The Pedophile File

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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Dec 15, 2016 4:02 pm

I was raped by my gymnastics coach; 'We were trained to say nothing bothered us'
By ESPN.COM NEWS SERVICES via ESPN Dec 15, 2016, 2:41 PM ET

The following was told to espnW by a former gymnast whose coach was found guilty of rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. She felt compelled to share her ordeal after recent reports that USA Gymnastics has repeatedly failed to report abuse cases?in the hopes that her story, when added to the voices of other young women, can help to enact change.?

To prevent retaliation or harassment, we are not identifying her or the coach involved.

It had been three years since we started having sex when the man who would later be convicted of raping me took me to an abortion clinic. He had scheduled the appointment for after my 18th birthday so that I wouldn't need a parent to sign their permission for the procedure.

We went to a clinic that was an hour from where he lived and he dropped me off at the corner because he didn't want to be seen. I went in by myself, and I sat there in this room full of scared young women, all of whom had someone to support them except for me.

I was taken into the back room. I remember lying down on the table and then waking up on the table. But I was in a total daze. They wheeled me out into the waiting room and I said, "I'm ready to go." And when they asked whether someone was there to pick me up, I said, "I'm sure he's waiting outside."

And there he was, waiting in his car. He took me to a restaurant, and I ate two bites of food, then ran to the restroom and vomited violently. We went back to his house and he had to go coach gymnastics, so he left me there. And I remember thinking, "What the f---? Why am I doing this? Why isn't somebody taking care of me right now?"

I had my follow-up appointment scheduled for a week later, and during recovery you're not supposed to have sex. But the night before I was supposed to go, he forced me to have sex with him because he "just couldn't wait that long."

I thought, "What am I doing with this guy?" This wasn't a real relationship.


You'd think that any interactions with a child predator would be scary, but my first moments with that coach?didn't scare me one bit. I was a gymnast, and he came up from Connecticut for a meet with our gym in Massachusetts, and then all of the gymnasts and coaches went to an amusement park together.

I was 13 years old, and I remember thinking he was very handsome and exuberant and had this larger-than-life personality. He was 33, and everybody wanted to be around him. He was one of those people who made you think, "I would like him to notice me."

On that first day, we were all standing in line for a roller coaster, singing the Billy Joel song "Captain Jack." He came up to us, a bunch of 13-year-olds, and was like, "You know what that song is about, right?" And we said, "It's about a captain! Captain Jack?" And he said, "No, that song is about masturbation."

And I don't know if I'd even heard someone say that word out loud before -- and obviously never a gymnastics coach. Looking back, it was this icebreaker. He threw this word out there, and all of a sudden we went from being coaches and athletes to having an adult conversation. And every teenager wants that, right?

At the end of the day he gave me a jacket from his gym, and I was the only person he gave one to, so I thought, "This is somebody who is so interesting and everyone wants to be around him, and yet he's paying attention to me."


I can trace everything back to that day. I wasn't the best gymnast in the gym, so his attention was a way for me to stand out. This amazing coach has noticed me. From that day onward, I was excited to see him, and we'd see each other fairly often at gymnastics meets and at a summer camp.

For two or three weeks in July, he and two other coaches would run a gymnastics camp. It was usually held on a college campus, and we'd train during the day, stay in dorm rooms at night and do some normal summer camp things when we weren't in the gym, such as campfires and talent shows.

But it was far from a wholesome camp experience, at least for me. Once you became a junior counselor around age 14, you were a part of the staff, and although you still trained during the day, you were allowed to hang out with the coaches at night, drinking and playing games that included things like strip poker and group showers. And that sexual environment often carried over to the daytime workouts.

Once, I finished a tumbling pass at camp and was walking past the coach when he turned to another coach and said, in front of me, "It's taking all of my willpower not to go after that one." I was 14 years old, walking past him in a leotard.

It didn't matter to me that this older coach shouldn't be making those comments. From my perspective, it was just nice to be noticed. This gymnastics camp was billed by our coaches as something special -- you're part of it, and it's a family. Whatever happens here stays here. And if people didn't subscribe to this and stopped coming to the camp, they would be shunned. God, you didn't want to be outside the circle.

As gymnasts, we were conditioned to show how tough we could be, how little emotion we could show. We were trained to say that nothing bothered us and not show any sign of fear or pain.

It all clouded my ability to see that what was happening with this coach was wrong.

The first time he kissed me was in a moving truck. I was 14. He was driving. It was at the end of camp, and we were bringing mats back to one of the gyms. I remember he asked me to come sit on his lap -- while the truck was speeding down the highway. My heart was racing, knowing that something was going to happen. I was completely inexperienced with boys at that point, and then all of a sudden my coach was French-kissing me.

Not long after, we were alone, and he had me put my hand down his pants and touch his penis. I knew this was not normal, and afterward I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't talk to anybody the next day. Now when I look back, I can see clearly that it was a violation -- that I had trusted this person, and he went way too far. At the time, I thought I was ready for something like this. But when this very adult thing happened, I wasn't ready at all.

We talked later about it on the phone, and he said, "Maybe you can't handle this. Maybe you aren't as mature as I thought you were." He was challenging me. I was supposed to rise to it, not shy away from it. So I said, "No, no, I can handle this. I do want to be with you." And I actually thought we were in a consensual relationship.

He would say, "You can't tell anyone. I could go to jail. What we have is special; no one will understand." That never triggered in my mind that something was wrong. I wanted to think that we did have something special, and I never told anyone.

He continued to pursue me. We had intercourse when I was 15. It wasn't pleasant -- it was painful. But I remember walking away and feeling proud of myself, like I got through it. It was like in gymnastics, when you do that move that you're so scared to do.

The thing I was most scared of was getting caught, because I thought I was going to get in trouble. I thought I was the one doing something wrong.


The turning point for me wasn't that abortion at age 18. It was about two years after that, when I was hanging out with a couple of the gymnasts he coached, and I heard about a woman he was dating. I thought that he was cheating on me, so I went back to his house, where I'd been staying, and started searching for evidence.

I found a letter one of his former athletes wrote to him, talking about how he manipulated her into having sex with him when she was 15. She said she remembered the first time he entered her and how she cried, and how he would bribe her with gifts and money not to tell anyone, that she would sneak out of her house to meet with him.

I didn't understand. It felt like I was reading about myself. I started to realize that I wasn't special -- he had done the same thing in the past. He was a predator. I couldn't believe there was another "me" out there.

I confronted him about it, but he somehow twisted it around so that I was in the wrong for snooping in his house. He raged at me, and I was scared of his anger. I came away feeling guilty -- that I had done something wrong. And I wanted to believe that I was wrong about what I'd found. So I didn't walk away, but I was very suspicious from that point forward, and finding that letter was the best thing that could have happened to me. It shifted my path forever.

A few months later, he called me and told me that three women -- in addition to the woman who had written that letter -- had accused him of sexual abuse and that there would be an article coming out in the newspaper. He said he felt horrible that he'd ruined so many people's lives. It was the one moment when he displayed any sense of wrongdoing. Later, he would fight tooth and nail against the allegations. He said the girls were all older than 16, the age of consent, and that yes, he had relationships with them, but considered it dating because he'd been only 25 at the time.

I often wonder why I stuck by him as I watched the investigation go on. But I never felt a draw to stand beside these other women. There was a part of me that still wanted to hang on to this idea that his relationship with me was different.

The accusations from those four women didn't lead to any criminal charges because they couldn't prove the girls had been under 16. But he was banned from USA Gymnastics in 1998. He could no longer be a member. He made a big deal out of it at the time, but I remember thinking that it didn't seem to have any impact on his life. Maybe parents didn't fully understand what had happened because he tried to garner a lot of sympathy, claiming it was all untrue and unfair. Only a few parents took their gymnasts out of his gym, and he competed with his team under different organizations instead of USA Gymnastics. He still was a director at the camp, and it seemed as if other coaches stood by him.

When I look back at this, it makes me feel very frustrated by USA Gymnastics. I often think that I could have been saved if its policies were different. It all comes from the leadership down, and unless the leadership stands up and says, "We are not going to tolerate this," nothing will change*. It needs to say, "Anyone who crosses a toe over the line we're drawing here is going to be out. You will be banned. We'll talk to our sister organizations, and you won't be able to find a loophole and have access to kids. You can't run a gymnastics camp."


I moved across the country shortly after he was banned to pursue a graduate degree and because I knew I needed to get away from him.

After moving, I was talking to a fellow grad student who asked, "So what was your longest relationship?" I told him seven years, and he couldn't believe it. I told him it started when I was 14, and it was with someone 20 years older than me. It was the first time I'd said any of this out loud.

And this guy just looked at me and says, "You know that's illegal, right?" I felt like I had broken through into another universe, where there were clear lines and boundaries. I didn't have any of that in gymnastics. And I thought, "Holy s---, what happened to me was wrong."

I didn't want to bring him down, though. I just didn't want to be a part of it anymore. So I tried to reclaim my life far away from New England. But my part in it wasn't over.

A close friend was training to be a therapist, and one day, in 2006, she talked to her own therapist about the way our gymnastics coaches had treated us. She also told her what had happened to me. And her therapist said, "Thank you for sharing that with me. I'm required by law to report this." It was just like that.

