheet in the case under seal? It would show what motions were filed to “seal” certain evidence. It would also show that the case has been designated a sex crime prosecution – which is important given that a sex crimes detective was involved in the early stages of the investigation. Why?
5. Casey searched the internet to learn how to make chloroform; a substance commonly used to sedate children in the making of child porn. The public thinks Casey used chloroform to kill her child, but the drug is popular among parents who pimp their kids because it’s cheap and it causes amnesia so that victims can’t remember being abused.
Pimping kids is dangerous business and Casey apparently made someone very angry. Maybe she cut out an earlier “business” partner or ripped someone off. A “Zenaida Gonzales” reported her laptop stolen in early June.
The distortion of truth in this strange case will lead to Casey’s acquittal, which begs the real question: will the prosecution then have the guts, and the political will, to file new charges against Casey for what she REALLY did to that poor little girl. http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x898079778/WENDY-J-MURPHY-Casey-Anthony-trial-an-exercise-in-absurdity
WENDY MURPHY: Why Casey Anthony will be acquitted
GateHouse News Service
Jun 09, 2011
There has never been a more reviled criminal defendant than Casey Anthony, the Florida mom on trial for murdering her nearly 3-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008. Casey behaved like a raving psychopath after her child went missing. She went out partying, didn’t shed a tear, and got a tattoo that read “beautiful life.”
Her lawyer claims she acted weird because she was sexually abused as a child.
Maybe she was, which would help explain evidence uncovered during the murder investigation that showed Casey may have been working as a prostitute at the time Caylee was killed. Studies show that well over 90 percent of prostituted women were sexually abused as children. http://www.patriotledger.com/opinions/x1459481866/WENDY-MURPHY-Why-Casey-Anthony-will-be-acquitted
Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment by Janet Heimlich
High-profile cases such as the child sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church and “faith healing” deaths in certain fundamentalist Christian congregations have made the public aware that religion can sometimes mask deviant and harmful behavior. But the extent of the problem is far greater than most people realize. In this revealing, disturbing, and thoroughly researched book, award-winning journalist Janet Heimlich exposes a dark side of faith that most Americans do not know exists or have ignored for a long time—religious child maltreatment.
After speaking with dozens of victims, perpetrators, and experts, and reviewing a myriad of court cases and studies, Ms. Heimlich explains how religious child maltreatment happens. She then takes an in-depth look at the many forms of child maltreatment found in religious contexts, including biblically-prescribed corporal punishment and beliefs about the necessity of “breaking the wills” of children; scaring kids into faith and other types of emotional maltreatment such as spurning, isolating, and withholding love; pedophilic abuse by religious authorities and the failure of religious organizations to support the victims and punish the perpetrators; and religiously-motivated medical neglect in cases of serious health problems.
In a concluding chapter, Ms. Heimlich proposes changes in societal attitudes and improved legislation to protect children from harm and pushes for more people to recognize and acknowledge children rights.
http://religiouschildmaltreatment.com/breaking_their_will/
Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment by Janet Heimlich Prometheus Books 2011 ISBN: 978-1-61614-405-0
http://www.prometheusbooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=90_199&products_id=2047
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Casey Anthony case sealed evidence, Child p_rn victims get younger, violence
"Seemingly normal people....are charged with possessing and making child porn, a $3-billion-a-year industry that the federal government has labeled the new silent child abuse.....Currently, there are an estimated 100,000 known child porn websites"
WHEN WILL WE SEE THE “SEALED” EVIDENCE?
2011 July 16 by Wendy Murphy
First, I’m excited to let you all know that I have a book coming out very soon. Technology allows for the publication of books far faster than ever before, but it still takes a bit of time to get things organized. Stay tuned here for more information on the likely release date. My hope is that it will be out before the end of August....
Assuming the backstory includes “sealed” evidence of postitution and/or child pornography, which I believe is the case, there are two key reasons this information would have been excluded from trial. One is that the court “sealed” the information because it was never directly connected to Caylee’s murder. If highly prejudicial information is not strongly related to proof of the crime, which is to say, the witnesses have not explained why the evidence helps to prove or disprove guilt, the court would be compelled to exclude the information as unduly prejudicial without sufficient probative force.
The second reason is that the feds are involved in investigating the porn issues and they want to be able to proceed on these charges against Casey, and perhaps others, in federal court. If the evidence had been allowed in during the murder trial, Casey’s acquittal would have precluded retrial on the porn charges under double jeopardy principles....
Under the Supreme Court’s “same facts” Blockburger test, if the state offered any evidence of Casey Anthony’s involvement with prostitution or child pornography, those facts could not be used against her again, in a pornography prosecution, by state or federal officials....
But now that that she’s been acquitted, the truth should be told about what was sealed during trial, and what’s going on with the feds....
http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/front-page/#axzz1QbbpsUzU
Feds: Child pornography victims get younger, violence increases
Jan. 31, 2011
DETROIT — Child pornography isn't just more pervasive, it's getting even uglier.
Federal prosecutors here say they have witnessed the disturbing trend with the kids getting younger — toddlers and infants as young as 6 months old — turning up in photos and videos.
And the assaults are getting worse. It's not just still images of children in the nude, they say.
"There's a misconception in the public arena that these are mainly still images of children without clothes on. Well, the truth is that the majority of the pictures that are traded among these guys almost inevitably involve a child being either raped, or being forced to perform some type of sexual act on an adult or child," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Mulcahy, chief of the general crimes unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.
Child porn lovers live in your neighborhood
They aren't just creepy loners.
Seemingly normal people — doctors, coaches, authors, engineers, teens — are charged with possessing and making child porn, a $3-billion-a-year industry that the federal government has labeled the new silent child abuse....
Currently, there are an estimated 100,000 known child porn websites, according to Brigham Young University Women's Services. Child porn accounts for one-quarter of the $12-billion U.S. porn industry....
The Justice Department report says complaints of online enticement of children have more than tripled from 2004 to 2008, and complaints of child prostitution rose tenfold. Since 2006, more than 8,600 people have been prosecuted at the federal level on child porn charges....
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/CN/20110131/NJNEWS18/110131042/Feds-Child-pornography-victims-get-younger-violence-increases
WHEN WILL WE SEE THE “SEALED” EVIDENCE?
2011 July 16 by Wendy Murphy
First, I’m excited to let you all know that I have a book coming out very soon. Technology allows for the publication of books far faster than ever before, but it still takes a bit of time to get things organized. Stay tuned here for more information on the likely release date. My hope is that it will be out before the end of August....
Assuming the backstory includes “sealed” evidence of postitution and/or child pornography, which I believe is the case, there are two key reasons this information would have been excluded from trial. One is that the court “sealed” the information because it was never directly connected to Caylee’s murder. If highly prejudicial information is not strongly related to proof of the crime, which is to say, the witnesses have not explained why the evidence helps to prove or disprove guilt, the court would be compelled to exclude the information as unduly prejudicial without sufficient probative force.
The second reason is that the feds are involved in investigating the porn issues and they want to be able to proceed on these charges against Casey, and perhaps others, in federal court. If the evidence had been allowed in during the murder trial, Casey’s acquittal would have precluded retrial on the porn charges under double jeopardy principles....
Under the Supreme Court’s “same facts” Blockburger test, if the state offered any evidence of Casey Anthony’s involvement with prostitution or child pornography, those facts could not be used against her again, in a pornography prosecution, by state or federal officials....
But now that that she’s been acquitted, the truth should be told about what was sealed during trial, and what’s going on with the feds....
http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/front-page/#axzz1QbbpsUzU
Feds: Child pornography victims get younger, violence increases
Jan. 31, 2011
DETROIT — Child pornography isn't just more pervasive, it's getting even uglier.
Federal prosecutors here say they have witnessed the disturbing trend with the kids getting younger — toddlers and infants as young as 6 months old — turning up in photos and videos.
And the assaults are getting worse. It's not just still images of children in the nude, they say.
"There's a misconception in the public arena that these are mainly still images of children without clothes on. Well, the truth is that the majority of the pictures that are traded among these guys almost inevitably involve a child being either raped, or being forced to perform some type of sexual act on an adult or child," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Mulcahy, chief of the general crimes unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.
Child porn lovers live in your neighborhood
They aren't just creepy loners.
Seemingly normal people — doctors, coaches, authors, engineers, teens — are charged with possessing and making child porn, a $3-billion-a-year industry that the federal government has labeled the new silent child abuse....
Currently, there are an estimated 100,000 known child porn websites, according to Brigham Young University Women's Services. Child porn accounts for one-quarter of the $12-billion U.S. porn industry....
The Justice Department report says complaints of online enticement of children have more than tripled from 2004 to 2008, and complaints of child prostitution rose tenfold. Since 2006, more than 8,600 people have been prosecuted at the federal level on child porn charges....
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/CN/20110131/NJNEWS18/110131042/Feds-Child-pornography-victims-get-younger-violence-increases
Friday, July 15, 2011
Casey Anthony Case Overshadows Widespread Abuse and Neglect of America's Kids
Casey Anthony Case Overshadows Widespread Abuse and Neglect of America's Kids By Kristi Murphy July 15, 2011
The Casey Anthony trial and the terrible story of the death and dismemberment of 8-year-old Leiby Kletsky in Brooklyn this week has captivated our nation like so many high profile cases in the past. While many might believe that cases like this will bring attention to the issue of protecting our children, at the end of the day these individual stories only highlight the tip of the iceberg. The reality is that 150 children, most under the age of four, die every month from abuse or neglect. While high profile cases do bring awareness, they take our focus off the real issue of suffering children and instead keep us embroiled in speculation and legalities.
Despite intense public and media scrutiny of cases such as Susan Smith in 1994, JonBenet Ramsey in 1996, Andrea Yates in 2001 and Baby Gabriel in 2009, the number of child deaths from abuse keeps rising and these abused children become tabloid fodder. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), more than 3.3 million reports of child abuse are made every year, or about one every 10 seconds. The 2009 Child Maltreatment report from HHS estimates that 1,770 child abuse deaths occurred in 2009, averaging to five per day and this number is on the rise. Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education. Child abuse is an epidemic and brutal deaths happen every day in neighborhoods just like those in which we all live....
