Anti-US governor wins Okinawa poll

The Japanese on the southern Island of Okinawa have re-elected incumbent governor Hirokazu Nakaima, who wants an end to the American military presence.

Nakaima, who wants the US base off Okinawa altogether, beat his opponent who agreed to relocate the base to a less crowded area on the island.

In May, Tokyo and Washington agreed to implement a 2006 plan to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to a less crowded area in Okinawa.

The move infuriated local residents, who view the base as a source of noise, pollution and serious crime –including rape.

Former CG officer gets life for rape, murder

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A former Coast Guard officer has been sentenced to life in prison for raping and killing a Jupiter woman.

As part of a plea deal, 27-year-old Chi Ng received a life sentence Thursday after pleading guilty to first-degree murder. He could have faced the death penalty.

Authorities say 33-year-old Nongkran Stoll, who lived near Ng’s father, had been hired to walk the father’s dog. In November 2007, Ng attacked Stoll in his father’s townhouse. He beat her, raped her and eventually strangled her by crushing her throat under his foot.

Her body was later found in a trash can.

Stoll’s husband went to the home looking for his wife, and Ng told him she had left. But when the husband saw Stoll’s shoes and a broken table inside and that Ng’s hand was bleeding, he called police.

Former CIA Official Arrested in Virginia for Rape

A former Central Intelligence Agency official, who is accused of raping two women, was arrested Monday at a motel in Virginia. A warrant was issued for 42-year-old Andrew M. Warren after he failed to show up for a hearing last week.

Warren was the CIA’s Station Chief in Algeria. According to court papers, two Algerian women claim Warren drugged them, then raped them when they were unconscious. A grand jury in Washington, D.C. indicted Warren last year on one count of sexual deviance. The charge carries the possibility of life in prison if convicted.

Warren was arrested without incident at the motel in Norfolk. Police say he had a handgun, which was recovered and turned over to federal authorities. It was unclear why Warren skipped the hearing and why he was staying at the motel in his hometown.

“We look forward to the opportunity to speak with Andrew, and we’re just glad he’s safe,” said Billy Martin, one of Warren’s attorneys.

The CIA ordered Warren home in October 2008, a month after the women made their claims.

Child sex `no breach of virtue’, some priests believe

Some priests didn’t see the molestation of boys as a breach of their celibacy vows, retired Catholic bishop Geoffrey James Robinson says.

The former auxiliary bishop of Sydney blames the absence of women from church life as a catalyst for the sexual abuse crisis enveloping the faith.

In an interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly, Bishop Robinson says boys suffered more than girls at the hands of pedophile priests partly because they were more available to them, with nuns tending to play a greater role in the religious education of young girls.

There was also a view among some offenders with whom he had worked that a priest’s celibacy vows weren’t broken if a boy was involved.

“We’ve met it often enough to see it as a factor,” he tells the magazine, out today. “That’s what the vow of celibacy refers to, being married. If it’s not an adult woman, then somehow they’re not breaking their vow.”

First Europe, then the US – now abuse claims sweep Latin America

The pedophile priest scandal currently enveloping the Vatican has spread to one of the most Catholic areas of the world following a string of new abuse revelations throughout Latin America.

Reports of priests raping or abusing minors have now emerged in Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Mexico and Chile causing growing anger in a continent that is home to nearly half the world’s Catholics.

Court case reveals diocese pattern of sending problem priests to desert

BARSTOW • As the sex abuse scandals that plague the Catholic Church continue to make headlines, a recent lawsuit has brought new information to light regarding the San Diego Diocese’s placement of priests with a history of sexual abuse in desert parishes, including St. Joseph Catholic Church in Barstow.

One man involved in the lawsuit, known only as John Roe 65, says that he was abused by a priest at St. Joseph in 1972 while attending school there. The lawsuit was settled out-of-court last week for an undisclosed amount. The school at St. Joseph closed in 2002.

Roe 65 was able to file the suit because he served in the United States Navy from 1977 until 2006, and statutes of limitation do not apply while a person is serving in the military.

The two priests named in the lawsuit who served at St. Joseph are Anthony Rodrigue and John Keith.

