3 Chandler cops tied to steroid investigation

The Arizona Republic. By Eugene Scott and Venus Lee. 07/25/07

The Chandler Police Department confirmed Wednesday that three of its officers are now under investigation, part of a widening Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into steroid use among public safety personnel.

"From the information that was provided to us by the Drug Enforcement Administration, we have identified three city of Chandler police employees and we are conducting an investigation on our own at this time," said Sgt. Richard Griner, a Chandler police spokesman.

Griner said the employees are sworn officers, and that the department would not have any additional details on the investigation at this time.

Phoenix and Mesa police departments and Phoenix Fire have also been named in the investigation.

Phoenix police told The Arizona Republic that more than a dozen of their officers were linked to the investigation. The Mesa police department confirmed that one of its officers is under investigation.

A DEA spokeswoman said the agency is conducting an investigation regarding steroids and that the primary targets are not police, but doctors that improperly write prescriptions.

The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board oversees certification of all police officers in the state, though they do not conduct investigations.

"This (abuse of steroids among police officers) is all relatively new for us," said Bob Forry, the standards compliance unit manager of AZPOST.

They have had a total of six steroid cases since 2004. One case is still pending and the other five ended with officers losing their certification.

To combat the use of steroids among police officers, Forry said the board plans to partner with local departments to train investigators and will consider revising the administrative rules that do not explicitly state steroid usage and possession are grounds for dismissal. The document does not cover abuse of prescribed anabolic steroids.

Valley public safety agencies have had several instances of involvement with steroids.

In 2005, police found $1,200 worth of steroids in the home of Mesa firefighter Scott Bluemel. He later pleaded guilty to a felony charge and resigned.

Mesa firefighter Jeff Hinrichs was caught smuggling steroids across the border. He resigned months after his sentencing, when supervisors discovered his felony conviction. At 34, Hinrichs set a world record for his age division by bench-pressing 562 pounds at the North American Bench and Dead Lift competition and won a gold medal at the Arizona Police/Fire Games for bench-pressing 540 pounds in 2005.

Last year, two Phoenix police officers were ordered to be tested for steroids. One of them, Officer Bob Dietrich, was terminated.

Retrieved July 25, 2007 from http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/0725cr-steroids.html

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Phoenix, Arizona -12 officers probed in steroid case

By William Hermann, The Arizona Republic, 07/22/07.

At least 12 Phoenix police officers are under investigation as part of a federal probe into the criminal use of anabolic steroids, a department commander said Saturday. The use of the steroids, a controlled substance, for non-legitimate medical reasons is both a violation of department policy and the law. The investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration apparently centers on Valley physicians who may be illegally dispensing or prescribing the anabolic steroids. Some of the patients, including police officers, got swept up in it, according to Phoenix police Cmdr. Chris Crockett. Crockett said that to his knowledge, the DEA probe has also turned up names of officers from other Valley police departments. He did not, however, know which other agencies might be involved. Attempts to reach the DEA for comment were unsuccessful Saturday. Crockett, commander of the department's Public Affairs Bureau, said that he did not have the names of the Phoenix officers involved in the investigation.

No officers charged
He said none of the officers has "been charged with anything yet, and as I understand it they are still on duty." Anabolic steroids are a controlled substance in the United States and many other countries. Steroids have been widely used by body builders for years because of the drug's ability to increase the growth of tissue, especially muscle. Phoenix police officers may not use anabolic steroids unless they have a legitimate medical reason, according to department policy. Police recruits are asked on their application form if they have used various drugs, including heroin, methamphetamines and steroids. Violations can bring about disciplinary measures ranging from suspensions to termination. Doctors have been prosecuted nationwide for handing out prescriptions for steroids to people who have no legitimate medical need for them but simply want to build muscle mass. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said Saturday he knew about the steroid investigation but said he did not know details. "I've been briefed on this by (police) management, and the department is conducting its own investigation," Gordon said. "I'm confident we'll take appropriate action."

'Ahead of other agencies'
Crockett said that, distressing as it might be for the department to be facing the problem of improper steroid use by officers, Phoenix "is to my knowledge way ahead of other agencies in being proactive on steroid use." "I spoke with the commander in charge of our professional standards bureau. He said no other agency routinely random-samples officers for steroid use. Only Phoenix." Crockett said that concern about officer steroid use was great enough that about one year ago the random test that is administered to officers for drug use was modified to test for steroids. Several officers have tested positive for steroids in the random tests, Crockett said, but he wasn't sure how many. He said he's aware of one officer who just this week was placed on 40 hours' suspension from duty for using steroids. "That 40 hours was the recommendation of the Discipline Review Board, and Chief (Jack) Harris concurred," Crockett said. Crockett said that there are concerns about officers using steroids that go beyond possibly using a controlled substance illegally. He said that while he is no authority on the subject of "roid rage" - the uncontrolled anger often associated with those who abuse anabolic steroids - "obviously, anybody who would not be able to act in a controlled manner is something we would be concerned about." "I know there have been stories of people using steroids and doing some pretty bad things," he said.