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/07/15/casey-anthony-case-overshadows-widespread-abuse-and-neglect-americas-kids/
The Casey Anthony trial and the terrible story of the death and dismemberment of 8-year-old Leiby Kletsky in Brooklyn this week has captivated our nation like so many high profile cases in the past. While many might believe that cases like this will bring attention to the issue of protecting our children, at the end of the day these individual stories only highlight the tip of the iceberg. The reality is that 150 children, most under the age of four, die every month from abuse or neglect. While high profile cases do bring awareness, they take our focus off the real issue of suffering children and instead keep us embroiled in speculation and legalities.
Despite intense public and media scrutiny of cases such as Susan Smith in 1994, JonBenet Ramsey in 1996, Andrea Yates in 2001 and Baby Gabriel in 2009, the number of child deaths from abuse keeps rising and these abused children become tabloid fodder. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), more than 3.3 million reports of child abuse are made every year, or about one every 10 seconds. The 2009 Child Maltreatment report from HHS estimates that 1,770 child abuse deaths occurred in 2009, averaging to five per day and this number is on the rise. Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education. Child abuse is an epidemic and brutal deaths happen every day in neighborhoods just like those in which we all live....
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/07/15/casey-anthony-case-overshadows-widespread-abuse-and-neglect-americas-kids/
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Casey Anthony Sexual Abuse Allegations, Irish Report of Abuse in Catholic Church
articles:
Damaging Letters Released in Casey Anthony Case
Irish Report Finds Abuse Persisting in Catholic Church
Commission of Investigation - Report into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne - Cloyne Report
Damaging Letters Released in Casey Anthony Case
Apr 7, 2010 Michelle Ruiz
(April 7) -- Newly released letters exchanged between Casey Anthony and a jailhouse companion could provide valuable new evidence for prosecutors in their case against the woman accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008.
Florida prosecutors on Tuesday released more than 250 pages of handwritten correspondence between Anthony and fellow inmate Robyn Adams, in which Anthony writes that the baby sitter she said abducted Caylee, Zenaida Gonzalez, did not exist. They also reveal details about Caylee's remains that investigators say only the killer would know....
"The letters released today reflect the natural desire for companionship when isolated for 23 hours a day," the statement said. "Casey Anthony maintains her innocence and looks forward to her day in court."
Writing in schoolgirl-style penmanship, Anthony also levels sexual abuse allegations against her brother, Lee, saying he fondled her in her bedroom between the ages of 12 and 15. Anthony wrote that her mother, Cindy, dismissed her when she approached her about the alleged abuse.
"I was to blame for my own brother coming into my room at night and feeling my breasts while I slept," Anthony wrote. "When I told my mom about it two years ago, she made excuses, saying that he was sleepwalking."
Anthony also told Adams she "thinks" her father, George, may have touched her inappropriately when she was a child, writing: "I think my dad used to do the same thing to me, but when I was much younger."
George and Cindy Anthony denied any abuse occurred in their family. Their attorney, Brad Conway, said in a statement that there was never "a time when Casey told them of inappropriate conduct by her brother or father," according to Orlando's WESH-TV.
Investigators said Anthony and Adams exchanged their letters through books in the prison library, agreeing to flush them after reading. But Adams mailed Anthony's letters to a friend, Tracey Nealley. http://www.aolnews.com/2010/04/07/damaging-jailhouse-letters-released-in-casey-anthony-case/
Irish Report Finds Abuse Persisting in Catholic Church
By DOUGLAS DALBY and RACHEL DONADIO July 13, 2011
DUBLIN — The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland was covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests as recently as 2009, long after it issued guidelines meant to protect children, and the Vatican tacitly encouraged the cover-up by ignoring the guidelines, according to a scathing report issued Wednesday by the Irish government....
In Germany on Wednesday, the country’s Roman Catholic bishops took new steps to bring previously unreported abuse to light. The German bishops said they would allow outside investigators to look for abuse cases in diocesan personnel records dating back at least 10 years, and in some cases all the way to 1945, though there were indications that some crucial records may have already been destroyed.
In both Germany and Ireland, the abuse scandal has touched the highest echelons of the church. The new developments showed the tensions between civil and ecclesiastical justice in a crisis that has shaken the church’s moral authority worldwide. The Irish report in particular revealed a complex tug of war between the Irish church and the Vatican over how to handle abuse, with a fine line between confusion and obstruction.
The Cloyne Report, as it is known, drafted by an independent investigative committee headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, found that the clergy in the Diocese of Cloyne, a rural area of County Cork, did not act on complaints against 19 priests from 1996 to 2009. The report also found that two allegations against one priest were reported to the police, but that there was no evidence of any subsequent inquiry.
John Magee, the bishop of Cloyne since 1987, who had previously served as private secretary to three popes, resigned last year. In a statement on Wednesday, Bishop Magee offered a “sincere apology,” but he did not accept direct responsibility for covering up the abuse.
“While I was fully supportive of the procedures, I now realize that I should have taken a much firmer role in ensuring their implementation,” Bishop Magee said. “I accept in its entirety the commission’s view that the primary responsibility for the failure to fully implement the church procedures in the diocese lay with me.”
The Cloyne Report is the Irish government’s fourth in recent years on aspects of the scandal. It shows that abuses were still occurring and being covered up 13 years after the church in Ireland issued child protection guidelines in 1996, and that civil officials were failing to investigate allegations. The report warned that other dioceses might have similar failings....
Cardinal Brady issued an apology on Wednesday and called for more openness and cooperation with civil authorities. He has been fighting calls for his resignation since last year, when he acknowledged helping to conceal the crimes of one serial-rapist priest from Irish authorities in the mid-1970s. ...
After a 2009 report found that thousands of children were abused in state-run Catholic boarding schools from the 1930s to the 1990s, the Irish government paid hundreds of millions of euros in compensation to the victims.
One in Four, an organization of Irish abuse victims, said that the new report “documents a familiar saga of priests sexually abusing children with impunity, protected by senior churchmen conspiring to cover up the abuse with an astounding indifference to the safety of children.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/world/europe/14church.html
The Cloyne Report
Published: July 13, 2011
Report by Commission of Investigation into the handling by Church and State authorities of allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse against clerics of the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/07/14/world/europe/14church-report.html
Commission of Investigation - Report into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne
December 2010 http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/216118/cloyne-report.pdf
Damaging Letters Released in Casey Anthony Case
Irish Report Finds Abuse Persisting in Catholic Church
Commission of Investigation - Report into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne - Cloyne Report
Damaging Letters Released in Casey Anthony Case
Apr 7, 2010 Michelle Ruiz
(April 7) -- Newly released letters exchanged between Casey Anthony and a jailhouse companion could provide valuable new evidence for prosecutors in their case against the woman accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008.
Florida prosecutors on Tuesday released more than 250 pages of handwritten correspondence between Anthony and fellow inmate Robyn Adams, in which Anthony writes that the baby sitter she said abducted Caylee, Zenaida Gonzalez, did not exist. They also reveal details about Caylee's remains that investigators say only the killer would know....
"The letters released today reflect the natural desire for companionship when isolated for 23 hours a day," the statement said. "Casey Anthony maintains her innocence and looks forward to her day in court."
Writing in schoolgirl-style penmanship, Anthony also levels sexual abuse allegations against her brother, Lee, saying he fondled her in her bedroom between the ages of 12 and 15. Anthony wrote that her mother, Cindy, dismissed her when she approached her about the alleged abuse.
"I was to blame for my own brother coming into my room at night and feeling my breasts while I slept," Anthony wrote. "When I told my mom about it two years ago, she made excuses, saying that he was sleepwalking."
Anthony also told Adams she "thinks" her father, George, may have touched her inappropriately when she was a child, writing: "I think my dad used to do the same thing to me, but when I was much younger."
George and Cindy Anthony denied any abuse occurred in their family. Their attorney, Brad Conway, said in a statement that there was never "a time when Casey told them of inappropriate conduct by her brother or father," according to Orlando's WESH-TV.
Investigators said Anthony and Adams exchanged their letters through books in the prison library, agreeing to flush them after reading. But Adams mailed Anthony's letters to a friend, Tracey Nealley. http://www.aolnews.com/2010/04/07/damaging-jailhouse-letters-released-in-casey-anthony-case/
Irish Report Finds Abuse Persisting in Catholic Church
By DOUGLAS DALBY and RACHEL DONADIO July 13, 2011
DUBLIN — The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland was covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests as recently as 2009, long after it issued guidelines meant to protect children, and the Vatican tacitly encouraged the cover-up by ignoring the guidelines, according to a scathing report issued Wednesday by the Irish government....
In Germany on Wednesday, the country’s Roman Catholic bishops took new steps to bring previously unreported abuse to light. The German bishops said they would allow outside investigators to look for abuse cases in diocesan personnel records dating back at least 10 years, and in some cases all the way to 1945, though there were indications that some crucial records may have already been destroyed.
In both Germany and Ireland, the abuse scandal has touched the highest echelons of the church. The new developments showed the tensions between civil and ecclesiastical justice in a crisis that has shaken the church’s moral authority worldwide. The Irish report in particular revealed a complex tug of war between the Irish church and the Vatican over how to handle abuse, with a fine line between confusion and obstruction.
The Cloyne Report, as it is known, drafted by an independent investigative committee headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, found that the clergy in the Diocese of Cloyne, a rural area of County Cork, did not act on complaints against 19 priests from 1996 to 2009. The report also found that two allegations against one priest were reported to the police, but that there was no evidence of any subsequent inquiry.
John Magee, the bishop of Cloyne since 1987, who had previously served as private secretary to three popes, resigned last year. In a statement on Wednesday, Bishop Magee offered a “sincere apology,” but he did not accept direct responsibility for covering up the abuse.
“While I was fully supportive of the procedures, I now realize that I should have taken a much firmer role in ensuring their implementation,” Bishop Magee said. “I accept in its entirety the commission’s view that the primary responsibility for the failure to fully implement the church procedures in the diocese lay with me.”
The Cloyne Report is the Irish government’s fourth in recent years on aspects of the scandal. It shows that abuses were still occurring and being covered up 13 years after the church in Ireland issued child protection guidelines in 1996, and that civil officials were failing to investigate allegations. The report warned that other dioceses might have similar failings....
Cardinal Brady issued an apology on Wednesday and called for more openness and cooperation with civil authorities. He has been fighting calls for his resignation since last year, when he acknowledged helping to conceal the crimes of one serial-rapist priest from Irish authorities in the mid-1970s. ...