The therapist told my friend that we could report it ourselves if we wanted to, or she would do it. I felt like my entire perspective shifted again. Even though I knew that it had been illegal, I still thought of the relationship as mostly consensual. I'd never thought that what happened to me was a crime that needed to be reported right away, and for the first time I realized this could be happening to other girls, right then. I knew I had to report it.


The process of going to trial would deter anybody from reporting sexual abuse. The district attorney warned me that it would feel like I was the one on trial. I didn't know what that meant when he said it, but I lived it. Everything that you do is under scrutiny. Your character is questioned. People blog about you and call you a liar and say this is unrequited love or you're just doing this to get attention.

Throughout the three weeks of trial in 2010, the defense attorney would say things like, "Are you sure you didn't lie in your journal?" Or, "Weren't you a very mature 14-year-old?" It was degrading and infuriating, and then we finally got to the end, and the prosecution team told me I needed to be prepared that the jury might come back with a not-guilty verdict.

My heart was pounding when they read the verdicts, and I just froze when they said guilty on every count: rape of a child (three counts) and indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 (two counts). In the elevator as I left the courthouse, I collapsed and cried hysterically. I am so grateful for that jury.

During the trial, many people had come forward with stories of abuse from the same man. I met the woman who had sent the letter that I had found in his house -- the letter that had changed my life. I remember this amazing sense of community, that all of these women whom I'd never met before could tell the same story about their childhood as I could. There was so much positive energy in such a negative situation. We had been an army of women, and the pain we'd suffered as kids was validated by that verdict.


I've had people tell me how strong I was to go to court and take this guy down. I know it's meant as a compliment, and I try to hold on to that. But if I could go back and have none of this happen to me, I would do that in a second.

When I look back on my childhood, I wonder who I would be without this experience. I still have nightmares that coaches are coming after me, looking for revenge. I'm scared of when he gets out of jail. It's something that will always be with me, and I know I can never get those years of my life back.

Some of the best people in my life have constantly reminded me that we are not our experiences -- that, as the quote says, we can take the lesson but leave the situation. And I do take this: We brought a group of women together who were so scared and alone, ashamed and hurt, and we created a community of survivors. And we made sure that this man could never hurt another girl.

* In a statement to espnW, USA Gymnastics said?it received a complaint about the coach in 1997 from adults who had previously been athletes in USAG. The organization hired a retired FBI agent, who investigated the complaint and spoke with local authorities. The investigation resulted in the termination of the coach's professional membership, public notice of that termination and a lifetime ban on his participation in sanctioned competitions and other events. None of the existing USAG staff was with the organization at the time the original complaint was filed.

"It is heartbreaking and unacceptable for a young person to have the intolerable burden that results from being a victim of sexual misconduct," USAG chief executive officer Steve Penny said in the statement. "We share the outrage that sexual assault victims and their families feel. This is why USA Gymnastics has implemented SafeSport training?and created educational materials that encourage members to contact law enforcement first when reporting incidents of abuse."
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/raped-gymn ... d=44218997


Report: At least 368 youth gymnasts abused over last 20 years

Jay BusbeeFourth-Place MedalDec 15, 2016, 1:02 PM

A far-reaching Indianapolis Star report indicates that at least 368 youth gymnasts have been abused while in gymnastics programs over the last 20 years, with 115 adults accused of abuse in locations all over the country.

The hard numbers are a follow-up to an August IndyStar report entitled “Out of Balance,” which charged that USA Gymnastics protected coaches over potentially abused gymnasts. This new report, the culmination of thousands of documents from multiple states, puts numbers to the charges.

“USA Gymnastics is proud of the work it has done to address and guard against child sexual abuse,” the organization said in a statement to the IndyStar. However, the organization has also declined to make its leaders available for interviews, and according to the Star has continued to delay the release of documents related to abuse of gymnasts despite court orders to do so.

Team USA’s recent run of gold-medal success at the Olympics notwithstanding, many involved in the world of gymnastics want USA Gymnastics to do more to help combat abuse, both punishing abusers and protecting potentially vulnerable gymnasts. “It saddens me because I love our sport,” Molly Shawen-Kollmann, a former member of the U.S. national team and now a coach, told the IndyStar. “This is not indicative of who we want to be. As an organization, they aren’t doing their job.”

The sport of gymnastics is particularly vulnerable not only to abuse, given how frequently coaches are in close contact with athletes, but also to cover-ups. Since judgment of gymnasts is so subjective at every level, many observers indicate that there’s an unspoken pressure to go along and get along, not to make waves or accusations that disrupt standard operations.

“Many of the girls said they trusted their coaches to do the right thing,” the article’s authors wrote. “Some believed they were in love with their coaches. Others blamed themselves for the abuse. Several had Olympic dreams, which their coaches exploited. A number of the coaches befriended the parents of the children they abused. Some victims eventually became afraid of their abusers.”

“We find it appalling that anyone would exploit a young athlete or child in this manner, and recognize the effect this behavior can have on a person’s life,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement. “USA Gymnastics has been proactive in helping to educate the gymnastics community and will continue to take every punitive action available within our jurisdiction and cooperate fully with law enforcement.”

However, the IndyStar contends many who have sought to bring abuse allegations against their coaches have found that the organization is not as responsive or sympathetic to victims’ concerns as it could be, prizing winning and growth over gymnast protection.

The IndyStar’s investigation continues. For the full report, which is well worth a read, click here.
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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/report-at- ... 45955.html


A 20-year toll: 368 gymnasts allege sexual exploitation

IndyStar investigations revealed that children were being abused in gymnastics gyms, but no one knew how widespread the problem was. Until now.

Tim Evans ,

Mark Alesia and

Marisa Kwiatkowski , IndyStar

A 12-year-old gymnast molested by an Olympic coach during “therapy” sessions.

Children as young as 6 secretly photographed nude by coaches.

Coaches who slipped a finger inside girls’ leotards.

A coach having almost daily sex with a 14-year-old at one of the country’s most prestigious gyms.

No one knows exactly how many children have been sexually exploited in America’s gyms over the past 20 years. But an IndyStar-USA TODAY Network review of hundreds of police files and court cases across the country provides for the first time a measure of just how pervasive the problem is.

At least 368 gymnasts have alleged some form of sexual abuse at the hands of their coaches, gym owners and other adults working in gymnastics. That’s a rate of one every 20 days. And it's likely an undercount.

IndyStar previously reported that top officials at USA Gymnastics, one of the nation’s most prominent Olympic organizations, failed to alert police to many allegations of sexual abuse that occurred on their watch and stashed complaints in files that have been kept secret. But the problem is far worse. A nine-month investigation found that predatory coaches were allowed to move from gym to gym, undetected by a lax system of oversight, or dangerously passed on by USA Gymnastics-certified gyms.

USA Gymnastics calls itself a leader in child safety. In a statement responding to IndyStar’s questions, it said: “Nothing is more important to USA Gymnastics, the Board of Directors and CEO Steve Penny than protecting athletes, which requires sustained vigilance by everyone — coaches, athletes, parents, administrators and officials. We are saddened when any athlete has been harmed in the course of his or her gymnastics career.”

The organization noted several initiatives aimed at creating a safer environment, including the use of criminal background checks for coaches, the practice of publishing the names of coaches banned from its competitions, and programs that provide educational materials to member gyms.

But IndyStar’s investigation found:

• USA Gymnastics focuses its efforts to stop sexual abuse on educating members instead of setting strict ground rules and enforcing them. It says it can't take aggressive action because member gyms are independent businesses and because of restrictions in federal law pertaining to Olympic organizations. Both are contentions others dispute.

• Gym owners have a conflict of interest when it comes to reporting abuse. Some fear harm to their business. When confronted with evidence of abuse, many quietly have fired the suspected abusers and failed to warn future employers. Some of those dangerous coaches continued to work with children.

• Some coaches are fired at gym after gym without being tracked or flagged by USA Gymnastics, or losing their membership with the organization. USA Gymnastics often has no idea when a coach is fired by a gym and no systematic way to keep track. Ray Adams was fired or forced to resign from six gyms in four states. Yet some gym owners hired Adams, believing his record was clean.

• Though the vast majority of officials put children’s well-being ahead of business and competition, some officials at every level have not. Coaches suspected of abuse kept their jobs as long as they accepted special monitoring. Others were allowed to finish their season before being fired. In 2009, Doug Boger was named a USA Gymnastics Coach of the Year and was sent to international competition while under investigation for alleged sexual abuse.

• Victims’ stories have been treated with skepticism by USA Gymnastics officials, gym owners, coaches and parents. Former gymnasts Charmaine Carnes and Jennifer Sey said they felt pressured by Penny not to pursue allegations of abuse by prominent coaches Don Peters and Boger. Carnes said she thought Penny tried to keep the claims about Boger quiet for as long as possible to protect the sport’s image and win championships, a characterization that USA Gymnastics disputes.

In its statement to IndyStar, USA Gymnastics said it is constantly striving to improve.

In the wake of IndyStar’s August investigation, USA Gymnastics hired a former prosecutor to evaluate its bylaws and offer advice on how to strengthen its policies. It also established a policy review panel on its board of directors.