Retrieved July 22, 2007 from http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/0722steroids0722.html

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Mesa officer in federal steroid probe reassigned

Jim Walsh. The Arizona Republic. 07/24/07
Mesa police are investigating whether one of their officers was illegally prescribed anabolic steroids as part of a federal investigation spreading through Valley police and fire departments.Police have declined to identify the patrol officer but said he was reassigned to administrative duties more than two weeks ago.Detective Chris Arvayo said Mesa police were notified by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration that the officer was listed as a patient of a doctor under investigation in the steroids probe. At least 12 Phoenix police and firefighters also have been named in the investigation.The internal affairs investigation will focus on the officer's relationship with the doctor and whether he was prescribed steroids. The DEA has said that doctors are the primary focus of their investigation, but the officers and firefighters may have violated their departments' drug policies.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:46 PM | Permalink

AP WorldStream. 07/24/07

Raleigh, North Carolina - MySpace.com has found more than
29,000 registered U.S. sex offenders with profiles on the popular
social networking Web site -- more than four times the number cited
by the company two months ago, North Carolina officials said
Tuesday.

North Carolina's Roy Cooper is one of several state attorneys
general who recently demanded the News Corp.-owned Web site provide
data on how many registered sex offenders were using the site,
along with information about where they live.

After initially withholding the information, citing federal
privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after
the states filed formal legal requests.

At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it
helped create to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders, out
of a total of about 180 million profiles on the site.

Two MySpace spokeswomen did not immediately return calls seeking
comment Tuesday.

Cooper is pushing for legislation that would require children to
receive parental permission before creating social networking
profiles, and require the Web sites to enact procedures for
verifying the parents' identity and age.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:25 AM | Permalink

Bill Conradt killed himself after appearing on ‘To Catch a Predator’

The Associated Press. 07/23/07

New York - The sister of a man who was suspected of being a sexual predator and who killed himself as the cameras of “Dateline NBC” closed in on him sued NBC Universal Inc. on Monday for $105 million.

Patricia Conradt’s brother, Bill Conradt Jr., shot himself last November in a Dallas suburb as police knocked at his door and a camera crew for the newsmagazine waited in the street.

Conradt claims her brother, an assistant county prosecutor, committed suicide after he was accused of engaging in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy. She alleges a police officer at the scene of the shooting told a “Dateline” producer, “That’ll make good TV.”

Bill Conradt, 57, became a target of a series called “To Catch a Predator” in which NBC and the activist group Perverted Justice set up shop for four days last November in a two-story home in Murphy, Texas. Perverted Justice staff posed as boys and girls online and arranged to meet men there.

Two dozen men were arrested, but the district attorney refused to prosecute any of them, saying many of the cases were tainted by the involvement of amateurs. And the city manager was fired for approving the arrangement without telling the mayor or the city council.

NBC and Perverted Justice have filmed similar operations in other cities, and the network has said the show did not have the same problems elsewhere that it produced in Murphy.

“We have not yet received the lawsuit, but we plan to defend ourselves vigorously as we believe the claims in the suit to be completely without merit,” said Jenny Tartikoff, a spokeswoman for NBC Universal.

Patricia Conradt accuses NBC Universal of engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity by bribing police across the country to let it film encounters with suspects it lures to a home where it has set up cameras.

She said in the lawsuit that NBC “steamrolled” police to arrest her brother at his home after he failed to show up at the rigged house 35 miles away.

Conradt said her brother was unable to defend himself when police, NBC employees and associates swarmed his yard, creating a relationship between NBC and her brother similar to the relationship a prison guard has with an inmate.

“The suicide was reasonably foreseeable,” her lawsuit reads. “At this time, the defendant wore the robe of a state official and Bill wore the shackles of a detainee. Having trespassed and invaded upon Bill’s property to broadcast a spectacle to millions, the defendant took no more steps toward protecting him than are received by a gladiator or bull.”

NBC was “concerned more with its own profits than with pedophilia,” she said in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in New York, where the network is based.

2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19922038/

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:12 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz: The research of Doctors Bourke and Hernandez is some of the most important of our era. According to the story below, "Many Internet child pornography offenders may be undetected child molesters."

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July 19, 2007. By Julian Sher and Benedict Carey. From BlueRidgeNow.com

Experts have often wondered what proportion of men who download explicit sexual images of children also molest them. A new government study of convicted Internet offenders suggests that the number may be startlingly high: 85 percent of the offenders said they had committed acts of sexual abuse against minors, from inappropriate touching to rape.