After a 2009 report found that thousands of children were abused in state-run Catholic boarding schools from the 1930s to the 1990s, the Irish government paid hundreds of millions of euros in compensation to the victims.
One in Four, an organization of Irish abuse victims, said that the new report “documents a familiar saga of priests sexually abusing children with impunity, protected by senior churchmen conspiring to cover up the abuse with an astounding indifference to the safety of children.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/world/europe/14church.html
The Cloyne Report
Published: July 13, 2011
Report by Commission of Investigation into the handling by Church and State authorities of allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse against clerics of the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/07/14/world/europe/14church-report.html
Commission of Investigation - Report into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne
December 2010 http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/216118/cloyne-report.pdf
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Caylee Anthony ripple hits state, Witness Tampering Casey Anthony Trial Alleged
Caylee Anthony ripple hits state By Jason Cato, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Wednesday, July 13, 2011
A wave of legislation in response to the Casey Anthony verdict soon could touch Pennsylvania; a Philadelphia lawmaker said he intends to strengthen state laws to better protect children.
"I was motivated by the protection of children," said Sen. Larry Farnese, a Democrat. "Nothing is more important to me as a legislator."
Legal and child-abuse prevention experts question whether such laws would help because, they said, cases such as Anthony's are rare. Anthony, 25, is scheduled for release from jail on Sunday. A Florida jury last week cleared her of charges she killed her toddler daughter, Caylee....
Farnese said he envisions "Caylee's Law," which would change concealing the death of a child from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony with a maximum penalty of seven years incarceration and a $15,000 fine. Farnese plans to introduce another bill that would make neglecting to report a missing child to authorities a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine....
Lawmakers in at least 17 other states, including West Virginia and Ohio, are considering similar bills. A petition on Change.org urging such laws drew nearly 1.2 million signatures by Tuesday. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_746454.html
Witness Tampering At Casey Anthony Trial Alleged By Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings 7/13/11 ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Authorities were looking into allegations of witness tampering during Casey Anthony's murder trial, a Florida sheriff said Tuesday during a wide-ranging news conference with his top investigators in what he said was an effort to bring closure to a case that polarized the country.
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings also revealed that prosecutors were considering perjury charges against Anthony's mother, but a spokeswoman for the state attorney's office later said they would not be pursued....
Anthony's defense said Caylee accidentally drowned in the family pool and her father, a former police officer, helped cover it up. Anthony's partying and shopping during the month before her daughter was reported missing was caused in part by her father's sexual abuse, her attorneys said.
George Anthony denied the claims in court, and investigators said Tuesday they were rebuffed by the defense team when they tried to interview her about the allegations....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/13/witness-tampering-casey-anthony_n_896806.html?icid=maing-grid7|maing10|dl1|sec1_lnk3|77564
A wave of legislation in response to the Casey Anthony verdict soon could touch Pennsylvania; a Philadelphia lawmaker said he intends to strengthen state laws to better protect children.
"I was motivated by the protection of children," said Sen. Larry Farnese, a Democrat. "Nothing is more important to me as a legislator."
Legal and child-abuse prevention experts question whether such laws would help because, they said, cases such as Anthony's are rare. Anthony, 25, is scheduled for release from jail on Sunday. A Florida jury last week cleared her of charges she killed her toddler daughter, Caylee....
Farnese said he envisions "Caylee's Law," which would change concealing the death of a child from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony with a maximum penalty of seven years incarceration and a $15,000 fine. Farnese plans to introduce another bill that would make neglecting to report a missing child to authorities a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine....
Lawmakers in at least 17 other states, including West Virginia and Ohio, are considering similar bills. A petition on Change.org urging such laws drew nearly 1.2 million signatures by Tuesday. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_746454.html
Witness Tampering At Casey Anthony Trial Alleged By Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings 7/13/11 ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Authorities were looking into allegations of witness tampering during Casey Anthony's murder trial, a Florida sheriff said Tuesday during a wide-ranging news conference with his top investigators in what he said was an effort to bring closure to a case that polarized the country.
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings also revealed that prosecutors were considering perjury charges against Anthony's mother, but a spokeswoman for the state attorney's office later said they would not be pursued....
Anthony's defense said Caylee accidentally drowned in the family pool and her father, a former police officer, helped cover it up. Anthony's partying and shopping during the month before her daughter was reported missing was caused in part by her father's sexual abuse, her attorneys said.
George Anthony denied the claims in court, and investigators said Tuesday they were rebuffed by the defense team when they tried to interview her about the allegations....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/13/witness-tampering-casey-anthony_n_896806.html?icid=maing-grid7|maing10|dl1|sec1_lnk3|77564
Survivorship Ritual Abuse Webinars
Upcoming Webinar:
Date: Saturday, July 30, 2011
Time: noon Pacific Time
Presenter: Brianna Pruett
Topic: From Self-Preservation to Self-Celebration - Self Care for Ritual Abuse Survivors.
Brianna Pruett, a survivor of ritual abuse and government-sponsored mind control projects, is a 28-year-old psychology student and musician. She has worked with Randy Noblitt in educating students at Alliant University and maintains a commitment to speaking the truth and empowering other survivors as well as herself. Her website is www.briannaleapruett.com.
The webinar focus will be on basic self-care information -- such as nutrition, hygiene, and body care -- with special tips and thoughts for survivors of ritual abuse, as well as on regaining/reclaiming self-care skills we may have discarded along with the abusive situations.
REGISTRATION
Registration closes Thursday evening July 28, 2011
To reserve a space in the webinar, e-mail Shamai at shamai@survivorship.org and give her this information:
1.Your name
2. The webinar you wish to attend: From Self-Preservation to Self-Celebration - Self Care for Ritual Abuse Survivors.
3. Amount and method of payment (check, PayPal, money order)
4. Your preferred e-mail address (so we can send you instructions)
5. The name you will be using for the webinar. (This does not have to be your real name or your message board screen name.)
You will receive a confirmation email immediately and a guide and instructions after the registration closes
COST
Webinars are on a sliding scale from $50.00 to full scholarship (Please remember to factor in the cost of the telephone call.)
The PayPal button is near the bottom of the page at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html
If you wish to pay by check please send it to: Survivorship, Family Justice Center, 470 27th Street, Oakland, CA 94612.
FUTURE WEBINARS
Saturday, August 27th
noon Pacific Time
Journaling: Going Beyond the Book!
Presenter: Flower
Do you have a narrow view of journaling? Are you under the impression that there is only "one right way" to do it? Does the thought of journaling bore you to tears? Is it something you feel you need to do, but you have no idea where or how to start? Come to this Webinar and get some ideas for journaling that go beyond the traditional "book" idea. Abigail, aka Flower, has done different types of journaling over the years and she would love to share with you some of the different things she has tried. Who knows? Perhaps you will find something that appeals to you!
Flower grew up in a generational SRA cult family, but was unaware of that until much later in life. She is a long time member of Survivorship and has done one other Webinar: How a Non-Artist Uses Art for Healing. She has a strong faith in her Creator and has known Yeshua/Jesus since she was a small child...which is reflected in her healing journey and many of her writings. One of her hobbies is taking photos and combining them with encouraging words. Her love of writing is reflected in poetry, private journaling, and several blogs. One blog focuses specifically on her thoughts as a survivor and in another, she shares a lot of the artwork she has done as part of her healing journey (including the pieces she shared in her Webinar). In a third one, she is starting to put up her poetry. She also juggles being a wife and home educating mom.
Saturday, September 17
noon Pacific Time
Memory & Survivors
Presenter: Alikina
Most survivors have questions about their memory processes at some time: 'is it true, did it happen?' or 'why can't I remember?', or even 'why do I keep having intrusive memories?'. As we heal, we also become aware of times when our memories seem different than how we've been lead to believe 'normal' memory works. We feel like we forget too much, or we have nearly perfect memories. Often questions about memories of abuse are addressed in therapy, groups, books, etc; but questions about the everyday workings of memory, and how abuse may be affecting our brain function, stay unanswered. This webinar will primarily focus on what current psychological science knows about basic memory processes, as well as issues unique to the survivor community, learning styles and how they affect memory, tricks to assist remembering, and plenty of Q & A time.
Alikina is a survivor of severe abuse and a current grad-school student halfway through her Master's Degree in Mental Health Counseling. She has presented articles and webinars for Survivorship in the past. She has worked with abuse survivors through community support organizations and been in therapy as both the client and the therapist, and plans to work with abuse and trauma survivors as her career path.
PAST WEBINARS
Survivorship members may listen to past webinars in the members' section.
For information on joining Survivorship, go to http://www.survivorship.org/about/membership.html
Complete details on all our webinars are at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html
Date: Saturday, July 30, 2011
Time: noon Pacific Time
Presenter: Brianna Pruett
Topic: From Self-Preservation to Self-Celebration - Self Care for Ritual Abuse Survivors.
Brianna Pruett, a survivor of ritual abuse and government-sponsored mind control projects, is a 28-year-old psychology student and musician. She has worked with Randy Noblitt in educating students at Alliant University and maintains a commitment to speaking the truth and empowering other survivors as well as herself. Her website is www.briannaleapruett.com.
The webinar focus will be on basic self-care information -- such as nutrition, hygiene, and body care -- with special tips and thoughts for survivors of ritual abuse, as well as on regaining/reclaiming self-care skills we may have discarded along with the abusive situations.
REGISTRATION
Registration closes Thursday evening July 28, 2011
To reserve a space in the webinar, e-mail Shamai at shamai@survivorship.org and give her this information:
1.Your name
2. The webinar you wish to attend: From Self-Preservation to Self-Celebration - Self Care for Ritual Abuse Survivors.
3. Amount and method of payment (check, PayPal, money order)
4. Your preferred e-mail address (so we can send you instructions)
5. The name you will be using for the webinar. (This does not have to be your real name or your message board screen name.)
You will receive a confirmation email immediately and a guide and instructions after the registration closes
COST
Webinars are on a sliding scale from $50.00 to full scholarship (Please remember to factor in the cost of the telephone call.)
The PayPal button is near the bottom of the page at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html
If you wish to pay by check please send it to: Survivorship, Family Justice Center, 470 27th Street, Oakland, CA 94612.
FUTURE WEBINARS
Saturday, August 27th
noon Pacific Time
Journaling: Going Beyond the Book!