“USA Gymnastics is proud of the work it has done to address and guard against child sexual abuse,” the organization said in materials provided to IndyStar.

USA Gymnastics also said it's playing a central role in developing a U.S. Center for SafeSport to oversee education programs and investigate and adjudicate claims of sexual misconduct for all U.S. Olympic Committee governing bodies.

USA Gymnastics has touted its many successes, including years of expansion and recent domination by Team USA at the Olympics. But administrators in the Indianapolis-based organization have declined numerous interview requests from IndyStar.
Image
USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny during the women's
USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny during the women's gymnastics U.S. Olympic team trials at SAP Center, San Jose, California, Friday, July 8, 2016.
(Photo: Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)

Penny, who has been president since 2005, declined to be interviewed for this and other stories. Neither the chairman of USA Gymnastics’ board, Paul Parilla, nor board members responded to interview requests.

During IndyStar’s investigation, USA Gymnastics agreed to one interview with its lawyer and public relations chief. Otherwise, officials have accepted only written questions and responded with often incomplete written replies. Many questions have gone unanswered.

USA Gymnastics and Penny have taken other steps to keep details of abuse cases secret. The organization as well as individual member gyms have entered confidentiality agreements as part of settlements in negligence cases with gymnasts claiming abuse.

And in court, USA Gymnastics has fought the release of documents that would show how Penny and other top officials have dealt with molestation allegations.

IndyStar went to court in Georgia and won a case in August to unseal depositions and sexual misconduct complaint files on 54 coaches. The Georgia Supreme Court confirmed that ruling in October and ordered the documents to be made public. But USA Gymnastics is continuing to fight, delaying the release.

Many who want reforms in Olympic sports said they are frustrated by the lack of meaningful action.

"It saddens me because I love our sport,” said Molly Shawen-Kollmann, a former member of the U.S. national team and current coach in the Cincinnati area. “This is not indicative of who we want to be. As an organization, they aren't doing their job."
Image
Nancy Hogshead-Makar is an Olympic gold-medal swimmer
Nancy Hogshead-Makar is an Olympic gold-medal swimmer and attorney who is now CEO of the advocacy group Champion Women.
(Photo: Robert Scheer/IndyStar)

“There's paranoia at all levels... It's hard to take a stand.”

Mike Jacki, former USA Gymnastics president
“It’s very serious,” said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an Olympic gold-medal swimmer and attorney who is now CEO of the advocacy group Champion Women. "It's just too easy for coaches to keep getting hired and hired and hired. Sexual abuse thrives on the fact that people are embarrassed about the topic, ashamed to talk about it, and they keep quiet about it. And that's exactly why molesting coaches keep getting hired at the next place. Nobody talks about a coach that is inappropriate with athletes; the coach quietly moves away and gets hired someplace else."

Mike Jacki, USA Gymnastics president from 1983 to 1994, noted that gymnastics is a sport in which winners and losers are determined by subjective judging. An outspoken gym owner or coach might fear gymnasts will be left off elite teams, including the Olympic team, which is chosen by a committee except for the all-around winner at the Olympic trials. For athletes with even modest ambition at the local level, it's wise not to make enemies.

"There's paranoia at all levels," Jacki said. "It's hard to take a stand."


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Out of Balance

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The warning a number gives you

Evidence of the hundreds of gymnasts exploited by their coaches over the years is buried in court documents and police reports across the nation. Often the children are mentioned by their initials or identified as “Victim 1.”

To tally the number of potential victims, IndyStar reporters scoured thousands of pages of public records and two decades of news stories.

Reporters also interviewed more than 100 people, including gym owners, athletes, coaches, police officers, prosecutors and child advocates, as well as survivors who came forward after the newspaper’s original investigation in August. More than 80 others declined to talk publicly.

All told, 115 adults at every level of the sport, from respected Olympic mentors to novices working with recreational gymnasts, were accused. The alleged abuse happened in every part of the U.S. — from Maine to California, Washington to Florida, and across the Midwest.

In Michigan, longtime girls gymnastics coach Phillip Paige Bishop was convicted in 2010 of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for molesting a 10-year-old girl. Bishop went to prison and was required to register as a sex offender.

In Pennsylvania, coach Keith R. Callen was arrested in May and charged with sexual assault by a sports official and other counts in connection with alleged incidents involving a female teenage gymnast over a two-year period starting in 2012. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

In California, dentist and gymnastics coach David Reiakvam pleaded guilty in 2012 to molesting two girls who lived with the coach and his wife. One, an elite acrobatic gymnast, said he began raping her at age 13. The other said at sentencing, “It’s not the predator in the bushes you need to worry about. It’s those in positions of power and authority … who harm precious and vulnerable children.”

Other victims included casual athletes and elite-level performers such as Olympians. They were teenagers and preteens. The youngest was 6. Almost all of them were girls.

They encountered the men accused of abusing them everywhere from a Rhode Island YMCA to the famous Karolyi Ranch in Texas, where USA Gymnastics sends its top female athletes to train.

It’s unclear how many of the alleged victims and coaches were USA Gymnastics members, because the organization does not disclose that information.

Many of the girls said they trusted their coaches to do the right thing. Some believed they were in love with their coaches. Others blamed themselves for the abuse. Several had Olympic dreams, which their coaches exploited. A number of the coaches befriended the parents of the children they abused. Some victims eventually became afraid of their abusers.

Former coach Jeffrey Bettman, who pleaded guilty this year to child pornography charges, hid cameras in changing rooms in gyms in California and Oregon over the course of a decade. William McCabe pleaded guilty in 2006 to doing the same thing in his Georgia gym.

Marvin Sharp, the 2010 national Women's Coach of the
Marvin Sharp, the 2010 national Women's Coach of the Year, is walked from court at the City-County Building in Indianapolis on Aug. 26, 2015. The former Olympic coach from Indianapolis was charged with posing girls as young as 6 with their genitals exposed, according to court records. He killed himself in jail.
(Photo: Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar 2015 file photo)

Marvin Sharp, a former Olympic coach from Indianapolis, orchestrated what parents and gymnasts believed were legitimate photo shoots. But in 2015 he was charged with posing girls as young as 6 with their genitals exposed, according to court records. He killed himself in jail.

Some victims regarded their coaches as parental figures. They were eager to please the coaches — even if it meant giving in to sexual demands.

Others, such as the 14-year-old girl sexually assaulted by former coach Christopher Wagoner in Texas, were convinced they were involved in legitimate romantic relationships with adults entrusted with their care.

USA Gymnastics member Kenneth Arnold, 28, was arrested in November after he was accused of inappropriately touching young girls at a gym in Zionsville, Indiana. Arnold, who has pleaded not guilty to child molestation and battery charges, is accused of pulling back the leotards of two gymnasts and touching their vaginas during gymnastics training.

And just last week, police arrested Joseph Hannon, 21, on an allegation of predatory criminal sexual contact with a 9-year-old girl at a USA Gymnastics member gym in Sycamore, Illinois. Police said Hannon, whose attorney said he will enter a not guilty plea Jan. 6, was on probation for a felony drug offense when he allegedly abused the girl.

The number of sexual abuse cases identified by IndyStar was surprising given how little publicity the issue of sex abuse in gymnastics has received, said Marci Hamilton, CEO of CHILD USA, a research and advocacy group based at the University of Pennsylvania.

It also concerned her that no one had bothered to count until now.

“I’m sad for all the parents and athletes who didn’t have the kind of warning that that number gives you,” Hamilton said. “But my guess is that it’s a pretty severe undercount.”

Hamilton and other experts said the actual number of victims is likely far higher — perhaps three to five times more — because the vast majority never come forward to report their abuser. Reporting rates, Hamilton said, may be even lower in sports because of the power coaches have over their athletes


An IndyStar investigation found that at least 368 athletes alleged some form of sexual abuse in gymnastics in the last two decades. Nate Chute/IndyStar

USA Gymnastics said it did not know how many children have alleged sexual abuse against its members.

Not all gyms and gymnasts in America are members of USA Gymnastics. But the Indianapolis-based national governing body is the country’s largest gymnastics organization, controlling the path to the Olympics, setting rules and policies that govern the sport, and promoting gymnastics on the grass-roots level. USA Gymnastics’ membership includes more than 125,000 athletes; 25,000 professional members, which includes coaches; and 3,450 clubs.

The organization's statement also said: “We find it appalling that anyone would exploit a young athlete or child in this manner, and recognize the effect this behavior can have on a person’s life. USA Gymnastics has been proactive in helping to educate the gymnastics community and will continue to take every punitive action available within our jurisdiction and cooperate fully with law enforcement.”

A painful process

Yet several people interviewed by IndyStar described the culture fostered by USA Gymnastics as being obsessed with winning, protective of coaches and dismissive of sexual assault charges leveled by athletes.

Former gymnast Charmaine Carnes told IndyStar she felt discouraged by Penny’s reaction to a sexual abuse complaint she and seven other women filed with the organization in 2009. Penny never told her not to pursue the complaint, she said, but she called his response “demeaning.”

“You can’t win championships... if you’re busting all your best coaches.”

Charmaine Carnes, former gymnast
The women came forward after learning Boger was still coaching more than two decades after he was charged with sexually abusing a gymnast in the early 1980s. He was acquitted on that charge.