The study, which has not yet been published, is stirring a vehement debate among psychologists, law enforcement officers and prison officials, who cannot agree on how the findings should be presented or interpreted.

The research, carried out by psychologists at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is the first in-depth survey of such online offenders’ sexual behavior done by prison therapists who were actively performing treatment. Its findings have circulated privately among experts, who say they could have enormous implications for public safety and law enforcement.

Traffic in online child pornography has exploded in recent years, and the new study, some experts say, should be made public as soon as possible, to identify men who claim to be “just looking at pictures” but could, in fact, be predators.

Yet others say that the results, while significant, risk tarring some men unfairly. The findings, based on offenders serving prison time who volunteered for the study, do not necessarily apply to the large and diverse group of adults who have at some point downloaded child pornography, and whose behavior is far too variable to be captured by a single survey.

Adding to the controversy, the prison bureau in April ordered the paper withdrawn from a peer-reviewed academic journal where it had been accepted for publication, apparently concerned that the results might be misinterpreted. A spokeswoman for the bureau said the agency was reviewing a study of child pornography offenders but declined to comment further.

Ernie Allen, who leads the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is mandated to coordinate the nation’s efforts to combat child pornography, said he was surprised that the full study had not been released. “This is the kind of research the public needs to know about,” Mr. Allen said. Others agreed that the report should be published but were more cautious about the findings. “The results could have tremendous implications for community safety and for individual liberties,” said Dr. Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic. “If people we thought were not dangerous are more so, then we need to know that and we should treat them that way. But if we’re wrong, then their liberties aren’t going to be fairly addressed.”

Everyone agrees that researchers need to learn more about online consumers of illegal child images. The volume of material seized from computers appears to be doubling each year — the National Center collected more than eight million images of explicit child pornography in the last five years — and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales made child protection a national priority in 2006.

Those who are arrested on charges of possession or distribution of child pornography generally receive lighter sentences and shorter parole periods than sexual abusers. They do not fit any criminal stereotype; recent arrests have included politicians, police officers, teachers and businessmen.

“It’s crucial to understand the sexual history of all these offenders, because sometimes the crime they were arrested for is the tip of the iceberg, and does not reflect their real patterns and interests,” said Jill S. Levenson, an assistant professor of human services at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., and head of the ethics committee of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.

Previous studies, based on surveys of criminal records, estimated that 30 percent to 40 percent of those arrested for possessing child pornography also had molested children.

The psychologists who conducted the new study, Andres E. Hernandez and Michael L. Bourke, focused on 155 male inmates who had volunteered to be treated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C., according to a draft of the paper obtained by The New York Times from outside experts who want the study published.

The Butner clinic is the only residential program devoted to the treatment of sexual offenders in the federal prison system. The inmates in the study were all serving sentences for possession or distribution of child pornography.

About every six months as part of an 18-month treatment program, they filled out a record of their sexual history, including a “victims list” tallying their previous victims of abuse. Therapists encouraged the men to be honest as part of their treatment, and the sexual histories were anonymous, according to the paper.

The psychologists compared these confessions with the men’s criminal sexual histories at the time of sentencing. More than 85 percent admitted to abusing at least one child, they found, compared with 26 percent who were known to have committed any “hands on” offenses at sentencing. The researchers also counted many more total victims: 1,777, a more than 20-fold increase from the 75 identified when the men were sentenced.

Dr. Hernandez and Dr. Bourke concluded in the paper that “many Internet child pornography offenders may be undetected child molesters.” But they also cautioned that offenders who volunteer for treatment may differ in their behavior from those who do not seek treatment.

They submitted the paper to The Journal of Family Violence, a widely read peer-reviewed publication in the field, and it was accepted.

But in a letter obtained by The Times, dated April 3, Judi Garrett, an official of the Bureau of Prisons, requested that the editors of the journal withdraw the study, because it did not meet “agency approval.”

Editors at The Journal of Family Violence did not respond to phone or e-mail messages asking about the withdrawal.

Dr. Hernandez mentioned the research briefly during testimony before a Senate committee last year. But the bureau blocked Dr. Hernandez and Dr. Bourke from attending some law enforcement conferences to speak about the findings, said two prosecutors who did not want to be identified because they have a continuing work relationship with the bureau.

“We believe it unwise to generalize from limited observations gained in treatment or in records review to the broader population of persons who engage in such behavior,” a bureau official wrote to the organizers of a recent law enforcement conference, in a letter dated May 2 and given to The Times by an expert who is hoping the study will be published.