Presenter: Flower
Do you have a narrow view of journaling? Are you under the impression that there is only "one right way" to do it? Does the thought of journaling bore you to tears? Is it something you feel you need to do, but you have no idea where or how to start? Come to this Webinar and get some ideas for journaling that go beyond the traditional "book" idea. Abigail, aka Flower, has done different types of journaling over the years and she would love to share with you some of the different things she has tried. Who knows? Perhaps you will find something that appeals to you!
Flower grew up in a generational SRA cult family, but was unaware of that until much later in life. She is a long time member of Survivorship and has done one other Webinar: How a Non-Artist Uses Art for Healing. She has a strong faith in her Creator and has known Yeshua/Jesus since she was a small child...which is reflected in her healing journey and many of her writings. One of her hobbies is taking photos and combining them with encouraging words. Her love of writing is reflected in poetry, private journaling, and several blogs. One blog focuses specifically on her thoughts as a survivor and in another, she shares a lot of the artwork she has done as part of her healing journey (including the pieces she shared in her Webinar). In a third one, she is starting to put up her poetry. She also juggles being a wife and home educating mom.
Saturday, September 17
noon Pacific Time
Memory & Survivors
Presenter: Alikina
Most survivors have questions about their memory processes at some time: 'is it true, did it happen?' or 'why can't I remember?', or even 'why do I keep having intrusive memories?'. As we heal, we also become aware of times when our memories seem different than how we've been lead to believe 'normal' memory works. We feel like we forget too much, or we have nearly perfect memories. Often questions about memories of abuse are addressed in therapy, groups, books, etc; but questions about the everyday workings of memory, and how abuse may be affecting our brain function, stay unanswered. This webinar will primarily focus on what current psychological science knows about basic memory processes, as well as issues unique to the survivor community, learning styles and how they affect memory, tricks to assist remembering, and plenty of Q & A time.
Alikina is a survivor of severe abuse and a current grad-school student halfway through her Master's Degree in Mental Health Counseling. She has presented articles and webinars for Survivorship in the past. She has worked with abuse survivors through community support organizations and been in therapy as both the client and the therapist, and plans to work with abuse and trauma survivors as her career path.
PAST WEBINARS
Survivorship members may listen to past webinars in the members' section.
For information on joining Survivorship, go to http://www.survivorship.org/about/membership.html
Complete details on all our webinars are at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
People upset with Casey Anthony trial can fight child abuse, unreported abuse
also:
Christian Choate Abuse: More Than A Dozen Knew About Beatings
People upset with Casey Anthony trial can help fight child abuse by Mary Avila 07.08.2011
Across the country many are furious with the Casey Anthony verdict and believe justice wasn't served for her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. "People who are angry and upset need to pick up the phone and call casa or call the children's advocacy centers," said Alicia Gracia the Executive Director at CASA. "And say how can I help these children now." CASA is a group of special advocates who volunteer their time to children in cases of abuse or neglect....
Just this year Gracia said they've seen over 5000 confirmed cases of child abuse. "Its horrifying to hear an 8 year old little boy who is being raped by mother's boyfriend to find his mother walked in on them only to say don't be changing rooms if you all are going to be doing that," said Gracia. "Can you imagine what he felt to look into her eyes and hear her say that." At Casa they see at least 100 victims of abuse or neglect come through their doors monthly.
http://goo.gl/9HwJS
http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=638348
describes crimes
Christian Choate Abuse: More Than A Dozen Knew About Beatings 7/11/11 The tragic story of Christian Choate, the Gary, Indiana boy who was allegedly locked in a cage, beaten and ultimately killed by his father and stepmother, was apparently known to several family members, neighbors and others.
But almost all of the at least 13 people who knew about Choate's abuse didn't report it to authorities, out of either apathy, uncertainty, or fear of retribution, according to a new report in the Northwest Indiana Times.
Riley Choate, Christian's father, and Kimberly Kubina, his stepmother, are charged with murder and several other felonies after the boy's body was discovered in a shallow concrete grave earlier this year. According to authorities, the two kept Christian locked in a dog cage, fed him infrequently, and beat him regularly for the last year of his life. One such beating apparently took his life on April 4, 2009. http://goo.gl/s0Tc4
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/christian-choate-abuse-mo_n_894820.html
Who knew Christian Choate was being abused? By Lindsay Machak and Marisa Kwiatkowski Times Staff Writers Sunday, July 10, 2011
More than 13 people may have known of alleged abuse endured by Christian Choate before his 2009 death, but most said nothing to authorities, a Times review of Indiana Department of Child Services records shows. Only one adult claims to have brought her concerns to law enforcement. The rest appear to have kept silent -- some claiming fear, others because they allegedly were the ones hurting the boy.
http://goo.gl/YS2vH
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/crown-point/article_6c37d91b-093a-5596-9455-f348882c4b58.html
Christian Choate Abuse: More Than A Dozen Knew About Beatings
People upset with Casey Anthony trial can help fight child abuse by Mary Avila 07.08.2011
Across the country many are furious with the Casey Anthony verdict and believe justice wasn't served for her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. "People who are angry and upset need to pick up the phone and call casa or call the children's advocacy centers," said Alicia Gracia the Executive Director at CASA. "And say how can I help these children now." CASA is a group of special advocates who volunteer their time to children in cases of abuse or neglect....
Just this year Gracia said they've seen over 5000 confirmed cases of child abuse. "Its horrifying to hear an 8 year old little boy who is being raped by mother's boyfriend to find his mother walked in on them only to say don't be changing rooms if you all are going to be doing that," said Gracia. "Can you imagine what he felt to look into her eyes and hear her say that." At Casa they see at least 100 victims of abuse or neglect come through their doors monthly.
http://goo.gl/9HwJS
http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=638348
describes crimes
Christian Choate Abuse: More Than A Dozen Knew About Beatings 7/11/11 The tragic story of Christian Choate, the Gary, Indiana boy who was allegedly locked in a cage, beaten and ultimately killed by his father and stepmother, was apparently known to several family members, neighbors and others.
But almost all of the at least 13 people who knew about Choate's abuse didn't report it to authorities, out of either apathy, uncertainty, or fear of retribution, according to a new report in the Northwest Indiana Times.
Riley Choate, Christian's father, and Kimberly Kubina, his stepmother, are charged with murder and several other felonies after the boy's body was discovered in a shallow concrete grave earlier this year. According to authorities, the two kept Christian locked in a dog cage, fed him infrequently, and beat him regularly for the last year of his life. One such beating apparently took his life on April 4, 2009. http://goo.gl/s0Tc4
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/christian-choate-abuse-mo_n_894820.html
Who knew Christian Choate was being abused? By Lindsay Machak and Marisa Kwiatkowski Times Staff Writers Sunday, July 10, 2011
More than 13 people may have known of alleged abuse endured by Christian Choate before his 2009 death, but most said nothing to authorities, a Times review of Indiana Department of Child Services records shows. Only one adult claims to have brought her concerns to law enforcement. The rest appear to have kept silent -- some claiming fear, others because they allegedly were the ones hurting the boy.
http://goo.gl/YS2vH
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/crown-point/article_6c37d91b-093a-5596-9455-f348882c4b58.html
Monday, July 11, 2011
Caylee Anthony - sealed photographs and warrants, Barnes Murder: Child P_rn Link
also:
Caylee Anthony - killed for child p_rnography?
Phylicia Barnes Murder: Child P_rn Link Under Investigation
How many children are reported missing each year?
- 797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time
describes crimes
NOT GUILTY VERDICT IS THE RIGHT RESULT – BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET
2011 July 8 by Wendy Murphy
People outside the courthouse in Orange County Florida, and across the country, are outraged by the acquittal of Casey Anthony in the murder of her toddler daughter, Caylee, and they have every reason to feel angry. But their energy is misplaced. Justice for Caylee is still possible, notwithstanding the acquittal, if people call for full disclosure of the entire investigative file – including an unsealing of the evidence thus far hidden from public view.
Release of the photographs of Caylee that were seized from the Anthony home and placed “under seal” by the court would be a good place to start. Many people are not even aware that a lot of evidence in the case is under seal, which itself is problematic. But the simple fact is, there’s far more to be said about what hasn’t been revealed in this case than what we’ve seen thus far.
In addition to the sealed photographs, there are search warrants under seal. Assuming the sealed photographs of Caylee involve sexual content, warrants would have been issued authorizing a search for child pornography in computers and elsewhere. The public may have had no right to see this evidence while the case was pending because it might have prevented Casey from getting a fair trial, but now that she’s been acquitted, everything should be released. And if the photographs can’t be released lawfully because of what they show, a description of what they reveal is an acceptable substitute. Courts describe inappropriate photographs of children all the time without releasing the images....
And while the state opined that the child was killed so that Casey could go out partying, didn’t it seem a bit of, um, overkill that a mother would seal her child’s entire face shut with three levels of duct tape, then put her in a trunk, as a way of keeping the child quiet so she could have fun? If it was an accidental killing, wouldn’t it have been enough to put her in the back seat with one piece? The prosecutor said Casey intentionally killed Caylee so she could be free to go out partying, but on the day the child was last seen alive, Casey stayed home all night watching movies. Where was the party?
The style of Caylee’s death was more mob hit than parental homicide. And though the state claimed that Casey was the only one who could have killed the child, which is a compelling argument that often proves murder beyond a reasonable doubt in cases where there is no reasonable basis for believing that anyone else was involved, there were too many gaping holes in the timing of the state’s theory of what happened to sustain that idea in this case....
As Casey’s brother Lee testified at trial, Casey was told that Caylee was taken from Casey to “teach her a lesson”. If, as I wrote in an earlier column, Casey knew the people who had Caylee, and stayed quiet in the hope they would give her child back, her failure to report Caylee missing makes sense.
All of this provides some explanation for the not guilty verdict, but it also leaves us with the new responsibility of demanding immediate and full disclosure of the case file. When a child is killed, her mom or dad can be expected to lead the fight for justice and demand that state officials tell the truth about what they know. But when a parent is involved, the rest of us have to step up. Millions of people have watched this case unfold from day one, riveted by the story of a little girl who was tossed away like trash and a mother who didn’t seem to care. If we paid attention because our concern is sincere, we will keep fighting for Caylee until the whole truth is known. If we watched, instead, out of some sadistic voyeurism or need to feel better as mothers and fathers by jabbing a judgmental finger of blame at a worse parent, there will never be justice for Caylee – or any child – and it will our fault.
http://goo.gl/MSqER
http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/front-page/2011/07/not-guilty-verdict-is-the-right-result-but-were-not-done-yet/#axzz1RrCRW6vd
Caylee Anthony - killed for child pornography? By James R. Marsh on July 11, 2011
Child advocate Wendy Murphy has a compelling blog entry about the Casey Anthony acquittal entitled "Not Guilty Verdict is the Right Result - But We're Not Done Yet."