In their 2009 letter to Penny, the women said they all had been mentally, physically or sexually abused by Boger in the 1980s. They asked that USA Gymnastics revoke his membership. Boger, who did not respond to IndyStar’s request for comment, previously denied the abuse allegations.

Carnes described the investigative process by officials at USA Gymnastics as “long, arduous, painful,” and at times so adversarial that the women felt as if they were being accused. It “seemed like he thought they were exaggerating,” she said of Penny.

The women said they believed they weren’t being taken seriously. As the investigation was underway, USA Gymnastics named Boger a national Coach of the Year and sent him with the U.S. team to the 2009 World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia.

“I would put that person on some sort of leave, some sort of something where they’re not continuing to train young gymnasts while this investigation is going on,” Carnes said. “But Mr. Penny didn’t do that.”

In its statement to IndyStar, USA Gymnastics explained that “the individuals responsible for the Coach of the Year award were not aware that Mr. Boger was under investigation.”

Carnes said she thinks Penny tried to keep the claims about Boger quiet as long as he could to protect the sport’s image.

“You can’t win championships,” she said, “if you’re busting all your best coaches.”

Jennifer Sey, the 1986 all-around national champion, described a similar experience. In 2011, several gymnasts said Don Peters, who headed the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, had sexually abused them years earlier.

Sey said she was not abused by Peters, who has denied the allegations, but when victims came forward, she offered them support.

“They started out writing nice letters, asking for help and engagement,” Sey said. Instead, the accusers faced pushback from the USA Gymnastics chief. Ultimately, she said, the women went to the Orange County (Calif.) Register newspaper: “That was the reason it got pushed to that — they didn’t get cooperation from Mr. Penny,” she said.

After a series of stories published in 2011, USA Gymnastics banned Boger and Peters from participating in its competitions. Neither was criminally charged, in part because the statute of limitations had elapsed.

USA Gymnastics wrote that the ways in which Carnes and Sey characterized the investigation “do not reflect our recollection, and we work to treat anyone in these circumstances with dignity and respect.”

USA Gymnastics also said the SafeSport center, set to open early next year, should improve child safety. But some child advocates fear the center is more about public relations than combating abuse. They say the U.S. Olympic Committee’s desire to maintain a golden image may conflict with the goal of exposing child abuse in its ranks.

“It detracts from the stories they want to tell,” said Hogshead-Makar. "'We are winning in the Olympics and look at these amazing stories and the obstacles they’ve had to overcome, and the triumph.’ Nobody is more of a sucker for those stories than I am. But, at the same time, we have to make sure sport is safe for everyone."

'A passionate and energetic advocate'

When asked why USA Gymnastics does not take a more aggressive approach to weeding out potential wrongdoing, many gymnasts and some current and former employees of USA Gymnastics cited Penny.

Penny, whose long career in sports management included stints at USA Cycling and the Seattle Mariners, came to USA Gymnastics in 1999 as vice president of marketing with the goal of growing the sport.

During his tenure, the organization’s elite athletes experienced their greatest successes on the international stage. USA Gymnastics has signed up a growing list of big-time sponsors, including Kellogg’s and Hershey’s, which have pumped millions of dollars into a national governing body that was deep in debt when it arrived in Indianapolis in 1983.

Penny, who was paid $557,867 in 2014, according to most recently available public tax records, has been highly protective of the USA Gymnastics brand. He shares this driving mantra often in interviews: Win medals, grow the sport, improve customer service and increase visibility.

Some described the physically imposing CEO as domineering, not accepting of criticism and sometimes quick to anger.

When asked whether those were fair characterizations, USA Gymnastics issued the following statement, which it said should be attributed to Parilla, the board chairman: “Steve is a passionate and energetic advocate for our athletes, members and our sport. Steve’s executive style has evolved as he has grown professionally and he is viewed as an effective leader for the organization. He has always been open to feedback from the board, has its full support, and today leads USA Gymnastics in a highly professional manner.”

In more than a dozen cases reviewed by IndyStar, gymnasts, coaches, gym owners and others expressed disappointment with USA Gymnastics' response when they contacted the organization about potential sexual misconduct. Some said they never received a reply.

One was Jennifer Baldwin, a detective at the Redmond, Washington, Police Department, who was investigating sexual abuse allegations against a gym owner and coach in 2003.

“I made at least 3 calls to US Gymnastics requesting someone call me regarding Child Abuse with no return calls,” the detective wrote in her report.

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Stopping short of setting the standard

Over the years, USA Gymnastics has taken some steps to combat child abuse, but it has been reluctant to enforce strong standards for its member coaches and gyms. Instead, its efforts rest primarily in publishing information and offering advice to its more than 3,400 member clubs.

USA Gymnastics established a list of coaches and others who are “permanently ineligible for membership” in 1997. The ban prevented coaches from participating in competitions but not from working in member gyms.

A decade later, it began requiring background checks for coaches. In 2009, USA Gymnastics adopted a participant welfare policy, which outlines requirements and recommendations for creating a safe environment.

In 2011, rocked by allegations about Boger and Peters, USA Gymnastics stopped allowing coaches banned from its competitions to work in its member gyms.

“Member clubs are provided with a number of resources regarding business best practices, including Safe Sport,” USA Gymnastics said in its statement. But the narrow focus on education fails to close a loophole that has allowed more than one sexual predator to move through USA Gymnastics gyms, the IndyStar investigation found.

'There's got to be something'

IndyStar uncovered instances in which coaches — who were later convicted of sexual abuse — had been fired from multiple gyms for violating rules recommended by USA Gymnastics. Yet, again and again, they retained their membership and were able to find jobs in other USA Gymnastics gyms.

James Bell, who pleaded guilty to child molestation last December, worked at gyms in Oregon and Rhode Island. Ray Adams was fired from gyms in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio and Florida. William McCabe was fired from two gyms in Florida before pleading guilty in Georgia to sexual exploitation of children.

Jill Hill, former owner of Southern Oregon Gymnastics Academy in Medford, argues that USA Gymnastics, as the sport’s national governing body, is the only entity in a position to provide enough oversight to protect children from mobile predators.

“There’s got to be something,” she said, “where we have more knowledge than we have right now.”

Yet USA Gymnastics makes no effort to track fired coaches moving through its system of independent gyms, or to enforce many of the rules it recommends for its members.

It insists that that responsibility lies solely with its gym owners.

As a result, USA Gymnastics often does not find out about problems its members have been dealing with for years until it is too late. “Member clubs are independent businesses,” its statement said, “and more often than not, USA Gymnastics learns of issues pertaining to sexual misconduct once an arrest has been made.”

Hogshead-Makar and others say that is not an acceptable arrangement.

Hogshead-Makar said all USA Gymnastics members should be required to notify the organization when they fire a coach for a violation of USA Gymnastics rules regarding athlete safety.

She said the governing body also should require gyms to adopt specific safety measures as a condition of membership. The organization could, for example, prohibit certain behaviors often used by pedophiles to groom children, such as gift-giving, private massages and personal contact outside the gym.

"Athletes should know these norms; that they're in place to protect them, and that only a bad coach would break these rules," she said. "The Olympic committee and national governing bodies have to set a standard, say what the rules are, and then they have to have a mechanism to enforce those rules. If they aren't willing to enforce the rules, it's all a lot of talk."

Rather than accepting that oversight responsibility, USA Gymnastics has steadfastly denied in court filings and responses to IndyStar that it has any legal responsibility for the actions of coaches at its member gyms. Officials insist that the gyms set their own standards.

Penny also testified in a 2014 deposition that officials have to move carefully on sexual abuse complaints “because the coach is as much a member as the athlete” and the possibility of false allegations leading to a witch hunt is “very real.”

USA Gymnastics officials also have said the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act limits the actions they can take against coaches because it requires due process before a coach’s membership can be revoked.

"Under the Sports Act, USAG can adopt this legal posture, but the law doesn't require a national governing body to adopt this 'hands-off' policy," Hogshead-Makar said.

Hogshead-Makar, a lawyer who has studied and taught the Sports Act, finds the reluctance to use the process in the Sports Act specious. She said false accusations are made, but they are rare. A coach's or athlete's due process rights are designed to weed out the false accusations. And private organizations such as USA Gymnastics, she added, have every right to set conditions on membership as long as they’re enforced equally.