Texas Officer Charged With Sex Assault

A San Antonio Police Department officer sexually assaulted a man while he was on duty, an affidavit stated.

According to an arrest affidavit, a man told police that Officer Craig Nash picked him up at 3 a.m. Thursday near the intersection of Guadalupe and Zarzamora streets, handcuffed him and told him to lie down in the back of a police cruiser.

The man told police that Nash, 39, drove him to an unknown location and sexually assaulted him, the affidavit stated. Nash then drove the man back to a school on Guadalupe Street and drove off, the affidavit stated.

Child rape charge rocks TSA

A Transportation Security Administration worker who pats down members of the flying public was charged with multiple child sex crimes targeting an underage girl yesterday.

The bust outraged privacy and passenger advocates who say it justifies their fears about Logan International Airport’s full-body scanner.

“It’s a huge, huge issue,” said Kate Hinni of FlyersrRights.org. “The TSA needs a complete overhaul . . . If you have a pedophile looking at those naked pictures, they’ve got all your information, it’s a gross violation of their authority. . . . They should make sure none of them is corrupted in any deviant sexual manner.”

Sean Shanahan, 44, of Winthrop was held on $50,000 bail after he was charged with two counts of statutory rape, two counts of enticing a minor and one count of indecent assault and battery. He was arrested yesterday at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he had checked himself in after a suicide threat, prosecutors said.

Trial for 1985 triple slayings begins

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A soldier acquitted of killing a mother and two of her young daughters in North Carolina about 25 years ago is now going on trial in military court after prosecutors say new DNA tests link him to the crimes.

Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis, 51, is charged with premeditated murder in the May 1985 stabbing deaths of Kathryn Eastburn and two of her daughters — 5-year-old Kara Sue Eastburn and 3-year-old Erin Nicole Eastburn. Opening statements in the court-martial are set for Wednesday and the death penalty trial could last up to two months, featuring 100 or more witnesses.

Twentynine Palms Marine who solicited the rape of ex-girlfriend with a knife-sharpening file is arraigned

CASPER, WYO. — Prosecutors on Tuesday, Jan. 19 formally charged a California man with five felonies in connection with allegations that he posted an advertisement on an Internet site requesting the rape of a Casper woman.

Pfc. Jebidiah James Stipe — a maintenance mechanic with VMU-1 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms — is accused of posting the Craigslist advertisement that led to the brutal rape of a 25-year-old woman inside her Casper home on Friday, Dec. 11.

The 27-year-old Mar-ine — who has been in custody since Wednesday, Dec. 16 — made his initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court on Tuesday. With his hands and ankles shackled, he wore a dark green jumpsuit during the proceeding.

Judge Steven Brown set bond at $500,000.

Stipe, a Carbon County native, has been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault, along with four other felonies.

He faces life in prison if convicted of all charges.

Psychiatric disorders spiral among US troops

A new study indicates US troops who were withdrawn from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for medical reasons were increasingly evacuated for psychiatric reasons.

Psychiatric disorders rose from 2004 to 2007, despite an increased focus on treating mental health problems, the research study revealed on Friday.

Only 14 percent of troops taken out of combat operations on medical grounds during the four-year period were because of a combat injury, AFP reported.

The biggest single cause for a pullout was ‘musculo-skeletal’ and joint problems, which accounted for 24 percent of medical evacuations.

In contrast, psychiatric grounds accounted for five percent of evacuations in Iraq and six percent in Afghanistan in 2004; these figures rose to 14 and 11 percent respectively in 2007.

Researchers also said that repeat missions and declining public support for the Iraq war may partly account for the rise.

The study drew on data from more than 34,000 US personnel who had been evacuated to the main US military receiving hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.  [ Probably the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. ]

Steven P. Cohen of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore led the research team.

The Universal Soldier

He’s five foot-two, and he’s six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He’s all of thirty-one, and he’s only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.

He’a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn’t kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.

And he’s fighting for Canada,
He’s fighting for France,
He’s fighting for the USA,
And he’s fighting for the Russians,
And he’s fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way.

And he’s fighting for Democracy,
He’s fighting for the Reds,
He says it’s for the peace of all.
He’s the one who must decide,
Who’s to live and who’s to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He’s the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can’t go on.