Some prosecutors say they could use the study to argue for stiffer sentences. While some outside researchers agreed that the risk of over-generalizing the study’s results was real, almost all the experts interviewed also said that the study should still be made public.

Dr. Peter Collins, who leads the Forensic Psychiatry Unit of the Ontario Provincial Police, called the findings “cutting-edge stuff.”

“We’re really on the cusp of learning more about these individuals and studies should be encouraged, not quashed,” Dr. Collins said.

Understanding the relationship between looking at child pornography and sexually assaulting children is central to developing effective treatment, psychologists say.

It is not at all clear when, or in whom, the viewing spurs action or activates a latent, unconscious desire; or whether such images have little or no effect on the offender’s subsequent behavior. But the relationship probably varies widely.

“My concern is about sensationalism, about the way something like this is handled in the media,” said Michael Miner, an associate professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Minnesota who treats sex offenders. “The public perception is that all of these guys will re-offend, and we know that just isn’t true.”

At least some men convicted of sexual abuse say that child pornography from the Internet fueled their urges. In a recent interview, one convicted pedophile serving a 14-year sentence in a Canadian federal prison said that looking at images online certainly gave him no release from his desires — exactly the opposite.

“Because there is no way I can look at a picture of a child on a video screen and not get turned on by that and want to do something about it,” he said. “I knew that in my mind. I knew that in my heart. I didn’t want it to happen, but it was going to happen.”

How many offenders does he speak for? The study may help answer that question, some say.

“The penalties we seek, the vigor with which we prosecute — the very importance we give to child pornography cases — all of these things are affected by what we know about the offenders,” said Leura G. Canary, the United States attorney for Middle Alabama who also leads the Attorney General’s Working Group on Child Exploitation and Obscenity. “And right now we know very little.”

Retrieved July 19, 2007 from http://www.blueridgenow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/ZNYT04/707190371/1170/NEWS/ZNYT04/Debate_on_Child_Pornography_x2019_s_Link_to_Molesting&template=printart

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:34 PM | Permalink

The New York Times. By Brad Stone. July 11, 2007.

Parents and child safety experts concerned about the online activities of teenagers have been particularly nervous about a Web site called Stickam, which allows its 600,000 registered users, age 14 and older, to participate in unfiltered live video chats using their Web cameras.

But those Internet safety advocates might be even more anxious if they knew of Stickam's close ties to a large online pornography business.

On its Web site and in press reports, Stickam says that it is owned by Advanced Video Communications, or AVC, a three-year-old Los Angeles company that sells video conferencing and e-commerce services to businesses in Japan and other Asian countries.

The sites, with names like DxLive, EXshot and JgirlParadise, use the same video technology as Stickam to link paying users with performers in one-on-one video chat sessions.

The workers at Mr. Takahashi's companies "only know how to conduct an adult Web site," Mr. Becker said. "They don't get it that there are predators on the Internet."

Stickam has attracted a few big-name partners. Lionsgate, Warner Brothers Records and the Los Angeles Film Festival have all used Stickam for promotional purposes. Representative Ron Paul, a Republican of Texas and a candidate for president, answered questions from Stickam users last month.

Yet Stickam, a free site, does not have advertising, and does not appear to have earned any recurring revenue in its two-year existence. It has courted media companies to use its site for promotions.

Mr. Becker said Stickam shares the 68th floor with DxLive, one of the sex sites. He said a running tally on a whiteboard there indicated that DxLive was bringing in around $220,000 a day.

Mr. Becker alleges that he saw DxLive on-camera performers being trained on the building's 61st floor in matters like how to respond to special customer requests. Mr. Flacks of Stickam flatly disputed this, but he acknowledged that DxLive does have "some" office space in the U.S. Bank Tower.

Mr. Becker said he first learned of the extent of the pornography business last April, when Mr. Takahashi, who employees refer to as Mr. T, took him to dinner at a downtown sushi restaurant. Through translators he described some of his companies' assets, which include at least 49 pornography sites, a pornographic film production company, nine restaurants in Japan and private planes, Mr. Becker said.

"I don't think I discovered everything, but I learned more than enough to be able to say with certainty that they are not leaders in the video-conferencing business," Mr. Becker said. "They are leaders in pushing porn via a Flash player and streaming porn from the United States to Japan."

Mr. Becker said Mr. Takahashi told him that he had based his sites in the United States because of Japan's restrictions on explicit nudity.

Public information about Mr. Takahashi, who declined interview requests, is hard to come by. A March issue of a local newspaper had a page with photos from a "Birthday Celebration in Honor of Billionaire Businessman Wataru Takahashi."

Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough Is Enough, an Internet safety organization, said that considering Stickam's ties to pornography, children and their parents should exercise caution when using the site."