Murphy argues that "Justice for Caylee is still possible, notwithstanding the acquittal, if people call for full disclosure of the entire investigative file - including an unsealing of the evidence thus far hidden from public view. Release of the photographs of Caylee that were seized from the Anthony home and placed “under seal” by the court would be a good place to start."
Law enforcement may have discovered "sexualized" images of Caylee on the Anthony family computers which were placed under seal to avoid prejudicing the jury. Murphy believes that "The style of Caylee’s death was more mob hit than parental homicide."....
http://goo.gl/Kmy73
http://www.childlaw.us/2011/07/caylee-anthony-killed-for-ch.html
Phylicia Barnes Murder: Child Porn Link Under Investigation
7/11/11 The Phylicia Barnes murder case is being investigated for a possible link to child pornography and sexual exploitation, ABC news reports. The FBI is pursing warrants in order to gain legal access to the email and Facebook accounts of Barnes and four men from Baltimore.
An article from the Charlotte Observer reported that investigators have "reason to believe" that the warrants will result in uncovering evidence of child sex crimes or pornography.
Although the autopsy ruled Barnes' death a homicide, authorities have not announced a cause of death in the hopes that they can question suspects about it in the future, Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley told ABC News.
http://goo.gl/EdeHo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/phylicia-barnes-murder-child-porn_n_894749.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk3|77185
Statistics - National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
How many children are reported missing each year?
The U.S. Department of Justice reports
797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)
[Andrea J. Sedlak, David Finkelhor, Heather Hammer, and Dana J. Schultz. U.S. Department of Justice. "National Estimates of Missing Children: An Overview" in National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, October 2002, page 5.]
http://goo.gl/4XHD0
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2810#1
Caylee Anthony - killed for child p_rnography?
Phylicia Barnes Murder: Child P_rn Link Under Investigation
How many children are reported missing each year?
- 797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time
describes crimes
NOT GUILTY VERDICT IS THE RIGHT RESULT – BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET
2011 July 8 by Wendy Murphy
People outside the courthouse in Orange County Florida, and across the country, are outraged by the acquittal of Casey Anthony in the murder of her toddler daughter, Caylee, and they have every reason to feel angry. But their energy is misplaced. Justice for Caylee is still possible, notwithstanding the acquittal, if people call for full disclosure of the entire investigative file – including an unsealing of the evidence thus far hidden from public view.
Release of the photographs of Caylee that were seized from the Anthony home and placed “under seal” by the court would be a good place to start. Many people are not even aware that a lot of evidence in the case is under seal, which itself is problematic. But the simple fact is, there’s far more to be said about what hasn’t been revealed in this case than what we’ve seen thus far.
In addition to the sealed photographs, there are search warrants under seal. Assuming the sealed photographs of Caylee involve sexual content, warrants would have been issued authorizing a search for child pornography in computers and elsewhere. The public may have had no right to see this evidence while the case was pending because it might have prevented Casey from getting a fair trial, but now that she’s been acquitted, everything should be released. And if the photographs can’t be released lawfully because of what they show, a description of what they reveal is an acceptable substitute. Courts describe inappropriate photographs of children all the time without releasing the images....
And while the state opined that the child was killed so that Casey could go out partying, didn’t it seem a bit of, um, overkill that a mother would seal her child’s entire face shut with three levels of duct tape, then put her in a trunk, as a way of keeping the child quiet so she could have fun? If it was an accidental killing, wouldn’t it have been enough to put her in the back seat with one piece? The prosecutor said Casey intentionally killed Caylee so she could be free to go out partying, but on the day the child was last seen alive, Casey stayed home all night watching movies. Where was the party?
The style of Caylee’s death was more mob hit than parental homicide. And though the state claimed that Casey was the only one who could have killed the child, which is a compelling argument that often proves murder beyond a reasonable doubt in cases where there is no reasonable basis for believing that anyone else was involved, there were too many gaping holes in the timing of the state’s theory of what happened to sustain that idea in this case....
As Casey’s brother Lee testified at trial, Casey was told that Caylee was taken from Casey to “teach her a lesson”. If, as I wrote in an earlier column, Casey knew the people who had Caylee, and stayed quiet in the hope they would give her child back, her failure to report Caylee missing makes sense.
All of this provides some explanation for the not guilty verdict, but it also leaves us with the new responsibility of demanding immediate and full disclosure of the case file. When a child is killed, her mom or dad can be expected to lead the fight for justice and demand that state officials tell the truth about what they know. But when a parent is involved, the rest of us have to step up. Millions of people have watched this case unfold from day one, riveted by the story of a little girl who was tossed away like trash and a mother who didn’t seem to care. If we paid attention because our concern is sincere, we will keep fighting for Caylee until the whole truth is known. If we watched, instead, out of some sadistic voyeurism or need to feel better as mothers and fathers by jabbing a judgmental finger of blame at a worse parent, there will never be justice for Caylee – or any child – and it will our fault.
http://goo.gl/MSqER
http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/front-page/2011/07/not-guilty-verdict-is-the-right-result-but-were-not-done-yet/#axzz1RrCRW6vd
Caylee Anthony - killed for child pornography? By James R. Marsh on July 11, 2011
Child advocate Wendy Murphy has a compelling blog entry about the Casey Anthony acquittal entitled "Not Guilty Verdict is the Right Result - But We're Not Done Yet."
Murphy argues that "Justice for Caylee is still possible, notwithstanding the acquittal, if people call for full disclosure of the entire investigative file - including an unsealing of the evidence thus far hidden from public view. Release of the photographs of Caylee that were seized from the Anthony home and placed “under seal” by the court would be a good place to start."
Law enforcement may have discovered "sexualized" images of Caylee on the Anthony family computers which were placed under seal to avoid prejudicing the jury. Murphy believes that "The style of Caylee’s death was more mob hit than parental homicide."....
http://goo.gl/Kmy73
http://www.childlaw.us/2011/07/caylee-anthony-killed-for-ch.html
Phylicia Barnes Murder: Child Porn Link Under Investigation
7/11/11 The Phylicia Barnes murder case is being investigated for a possible link to child pornography and sexual exploitation, ABC news reports. The FBI is pursing warrants in order to gain legal access to the email and Facebook accounts of Barnes and four men from Baltimore.
An article from the Charlotte Observer reported that investigators have "reason to believe" that the warrants will result in uncovering evidence of child sex crimes or pornography.
Although the autopsy ruled Barnes' death a homicide, authorities have not announced a cause of death in the hopes that they can question suspects about it in the future, Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley told ABC News.
http://goo.gl/EdeHo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/phylicia-barnes-murder-child-porn_n_894749.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk3|77185
Statistics - National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
How many children are reported missing each year?
The U.S. Department of Justice reports
797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)
[Andrea J. Sedlak, David Finkelhor, Heather Hammer, and Dana J. Schultz. U.S. Department of Justice. "National Estimates of Missing Children: An Overview" in National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, October 2002, page 5.]
http://goo.gl/4XHD0
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2810#1
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Casey Anthony case opens eyes on child abuse, Brazilian Sex Tourism, Buck movie
also:
Allegations Link U.S. Companies to Brazilian Sex Tourism
Buck Brannaman Documentary - abusive childhood
Editorial for 7/9: Anthony case opens eyes on child abuse Jul. 8, 2011
The great majority of Americans — including those living in the mid-Hudson Valley — are aghast by a jury's decision to acquit Casey Anthony of killing her 2-year-old daughter, in a case that sparked unyielding media attention.
Anthony will be released soon after being found guilty of lying to police and accounting for the time she already has served in this three-year ordeal that has left so many questioning the judicial system....
Unfortunately, child abuse and neglect often are hidden acts. And those living in this area should be reminded that the state's Central Register of Child Abuse hotline received more than 4,500 calls from Dutchess County in 2010, according to Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse of Dutchess County. What is even more troubling is how many incidents never get reported.
Nevertheless, the center served more than 16,000 at-risk and abused children last year and also provided support to more than 3,000 adults. The center's website is full of useful information, ranging from what types of actions should be reported to coping measures for parents.
http://goo.gl/Ev2lO
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110709/OPINION01/107090310/Editorial-7-9-Anthony-case-opens-eyes-child-abuse?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|PoughkeepsieJournal.com|s
Allegations Link U.S. Companies to Brazilian Sex Tourism
By BARRY MEIER July 8, 2011
The Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation of sports fishing expeditions in the Amazon that may have been used as covers for Americans to have sex with underage girls, according to newly filed court papers.
The investigation and two related actions — a parallel criminal inquiry in Brazil and an unusual lawsuit filed in federal court in Georgia — could provide a rare look at the business operations of the multibillion-dollar international sex tour industry, which has increasingly focused on Brazil.
"Brazil is taking over from Thailand as a premier sex tourism vacation" spot, said Kristen Berg, an official of Equality Now, an advocacy organization in New York that helped bring the lawsuit in Georgia.
That lawsuit was filed last month on behalf of four Brazilian women who claim that they were coerced as minors to serve as prostitutes for Americans on Amazon fishing expeditions operated by an Atlanta-area businessman. One of the women said that she was 12 years old at the time.
Ms. Berg said the lawsuit was the first time that a federal law, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, had been used to seek damages from someone accused of operating sex tours.
On Thursday, the defendant in that case, Richard W. Schair, filed a motion asking that the lawsuit be stayed. The motion cited continuing criminal investigations in the United States and Brazil.
In a brief telephone interview, Mr. Schair, who operates an Atlanta-area real estate business, said that allegations that he was involved in child sex tours were untrue. He declined to discuss specifics of the inquiries....
http://goo.gl/XmHD1
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/business/allegations-link-us-companies-to-brazilian-sex-tourism.html
Buck Brannaman Documentary
BUCK, a richly textured and visually stunning film, follows Brannaman from his abusive childhood to his phenomenally successful approach to horses. A real-life “horse-whisperer”, he eschews the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with their horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment.