“If they want to,” she said, “they can say you have to have a purple lollipop every day if you want to be a member of our organization." USAG could revoke a coach's membership for not having that purple lollipop, she said, so long as it enforces the rules consistently and provides due process.
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Jeffrey Bettman hugs a girl from the gym where he coached
Jeffrey Bettman hugs a girl from the gym where he coached in Oregon. Bettman is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for child pornography. Authorities say he secretly recorded video and still images of at least 49 gymnasts as they changed clothes. (Photo: ©Jill Hill)
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Nancy Hogshead-Makar is an Olympic gold-medal swimmer
Nancy Hogshead-Makar is an Olympic gold-medal swimmer and attorney who is now CEO of the advocacy group Champion Women. (Photo: Robert Scheer/IndyStar)
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Gymnastics coach Steven Infante, 51, left, of New Milford,
Gymnastics coach Steven Infante, 51, left, of New Milford, Conn. appears in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Mass. on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007. Infante was indicted by a Middlesex grand jury last Friday on one count of rape, one count of rape of a child and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14, according to the district attorney's office. (Photo: Josh Reynolds/AP Photo, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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American gymnast Mary Lou Retton after the horse vault
American gymnast Mary Lou Retton after the horse vault competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., Aug. 5, 1984. Don Peters is in the background behind the cameraman. (Photo: AP PHOTO, AP)
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Christopher Carlos Wagoner
Christopher Carlos Wagoner (Photo: Booking mug)
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World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, Plano, Texas, Friday,
World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, Plano, Texas, Friday, August 19, 2016. (Photo: Marisa Kwiatkowski/IndyStar, Marisa Kwiatkowski/IndyStar)
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World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, Frisco, Texas, Friday,
World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, Frisco, Texas, Friday, August 19, 2016. (Photo: Marisa Kwiatkowski/IndyStar, Marisa Kwiatkowski/IndyStar)
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USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny during the women's
USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny during the women's gymnastics U.S. Olympic team trials at SAP Center, San Jose, California, Friday, July 8, 2016. (Photo: Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
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Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Olympic medalist and CEO of Champion
Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Olympic medalist and CEO of Champion Women, speaks at the law school at IUPUI, Indianapolis, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. (Photo: Robert Scheer/IndyStar)
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USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny during the women's
USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny during the women's gymnastics U.S. Olympic team trials at SAP Center, San Jose, California, Friday, July 8, 2016. (Photo: Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
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View of the Waverly Hills Gym, at the Karolyi Ranch,
View of the Waverly Hills Gym, at the Karolyi Ranch, near Huntsville, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. (Photo: Marisa Kwiatkowski/IndyStar, Marisa Kwiatkowski/IndyStar)
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Marvin Sharp, the 2010 national Women's Coach of the
Marvin Sharp, the 2010 national Women's Coach of the Year, is walked from court at the City-County Building in Indianapolis on Aug. 26, 2015. The former Olympic coach from Indianapolis was charged with posing girls as young as 6 with their genitals exposed, according to court records. He killed himself in jail. (Photo: Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar 2015 file photo)
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A training facility at the Karolyi Ranch, near Huntsville,
A training facility at the Karolyi Ranch, near Huntsville, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. (Photo: Marisa Kwiatkowski/IndyStar, Marisa Kwiatkowski/IndyStar)
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Marvin L. Sharp, USA Gymnastics' 2010 coach of the
Marvin L. Sharp, USA Gymnastics' 2010 coach of the year, is walked from court at the City County Building, Wednesday August 26th, 2015. Sharp, who had a 25 years as a gymnastics coach at the national level, is now charged with four counts of child molesting, three counts of sexual misconduct with a minor in Marion County, knowing receipt of child pornography, and knowing possession of child pornography by the U.S. attorneyÕs office. (Photo: Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar, Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar)
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The YMCA where Kaylin Brietzke trained with sexual
The YMCA where Kaylin Brietzke trained with sexual predator James Bell in the early 2000s, Newport, R.I. Friday, June 10, 2016. Brietzke was sexually abused by gymnastics coach James Bell, who is currently serving an eight-year sentence in medium security in the Rhode Island Department of Corrections. (Photo: Robert Scheer/IndyStar, Robert Scheer/IndyStar)
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Marvin Sharp, gymnastics teacher. Sharp, who had a
Marvin Sharp, gymnastics teacher. Sharp, who had a 25 years as a gymnastics coach at the national level, is now charged with four counts of child molesting, three counts of sexual misconduct with a minor in Marion County, knowing receipt of child pornography, and knowing possession of child pornography by the U.S. attorneyÕs office. (Photo: Madison Hargrave photo)
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Jennifer Sey of Allentown, Pa., runs through her routine
Jennifer Sey of Allentown, Pa., runs through her routine on the uneven bars during the McDonald?s 1985 Gymnastic Challenge meet with China, in Los Angeles. The former national champion was among 19 elite gymnasts to endorse changes to USA Gymnastics bylaws in 2012. Sixteen-year-old Jennifer Sey of Allentown, Pa., runs through her routine on the uneven bars during the McDonald's 1985 Gymnastic Challenge meet with China, in Los Angeles, July 6, 1985. (Photo: Doug Pizac/AP Photo)
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Marci Hamilton, law professor and advocate for sex-abuse
Marci Hamilton, law professor and advocate for sex-abuse victims (Photo: Picasa)
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Jeffrey Bettman hugs a girl from the gym where he coached1 of 18
Nancy Hogshead-Makar is an Olympic gold-medal swimmer2 of 18
Gymnastics coach Steven Infante, 51, left, of New Milford,3 of 18
American gymnast Mary Lou Retton after the horse vault4 of 18
Christopher Carlos Wagoner5 of 18
World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, Plano, Texas, Friday,6 of 18
World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, Frisco, Texas, Friday,7 of 18
USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny during the women's8 of 18
Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Olympic medalist and CEO of Champion9 of 18
USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny during the women's10 of 18
View of the Waverly Hills Gym, at the Karolyi Ranch,11 of 18
Marvin Sharp, the 2010 national Women's Coach of the12 of 18
A training facility at the Karolyi Ranch, near Huntsville,13 of 18
Marvin L. Sharp, USA Gymnastics' 2010 coach of the14 of 18
The YMCA where Kaylin Brietzke trained with sexual15 of 18
Marvin Sharp, gymnastics teacher. Sharp, who had a16 of 18
Jennifer Sey of Allentown, Pa., runs through her routine17 of 18
Marci Hamilton, law professor and advocate for sex-abuse18 of 18
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Other youth organizations do more

Any number of reforms could help, experts say. In the wake of their own sex abuse scandals, the Boy Scouts of America and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted restrictions that exceed those of USA Gymnastics.

Both organizations require background checks for all volunteers who come in contact with children. USA Gymnastics requires background checks on professional members, such as coaches and judges, but not others, including gym owners. A gym can attain membership with as few as one professional member.

The Catholic Church also bans its dioceses from entering into confidentiality agreements in the settlement of abuse claims, unless the victim requests it. Such settlements, which often ban disclosure of payment amounts and details about an organization’s handling of sex abuse allegations, can hide incidents that enable abuse to continue.

Nevertheless, some gyms have entered into such agreements after negligence lawsuits were filed. And so has USA Gymnastics.

In two lawsuits filed in Washington in 2005 and 2006, USA Gymnastics denied responsibility for a child’s abuse. The organization settled with the plaintiffs after conducting a secret mock trial, in effect, asking a focus group to consider the case “to determine liability risk and monetary exposure,” according to case records. Those documents revealed the value of one of the cases “would be approximately one million dollars.”

USA Gymnastics said both settlements included confidentiality clauses requested by the former gymnasts. But it declined to answer when asked whether it would join the Catholic Church in banning confidentiality agreements that were not requested by the plaintiff.

One of USA Gymnastics’ most prestigious members, World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) in Dallas, also settled a negligence suit brought by a woman whose coach, Chris Wagoner, pleaded guilty to having sex with her when she was 14 years old. USA Gymnastics was initially a defendant but later was dismissed from the lawsuit, which was settled by the remaining parties in 2008. The plaintiff told IndyStar she signed a confidentiality agreement.

WOGA is co-owned by Valeri Liukin, whom USA Gymnastics promoted in September to its highest-profile position, leading the American Olympic team as women's national team coordinator. Liukin's attorney told IndyStar, "WOGA had no knowledge of inappropriate conduct on the part of Wagoner until his arrest."

Hamilton, the founder of CHILD USA, said “a couple of just minimal requirements” would go a long way toward better protecting children.

First, no coach should be allowed to be alone with an athlete. It’s a recommendation USA Gymnastics shares with gym owners and coaches, but not an absolute prohibition.

Second, Hamilton said, is a need for annual, mandatory “high-quality training” for every coach, athlete and parent. She also said it needs to be done in person, not online.

Repetition is important, she said: “By the time their kid is 12 or 13, and it really matters, the parent should be able to recite those presentations on their own.”

USA Gymnastics does not require annual training for all athletes and parents to recognize and respond to sexual abuse.

A case in Oregon shows what happens when gym owners are largely left to deal with potential abusive coaches on their own.

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Moving from gym to gym

Over more than a decade starting in 2000, longtime coach Jeffrey Bettman installed secret cameras in changing rooms in gyms in Oregon and California.

According to court records, Bettman made 469 videos of 49 gymnasts he coached, many of them naked or partially naked. The girls ranged in age from 8 to 16. Bettman also produced 220 still images of the girls, zooming in on their genitals, according to authorities. He also was accused of molesting girls, but he was not prosecuted on those allegations, which he denied.

Before all that came to light, Bettman had been sued in California on allegations of sexually abusing a female gymnast. The suit was dismissed, but he was fired from at least two other gyms for what amounted to creepy behavior.

Jeffrey Bettman hugs a girl from the gym where he coached
Jeffrey Bettman hugs a girl from the gym where he coached in Oregon. Bettman is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for child pornography. Authorities say he secretly recorded video and still images of at least 49 gymnasts as they changed clothes.
(Photo: ©Jill Hill)

This was a typical problem encountered by gym owners: Gyms fire coaches for things that are widely recognized to be warning signs of abuse but don’t rise to criminal behavior. No one keeps track of the firings, and gym owners are loath to defame a coach when someone calls for a reference. A problem coach can move from gym to gym for years, exploiting countless children.