He’s the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can’t you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.

Chords:- F,G7,C,Am Dm,Em

Long Island corrections officer charged with rape, sexual abuse

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A Long Island corrections officer is being accused of extorting sexual favors from female inmates.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Maura Rice says 47-year-old Mark Barber, of Levittown, was arrested Wednesday and charged with multiple counts of rape, sexual abuse, and forcible touching.

Rice says Barber used his position as a grievance officer for the Nassau County Correctional Center to engage in various sexual activity with female inmates.

Rice says Barber, a corrections officer since 1987, would target inmates who had histories of drug abuse, prostitution, or mental health treatment.

Barber’s lawyer, Frederick James Annibale Jr., told reporters that his client denies the charges.

Barber is due back in court Jan. 4. If convicted, he faces up to 16 years in prison.

Mexican Who Tried to Stop Cop from Fondling Woman May Be Deported

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – An undocumented Mexican immigrant is facing possible deportation after he was arrested for trying to defend his girlfriend from a Charlotte police officer accused of sexual assault on three women, two of them Hispanic.

Police in North Carolina’s largest city revealed on Wednesday that a third victim, a 37-year-old Mexican woman who was not identified, filed a complaint against Marcus Jackson, 25, because he had sexually assaulted her.

Jackson has been under arrest since Dec. 30 in the Mecklenburg County jail, with bail set at almost $500,000, for two previous accusations by a Latina and an African-American woman of kidnapping, extortion, assault, sexual abuse and indecent exposure.

The third victim, who is undocumented, said that on Dec. 29, when she was going home at night, Jackson stopped her in the parking lot of the apartment complex where she lives.

She also said that eight weeks earlier the same officer had fondled her breasts.

In the Dec. 29 incident, police say, the boyfriend of the victim tried to stop the abuse by calling 911 but Jackson seized his telephone and arrested him for resisting a police officer.

The Mexican man spent six days in the Charlotte jail and was subjected to the 287g program, which determined that he entered the country without the proper papers.

Iraqis outraged as Blackwater case thrown out

In this Oct. 2007 image, Mohammed Hafiz holds a picture of his 10-year-old son, Ali Mohammed, who was killed when guards employed by Blackwater allegedly opened fire at Nisoor Square in Baghdad. Iraqis responded with bitterness and outrage Jan. 1 at aU.S. judge’s decision to throw out a case against Blackwater guards accused in the killings.

BAGHDAD — Iraqis seeking justice for 17 people shot dead at a Baghdad intersection responded with bitterness and outrage Friday at a U.S. judge’s decision to throw out a case against a Blackwater security team accused in the killings.

The Iraqi government vowed to pursue the case, which became a source of contention between the U.S. and the Iraqi government. Many Iraqis also held up the judge’s decision as proof of what they’d long believed: U.S. security contractors were above the law.

“There is no justice,” said Bura Sadoun Ismael, who was wounded by two bullets and shrapnel during the shooting. “I expected the American court would side with the Blackwater security guards who committed a massacre in Nisoor Square.”

What happened on Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007, raised Iraqi concerns about their sovereignty because Iraqi officials were powerless to do anything to the Blackwater employees who had immunity from local prosecution. The shootings also highlighted the degree to which the U.S. relied on private contractors during the Iraq conflict.

Blackwater had been hired by the Department of State to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The guards said they were ambushed at a busy intersection in western Baghdad, but U.S. prosecutors and many Iraqis said the Blackwater guards let loose an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenades.

“Investigations conducted by specialized Iraqi authorities confirmed unequivocally that the guards of Blackwater committed the crime of murder and broke the rules by using arms without the existence of any threat obliging them to use force,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement Friday.

He did not elaborate on what steps the government planned to take to pursue the case.

Why Won’t Congress Shine Light on Rape-Murder of Pvt. LaVena Johnson?