Buck possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect. In this film, the animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges of life. A truly American story about an unsung hero, BUCK is about an ordinary man who has made an extraordinary life despite tremendous odds. Cedar Creek Productions, LLC
http://goo.gl/IiRRh
http://www.buckthefilm.com/
http://www.buckthefilm.com/content.htm
Allegations Link U.S. Companies to Brazilian Sex Tourism
Buck Brannaman Documentary - abusive childhood
Editorial for 7/9: Anthony case opens eyes on child abuse Jul. 8, 2011
The great majority of Americans — including those living in the mid-Hudson Valley — are aghast by a jury's decision to acquit Casey Anthony of killing her 2-year-old daughter, in a case that sparked unyielding media attention.
Anthony will be released soon after being found guilty of lying to police and accounting for the time she already has served in this three-year ordeal that has left so many questioning the judicial system....
Unfortunately, child abuse and neglect often are hidden acts. And those living in this area should be reminded that the state's Central Register of Child Abuse hotline received more than 4,500 calls from Dutchess County in 2010, according to Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse of Dutchess County. What is even more troubling is how many incidents never get reported.
Nevertheless, the center served more than 16,000 at-risk and abused children last year and also provided support to more than 3,000 adults. The center's website is full of useful information, ranging from what types of actions should be reported to coping measures for parents.
http://goo.gl/Ev2lO
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110709/OPINION01/107090310/Editorial-7-9-Anthony-case-opens-eyes-child-abuse?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|PoughkeepsieJournal.com|s
Allegations Link U.S. Companies to Brazilian Sex Tourism
By BARRY MEIER July 8, 2011
The Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation of sports fishing expeditions in the Amazon that may have been used as covers for Americans to have sex with underage girls, according to newly filed court papers.
The investigation and two related actions — a parallel criminal inquiry in Brazil and an unusual lawsuit filed in federal court in Georgia — could provide a rare look at the business operations of the multibillion-dollar international sex tour industry, which has increasingly focused on Brazil.
"Brazil is taking over from Thailand as a premier sex tourism vacation" spot, said Kristen Berg, an official of Equality Now, an advocacy organization in New York that helped bring the lawsuit in Georgia.
That lawsuit was filed last month on behalf of four Brazilian women who claim that they were coerced as minors to serve as prostitutes for Americans on Amazon fishing expeditions operated by an Atlanta-area businessman. One of the women said that she was 12 years old at the time.
Ms. Berg said the lawsuit was the first time that a federal law, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, had been used to seek damages from someone accused of operating sex tours.
On Thursday, the defendant in that case, Richard W. Schair, filed a motion asking that the lawsuit be stayed. The motion cited continuing criminal investigations in the United States and Brazil.
In a brief telephone interview, Mr. Schair, who operates an Atlanta-area real estate business, said that allegations that he was involved in child sex tours were untrue. He declined to discuss specifics of the inquiries....
http://goo.gl/XmHD1
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/business/allegations-link-us-companies-to-brazilian-sex-tourism.html
Buck Brannaman Documentary
BUCK, a richly textured and visually stunning film, follows Brannaman from his abusive childhood to his phenomenally successful approach to horses. A real-life “horse-whisperer”, he eschews the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with their horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment.
Buck possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect. In this film, the animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges of life. A truly American story about an unsung hero, BUCK is about an ordinary man who has made an extraordinary life despite tremendous odds. Cedar Creek Productions, LLC
http://goo.gl/IiRRh
http://www.buckthefilm.com/
http://www.buckthefilm.com/content.htm
Saturday, July 9, 2011
'Caylee's Law' Petition Goes Viral, Bishop who knew but did not tell
also: Jailed teacher's abuse of primary pupils prompts serious case review
Probe ordered into how crimes went undiscovered after teacher Nigel Leat jailed indefinitely for years of sexual abuse
Jake Ormerod sentenced to 10 years in jail for sexually abusing girls -
Gang member used Facebook as part of a campaign to sexually abuse more than 100 schoolgirls in the Torbay area
'Caylee's Law' Petition Goes Viral, Aims To Make Not Reporting A Missing Child A Crime The Huffington Post Dean Praetorius 7/7/11
"Caylee's Law" has already gained over 330,000 signatures on Change.org.
The petition, which was created by Michelle Crowder of Oklahoma, aims to make not notifying police of a missing child a crime. According to USA Today, it also calls for strict penalties when parents do not quickly report the death of a child.
The call for the law comes in the wake of Tuesday's verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, in which the young mother did not report her child missing for some time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/caylees-law-petition-casey-anthony_n_892317.html
In the dock: bishop who knew but did not tell - French abuse case stirs controversy over secrecy in Catholic Church
Special report: religion in the UK
Jon Henley in Paris
The Guardian, Thursday 14 June 2001 01.27 BST
A Roman Catholic bishop will appear in the dock today for the first time in modern French history, accused of knowingly covering up the crimes of a paedophile priest who had been telling his Church superiors of his sexual relations with young boys for more than 25 years.
Monsignor Pierre Pican, the bishop of Bayeux in Normandy, faces up to three years in jail in a landmark case that pits one of the essential tenets of Catholicism, the secrecy of the confessional, against the moral requirements of a secular justice system.
Mgr Pican will be asked to explain why he failed to report to the police the activities of Father René Bissey, sentenced to 18 years in jail last year for repeatedly raping one boy and sexually abusing 10 others between 1989 and 1996. A long list of similar offences dating back to 1970 had exceeded the statute of limitations.
Despite issuing an official condemnation of paedophilia, the Catholic church remains bitterly divided over the case, with some senior figures continuing to defend the vital importance of secrecy to their profession and the "curative role" of the confessional in their faith.
Mgr Pican was formally notified of Bissey's activities in 1996 by the vicar general of Normandy, Michel Marcel, who had received a letter from the mother of a young victim. He is alleged to have known of the priest's behaviour for far longer.
During his trial last October, Bissey - described by a police psychiatrist as an "authentic paedophile" who "felt no guilt whatsoever towards his victims" - said he had repeatedly admitted his activities with young boys to his confessors within the Church.
He had carried on, he told the court, because he was always pardoned....
The case eventually came to court only after one of the principal victims, Yann, then 25, filed a complaint against Bissey in mid-1999. Mgr Pican, 66, now faces charges of "failing to disclose the sexual abuse and maltreatment of minors below the age of 15 by a figure in authority".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/jun/14/religion.uk
Jailed teacher's abuse of primary pupils prompts serious case review
Probe ordered into how crimes went undiscovered after teacher Nigel Leat jailed indefinitely for years of sexual abuse
Steven Morris
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 June 2011
A review has been launched to establish if authorities could have acted sooner to prevent a primary school teacher sexually assaulting pupils as young as six, allegedly for more than a decade.
Nigel Leat was jailed indefinitely for abusing children he taught, often when other pupils were present, and secretly filming his attacks.
He groomed at least one girl a year at Hillside first school in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset and showered her with gifts, afforded her privileges and organised one-on-one teaching sessions.
Leat, 51, would swear his victims to secrecy and even write letters to them in which he would describe what he wanted to do to them and ask them to reply.
After the sentencing, North Somerset council revealed that the headteacher of Hillside, Chris Hood, had been suspended and an independent serious case review was being held....
Married father of two Leat, from Bristol, admitted 36 offences involving five pupils aged between six and eight over five years. The offences included sexual assault, attempted rape, voyeurism and possessing extreme pornography.
But police say they could have charged him with as many as 500 offences and believe he had been abusing children for 12 years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/14/teacher-jailed-indefinitely-sexual-abuse
Jake Ormerod sentenced to 10 years in jail for sexually abusing girls -
Gang member used Facebook as part of a campaign to sexually abuse more than 100 schoolgirls in the Torbay area Steven Morris and Sandra Laville
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 July 2011 A member of a gang believed to have sexually abused more than 100 schoolgirls in a seaside resort has been sentenced to 10 years in custody.
Jake Ormerod, 20, used Facebook as part of his "campaign to groom naive and immature girls" and then "mercilessly corrupted" them to satisfy his "insatiable need for sex". He admitted 13 charges of sexual activity with eight girls.
He plied victims with drink and drugs in the Devon resort of Torquay, before having unprotected sex.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/08/jake-ormerod-10-years-jail-torbay
Friday, July 8, 2011
Casey Anthony family "dysfunctionality," West Point Day Care Ritual Abuse Case
also: Video of the documented CIA mind control history 1979
Jesse Grund, Casey Anthony's Ex-Fiance, Calls Family A 'Carnival Of Dysfunctionality' Casey Anthony's ex-fiance Jesse Grund calls the Anthony family a "carnival of dysfunctionality."
In an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Grund says he witnessed the dynamics between Casey, her parents, and her brother, and says that "there is no way Casey goes back home."
"There is no way they have any semblance of a normal family life," he says.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/06/jesse-grund-casey-anthony_n_891351.html
Video of the documented CIA mind control history 1979 http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/government-corruption/control-freaks-sadists-and-thugs.html
permission to publish the article in full
West Point Day Care Sexual Abuse Case with Ritual Abuse allegations
Cunningham, Douglas and Alan Snel "A Legacy of Pain: Settlement Doesn't Ease Abused Children's Fears," The Times Herald Record (Middletown, New York), June 11, 1991.
The Times Herald-Record
Copyright (c) 1991, The Times Herald-Record
9106110008
Long : 227 lines
Tuesday, June 11, 1991
Final North News 4
By DOUGLAS CUNNINGHAM and ALAN SNEL Staff Writers
The Record photos: A new sign indicates a building number change. The red brick West Point Child Development Center was at the center of controversy in 1984. Mug photos: Judge W. Knapp William E. Crain Dr. Walter R. Grote
Record photo by Jeff Goulding: New center Director Nancy Campbell-Capen, above, talks about improvements to the building, including viewing windows in doors.
The Record photo: The West Point Child Development Center as it was in the mid-1980s, when the child abuse charges first surfaced. Back then, the building number was 666, leading to speculation that the abuse was satanically motivated.
A LEGACY OF PAIN SETTLEMENT DOESN'T EASE ABUSED CHILDREN'S FEARS
WEST POINT
Seven years have passed since she was sexually abused at West Point's child-care center. Yet today, the 10-year-old girl can't go to the bathroom without her mother waiting by the door.
The girl - who was 3 when West Point child-care workers were accused of sexually abusing her and 10 other children in 1984 - also asks her mother about whether she will be able to bear children when she grows up.