When Bettman arrived in Medford in 2004, he seemed affable and intelligent, according to former gym owner Jill Hill. Later, she said, she noticed him pulling pre-adolescent girls onto his lap, kissing their foreheads and holding them with their legs wrapped around his waist.

Hill fired Bettman in 2008. Shortly afterward, a parent told her Bettman had molested her child. She was going to police. Authorities ultimately said they had too little evidence to file charges.

In the meantime, Hill said, she discovered that Bettman was working at another gym in Grants Pass, Oregon. Like many other gym owners, Hill said she alerted USA Gymnastics. She not only contacted the state director, but also said she called Kathy Kelly, then director of the women's program at USA Gymnastics headquarters in Indianapolis.

“I said, ‘OK, there’s an ongoing investigation and, as a USAG member, I’m a club member, isn’t it the responsibility of USAG to help protect the kids?” Hill recalled of their conversation.

At that time, Hill did not know about Bettman’s hoard of photographs, but the behaviors she said she described were warning signs listed on USA Gymnastics’ website. Violating those behaviors, however, carries no consequences under USA Gymnastics bylaws.

“She said she completely understood,” Hill said of her conversation with Kelly, “but her hands were tied.”

Kelly is no longer at USA Gymnastics and declined a request for comment.

“I vividly recall telling her that USAG's ‘background check’ for the professional certification was flawed in that it only flagged those convicted of felonies and did nothing for coaches who were slipping through the cracks and changing gyms to avoid further scrutiny,” Hill told IndyStar.

Bettman kept coaching.

During that time, he secretly photographed 11 more girls, according to police.

Four years later, in 2012, a federal child pornography sting snared Bettman after he shared child pornography online.

Investigators discovered his cache of gymnastics images and identified 49 gymnasts he had coached in two states. He had labeled the videos with his victims’ initials.

Bettman pleaded guilty in January to 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and one count of distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography. He is serving a 25-year term in federal prison.

Officials at USA Gymnastics told IndyStar it “was aware the matter had been reported to law enforcement and monitored the situation. We then learned of his arrest and took the appropriate steps.” USA Gymnastics placed Bettman on its list of banned members earlier this year.

Betrayal of trust

“I will never like being touched or physically embraced by others.”

A victim of former coach Jeffrey Bettman
Experts say it can take a lifetime for a sexual abuse survivor to heal.

One of the girls victimized by Bettman described a situation reflected again and again across the country. “Jeff was closer to me than any uncle I have, a runner up for ‘dad’ or ‘grandpa’ if this makes sense,” she wrote to the judge.

“But Jeff broke that bond/trust and left me feeling betrayed, emotionally and sexually abused, taken advantage of, and made my personal growth a difficult one that I have struggled with for several years.”

The stress drove her to an eating disorder by the time she was in seventh grade. Bettman made her hate her body, the girl wrote, even though she weighed only 89 pounds.

Now in college, the young woman said she remains haunted by fear that nude pictures he secretly took of her will someday show up on the internet. And she has difficulty maintaining relationships.

“I will never like being touched or physically embraced by others,” she told the judge. “Something that should be a joy, enjoyed and cherished in life, will always be a struggle for me.”
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016 ... /95198724/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby guruilla » Fri Dec 16, 2016 7:55 pm

I came upon this just now by sheer chance. There may be nothing to the allegations but it is still very disturbing.

‘Twin Peaks’ Actor Michael J. Anderson Accuses David Lynch Of Being A ‘Rapist’ And ‘Pedophile’
By RACHEL WEST. 10 Aug 2016 8:01 PM

Cult actor Michael J. Anderson is lobbing accusations at his “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch.

The actor, who played “Man From Another Place” on the cult TV series, makes the accusation (without mentioning Lynch by name) that the director is a rapist and pedophile in a Facebook update this week. The actor also alleges that Lynch suggested he commit suicide. Anderson also worked with Lynch on the film “Mullholland Drive”.

Updating his existing Facebook profile photo uploaded nearly a year ago, he writes: “He totally did NOT rape his own underage daughter and then write a television series about it. She totally has NOT lived under a DEATH THREAT from her own father, all her life if she ever told. He NEVER had his ‘best friend’ murdered. And he DEFINITELY NEVER suggested to me that I should kill myself! There’s a whole bunch of other stuff he never did either.”

Image

Lynch’s daughter Jennifer was alerted to the accusations in the vitriol-filled post by an Instagram follower who left a comment on a tender photo Lynch posted with her father on the set of 1977’s “Eraserhead”. She refuted the claims made by Anderson on Instagram.

“None of what he says is true, and I hope he receives the help and peace he needs,” she writes.

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http://etcanada.com/news/158627/twin-pe ... pedophile/
It is a lot easier to fool people than show them how they have been fooled.
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby tapitsbo » Sun Dec 18, 2016 1:04 pm

Gee, I wonder how all the hapless perps in this sorry old thread got "profiled"

Does Rigorous Intuition bear some of the responsibility?
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby stillrobertpaulsen » Tue Dec 20, 2016 5:38 pm

My Name Is Anneke Lucas and I Was a Sex Slave to Europe's Elite at Age 6

Eye-opening account of the Belgian pedo trade. I was not familiar with some of the particular cases she speaks of.
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby elfismiles » Thu Dec 22, 2016 12:43 am

Europe
Child Sexual Abuse Scandal Rocks U.K. Soccer
By KATRIN BENNHOLDDEC. 13, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/world ... .html?_r=0
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby elfismiles » Fri Dec 30, 2016 10:56 am

Anybody got insights into this... ?

SB 1322
September 26, 2016

Today marks an important shift away from the criminalization of the state’s child victims of commercial sexual exploitation. We are thrilled to announce that Governor Brown signed SB 1322 (Mitchell), important legislation that ensures children will not be subjected to a criminal charge of solicitation or prostitution. CLC has been a proud supporter of this bill and of the 2014 actions that provided a pathway to child welfare services for child victims of sex trafficking. We are committed to ending the incarceration of children for their victimization, and instead advocating for the supports and services they need to heal.

Bill text : http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces ... 0160SB1322

Children's Law Center of California (CLC)
http://www.clccal.org/node/1351


California lawmakers advance bill to decriminalize prostitution for minors
Jazmine Ulloa

A billboard sponsored by the San Diego County district attorney's office reads: "Being a prostituted teen isn't a choice, it's slavery." (San Diego County district attorney)

A controversial bill that would decriminalize prostitution for minors squeezed out of the California Assembly on Thursday and is now headed back to the Senate for a final vote.

SB 1322, authored by Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), would make the crimes of solicitation and loitering with intent to commit prostitution misdemeanors inapplicable to children younger than 18. It also would allow law enforcement to take sexually exploited children into temporary custody if leaving them unattended would pose an immediate threat to their health or safety.

The measure passed Thursday with a 42-29 vote. It was one of two bills heard Thursday seeking to decriminalize prostitution.

SB 1129, authored by Bill Monning (D-Carmel), would repeal mandatory minimum sentences for specified prostitution offenses. It moved out of Assembly with a 42-26 vote and is also headed back to the Senate for a final vote.

Legislation to curb human trafficking has been a prominent issue at the state Capitol this session, as prosecutors and advocates in recent years have pushed the issue to the political forefront. Most of the proposals have focused on the trade of forced sex and reflect a cultural shift in the approach to prostitution that aims to divert victims forced into the industry away from the criminal justice system.

Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014 signed legislation placing sex trafficking victims without legal guardians under the authority of the dependency system, which centers on caring for abused and neglected children.

SB 1322 drew the support of a large coalition of advocates who said the bill was a step further in that direction, taking young victims entirely out of the juvenile justice system. But law enforcement officials oppose the move, saying the state's child welfare system is woefully low on resources.

On the Assembly floor, lawmakers agreed the legislation was well-intentioned and promoted the idea that “there is no such thing as a child prostitute," as children cannot legally consent to sex.

But while supporters of the bill argued that it would provide a better way to connect young victims with social services, opponents countered that it would prevent law enforcement from helping vulnerable children who often don’t see themselves as victims, run away from unsecured shelters and remain tied to their traffickers through complicated psychological and emotional bonds.

“Right now the best way to get these young women help, the best way to rescue them from this lifestyle is by keeping law enforcement involved through the ability to arrest,” Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen (R-Modesto) said. “Maybe in a few years from now, when we are doing better job at both the state and local level, we will better equipped and ready for this bill because services to young women will be readily available. But we are not there yet.”

Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley), who co-authored the bill, said the Legislature had put $20 million in this year’s budget to address the issue. Forty of 58 counties, he said, had already applied for funding to develop social services, shelters and other programs.

“All we are doing in perpetuating current law is saying, ‘You are not the victim, you are the criminal,’” he said. “Let’s say collectively there is no such thing as a child prostitute because there is no such thing as a child prostitute.”

Other lawmakers agreed.

"This is not the end of it," Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) said. "This is the beginning of us thinking differently about the problem."