Villagers may recall that Army Pvt. LaVena L. Johnson is the 19-year-old Missouri woman who died in Iraq after being raped, beaten, shot and set on fire. The Army has ruled Johnson’s death a suicide from a self-inflicted rifle shot. The case is profiled in the forthcoming documentary, “LaVena Johnson — The Silent Truth,” due for release in 2010. It examines whether there is an army coverup of the rape and murder of women soldiers. (WARNING: Video contains graphic images of the crime scene)

Jeb Stipe / Ty McDowell Procured Rapist Case

Jebidiah James Stipe	Ty Oliver McDowell

CASPER — A man accused of violently raping a woman inside her Casper home about two weeks ago believed he was acting out a sexual fantasy the woman requested on an Internet site, according to his attorney.

Ty Oliver McDowell, 26, has been charged with three counts of first-degree sexual assault, one count of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated burglary.

During a preliminary hearing in Natrona County Circuit Court on Tuesday, public defender Timothy Charles Cotton suggested that his client is accused of raping a woman he thought wanted to play out a lurid sexual fantasy.

Police, though, say the woman didn’t post the Craigslist ad that spurred McDowell’s alleged actions. Instead, authorities determined that Jebidiah James Stipe — with whom the alleged victim had a brief romantic relationship — posted the ad on Dec. 5. He pretended to be the woman named in the advertisement, investigators say.

Conspiracy charge

Stipe, a Carbon County native, has been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault. The 27-year-old Marine currently based in Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, remains in the West Valley Detention Center in San Bernardino County, California

[ Booking # 0912090115 - 05/14/1982 - 170 / 5'6" - Brown / Blue - Arrested 12/16/2009 16:40 at 6527 Whitefeather Road, Joshua Tree - Charges: PC1551.1 - No Bail, no appearance date set as of today ]

Twentynine Palms Marine solicited and procured the sexual assault of Casper woman

“Enlisted in the Marines in 2001, went to Cherry Point NC, then to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom, then back for OIFII, and in about 2 weeks I’m going back for a 3rd time. Married to a beautiful woman from Washington. Have 2 beautiful boys who are the lights of my life. I am getting out of the Marines in July and going up to Washington to be the town sheriff.” – Jebidiah James Stipe

Jebidiah Stipe Feb 03 2005
“NEW SON!!!  Born on March 19 2004, 6lbs, 7 ounces, red hair, blue eyes, GORGOUS!!”

Rawlins, WY
Yakima, WA
Sinclair, WY
Havelock, NC

Twentynine Palms, CA TWENTYNINE PALMS – A marine stationed at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms is behind bars at the West Valley Detention Center in San Bernardino County, charged with setting up the rape of a woman in Casper, Wyoming.

Prosecutors in Natrona County, Wyoming, say 27-year-old Jebidiah James Stipe (photo above) “solicited and procured the sexual assault of an adult female” in the Casper area through the use of Craigslist, an Internet site that allows users to post classified ads at little or no charge.

“All charges in this case stem from a series of activities alleged to have begun by Mr. Stipe by the use of the Internet site Craigslist,” said Natrona County District Attorney Michael Blonigen.

A Casper man has been arrested for the actual rape of the woman on December 11, and faces a preliminary hearing on December 29.  Ty Oliver McDowell, a 26-year-old, is jailed with $250,000 bail.

Problems for Stipe may not be confined to his native Wyoming.

A Casper newspaper points out eerie similarities between the Wyoming case and a North Carolina case, where a man hired someone to rape his wife while he watched.

The Marine Corps. couldn’t comment on Stipe’s performance on-base, other than to say Stipe was being processed for administrative separation as a result of a pattern of misconduct at the time he was arrested for the Wyoming case.

Elementary principal in Polk County, Florda, accused of raping, molesting girl

The principal of Sikes Elementary School in Lakeland has been accused of raping and molesting an 11-year-old girl.

The charges against Corey Lynn Swindler, 38, do not involve a student at the school. Swindler is not related to the girl but has had access to her for about 10 years through a domestic relationship, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.

The girl’s aunt contacted deputies Wednesday after the child told her that Swindler had been touching her inappropriately since she was in kindergarten, the sheriff’s office said. Authorities said they interviewed the girl and a witness to one of the molestations.

Swindler was arrested this morning on one count of sexual battery on a child younger than 12 and six counts of lewd molestation on a child younger than 12.