``This happened seven years ago, and it's not any better,'' the girl's mother said. ``She's constantly asking, `What if we're out in the store, Mommy, and we see these people? Are they going to hurt me?' . . . But this is constantly on her mind because she knows these people are not in jail for what they did.''
In the U.S. District Court files in Manhattan, the West Point sexual abuse case is resolved. The government failed in 1985 to indict any suspects in its criminal investigation. But last month, it settled a civil suit brought by the parents of the 11 victims. Nine of the victims will receive $2.7 million, with awards ranging from $25,000 to $625,000.
But even as the legal dust has settled, the case lingers as a legacy of pain for the families.
``These people stole our children,'' the mother said. ``(She's) nothing like she used to be. She's a very angry little girl. She doesn't trust anyone. She's nothing like she was before this happened.
``It's never going to be over for them, or for us.''
The case began in 1984, when allegations surfaced of sexual and physical abuse of children at the West Point Child Development Center.
The incidents unfolded against a backdrop of satanic acts, animal sacrifices and cult-like behavior among the abusers, whose activities extended beyond the U.S. Military Academy borders to Orange County and a military base in San Francisco, parents charged.
The specter of satanism would later spur U.S. Military Academy officials to change the West Point child-care center's building number from 666 to 673.
Despite 950 interviews by 60 FBI agents assigned to the investigation, an investigation led by former U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani produced no federal grand jury indictments. The investigation did find ``significant indications that children may have been abused'' at the center.
Until now, no official reports or investigations have verified the sexual abuse. The Times Herald-Record, however, has learned that a still-secret, independent report - prepared by one of the nation's top experts on child sexual abuse - confirms the children's accusations of abuse. The report also played a vital role in ending the seven-year legal ordeal and in enabling the case to be settled without the children undergoing potentially hostile questioning on the witness stand, said U.S. District Judge Whitman Knapp, who heard the civil case.
The expert, Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess, a professor of psychiatric nursing at the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia and the author of the book, ``Child Pornography and Sex Rings,'' entered the case in 1989.
She interviewed all the children. She said yesterday that her goal in the case had been to reduce harm to the children because testimony in open court could have triggered symptoms of abuse, prompted by a ``resurfacing'' of the original incident.
Knapp said that because Burgess worked for neither the government nor the plaintiffs, but reported directly to the court, her findings carried additional credibility. Neither Burgess nor others would speak about her specific findings.
``You can draw your own conclusions from the fact that (the government) paid all this money,'' Knapp said about Burgess' report. ``The government wouldn't have likely paid that money unless the report gave them a basis for doing that.''
The families' lawyer, William E. Crain, who now practices in Elkin, N.C., and formerly worked in Newburgh, said the report is independent confirmation of the children's claims. He received nearly $300,000 in legal fees in the case. The amount, 25 percent of the settlement, is set by law.
``Just generally speaking, it corroborated the children's allegations they had been sexually abused by day-care center staff,'' Crain said of the report.
``That report was sealed and has never been seen by anybody else and I hope it never will be,'' Knapp said. ``That has all the intimate details of what happened to these children. Certainly, they don't want to be plagued by that when they grow up.''
The government, however, admitted none of the allegations in making the settlement. Edward T. Ferguson III, the assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the case, declined to comment on Burgess' role. He said that the settlement was in the best interests of the children and did not require them to testify in court.
``Everyone involved - the parents, the government and the court - all wished to avoid (the children taking the witness stand), if an accommodation could be reached,'' Ferguson said.
Among other things, several of the settlements - made individually with each child's family - provide for medical costs, counseling and a college fund. The actual cost of the settlement is $1.175 million. Much of the money will be invested and paid out during the victims' lives, thereby increasing the total to $2.7 million.
``They're children. They're going to have to live with what happened to them. So are their parents,'' Crain said. ``But in terms of legal work, the legal end of it is finished.''
Nancy Campbell-Capen's job began just four months ago. West Point hired the New Jersey native to run its child-care program, including the center, a red-brick building tucked on a hill between playing fields and a playground.
Ms. Campbell-Capen recalled talking about the sexual abuse case with her boss and other center staffers.
``More people were reacting to the media coverage than the actual possible event,'' Ms. Campbell-Capen said she was told.
The center serves 150 children - 80 percent from military families and 20 percent from civilian workers. There are 120 children on a waiting list for the center that now complies with federal guidelines, which were strengthened in 1989.
``They certainly tightened the old regulations,'' said Ms. Campbell-Capen, who ran child-care centers at Army bases in Germany. ``We discovered the need to tighten up with staff training.''
Only a handful of the center's 86 workers remain from the 1984 staff. Ms. Campbell-Capen said the staff had no response to the lawsuit settlement.
The center is trying to receive accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
The center's dedication to meeting child-care standards contrasts with the way victims' parents were treated when they sought to alert West Point and the military that their children had been sexually violated.
The Army's reaction to the parents' plight so enraged former Army Dr. Walter R. Grote that the ex-captain refused a promotion to major in 1985 because of the treatment of his child's sexual abuse case at West Point. He was one of the first parents to file the lawsuit, but later dropped out of seeking money from the case.
``Unfortunately, money can't . . . undo the trauma incurred by scores of children at West Point . . . because people with responsibility didn't exercise that responsibility,'' said Grote, now in private practice in New Jersey. ``What the hell is a settlement? . . . They could have caught these people doing it at the time that they were doing it.
``We have a tendency to think that everything that's evil and bad is on the other side of the Pacific or the Atlantic.
``And that's not the case.''
The mother of the 10-year-old said the settlement will pay her daughter's college bills. But the mother said she would have preferred the government kept its money and punished the abusers.
Without the prosecution, West Point has retained its polished national image, she said. Even last month, the government admitted none of the allegations in making the settlement, a reminder of what parents say was West Point's callous denial.
``They wouldn't acknowledge what happened,'' the mother said. ``I'm sure if it was done anywhere else but West Point, it would have been acknowledged.''
Another parent whose son was sexually abused recalled that the Army was not prepared to treat satanic abuse.
``You had a bunch of kids who had some kind of abuse and the concerns of the parents seeking assistance fell on deaf ears. The medical treatment for the satanic abuse was not meeting the bill. It was far beyond what (the Army) could handle,'' said Maj. Bob Caslen, an infantry officer reached stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Two teacher aides were suspended and later quit after the charges surfaced.
After a federal grand jury failed to return indictments, community members joined the parents in calling for another investigation in 1985.
Joan Benedict walked with parents at a protest in Highland Falls in hopes of inspiring another probe. And she was a member of an Orange County anti-pornography group that sponsored a forum to allow the victims' parents to speak out in 1986.
Ms. Benedict said she used to pray and walk at West Point because of the 189-year-old institution's majestic Hudson River views. But no more.
``When I saw the headlines of the child pornography ring at West Point, it cut me to the heart,'' Ms. Benedict said. ``I know West Point is only surface beauty. They were outright cruel to the parents.''<
Ms. Benedict, a Town of Cornwall resident, started her own crusade to spark the Justice Department to reopen the abuse case. She ended her efforts in 1988 when she was convinced of a federal cover-up after receiving a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mary C. Spearing, a special attorney with the Justice Department's National Obscenity Enforcement Unit, wrote that the case was closed.
``Unfortunately, no new evidence, revelation or hint of wrongdoing or negligence surfaced during our review,'' she wrote. She noted in her letter that the assistant U.S. attorney on the case was a father of four and that she had two children herself.
The monetary settlement, however, did not resolve the parents' bitterness over what they still maintain was a botched FBI investigation. In fact, court papers filed by parents showed federal investigators not only refused to believe the children, but, in some cases, also criticized some parents for not keeping their children under control in their homes.
``When the agents came to the house, they did not appear to have a tape recorder and they were not taking notes during the interview,'' one parent said in a sworn statement, according to 1984 court papers. ``He became annoyed and frustrated and said, `It looks like she's just trying to get attention.' ''
Recalled Grote: ``The tragedy is the abusers could have been caught . . . with a little imagination and a lot less chauvinistic narcissism on the part of West Point and the initial FBI investigator.''
Prosecutor Giuliani did not return calls last week. In 1987, Giuliani said his detailed investigation showed only one or two children were abused. The federal investigation cleared the center staff members accused by the children.
The mother of the 10-year-old girl still tries to cope with the abuse's aftermath.
``As far as I'm concerned, the government gave them a license to go out and abuse other children,'' the mother said. ``I have to explain to my daughter these people are still out there.
``And she still has nightmares. She's afraid they're going to come through the window at night to get her.''
Center changes
Despite sexual abuse charges that surfaced in 1984 and a $1 million renovation of the building, the West Point day-care center was hit with 79 violations in January 1988. Here are some of the violations found by the 14-member Pentagon task force and how they have been resolved:
- Doors lacked windows. According to inspectors, this ``increases the potential for child abuse.'' All center doors now have windows.
- No background checks. The names of the 22 child-care providers were not submitted to the Army Central Registry to determine whether they had prior criminal records. All employees now have background checks done.
- Unprotected electrical outlets. All outlets now have protective caps.
- Toilets not immediately adjacent to activity areas. Restrooms have been renovated and child-size toilets have been installed.
- Some workers, from the center's acting director to receptionists, did not receive proper training. Training has begun.
An Army Child Care Evaluation team spent a week in August scrutinizing the center and did not list any infractions, said Ray Aalbue, a West Point spokesman.
Jesse Grund, Casey Anthony's Ex-Fiance, Calls Family A 'Carnival Of Dysfunctionality' Casey Anthony's ex-fiance Jesse Grund calls the Anthony family a "carnival of dysfunctionality."
In an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Grund says he witnessed the dynamics between Casey, her parents, and her brother, and says that "there is no way Casey goes back home."
"There is no way they have any semblance of a normal family life," he says.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/06/jesse-grund-casey-anthony_n_891351.html
Video of the documented CIA mind control history 1979 http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/government-corruption/control-freaks-sadists-and-thugs.html
permission to publish the article in full
West Point Day Care Sexual Abuse Case with Ritual Abuse allegations
Cunningham, Douglas and Alan Snel "A Legacy of Pain: Settlement Doesn't Ease Abused Children's Fears," The Times Herald Record (Middletown, New York), June 11, 1991.