This is just another adult operator looking for a back door to the youth market," she said. "For youth without parental understanding and controls in place, this can be dangerous."

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:59 PM | Permalink

The New York Times, By BRAD STONE, 07/11/07

Parents and child safety experts concerned about the online activities of teenagers have been particularly nervous about a Web site called Stickam, which allows its 600,000 registered users, age 14 and older, to participate in unfiltered live video chats using their Web cameras.

But those Internet safety advocates might be even more anxious if they knew of Stickam's close ties to a large online pornography business.

On its Web site and in press reports, Stickam says that it is owned by Advanced Video Communications, or AVC, a three-year-old Los Angeles company that sells video conferencing and e-commerce services to businesses in Japan and other Asian countries.

But according to Alex Becker, a former vice president at Stickam, and internal company documents, Advanced Video Communications is managed and owned by Wataru Takahashi, a Japanese businessman who also owns and operates DTI Services, a vast network of Web sites offering live sex shows over Web cameras. Mr. Becker alleges that Stickam shares office space, employees and computer systems with the pornographic Web sites.

The sites, with names like DxLive, EXshot and JgirlParadise, use the same video technology as Stickam to link paying users with performers in one-on-one video chat sessions.

Mr. Becker recently left Stickam after four months there and said he was speaking out because the company was not doing enough to protect young users of its service. Mr. Becker also alleges that he witnessed Stickam employees deleting thousands of e-mail messages sent to the company's addresses set up for customer service and abuse complaints, without reading or responding to them.

Mr. Becker criticized what he said was the practice of sharing employees among Stickam and the pornographic sites.

The workers at Mr. Takahashi's companies "only know how to conduct an adult Web site," Mr. Becker said. "They don't get it that there are predators on the Internet."

When asked about Mr. Becker's allegations, Scott Flacks, Stickam's vice president for marketing, denied that the site was negligent about protecting its users, or that unread e-mail messages from users had been deleted. "We take security issues very seriously and have a dedicated team to monitor and eliminate improper material," he said. "Security and Stickam go hand in hand."

Mr. Flacks also said that Mr. Becker had plans to create a site that would compete with Stickam and was being "retaliatory" because he had been unable to reach agreement on a contract with the company. (Mr. Becker acknowledged that he had never signed a contract because of a dispute over intellectual property.)

Mr. Flacks said AVC was one of four "separate divisions" managed and owned by Mr. Takahashi, one of which includes DTI Services and the pornography companies. But Mr. Flacks said AVC operated independently of the pornography sites, and compared it with Disney's ownership of Touchstone Pictures, which produces R-rated films.

"I expect some Touchstone executives have been on the Disney lot, but that doesn't mean Disney is a content producer of adult entertainment," he said.

Though Stickam remains relatively small compared to Web giants like MySpace and YouTube, several thousand of its mostly teenage members log onto the site each night to broadcast their own lives, often from their bedrooms. They put on makeshift talk shows, flirt with other members in video chat rooms, and often, if they are female, field repeated requests to take off their clothes.

Anyone can tune into a user's video feed, unless the user restricts it to friends only. Members must be 14 or older to sign up, but the site does not attempt to verify ages.

Stickam has attracted a few big-name partners. Lionsgate, Warner Brothers Records and the Los Angeles Film Festival have all used Stickam for promotional purposes. Representative Ron Paul, a Republican of Texas and a candidate for president, answered questions from Stickam users last month.

But none of them appear to know Stickam's true parentage. At first, neither did Mr. Becker, 40, who joined the company in March after a friend introduced him to Mr. Flacks, a former executive at Fox Interactive. Mr. Becker said he had been enthralled by the potential to bring live video to mobile phones, and had been impressed by the company's offices atop the tallest building in Los Angeles, the U.S. Bank Tower.

Mr. Becker said he soon learned that Mr. Takahashi's companies leased premium office space in several downtown Los Angeles skyscrapers, including Macy's Plaza, Sanwa Bank Plaza and One Wilshire, which houses the largest telecommunications hub in the Pacific Rim.

In the U.S. Bank Tower the companies occupy the 72nd floor, its highest, as well as the 61st and 68th floors. Last week Mr. Becker, using his company access badges, brought a reporter to the offices, which have impressive 360-degree views that stretch to the Pacific Ocean. The top floor in particular seemed curiously empty, with a dozen employees at most working there.

The floors are leased for about $35 to $37 a square foot, according to the building's leasing agent, which makes it some of the most expensive office space in Southern California.

Yet Stickam, a free site, does not have advertising, and does not appear to have earned any recurring revenue in its two-year existence. It has courted media companies to use its site for promotions.

