Cyber Criminals

BJ wrote:A whole bunch of perverts down and one to go..... I bet he changes his plea like so many of the others have before his trial ever starts.

13.Diaz, Carlos, 32, Brook Park
Indicted on 33 Charges
24 x Pandering (Creation)
8 x Pandering (Sharing)
1 x Possessing Criminal Tools
TRIAL CONTINUED TO 10/31/2011

CR-09-532195-A THE STATE OF OHIO vs. CARLOS DIAZ
TRIAL PREVIOUSLY SET FOR 10/31/2011 AT 09:00AM IS RESET FOR 12/05/2011 AT 09:00AM AT THE REQUEST OF STATE.

13.Diaz, Carlos, 32, Brook Park
Indicted on 33 Charges
24 x Pandering (Creation)
8 x Pandering (Sharing)
1 x Possessing Criminal Tools
TRIAL CONTINUED TO 10/31/2011

TRIAL CONTINUED TO 03/19/2012 AT 09:00 AM AT THE REQUEST OF COURT.

:thanks: BJ

DEFENDANT IN COURT. COUNSEL EDWARD S WADE PRESENT. PROSECUTOR(S) JESSE W. CANONICO PRESENT. INTERPRETER BERNARDITA ROJAS, PRESENT. TRIAL PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED IS RESCHEDULED FOR 06/13/2012 AT 09:00AM AT THE REQUEST OF DEFENDANT. 03/22/2012 CPMOM 03/22/2012 10:14:45

Thanks so much for keeping up on these horrible cases, BJ!!

Yes, what Wrap said BJ!

DEFENDANT IN COURT. COUNSEL EDWARD S WADE PRESENT. COURT REPORTER BOB INTORCIO PRESENT. ON A FORMER DAY OF COURT THE COURT FOUND THE DEFENDANT GUILTY OF PANDERING SEXUALLY ORIENTED MATTER INVOLVING A MINOR 2907.322 A(2) F2 WITH FORFEITURE SPECIFICATION (2941.1417) AS CHARGED IN COUNT(S) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 OF THE INDICTMENT. ON A FORMER DAY OF COURT THE COURT FOUND THE DEFENDANT GUILTY OF PANDERING SEXUALLY ORIENTED MATTER INVOLVING A MINOR 2907.322 A(1) F2 WITH FORFEITURE SPECIFICATION (2941.1417) AS CHARGED IN COUNT(S) 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 OF THE INDICTMENT. ON A FORMER DAY OF COURT THE COURT FOUND THE DEFENDANT GUILTY OF POSSESSING CRIMINAL TOOLS 2923.24 A F5 WITH FORFEITURE SPECIFICATION (2941.1417) AS CHARGED IN COUNT(S) 33 OF THE INDICTMENT. DEFENDANT TO FORFEIT TO THE STATE: COMPUTERS AND EQUIPMENT DEFENDANT ADDRESSES THE COURT, PROSECUTOR ADDRESSES THE COURT. BERNADITA ROJAS IN COURT INTERPRETTING FOR DEFENDANT AT STATE'S EXPENSE. THE COURT CONSIDERED ALL REQUIRED FACTORS OF THE LAW. THE COURT FINDS THAT PRISON IS CONSISTENT WITH THE PURPOSE OF R. C. 2929.11. THE COURT IMPOSES A PRISON SENTENCE AT THE LORAIN CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION OF 4 YEAR(S). DEFENDANT IS SENTENCED TO 4 YEARS ON COUNT 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 AND 12 MONTHS ON COUNT 33 TO RUN CONCURRENT TO EACH OTHER FOR A TOTAL CONFINEMENT OF 4 YEARS. POST RELEASE CONTROL IS PART OF THIS PRISON SENTENCE FOR 5 YEARS MANDATORY FOR THE ABOVE FELONY(S) UNDER R.C.2967.28. DEFENDANT ADVISED THAT IF POST RELEASE CONTROL SUPERVISION IS IMPOSED FOLLOWING HIS/HER RELEASE FROM PRISON AND IF HE/SHE VIOLATES THAT SUPERVISION OR CONDITION OF POST RELEASE CONTROL UNDER RC 2967.131(B), PAROLE BOARD MAY IMPOSE A PRISON TERM AS PART OF THE SENTENCE OF UP TO ONE-HALF OF THE STATED PRISON TERM ORIGINALLY IMPOSED UPON THE OFFENDER. UNLESS THE DEFENDANT IS SERVING A PRISON TERM THAT CANNOT BE REDUCED UNDER THE LAW, DEFENDANT MAY BE ELIGIBLE TO EARN 1 OR 5 DAYS CREDIT TOWARDS HIS/HER SENTENCE FOR EACH COMPLETED MONTH DURING WHICH THE DEFENDANT PARTICIPATES IN EDUCATIONAL OR OTHER PROGRAMS. IN ADDITION, THE DEFENDANT MAY EARN UP TO 5 DAYS CREDIT TOWARDS HIS/HER SENTENCE FOR SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF A SECOND SUCH PROGRAM. THIS EARNED CREDIT IS NOT AUTOMATIC BUT MUST BE EARNED BY THE DEFENDANT. DEFENDANT ADVISED OF APPEAL RIGHTS. DEFENDANT INDIGENT, COURT APPOINTS MICHAEL J MANUSZAK AS APPELLATE COUNSEL. TRANSCRIPT AT STATE'S EXPENSE. DEFENDANT CLASSIFIED AS A TIER 2 SEX OFFENDER AND MUST REGISTER FOR FOR A PERIOD OF 25 YEARS WITH IN-PERSON VERIFICATION EVERY 180 DAYS. DEFENDANT TO TURN HIMSELF IN FOR EXECUTION OF SENTENCE ON AUGUST 6, 2012. IF DEFENDANT FAILS TO APPEAR, SENTENCE IMPOSED IN EACH COUNT WILL RUN CONSECUTIVE TO EACH OTHER. CLERK ORDERED TO SEND A COPY OF THIS ORDER TO: THE COURT HEREBY ENTERS JUDGMENT AGAINST THE DEFENDANT IN AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE COSTS OF THIS PROSECUTION. POST RELEASE CONTROL IS PART OF THE PRISON SENTENCE FOR UP TO 3 YEARS ON COUNT 33, A FELONY OF THE 5TH DEGREE. 07/23/2012 CP1PS 07/23/2012 15:55:01