He admitted touching the girl inappropriately over her clothing on several occasions, the sheriff’s office said.

Swindler has been placed on administrative leave, said Ron Ciranna, the Polk County School District‘s assistant superintendent of human resource services.

Ex-Lawmaker Convicted of Raping his 2 Foster daughters: Name Is Copyrighted

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A former South Dakota lawmaker convicted of raping his two foster daughters has sent news organizations what he claims is a copyright notice that seeks to prevent the use of his name without his consent.

A letter and an accompanying document labeled ”Common Law Copyright Notice” said former state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is reserving a common-law copyright of a trade name or trademark for his name. It said no one can use his name without his consent, and anyone who does would owe him $500,000.

Klaudt was convicted in 2007 on four counts of second-degree rape for touching his teenage foster daughters’ breasts and genitals in phony examinations he said could help them sell their eggs to infertile couples. He was sentenced to 44 years in prison for rape and 10 more years after pleading guilty to two counts of witness tampering.

The notice, received by The Associated Press and several other news organizations Monday, carried a return address that matched that of the state prison in Springfield, where Klaudt is being held.

Klaudt’s daughter, Roxy, reached by telephone at the family ranch near Walker, confirmed that her father had sent the copyright notice but would not explain why.

Marine sergeant charged with sexual battery of a minor and indecent liberties with a child (3 yrs.) with the knowledge that the child was mentally disabled

A North Carolina-based noncommissioned officer faces charges for allegedly sexually abusing a 3-year-old.

Sgt. Duane F. Bachesta, 26, of St. Clair, Illinois,, with 2nd Intelligence Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, was charged Monday with sexual battery of a minor and indecent liberties with a child with the knowledge that the child was mentally disabled, according to warrants.

Bachesta, an imagery analyst, was placed in Onslow County jail on a $20,000 bond, according to a II Marine Expeditionary Force release.

He joined the Corps in March 2002 and served an eight-month tour in Afghanistan last year.

This incident remains under investigation.

Former Riverside police officer convicted of sex-related charges

A former Riverside Police Department officer was convicted today of forcing a woman to perform a sex act on him so she could avoid being arrested.

A seven-man, five-woman jury, however, acquitted 39-year-old Robert A. Forman of sexually assaulting another woman and deadlocked on whether he had assaulted a third. The panel announced its findings after two and a half days of deliberations.

Forman, who was also convicted of a misdemeanor petty theft charge, faces up to eight years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 11 by Riverside County Superior Court Judge John Molloy.

UN Equipped Congolese Army That Carried Out Atrocities

United Nations peacekeeping officials were explicitly warned months ago by their legal advisers not to participate in combat operations with the Congolese Army if there were a risk that Congolese soldiers might abuse human rights, internal documents show. But the mission went forward — and the abuses took place as feared.

According to United Nations documents provided to The New York Times, the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs wrote to the head of the peacekeeping department in April and said that peacekeepers “cannot participate in any form of joint operation” with the Congolese Army, “if there are substantial grounds for believing there to be a real risk of them violating international humanitarian law.”

The warnings proved prescient. A few months later, Congolese government soldiers, who had been supplied with ammunition and food by United Nations peacekeepers, killed hundreds of civilians, gang-raped girls and even cut the heads off some young men, according to human rights groups.

Many United Nations officials seemed to fear this could happen and the documents from the legal affairs office reveal the level of internal debate — and discomfort — about working hand in hand with the Congolese Army, which over the years has been widely blamed for looting, raping and killing the very population it is responsible for protecting.

“We knew this was a risky operation,” said Alain Le Roy, under secretary general for peacekeeping operations, in an interview Wednesday. But, he added, “We have no other option.”

CRS: “Not a Happy Place”

The Congressional Research Service, which performs policy research and analysis for Congress, is “not a happy place these days,” said a CRS staffer.

The staffer was referring to the fact that a respected CRS division chief, Morris D. Davis, had been abruptly fired from his position for publicly expressing some of his private opinions. (“CRS Fires a Division Chief,” Secrecy News, December 4, 2009).  CRS Director Daniel P. Mulhollan, the man who fired Mr. Davis (it’s Colonel Davis, actually), evidently believes that CRS employees must have no independent public persona and must not express private opinions in public, even when such opinions are unrelated to their work at CRS, as in Davis’s case.  In short, CRS employees are expected to surrender their First Amendment rights.  Who could be happy with that?