The Times Herald-Record
Copyright (c) 1991, The Times Herald-Record
9106110008
Long : 227 lines
Tuesday, June 11, 1991
Final North News 4
By DOUGLAS CUNNINGHAM and ALAN SNEL Staff Writers
The Record photos: A new sign indicates a building number change. The red brick West Point Child Development Center was at the center of controversy in 1984. Mug photos: Judge W. Knapp William E. Crain Dr. Walter R. Grote
Record photo by Jeff Goulding: New center Director Nancy Campbell-Capen, above, talks about improvements to the building, including viewing windows in doors.
The Record photo: The West Point Child Development Center as it was in the mid-1980s, when the child abuse charges first surfaced. Back then, the building number was 666, leading to speculation that the abuse was satanically motivated.
A LEGACY OF PAIN SETTLEMENT DOESN'T EASE ABUSED CHILDREN'S FEARS
WEST POINT
Seven years have passed since she was sexually abused at West Point's child-care center. Yet today, the 10-year-old girl can't go to the bathroom without her mother waiting by the door.
The girl - who was 3 when West Point child-care workers were accused of sexually abusing her and 10 other children in 1984 - also asks her mother about whether she will be able to bear children when she grows up.
``This happened seven years ago, and it's not any better,'' the girl's mother said. ``She's constantly asking, `What if we're out in the store, Mommy, and we see these people? Are they going to hurt me?' . . . But this is constantly on her mind because she knows these people are not in jail for what they did.''
In the U.S. District Court files in Manhattan, the West Point sexual abuse case is resolved. The government failed in 1985 to indict any suspects in its criminal investigation. But last month, it settled a civil suit brought by the parents of the 11 victims. Nine of the victims will receive $2.7 million, with awards ranging from $25,000 to $625,000.
But even as the legal dust has settled, the case lingers as a legacy of pain for the families.
``These people stole our children,'' the mother said. ``(She's) nothing like she used to be. She's a very angry little girl. She doesn't trust anyone. She's nothing like she was before this happened.
``It's never going to be over for them, or for us.''
The case began in 1984, when allegations surfaced of sexual and physical abuse of children at the West Point Child Development Center.
The incidents unfolded against a backdrop of satanic acts, animal sacrifices and cult-like behavior among the abusers, whose activities extended beyond the U.S. Military Academy borders to Orange County and a military base in San Francisco, parents charged.
The specter of satanism would later spur U.S. Military Academy officials to change the West Point child-care center's building number from 666 to 673.
Despite 950 interviews by 60 FBI agents assigned to the investigation, an investigation led by former U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani produced no federal grand jury indictments. The investigation did find ``significant indications that children may have been abused'' at the center.
Until now, no official reports or investigations have verified the sexual abuse. The Times Herald-Record, however, has learned that a still-secret, independent report - prepared by one of the nation's top experts on child sexual abuse - confirms the children's accusations of abuse. The report also played a vital role in ending the seven-year legal ordeal and in enabling the case to be settled without the children undergoing potentially hostile questioning on the witness stand, said U.S. District Judge Whitman Knapp, who heard the civil case.
The expert, Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess, a professor of psychiatric nursing at the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia and the author of the book, ``Child Pornography and Sex Rings,'' entered the case in 1989.
She interviewed all the children. She said yesterday that her goal in the case had been to reduce harm to the children because testimony in open court could have triggered symptoms of abuse, prompted by a ``resurfacing'' of the original incident.
Knapp said that because Burgess worked for neither the government nor the plaintiffs, but reported directly to the court, her findings carried additional credibility. Neither Burgess nor others would speak about her specific findings.
``You can draw your own conclusions from the fact that (the government) paid all this money,'' Knapp said about Burgess' report. ``The government wouldn't have likely paid that money unless the report gave them a basis for doing that.''
The families' lawyer, William E. Crain, who now practices in Elkin, N.C., and formerly worked in Newburgh, said the report is independent confirmation of the children's claims. He received nearly $300,000 in legal fees in the case. The amount, 25 percent of the settlement, is set by law.
``Just generally speaking, it corroborated the children's allegations they had been sexually abused by day-care center staff,'' Crain said of the report.
``That report was sealed and has never been seen by anybody else and I hope it never will be,'' Knapp said. ``That has all the intimate details of what happened to these children. Certainly, they don't want to be plagued by that when they grow up.''
The government, however, admitted none of the allegations in making the settlement. Edward T. Ferguson III, the assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the case, declined to comment on Burgess' role. He said that the settlement was in the best interests of the children and did not require them to testify in court.
``Everyone involved - the parents, the government and the court - all wished to avoid (the children taking the witness stand), if an accommodation could be reached,'' Ferguson said.
Among other things, several of the settlements - made individually with each child's family - provide for medical costs, counseling and a college fund. The actual cost of the settlement is $1.175 million. Much of the money will be invested and paid out during the victims' lives, thereby increasing the total to $2.7 million.
``They're children. They're going to have to live with what happened to them. So are their parents,'' Crain said. ``But in terms of legal work, the legal end of it is finished.''
Nancy Campbell-Capen's job began just four months ago. West Point hired the New Jersey native to run its child-care program, including the center, a red-brick building tucked on a hill between playing fields and a playground.
Ms. Campbell-Capen recalled talking about the sexual abuse case with her boss and other center staffers.
``More people were reacting to the media coverage than the actual possible event,'' Ms. Campbell-Capen said she was told.
The center serves 150 children - 80 percent from military families and 20 percent from civilian workers. There are 120 children on a waiting list for the center that now complies with federal guidelines, which were strengthened in 1989.
``They certainly tightened the old regulations,'' said Ms. Campbell-Capen, who ran child-care centers at Army bases in Germany. ``We discovered the need to tighten up with staff training.''
Only a handful of the center's 86 workers remain from the 1984 staff. Ms. Campbell-Capen said the staff had no response to the lawsuit settlement.
The center is trying to receive accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
The center's dedication to meeting child-care standards contrasts with the way victims' parents were treated when they sought to alert West Point and the military that their children had been sexually violated.
The Army's reaction to the parents' plight so enraged former Army Dr. Walter R. Grote that the ex-captain refused a promotion to major in 1985 because of the treatment of his child's sexual abuse case at West Point. He was one of the first parents to file the lawsuit, but later dropped out of seeking money from the case.
``Unfortunately, money can't . . . undo the trauma incurred by scores of children at West Point . . . because people with responsibility didn't exercise that responsibility,'' said Grote, now in private practice in New Jersey. ``What the hell is a settlement? . . . They could have caught these people doing it at the time that they were doing it.
``We have a tendency to think that everything that's evil and bad is on the other side of the Pacific or the Atlantic.
``And that's not the case.''
The mother of the 10-year-old said the settlement will pay her daughter's college bills. But the mother said she would have preferred the government kept its money and punished the abusers.
Without the prosecution, West Point has retained its polished national image, she said. Even last month, the government admitted none of the allegations in making the settlement, a reminder of what parents say was West Point's callous denial.
``They wouldn't acknowledge what happened,'' the mother said. ``I'm sure if it was done anywhere else but West Point, it would have been acknowledged.''
Another parent whose son was sexually abused recalled that the Army was not prepared to treat satanic abuse.
``You had a bunch of kids who had some kind of abuse and the concerns of the parents seeking assistance fell on deaf ears. The medical treatment for the satanic abuse was not meeting the bill. It was far beyond what (the Army) could handle,'' said Maj. Bob Caslen, an infantry officer reached stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Two teacher aides were suspended and later quit after the charges surfaced.
After a federal grand jury failed to return indictments, community members joined the parents in calling for another investigation in 1985.
Joan Benedict walked with parents at a protest in Highland Falls in hopes of inspiring another probe. And she was a member of an Orange County anti-pornography group that sponsored a forum to allow the victims' parents to speak out in 1986.
Ms. Benedict said she used to pray and walk at West Point because of the 189-year-old institution's majestic Hudson River views. But no more.
``When I saw the headlines of the child pornography ring at West Point, it cut me to the heart,'' Ms. Benedict said. ``I know West Point is only surface beauty. They were outright cruel to the parents.''<
Ms. Benedict, a Town of Cornwall resident, started her own crusade to spark the Justice Department to reopen the abuse case. She ended her efforts in 1988 when she was convinced of a federal cover-up after receiving a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mary C. Spearing, a special attorney with the Justice Department's National Obscenity Enforcement Unit, wrote that the case was closed.
``Unfortunately, no new evidence, revelation or hint of wrongdoing or negligence surfaced during our review,'' she wrote. She noted in her letter that the assistant U.S. attorney on the case was a father of four and that she had two children herself.
The monetary settlement, however, did not resolve the parents' bitterness over what they still maintain was a botched FBI investigation. In fact, court papers filed by parents showed federal investigators not only refused to believe the children, but, in some cases, also criticized some parents for not keeping their children under control in their homes.
``When the agents came to the house, they did not appear to have a tape recorder and they were not taking notes during the interview,'' one parent said in a sworn statement, according to 1984 court papers. ``He became annoyed and frustrated and said, `It looks like she's just trying to get attention.' ''
Recalled Grote: ``The tragedy is the abusers could have been caught . . . with a little imagination and a lot less chauvinistic narcissism on the part of West Point and the initial FBI investigator.''
Prosecutor Giuliani did not return calls last week. In 1987, Giuliani said his detailed investigation showed only one or two children were abused. The federal investigation cleared the center staff members accused by the children.
The mother of the 10-year-old girl still tries to cope with the abuse's aftermath.
``As far as I'm concerned, the government gave them a license to go out and abuse other children,'' the mother said. ``I have to explain to my daughter these people are still out there.
``And she still has nightmares. She's afraid they're going to come through the window at night to get her.''
Center changes
Despite sexual abuse charges that surfaced in 1984 and a $1 million renovation of the building, the West Point day-care center was hit with 79 violations in January 1988. Here are some of the violations found by the 14-member Pentagon task force and how they have been resolved:
- Doors lacked windows. According to inspectors, this ``increases the potential for child abuse.'' All center doors now have windows.
- No background checks. The names of the 22 child-care providers were not submitted to the Army Central Registry to determine whether they had prior criminal records. All employees now have background checks done.
- Unprotected electrical outlets. All outlets now have protective caps.
- Toilets not immediately adjacent to activity areas. Restrooms have been renovated and child-size toilets have been installed.
- Some workers, from the center's acting director to receptionists, did not receive proper training. Training has begun.
An Army Child Care Evaluation team spent a week in August scrutinizing the center and did not list any infractions, said Ray Aalbue, a West Point spokesman.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)