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essenti ... story.html



http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/calif ... le/2610540
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby Gashweir » Thu Jan 19, 2017 3:13 pm

I 'm posting to bump the Anneke Lucas story making the rounds.

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/conten ... icking-am/

As if more confirmation was needed, she is claiming to be one of the abused children from the Dutroux network. When people dismiss Pizzagate as ridiculous and not worthy of comment except to say it has been debunked (without any real investigation), remind them of Dutroux and Jimmy Savile.
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby semper occultus » Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:19 pm

Mason, 75, caught in child-sex sting

A FORMER Freemason faces jail after he was caught by a police internet sting trying to incite a child into sex.

By JAMES MURRAY, EXCLUSIVE
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, Feb 5, 2017

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/763257/freemason-alan-wright-grand-master

Alan Wright, 75, was once a Grand Master in the secretive organisation and would have been present at meetings attended by Prince Michael of Kent.

He resigned when the details of his activities came to light.

Image

Now he could face jail when he appears at Ipswich Crown Court for sentence next month. The maximum term for incitement is 10 years. Suffolk Police set up the sting after gathering intelligence on Wright’s private life, with specialist officers pretending to be a child online.

Wright thought he was communicating with a 14-year-old boy and sent him pictures of his private parts over the internet. Through gay dating app Grindr he arranged to meet the “boy” at Bury St Edmunds railway station, Suffolk, last November.

However, when Wright arrived he was met by officers who took him to a local police station for questioning. A former Grand Master of the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters, he was also Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Essex.

Wright regularly attended meetings at a Freemasons hall in St James Street, London, and has been described as a “significant” figure in the organisation. Sources say that he would have attended some meetings with Prince Michael, who is a popular Freemason, but the men were not friends.

A spokesman for the United Grand Lodge of England said: “We were made aware of an allegation against a Freemason on December 1, 2016, who immediately resigned from the organisation.

“Having learned of the situation we have no further information currently, and fully believe that this is a one-off, isolated incident.

“We can confirm that we will fully assist the police and relevant authorities if we are approached or if we know of any way that we can voluntarily do so. No such request has been made.

“United Grand Lodge of England places great importance on total transparency in its dealings with members and we have a robust disciplinary system to deal with members who break the law, break our rules or conduct themselves in a way which would bring Freemasonry into disrepute.

“Criminal activity is completely unacceptable within the organisation and totally alien to our values.”

Wright was not at his home in Little Downham, near Ely, Cambridgeshire, to comment.
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 13, 2017 4:00 pm

Jerry Sandusky’s son Jeffrey arrested on child sexual assault charges

By Zach BarnettFeb 13, 2017, 2:47 PM EST

Jeffrey Sandusky, the adopted 41-year-old son of former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, has been indicted on charges of sexually assaulting a child, according to multiple reports out of Pennsylvania.

According to WKBN, Sandusky was charged with statutory sexual assault; involuntary deviate sexual intercourse; photographing, video graphing, depicting on computer or filming sexual acts; and unlawful contact with a minor. Pennsylvania State Police accused Sandusky of sending sexually explicit text messages to a minor, including some asking for naked photos. He is also accused of peeking into the shower of a victim.

A second child also brought forth charges against Sandusky dating back to 2013.

He was arraigned Monday afternoon in Bellefonte, Pa., with bond set at $200,000.

Sandusky’s father, Jerry, was sentenced to 30-to-60 years in prison for sexually assaulting 45 minors, with accusations running as far back as the 1970’s.

Jeffrey is one of six children adopted by Jerry and Dottie Sandusky. Jeffrey’s brother Matt was one of his father’s accusers, though the family maintains Jerry’s innocence.
http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.co ... t-charges/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby elfismiles » Tue Feb 14, 2017 11:08 pm

Thanks SLAD! Was just checking to see if this got posted.

(CNN) Jeffrey Sandusky, the son of convicted sex abuser and former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, has been arrested on felony and misdemeanor child sexual offense charges, according to court documents from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.13 hours ago

Jerry Sandusky's son facing child sex soliciting charges - CNN.com
www.cnn.com/2017/02/13/us/jerry-sandusky-son-charged/
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby elfismiles » Mon Mar 06, 2017 4:18 pm

Professors & Staff Arrested for Trading in Child Rape - Feb 14
https://medium.com/@LoriHandrahan2/prof ... 39fcf62a9e
If you like this research, please support it www.LoriHandrahan.com & www.Data4Justice.org

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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:10 pm

bump it seems this thread has been forgotten

it's where stories of victims of abuse have been posted it since

Apr 26, 2007

Abuse report: 10,440 children died 2001-07

By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
More than 10,000 children died from abuse or neglect in the United States from 2001 through 2007, a report released today says.
The U.S. death rate is more than double the rate in France, Canada, Japan, Germany, Great Britain and Italy, countries that have less teen pregnancy, violent crime and poverty, according to the report by the Every Child Matters Education Fund, a non-partisan advocacy group.


"It's heart-wrenching that each day in America, five children will die from abuse and neglect, but what's worse is that the real number is even larger," as much as 50% higher, says Michael Petit, the fund's president. He says the deaths get too little public attention.

To highlight the problem, his group is hosting a conference this week in Washington at which federal officials, scholars and social workers will discuss possible remedies.

The report, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, finds that three-quarters of the children who died from abuse or neglect were younger than 4. The number of child deaths rose from 1,300 in 2001 to 1,720 in 2007, the most recent year for which figures are available. In that period, 10,440 abuse and neglect deaths were reported.

"It's an alarming statistic," says David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center. He says the real number could be twice as large, but "we don't know" because many deaths from abuse or neglect are attributed to other causes.

Finkelhor says it's difficult to know whether the problem is worse or whether states are doing a better job reporting deaths.

"It's hard to know for sure, but there's plenty of reason to worry that it's getting worse," given high child-poverty figures, says Olivia Golden, a scholar at the Urban Institute, a liberal social policy think tank, and author of Reforming Child Welfare.

The report finds that state spending to address abuse and neglect varies and that states that spend more generally have fewer child deaths.

The report "is an exercise in hype and hysteria," says Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, which says too many children are in foster care. He says state reporting varies so widely that the figures are not accurate, and he fears that more concerns about abuse mean more children will be taken from their parents.

Petit says, "There's been an erosion in the safety net over the last decade or more," and the recession is making it worse. "I've never seen so many states cutting child welfare services."

The report recommends more spending as part of a broad effort to combat child poverty and abuse.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Mar 24, 2017 3:05 pm

Fifteen kids reported this pedophile. They left him in the classroom anyway.

ROBERT KEITH BRYAN WAS ACCUSED OF TOUCHING STUDENTS IN 1985, 1992, 1994 AND 2007. COMPLAINTS WERE BURIED, DISBELIEVED, IGNORED AND FORGOTTEN.

Brett Kelman , The Desert Sun

PALM DESERT, Calif. – Cait, 10, a fourth grader at Lincoln Elementary School, was erasing the blackboard after class on a Friday afternoon when she was approached from behind by her teacher. He dropped his hands on her tiny shoulders, then slid them forward beneath her shirt. Cait froze in fear.

“Why haven’t you stayed after school in a while?” Robert Keith Bryan whispered in her ear, according to a police report. She felt his hands on the bare skin of her chest and his mouth on her neck.

Cait yanked free and ran out of the classroom. Tears streaked down her face as she sprinted to her home six blocks from the school, then burst into the kitchen and told her mother what had happened. Her father grabbed a baseball bat and marched back to the school. When he got there, Bryan was gone.

It was the winter of 1992. Cait was not the first little girl to tell on this teacher, and she would be far from the last. Over a 34-year career in Coachella Valley Unified and Desert Sands Unified schools, Bryan was allowed to continue teaching despite 15 students reporting him for inappropriate touching over five separate occasions. Bryan kept teaching until 2012, when he was arrested for touching eight more students, then resigned amid a police investigation that eventually sent him to prison.
Image
Robert Keith Bryan, mug shot from 2012.
(Photo: Riverside County Sheriff's Department)
Decades of abuse could have been prevented if school officials had done anything but leave Bryan in the classroom in the face of repeated accusations. Instead, Bryan moved from campus to campus as student complaints were doubted, buried, overlooked and eventually forgotten. The resulting lawsuits will likely cost millions, and the first trial starts in April.

“It is absolutely the school district’s fault,” said Cait, now an adult in her 30s, whose full name is being withheld because she is a victim of sexual assault. “Girls who never communicated with each other were saying the same thing. How does that become just us ‘telling a story?’"

"How many kids can make up the same story and it not be truth?”

To better understand the depth of failure by local school districts, The Desert Sun has studied more than 2,000 pages of documents, including Bryan's personnel files, detective’s notes, victim interviews and sworn depositions of 10 former or current school district employees, most of whom refused to be interviewed by a reporter.

Regardless, the findings of the Desert Sun investigation are clear: Desert Sands Unified had a chance to fire Bryan in the early '90s due to repeated complaints, but he kept his job because a district leader did not believe students were telling the truth. Over the next decade, all of the officials that knew about the complaints either left the district, retired or died. By the mid-2000s, a new generation of district leaders were unaware Bryan had a history of touching students. The evidence was still sitting in Bryan’s personnel file, but nobody bothered to read it.