Mr. Becker said Stickam shares the 68th floor with DxLive, one of the sex sites. He said a running tally on a whiteboard there indicated that DxLive was bringing in around $220,000 a day.

Mr. Becker alleges that he saw DxLive on-camera performers being trained on the building's 61st floor in matters like how to respond to special customer requests. Mr. Flacks of Stickam flatly disputed this, but he acknowledged that DxLive does have "some" office space in the U.S. Bank Tower.

Mr. Becker said he first learned of the extent of the pornography business last April, when Mr. Takahashi, who employees refer to as Mr. T, took him to dinner at a downtown sushi restaurant. Through translators he described some of his companies' assets, which include at least 49 pornography sites, a pornographic film production company, nine restaurants in Japan and private planes, Mr. Becker said.

"I don't think I discovered everything, but I learned more than enough to be able to say with certainty that they are not leaders in the video-conferencing business," Mr. Becker said. "They are leaders in pushing porn via a Flash player and streaming porn from the United States to Japan."

Mr. Becker said Mr. Takahashi told him that he had based his sites in the United States because of Japan's restrictions on explicit nudity.

Public information about Mr. Takahashi, who declined interview requests, is hard to come by. A March issue of a local newspaper had a page with photos from a "Birthday Celebration in Honor of Billionaire Businessman Wataru Takahashi."

Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough Is Enough, an Internet safety organization, said that considering Stickam's ties to pornography, children and their parents should exercise caution when using the site.

"This is just another adult operator looking for a back door to the youth market," she said. "For youth without parental understanding and controls in place, this can be dangerous."

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:27 PM | Permalink

Tampa, Florida – If the red flags were going to go up, this was the time. Thursday night, Tampa Police were conducting a random sex offender check and knocked on 52-year-old Raymond Gomez’s door. When he answered, he was naked. “He kind of stood behind [the door], and his eyes were as big as saucers,” Ofr. Felicia Pecora recalled. “I just thought, he looked like people look when they just get out… when they’re naked and you catch them… So, I said, ‘Are you naked?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘Well, put your pants on because we’re going to do a check on you.’” Gomez did and then let the two officers inside. But as he was talking to them, another red flag went up. Ofr. Pecora noticed he was pacing deliberately in front of the bedroom door. “That’s when I kinda stepped in the bedroom. And as I walked past the door, I saw a young girl in the bed like this,” Ofr. Pecora said as she made a motion showing a stiff body, “with her hand kinda hidden, and I said, ‘Who are you?’”

The girl first told officers she was 18, but she is 15. She said she’d met Gomez about seven months ago through a Christian chat room online. But neither of them were using their computers to access the internet. They were using cell phones. “A lot of times parents don’t realize kids can get access to the internet through their cell phone. What she said was a 50-cent chat session, and that’s how they met,” Ofr. Pecora said.

Since then, the two had talked on the phone about God and religion. Eventually, Gomez visited the girl at her house in Bartow when her parents weren’t home. Since then, police say the two had had sex about 20 times at various locations, including Gomez’s home Thursday night.

The girl told officers, earlier in the day, Gomez had driven to her house in Bartow to pick her up. Gomez was arrested Thursday night for violating the conditions of his parole, which include staying at least 1,000 feet from a child, not using the internet and keeping a driving log. Gomez has been a registered sex offender since 2002, when he was charged with having sex with a child under the age of 16 in Hillsborough county.

Detectives think there is at least one more victim. If you have any information, contact Tampa Police.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:54 PM | Permalink

AP WorldStreamTuesday, 07/03/07, By Tom Hester Jr., Associated Press Writer

Trenton, N.J. (AP) - Nearly 150 convicted New Jersey sex offenders had profiles on the social networking Internet site MySpace.com, with more than half either on probation or parole, the state attorney general said Tuesday. We have the proof in hand to confirm the worst fears of New Jersey's concerned parents and educators -- that sex offenders are active on Web sites used by children and teenagers," Attorney General Anne Milgram said. He said the sex offenders on probation and parole can be subjected to tougher prohibitions against Internet use.

MySpace agreed in May to provide states with e-mail and Internet addresses of sex offenders, bowing to requests from attorneys general in eight states who had pressured MySpace to disclose the information. It built a database on sex offenders, removed about 7,000 profiles from the site nationally and turned names over to law enforcement in all 50 states, officials said. The site has about 180 million profiles.