The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Col. Davis’s cause and in a December 4 letter (pdf), ACLU attorneys Aden J. Fine and Jameel Jaffer asked the Library of Congress (CRS’s parent organization) to reconsider its position by today, or else risk litigation seeking Davis’s reinstatement.  But it takes a special kind of integrity to admit error and to change course, and that is not the anticipated scenario in this case.

(Update: As expected, the Library of Congress refused to reconsider its position, setting the stage for a lawsuit. See the ACLU news release and the Library response here.)

“In spite of all that, I still believe we do excellent research,” the CRS staffer told Secrecy News.  Yet that research is still not made directly accessible to the public.

In the 2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, Congress once again mandated that “no part of [the CRS budget] may be used to pay any salary or expense” to make CRS research reports available to the public without prior authorization.  This was obviously intended to block direct public access to CRS reports.  But it could also be read more satisfactorily to permit CRS employees to freely distribute CRS reports as long as they incur no additional expense when doing so.

Some notable new CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News include the following (all pdf).

“Privacy: An Overview of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping,” updated December 3, 2009.

“U.S. Arms Sales: Agreements with and Deliveries to Major Clients, 2001-2008,” December 2, 2009.

“War in Afghanistan: Strategy, Military Operations, and Issues for Congress,” December 3, 2009.

“The German Economy and U.S.-German Economic Relations,” November 30, 2009.

“Sexual Violence in African Conflicts,” November 25, 2009.

“Traumatic Brain Injury: Care and Treatment of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom Veterans,” November 25, 2009.

“Key Issues in Derivatives Reform,” December 1, 2009.

“U.S. Aerospace Manufacturing: Industry Overview and Prospects,” December 3, 2009.

“High Speed Rail (HSR) in the United States,” December 8, 2009.

School bus driver convicted of multiple sex acts against young girls

Terry Shields, 54, a former school bus driver for the Los Alamitos Unified School District in for the Los Alamitos, California has been convicted on a total of 15 counts involving the molestation of three girls, ages 4, 7 and 11 and possessing child pornography.

The jury found Shields guilty on three counts of forcible lewd acts upon a child, seven counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, three counts of using an underage person for obscene matter and one count each of kidnapping to commit rape and oral copulation or sodomy

In addition the jury also found Shields guilty of possession of child pornography.

The crimes for which Shields was convicted occurred between 2000 and 2004 and in one case he kidnapped a 7-year-old on her way to school and put her into the trunk of his car by promising her a trip to Disneyland.

Two of the victims were sisters that Shields babysat.

Lawyers: Green should have had military trial

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former Army soldier who raped a girl, 14, and killed her and three family members in Iraq challenged his convictions Monday, saying he was wrongly tried in a civilian court and should have faced a military trial.

In a 71-page appeal filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, attorneys for Steven Dale Green are seeking to have the law used to prosecute him — the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act — overturned.

The law, passed in 2000, allows the federal government to try former soldiers, their spouses and contractors in civilian courts for crimes that happened overseas.

“That’s the overarching issue,” said Green’s defense attorney, Darren C. Wolff of Louisville.

Green is also contesting whether the military validly discharged him before he was charged in civilian court.

A message left for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Louisville, which prosecuted Green, was not immediately returned Monday. Prosecutors have until Jan. 5 to file a response.

A jury convicted Green, 24, a former 101st Airborne Division soldier, in June of raping and killing 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. He also was convicted of killing three of her family members in the March 2006 attack.

Green, of Midland, Texas, is serving a life prison sentence without parole. The other four soldiers charged in the plot faced military trials, known as a court martial.

Federal Public Defender Frank Heft wrote that Green faced more severe punishments in civilian court, which violated his rights to equal protection and due process.

Much like the strategy at trial, the appeal does not contest Green’s guilt in the crimes near Mahmoudiya, Iraq, about 20 miles south of Baghdad.