FINALLY! Aside from one that might be MIA, the last of the 36 offenders has had his day in court.

Most pleaded guilty, none went to trial and were found innocent. The sentences were not harsh enough.

Could not agree more!! Thanks so much for all your tenacity on this thread.

BJ wrote:FINALLY! Aside from one that might be MIA, the last of the 36 offenders has had his day in court.

Most pleaded guilty, none went to trial and were found innocent. The sentences were not harsh enough.

BJ, I would personally like to for keeping up with this issue. It deserved to be brought into the public forum and has much too long been ignored. There have been more of these crimes against little children since the time when these perps were rounded up. We must all be diligent with regard to preventing this horrible abuse of children. There had been a free-for-all of these crimes since the internet was born and only now have law enforcement begun to take it seriously. My thanks to the FBI and local law enforcement and our own DA, Mr. Mason, for taking part in this raid and seeing to it that these few were prosecuted and that justice has been served for the innocent little child victims. In the area of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, there seems to be a new awareness of an even greater crime against children. They estimate that 1000 children per year in Ohio are taken into forced prostitution. Some may be kidnapped, others might be given over by their own mothers, still others fall victim to sweet-talking by these perps. I hope that our FBI and local law enforcements continue enforcing the law both on the internet and in the prostitution business in the interests of and for the justice to all these innocent little children being abused sexually. Once again, BJ.

TR, Great to see you here!! As usual, you nailed all of our gratitude to BJ!!

I was interested in seeing how each of these court cases went since we had the mother of one of these pervs posting on VH protesting her son's arrest and proclaiming his innocence. Her son pleaded guilty when he had his day in court. In my mind you don't plead guilty unless you really are and I think his mother is in a complete state of denial about how her son was spending his spare time.
I'm glad these 36 cases are now behind us and it's a shame that all of them weren't locked up for the rest of their lives so that our children could be protected from at least these 36 sickos!
Lord help our kids!

Do we know which one was the son in question, BJ? Or are you allowed to say?

I don't want to embarrass the mother anymore than she already has been so I don't think I should post the name of her pervert son. I found out who her son was by doing some searches on the sites on the internet; not from her. It wasn't that hard to make the connection.

What BJ said.

Sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass anyone...I didn't remember the mother's posts and thought that she may have identified herself at the time.

lisette wrote:Sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass anyone...I didn't remember the mother's posts and thought that she may have identified herself at the time.

You did not embarrass anyone. BJ can you send lisette a PM with the name. She will remember it when she see's it.

I already did LM, .....yesterday.

TerryRose wrote:

BJ wrote:FINALLY! Aside from one that might be MIA, the last of the 36 offenders has had his day in court.

Most pleaded guilty, none went to trial and were found innocent. The sentences were not harsh enough.