The names of the registered sex offenders were turned over to New Jersey authorities after the Attorney General's Office issued a May 21 subpoena. A second subpoena was served on June 29 seeking additional information from MySpace.com. Milgram said her office will review the list of sex offenders identified through MySpae and try to determine the exact nature of the offenders' activities on the site. Also, she said other social networking Web sites will be asked to cross-check their user profiles with publicly available lists of registered sex offenders and provide names of any sex offenders to her office. "The information provided by MySpace is only a first step," Milgram said. Social networking sites such as MySpace allow users to create online profiles with photos, music and personal information, let them send messages to one another and view other profiles. Milgram said MySpace included names, e-mail addresses and Internet protocol addresses of convicted sex offenders who had registered with state authorities. According to MySpace records: -- The 141 New Jersey sex offenders logged onto MySpace 34,000 times during the time they were registered with the site, which ranged from a few months to two years. Many logged onto the site hundreds of times.

-- 43 MySpace users were New Jersey parolees and another 37 on probation. The other 61 are registered New Jersey sex offenders, but neither on parole nor probation. The Attorney General's Office has turned over the information to parole and probation officials to check for violations, while the state police will review data for potential use in investigations. Connecticut, for instance, recently charged two sex offenders with violating parole by creating a MySpace profile without permission from parole officials.

New Jersey sex offenders who violate parole face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children one in seven children in America between ages 10 and 17 is sexually solicited online.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:27 PM | Permalink

Here is some information about an Arizona ICAC Task Force case that was recently adjudicated.

The Arrest
In 2004, Keith Alan Jarrett, age 50, was arrested for possession of Internet-traded child pornography. Jarrett admitted to his crimes and said that he knew that child pornography was illegal. Jarrett immediately blamed his collection of child pornography on prescribed testosterone injections that had been given to him by a physician. The injections, he said, turned him into a “sexual superman.”

An Alleged Medical Problem
According to a letter later written by Jarrett, the testosterone injections had the following effect:

The shots slowly consumed me. They turned me into a mad man, with uncontrollable sexual urges. At the time I was oblivious to it because I felt great and was now dependent on them. I felt like a sexual superman.

I discovered Online chat rooms. My sexual urges now turned to the internet. I started spending every waking moment in chat rooms, opening any and every link that chatters posted. I was going through profiles looking for porn. I was masturbating constantly, 6 or 7 times a day, sometimes all day long if situation allowed it. I was in there night and day, watching web cams, reading nasty conversations, collecting photos, and masturbating. And to say there was some child porn and other inappropriate photos being posted in chat rooms, would be an understatement. They were every where.

The Explanation
Jarrett’s attorney began to build a defense around the testosterone-injection causation theory. The attorney, Antonio Zuniga, consulted with Dr. Richard Krueger M.D. of the Columbia University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry.

Dr. Krueger examined 12 documents related to the Jarrett case including reports by physicians, a polygraph operator and Mr. Jarrett himself. Dr. Krueger never personally interviewed Jarrett and did not review the police reports documenting the investigation. 

Dr. Krueger authored a letter that Jarrett’s defense counsel used in his defense.  In the letter, Dr. Krueger said that Jarrett had a history of being sexually victimized as a boy by an adult, and said that the history of victimzation could increase also his predisposition to view child pornography.

Dr. Krueger also documented the findings of others who said that Jarrett suffers from depressive disorder, alcohol abuse, and hepatitis C.

According to Dr. Krueger, Mr. Jarrett “engaged in his acquisition of child pornography while under the influence of testosterone.”

Here is an excerpt from a letter by Dr. Krueger to Antonio Zuniga, lawyer for Keith Jarrett:

It is my opinion, with a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that Mr. Jarrett during the period from approximately January of 2003 through November 2004 developed an excessive sexual drive which resulted in, among other things, his acquisition of child pornography, as a result of receiving excessive dose of testosterone from his medical physician. It is also my opinion, with a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that without these testosterone injections, Mr. Jarrett would not have engaged in the acquisition of child pornography.

It is also my opinion, with a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that even with an admission of guilt to crimes involving possession and/or distribution of child pornography that Mr. Jarrett’s risk of actually abusing a child is remote, and that he could be safely managed in the community.

The Sentence
Jarrett decided not to try his unusual defense before a trial court or a jury. On June 14, 2007 Jarrett waived trial and plead guilty to two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor (child pornography) in Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court. He was sentenced to five years incarceration, lifetime probation, registration as a sex offender, monitoring by a global positioning device and prohibition from consuming alcohol.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:56 PM | Permalink

AZ - Holbrook PD, Navajo County SO, AZ DPS &  Navajo County Attorney - Unlawful image suspect sentenced - (ICAC Task Force)

On May 25, 2007 Calvin Craig Bessent, age 44, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and lifetime probation after pleading guilty to state charges of furnishing harmful items to a minor and attempted sexual exploitation of a minor (child pornography).  Bessent is unmarried and unemployed. He was living with his mother at the time of his arrest.