School superintendent accused of raping girl, 5

Bruce Lynn Shelley, who became superintendent of Pocola Schools, in Pocola, Oklahoma on July 1st has reportedly been arrested on allegations of rape by instrumentation of a five-year-old female family member.

Shelley is charged with rape by instrumentation.

It is alleged that Shelley molested the girl, who was a family member, around bath time with the sexual abuse occurring between August 1, 2008 and May 11, 2009.

Reportedly, the girl’s mother started to suspect abuse, when she discovered the 5-year-old in an inappropriate act with her own younger brother. Allegedly the girl told her parents that Shelley had done the same thing to her.

Shelley turned himself in to authorities on Monday and was subsequently released on $25,000 bond.

Reportedly, Shelley has been placed on paid administrative leave by the school board.

Baltimore transit officer charged with rape

BALTIMORE — A Maryland Transit Administration police officer has been charged with raping a 15-year-old Elkridge girl who asked him for help finding her way home on the light rail, according to charging documents.

Officer Donald Brown was taken into custody June 24 after the Howard County Police Department was contacted by a case worker for a local foster care organization. The girl told police that she thought she was being escorted to a police station to make arrangements to get home but was instead taken to Brown’s top-floor apartment in downtown Baltimore, where they had sex.

He then gave her $25 to get back home and told her to leave, according to police.

Brown was charged with first-degree rape, various sex offense charges, use of a handgun in a violent crime and kidnapping a child under age 16. He was initially ordered held without bond, though a District Court judge on Thursday set a bail at $500,000. He remained in custody Monday afternoon.

MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene confirmed that Brown is a member of the force and said he has been suspended without pay. She said the agency could not comment further.

Woman Alleges Rape at Georgia Police Station

A woman is suing the city of Woodstock and a narcotics officer she said raped her at a police station. She said the incident happened after she agreed to work as a confidential informant after a drug arrest.

The allegations were laid out in a federal lawsuit that Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Regan obtained. It was filed Wednesday in the U.S. district court.

Because there are no criminal charges filed, Channel 2 is withholding the name of the officer.

“He told me he was going to put me in jail if I didn’t cooperate,” said the alleged victim.

A 47-year-old woman asked Channel 2 Action News to conceal her identity as she described her account of rape and sexual assault by a former Woodstock narcotics officer. She said the incident happened the night of Jan. 28, 2008 inside a room at the police station.

“He asked me to lift up my shirt at the beginning of the room. And he took me to the back of the room and I knew…I knew just what was going to happen,” she said.

When interviewed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, she said the officer told her repeatedly that “she owed him” for not arresting her a second time on drug charges.

“I asked him, “Why are you doing this?” He said I needed to remember where I was at and that I could go to jail,” said the alleged victim.

The officer named in the lawsuit denied the allegations when questioned by GBI investigators. The report concluded there was no DNA evidence that an assault took place.

But the lawyer of the alleged victim questioned why the officer resigned the day an internal investigation was to begin.

“I think he quit the day he was supposed to be polygraphed. To me, that’s significant,” said attorney Ralph Goldberg.

The Woodstock city attorney told me the lawsuit is without merit and there is no physical evidence to support the allegations.

Cherokee County district attorney Gary Moss said, while there is insufficient evidence to bring indictments in the case, the case remains active.

Copyright 2009 by wsbtv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Pig receives probation for aggravated rape, battery and attempted sexual battery

EDGARD, La. — A former lieutenant in the St. John the Baptist Sheriff’s Office pleaded guilty Friday to two felony counts and received a sentence of 10 years of probation.

Wayne Schaeffer was indicted in January 2008 on charges of aggravated rape, battery and attempted sexual battery. The felony counts were filed after several women came forward during an I-Team investigation into Schaeffer’s conduct.

He pleaded guilty to two counts: malfeasance in office and second-degree battery.

In addition to probation, Schaeffer was ordered to pay fines and court costs. The sentence also contains restrictions regarding contact with his accusers.

“He can’t contact them via email or text messaging,” prosecutor Robin O’Bannon told WDSU outside the Edgard courthouse after proceedings. “He can’t get on any internet website and blog about this case or write about them or mention their names in any way”

“He also needs to stay outside of 300 feet from them at all times, including their family members — parents, spouses, siblings, children.”