BJ, I would personally like to for keeping up with this issue. It deserved to be brought into the public forum and has much too long been ignored. There have been more of these crimes against little children since the time when these perps were rounded up. We must all be diligent with regard to preventing this horrible abuse of children. There had been a free-for-all of these crimes since the internet was born and only now have law enforcement begun to take it seriously. My thanks to the FBI and local law enforcement and our own DA, Mr. Mason, for taking part in this raid and seeing to it that these few were prosecuted and that justice has been served for the innocent little child victims. In the area of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, there seems to be a new awareness of an even greater crime against children. They estimate that 1000 children per year in Ohio are taken into forced prostitution. Some may be kidnapped, others might be given over by their own mothers, still others fall victim to sweet-talking by these perps. I hope that our FBI and local law enforcements continue enforcing the law both on the internet and in the prostitution business in the interests of and for the justice to all these innocent little children being abused sexually. Once again, BJ.

TR's post are Always well-written. She is our voice of reason.

If anyone else is wondering who the the son is......send me a PM. I will give you his name.

The Dothan Police Department and the Houston County Sheriff's Office have started a task force to catch Internet predators using social networking sites and other places on the Web where sex offenders may be lurking.

By: MATT ELOFSON | Dothan Eagle
Published: October 27, 2012

Local authorities made at least a dozen arrests in the last year and a half on charges involving the alleged solicitation of children through the Internet or by other electronic means.

The offenses in some of the dozen criminal cases across Henry and Houston counties allegedly involve the use of either e-mail, social media accounts such as Facebook and/or cell phones to elicit unlawful activity with children.

According to a statement from Dothan Police Lt. Will Benny, a supervisor of the criminal investigation division, the City of Dothan is a member of the Alabama Internet Crimes against Children Task Force (ICAC.)

Benny said in the statement the task force helps state and local law enforcement agencies develop an effective response to cyber enticement and child pornography cases. The program is funded through the U.S. Department of Justice and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

The statement said the task force was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the rise in child pornography and the elevated online activity by people seeking unsupervised contact with potential underage victims.

The Providing Resources, Officers, and Technology to Eradicate Cyber Threats to Our Children Act (“the PROTECT Act”) of 2008 authorized the ICAC program through fiscal year 2013. The task force is a national network of 61 coordinated task forces representing more than 3,000 federal, state and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies.

The statement said the City of Dothan has a received a $20,000 grant to be used as part of the task force.

Benny said he could not confirm if Dothan police had made any arrests as part of their investigative work and membership of the task force.

Doug Valeska, the district attorney for Henry and Houston counties, said several of the charges from sex offenses by computer use involving a child and the electronic solicitation of children became law in Alabama as recent as 2009.

According to court records filed in the pending criminal cases, most of the allegations involve men using a cell phone, an e-mail account or social media account like Facebook in an effort to set up a meeting with an underage teenage girl.

“The bottom line is they’ve gotten bold enough to gather all those items and set up a meeting,” Valeska said. “These are individuals who are targeting children.”

Court records and testimony from a court hearing show in at least one of the pending cases the suspect brought items with him for a meeting scheduled with a teenage girl in Dothan.

During an earlier court hearing for Paul Steele Getty III, his alleged plan to meet with a teenage girl at Westgate Park was discussed. When police arrested Getty they found a six-pack of wine coolers and condoms. Police charged Getty with the felony electronic solicitation of a child for an unlawful sex act, and later charged him with felony possession of child pornography.

Valeska said when it comes to the solicitation of children, often the suspects are not first-time offenders. At least one of the dozen arrested by local law enforcement was a convicted sex offender.

Dothan police arrested Robert Blake Jones, 30, of Dothan, earlier this month and charged him with felony traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act and felony electronic solicitation of a child for a sex act. Records show both charges stem from allegations Jones used a computer to arrange a meeting with a 15-year-old girl for an unlawful sex act.

Court records show Jones pleaded guilty to felony first-degree rape and felony first-degree burglary in Houston County in 2004. He received a 15-year sentence for both charges, which records show was suspended for three years probation.

Henry County Sheriff William Maddox said late last year investigators with the Henry County Sheriff’s and Abbeville Police Task Force arrested three people as part of an investigation into the electronic solicitation of a child through Facebook.

Task force agents arrested George Gamble, 52, and Antonio Wesley, 27, both of Eufaula, and Duran Chavez Slaton, 26, of Abbeville, as part of the investigation. All three men were arrested in December of 2011, and their charges remain pending.

Task Force Investigator Steve Sanders told the Dothan Eagle shortly after the arrests that none of the suspects knew each other, but all had “friended” a teenage girl on Facebook. Sanders said the investigation started after an Abbeville park attendant found Slaton’s cell phone in a park with pornographic images on it of a teenage girl.

“These individuals were friends with a 15-year-old juvenile on Facebook,” Sanders told an Eagle reporter shortly after the arrests. “Mr. Gamble actually traveled to Abbeville on December third for what he believed to be the purpose of sex. When he arrived he met me and several other police officers.”

Eight of the 12 people arrested were not from the area of the investigating agency. Some call Florida their home, while others are from Mississippi and Georgia or as close as Ozark.