If they had, this is what they would have found:

Bryan was first accused of touching children while working for Coachella Valley Unified in 1985. When he resigned, the district agreed not to tell anyone about the allegations, then recommended him to other school districts, including Desert Sands, where he got a job.
Bryan was investigated by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department for touching 10 girls at Lincoln Elementary in 1992, but no charges were filed. Desert Sands also became aware of the prior allegation at Coachella Valley Unified, but left Bryan in the classroom anyway.
Bryan was reprimanded again for touching another girl’s chest in March 1994.
Six months later, in September 1994, Bryan was accused of reaching under a student’s t-shirt to rub her back. An investigation led to a 10-day suspension – the most serious discipline Bryan ever faced from the school district.
In 2007, a male student reported Bryan was touching his female classmates on their lower backs and leaning over their desks to look down their shirts. It appears the district did not investigate. School staff recommended the boy go to therapy.
Finally, in 2012, Bryan resigned after he was arrested for molesting eight girls, including the daughter of a police officer, in a single class at Gerald Ford Elementary School in Indian Wells.
One of those 2012 victims was the daughter of Kim, a protective single mother who had chosen Ford Elementary because of its reputation. Ford was one of the highest-testing schools in the safest city in what is widely considered the desert’s best school district.

Finally, Kim thought, this was a place she could trust.

“You can be mad at the criminal, the predator, because he’s the one who did this, but the scariest thing is that it happened in the school,” said Kim, whose full name is being withheld to protect her daughter’s identity. “I trusted the school district, and that’s who failed us.”
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/cri ... /99012698/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Mar 24, 2017 3:07 pm

Trump's Labor Secretary nominee faces questions over why he cut a deal with pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein instead of indicting him on federal sex crimes
Alexander Acosta is facing questions over plea deal he oversaw for pedophile
Billionaire sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison
Lawsuit questions why Acosta, whose confirmation hearing is this week, cut deal with Epstein a decade ago instead of pursuing a federal indictment
Acosta defended decisions as best outcome given evidence available at the time
By Dailymail.com Reporter and Associated Press
PUBLISHED: 01:47 EDT, 22 March 2017 | UPDATED: 11:18 EDT, 22 March 2017

President Donald Trump's labor secretary nominee is facing questions over the unusual plea deal he oversaw for billionaire sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, while serving as US attorney in Miami.

Alexander Acosta made a deal with Epstein which meant he avoided federal prosecution and a potential life prison sentence when he was found guilty of soliciting prostitution in 2008.

He is now at the center of a lawsuit, which names President Donald Trump as a witness, which accuses him of mishandling the case a decade ago.

Critics, including attorneys for some underage victims of financier Epstein, claim the plea agreement was a 'sweetheart deal' made possible only by Epstein's wealth, connections and high-powered lawyers.

The story resurfaced just hours before his confirmation hearing for the secretary of labor was set to start.
Image
President Donald Trump's labor secretary nominee Alexander Acosta (pictured) is facing questions over the unusual plea deal he oversaw for billionaire sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, while serving as US attorney in Miami
+4
President Donald Trump's labor secretary nominee Alexander Acosta (pictured) is facing questions over the unusual plea deal he oversaw for billionaire sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, while serving as US attorney in Miami
Image
The lawsuit questions why Acosta, whose confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday, cut a deal with Jeffrey Epstein (pictured) 10 years ago rather than pursuing a federal indictment
+4
The lawsuit questions why Acosta, whose confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday, cut a deal with Jeffrey Epstein (pictured) 10 years ago rather than pursuing a federal indictment

Trump once called Epstein a 'terrific guy' in 2002, saying that 'he's a lot of fun to be with', adding that 'he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side', according to the Washington Post.

Lawyers told the Post that it's very unlikely Trump will be required to testify in the case.

The lawsuit questions why Acosta, whose confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday, cut a deal with Epstein 10 years ago rather than pursuing a federal indictment, according to the Tribune.

Sen Patty Murray, the leading Democrat on the committee, said in a statement that she met with Acosta and is concerned about whether he would 'stand up to political pressure' and advocate for workers as labor secretary.

Acosta has defended his decisions as the best outcome given evidence available at the time.


'Some may feel that the prosecution should have been tougher. Evidence that has come to light since 2007 may encourage that view,' Acosta wrote in a March 2011 letter to media outlets after leaving the US attorney's office.

'Had these additional statements and evidence been known, the outcome may have been different. But they were not known to us at the time.'

Unlike Trump's original choice for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, Acosta is expected to win confirmation.

The Florida International University law school dean was nominated after Puzder, a fast-food executive, withdrew over his hiring of an undocumented immigrant housekeeper and other issues.
Image
Acosta, 48, has previously won Senate confirmation as Miami US attorney, head of the Justice Department's civil rights division and the National Labor Relations Board.

Trump once called Epstein a 'terrific guy' in 2002. The president is now on the witness list in the Florida court battle over how federal prosecutors handled the allegations against Epstein. But lawyers said it's very unlikely Trump will be required to testify in the case
+4
Trump once called Epstein a 'terrific guy' in 2002. The president is now on the witness list in the Florida court battle over how federal prosecutors handled the allegations against Epstein. But lawyers said it's very unlikely Trump will be required to testify in the case

He declined comment when asked about the Epstein case this week.

Epstein, now 64, pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served 13 months.

He was also required to register as a sex offender and pay millions of dollars in restitution to as many as 40 victims who were between the ages of 13 and 17 when the crimes occurred.

According to court documents, Epstein paid underage girls for sex, sexual massages and similar acts at a Palm Beach mansion he then owned as well as properties in New York, the US Virgin Islands and New Mexico.

Prosecutors say he had a team of employees to identify girls as potential targets.

After an investigation by local police, Palm Beach prosecutors decided to charge Epstein with aggravated assault, which would have meant no jail time, no requirement that he register as a sex offender and no guaranteed restitution for victims.

Unhappy local investigators went to Acosta's office, which opened a federal probe and eventually drafted a proposed 53-page indictment that could have resulted in a sentence of 10 years to life in prison for Epstein, if convicted.

With that as leverage, a deal was worked out for Epstein to plead guilty to state prostitution solicitation charges and the federal indictment was shelved.

Acosta has defended his decisions as the best outcome given evidence available at the time. 'Some may feel that the prosecution should have been tougher. Evidence that has come to light since 2007 may encourage that view,' Acosta wrote in a March 2011 letter
Jeffrey Epstein
Acosta has defended his decisions as the best outcome given evidence available at the time. 'Some may feel that the prosecution should have been tougher. Evidence that has come to light since 2007 may encourage that view,' Acosta wrote in a March 2011 letter

It didn't stop there. Epstein's lawyers worked out an unusual and secret 'non-prosecution agreement' to guarantee neither Epstein nor his employees would ever face federal charges.

'This agreement will not be made part of any public record,' the deal between Epstein and Acosta says, according to the Tribune. The document was unsealed by a federal judge in a civil lawsuit in 2015.

In his 2011 letter, Acosta defended his decisions as the best possible outcome.

'Our judgment in this case, based on the evidence that was known at the time, was that it was better to have a billionaire serve time in jail, register as a sex offender and pay his victims restitution than risk a trial with a reduced likelihood of success,' Acosta wrote.

'I supported that judgment then, and based on the state of the law as it then stood and the evidence known at the time, I would support that judgment again.'

In the letter, Acosta acknowledged that 'some prosecutors felt that we should just go to trial, and at times I felt that frustration myself.'

Epstein, now 64, pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served 13 months
+4
Epstein, now 64, pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served 13 months

He said that Epstein 'received highly unusual treatment while in jail,' including being allowed to serve much of his sentence in the county jail rather than a state prison, and being permitted to leave the jail six days a week to work at home before returning to jail to sleep, according to the Tribune.

'The treatment that he received while in state custody undermined the purpose of a jail sentence,' Acosta said.

Well-known Miami defense lawyer Joel DeFabio, who has represented numerous defendants in sex cases, said he had never heard of such an agreement before Epstein's came to light.

DeFabio said he has had clients with far less egregious sex charges — and far less wealth — who were sentenced to 10 or 15 years behind bars. DeFabio tried to use the Epstein case to argue for more lenient sentences.

'There still has been no clear explanation as to why Epstein received such preferential treatment,' DeFabio said. 'This thing just stinks. The elite take care of their own.'

The non-prosecution agreement became public in a related civil case, leading two Epstein victims — identified only as Jane Does No. 1 and 2, to file a victims' rights lawsuit claiming they were improperly left in the dark about the deal. The lawsuit, which is still pending, seeks to reopen the case to expose the details and possibly nullify the agreement.

Other victims have come forward, including one woman who claimed as a teenager that Epstein flew her around the world for sexual escapades, including encounters with Britain's Prince Andrew. Buckingham Palace has vehemently denied those claims.

The Justice Department's position in the victims' rights lawsuit is that since no federal indictment was ever filed, the victims were not entitled to notification about the non-prosecution agreement. Settlement talks last fall went nowhere.

'There will not be a settlement. That case will eventually get to trial,' said Bradley Edwards, attorney for the two Jane Doe victims.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z4cGuqtlPq
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: The Pedophile File

Postby Iamwhomiam » Sun Apr 02, 2017 5:49 pm

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