If convicted on all of the original charges, Schaeffer could have received a sentence that would have kept him in prison for the rest of his life. By pleading guilty to the limited charges and adhering to the judge’s conditions, he avoids prison time.

Abeer means “fragrance of flowers”

See also:

US Army media brief for rape and murder of 14 year old Iraqi girl and family by 101st soldiers, 2006

Green trial prosecutors tell of gruesome scene

Jury set for Steven Dale Green, charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family

US Army media brief for rape and murder of 14 year old Iraqi girl and family by 101st soldiers, 2006

Download document here.

See also:

Green trial prosecutors tell of gruesome scene

Jury set for Steven Dale Green, charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family

Green trial prosecutors tell of gruesome scene

PADUCAH, Ky. — A former U.S. Army soldier accused of raping an Iraqi girl and killing her and her family was upset after losing multiple friends in combat but didn’t appear to struggle more than anyone else in the unit, one of his commanding officers said.

Steven Dale Green, 23, of Midland, Texas, faces more than a dozen charges, including sexual assault and four counts of murder, stemming from the March 2006 attack in Iraq’s so-called “Triangle of Death.” He has pleaded not guilty to killing the 14-year-old girl, her mother, father and 6-year-old sister.

Colonel Todd Ebel told jurors on the first day of the trial Monday that he spoke with Green in December 2005 about losing soldiers to enemy attacks. But, Ebel said, beyond frustration, the private didn’t appear unfit to remain in the Army.

“Yes, he was frustrated with Iraqis,” Ebel said. “Mostly, he was frustrated with the idea that we can’t recognize [insurgents]. They don’t wear uniforms.”

Ebel was expected to open testimony Tuesday morning, when Green’s attorneys would get a chance to question him about how the unit was handled and the conditions under which they served.

Prosecutors said in opening statements that Green and three other soldiers attacked the family at their home near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Skaret said Green fatally shot the rest of the family before becoming the third soldier to rape the teenager.

After he shot the girl in the face several times, Green used kerosene to set fire to her body, Skaret said.

See also: Jury set for Steven Dale Green, charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family

Military seeks “the Right Stuff” via “Moral Waivers”

The military is increasingly issuing something called “moral waivers,” so they can enlist military personnel with felony convictions for crimes like rape and sexual assault.

“We don’t enlist convicted rapists in the armed forces of the United States,” said Michael Dominguez, the principal under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness. “If there’s a consensus ‘that kid needs a second chance, I think he’s got it in him to be a solider,’ then they’ll let him into the armed forces.”

In fact, CBS News has learned that both the Army and Marine Corps did issue a number of “moral waivers” to enlistees with felony convictions for rape and sexual assault – something not acknowledged in a follow-up letter from Dominguez.

From CBS:

Ex-Ellsworth officer, charged with rape and incest, wants statements tossed

RAPID CITY, S.D. — A former Air Force sergeant charged with rape, aggravated incest and sexual contact wants his statements to police thrown out.

A lawyer for 42-year-old Frank Ashley wants to suppress his client’s statements. Ashley claims he asked for an attorney but was questioned anyway. A judge will hear the arguments next week.

Authorities allege the crimes occurred between 1998 and 2007 when Ashley was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

Ashley, who faces charges in both Pennington and Meade counties, was arrested in California last summer.

The judge granted Ashley’s request to examine an expert witness the state plans to use in the case.

Detective to be tried for attempting rape of step-daughter, 15

RIVERSIDE – A Pomona Police Department detective will stand trial on charges he molested and tried to rape his adopted daughter.

At a preliminary hearing Thursday in Riverside Superior Court, Judge Judson W. Morris Jr. found there was sufficient evidence to try Donald Sevesind on three counts of lewd acts upon a teenager and one count of attempted rape.

Sevesind, 49, of Riverside, is a 25-year veteran of the Pomona Police Department, specializing in burglary investigations. He has been on administrative leave since his arrest.

Prosecutors say between summer 2005 and April 2006, the detective entered his then-15-year-old daughter’s room and molested her.