“They’re trying to get out of their local area so no one will see them or know them,” Valeska said.

The charges of traveling to meet a child or facilitating the travel for an unlawful sex act are class A felony crimes that carry a possible punishment, if convicted, similar to that of murder or armed robbery of 10 to 99 years or life in prison. The offense of electronic solicitation of a child for an unlawful sex act is a class B felony crime punishable by two to 20 years in prison, if convicted.

Valeska also said crimes involving technology and children are not limited to a specific type of person.

Valeska cited the criminal case filed against a former teacher of nearly 20 years in the Houston County Schools. Robert Lee Michel recently pleaded guilty several felony charges, which included four counts of possessing child pornography and three counts of school employee engaging in a sex act with a student. The pornography charges stemmed from nude pictures of teenage girls found on Michel’s cell phone.

Valeska also cited the criminal case filed against a former Dothan attorney, Randy Brackin. A jury convicted Brackin of 11 felony possessing child pornography charges in 2010.

“Children are our most valuable asset and regretfully in today’s time there’s not enough monitoring by parents of their children on the computer and their phones,” Valeska said. “The bottom line these are children, I don’t care if they’re 14 or 15 years old.”

Tips

Valeska suggested children not have a Facebook page or other social media account without a parent, guardian or older brother or sister who monitors the account.

“The problem is they get ahold of these computers and phones at age 10, 12 and 14 years old and get on Facebook and the other networks. It’s a problem because we as parents or as a society have allowed them access to these social networks with not enough monitoring,” Valeska said. “We need to have some type of control or instruction for them.”

Mike McArdle, owner of Dothanpc.com, said families and parents can buy what’s called parental control software or spy software. He said both types of software can be installed on smart phones too.

“It filters websites based on key words. It’ll actually set it up to disallow access to certain websites,” McArdle said. “You think you’re being sneaky online, but anything and everything you do online can be tracked.”

McArdle also said the software programs will record what the child has done online, creating a detailed log for the parents. He also said parents can limit the amount of time a child spends on the computer or on specific websites.

McArdle also suggested people set up a user account, an account designed for a specific individual to use the computer, which is only accessed by password.

McArdle specifically recommended two parental control software programs called Net nanny, which costs about $40, and Bsecure, which costs about $50. For people who aren’t familiar with how to install them, he will install the software for a fee.

Another advantage to having the software installed is it helps cut down on viruses on the computer.

He also recommended parents always have the password and sign in name for their child’s social media account whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or others.

McArdle also said the “parent over shoulder” method doesn’t always work as a checking method on children because often the youth won’t do much on the computer while the parent is standing over their shoulder.

“The main thing is the kids need to know mom and dad aren’t spying on them, they’re actually looking out for them,” McArdle said.

Houston County 2012 Cases

-Ryan Gericke, 31, of Ozark, electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.

-David Orell Grantham, 36, of Biscayne Lane, Dothan, electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.

-Robert Blake Jones, 30, of Richard Road, Dothan, electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.

-Christopher Scott Martin, 37, of Leesburg, Ga., traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.

-Jerry Dale Bowman, 47, of Phenix City, electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.

-Ricky Lynn Moore, 57, of Brooksville, Miss., electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.

-Paul Steele Getty III, 38, of Midland City., electronic solicitation of a child for an unlawful sex act and possession of child pornography.

-David Mike Aguirre, 74, of Port St. Joe, Fla., traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.

(All arrests made by the Dothan Police Department)

Henry County Cases

-George Lewis Gamble, 52, of Eufaula, electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.

-Antonio L. Wesley, 27, of Eufaula, electronic solicitation of a child for an unlawful sex act.

-Duran Chavez Slaton, 26, of Abbeville, electronic solicitation of a child for an unlawful sex act and two counts of possession of child pornography.

-Jonathan Paul Rivers, 36, of Abbeville, electronic solicitation of a child for an unlawful sex act, facilitate the travel for an unlawful sex act and two misdemeanor counts of second-degree sex abuse.

(All arrests made by the Henry County Sheriff’s and Abbeville Police investigative Task Force)

* According to state court records, all charges filed against the 12 people remain pending.

Tips for families:

- Using the Internet and instant messaging with friends are common activities for kids and generally safe, if you’ve discussed some rules of use with them.

- Keep the computer in a common room in the house.

- Take an interest in your child’s activity and review the sites they are visiting and to whom they may be chatting with online.

- Warn them never to give out their personal information like name, address, school they attend or even the city they live in, or share any photographs with someone they do not personally know.

- Warn your child about the dangers associated with the Internet and the types of people out there, and that some people may pose as someone their age or gender.

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Thanks for posting that wrap. I am sharing with a few Parents that have kids on facebook.

Your Welcome. That's a good idea.