The investigation was handled by the Holbrook Police Department and the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators learned that on March 9, 2006 Bessent began an online relationship with a 15-year-old victim.  During their communications Bessent had sent numerous pornographic images to the victim.  A search warrant was served on Bessent’s residence and evidence was seized.  Bessent made admissions to the offenses and was arrested.  An Arizona Department of Public Safety forensic examiner reviewed the computer and found an unlawful image depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.

This investigation was found to be linked to another ongoing case when it was leaned that the victim had also been communicating with another suspect. The case against the second suspect is pending.

The Navajo County Attorney’s Office handled the prosecution. 

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:21 PM | Permalink

06/29/07. Sandra Yi Reporting. From www.ksl.com

A warning for parents: If your child has a computer, state authorities want you to check it for any contact with a suspected child predator. Investigators say the man went online specifically to meet young girls for sex, and they believe he's already had contact with several girls.

They arrested Spencer Turner last week when he went to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl. Authorities say Turner asked the girl to meet him so he could kiss and fondle her. Turner didn't know that girl was actually an undercover officer.

After his arrest, investigators learned that Turner may have had sex with two underage girls he met online, and another girl he met while running in a Murray neighborhood. They say the encounters happened in the past two and a half years.

Chris Ahearn, who oversees the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force says, "His purpose was very specific and expressed: to engage in sexual activity with a minor."

Turner used the alias "Scott Taylor" on a buddy list and used the screen name "boredstiff_89" in Internet chat rooms.

Officials are urging parents to check their children's computers for any contact with Turner. He is in jail for enticing a minor over the Internet.

Ahearn says, "It's inherently dangerous for anyone to allow their children to talk to strangers. Their contact on the Internet should be with family and friends…We want to protect the children of the state."

This is the second recent arrest, which has prompted state authorities to send a warning to parents. Last week, the ICAC Task Force arrested Jeffery Burton for sexually abusing a six-year-old boy, and manufacturing and distributing child pornography. Investigators believe there are more victims. Authorities say this kind of crime is prevalent.

Anyone with information about Turner or possible victims is asked to call Lt. McQuiston of the Utah Attorney General's Office at (801) 514-4287.

Retrieved July 1, 2007 from http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1415676

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:32 AM | Permalink

Female truckers' complaints raise questions about reform

By Brad Schrade, Staff Writer The Tennesean.com. 07/01/07

One female trucker says state trooper Sgt. Leon King ordered her into a secluded room at an Interstate 40 weigh station in January 2006 and propositioned her.

Another says King caressed her hands, arm and buttocks at that Weststate weigh station.

King stayed on the job four months during the first investigation. Days after the second incident, the patrol let him retire with his full pension. No investigation was done.

The handling of the complaints about King, and two other cases involving troopers and women, raise questions about whether agency reforms in 2006 took root.

Officials responding to the complaints were the ones put in place after Gov. Phil Bredesen pledged to end the patrol's history of cronyism and tolerating troopers' misconduct.

"This raises the specter of the 'good ole boy' system at its worst," said David Raybin, a former prosecutor who now represents a Fraternal Order of Police union. "That a police department would tolerate mistreatment of anyone, a woman for sex or anything. Their job is to protect the public. The idea that a police officer is using his position to hit on women is abhorrent."

Highway Patrol officials say that the cases involve a few bad apples and that they have responded aggressively.

When we have indications of inappropriate behavior, that is dealt with," Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Browning said.

Intimidation claimed
The two female truck drivers from the 2006 incidents at the Brownsville weigh station say King scared and intimidated them, and they wished he had been prosecuted. He wasn't.

Complaint wasn't first
"It was an abuse of power," Serratto told the newspaper last week. "It was so blatant. You could tell it wasn't the first time because it was so natural for him. It was intimidation, his badge.

Serratto said Highway Patrol officials left her with the impression that King had been fired after her complaint.

Cooper, who said she still has nightmares from her episode with King, wants to know why the patrol leadership let him back on the job even as he was being investigated for the earlier complaint.

Woman's outrage lingers
" 'What do you mean he's retired and I should have no more incidents?' " Cooper recalled thinking when she saw the letter.

Rose Palermo, a Nashville attorney, said it is against the law for someone to touch another person in the manner described by Cooper.

The case should have at least been pursued and turned over to a district attorney to determine if there's a criminal case, Palermo said.

Such behavior could also fall under the category of official misconduct, according to Raybin.

After Cooper complained about the lack of action — and nearly a year after the incident — the patrol forwarded her case to the district attorney general in Haywood County.

The head of the patrol's parent agency at the time of both 2006 incidents was Gerald Nicely, whom Bredesen installed as interim state safety commissioner and put in charge of cleaning up the force.

In retrospect, Walker said, King probably should have been put on leave after Serratto complained in January 2006.

When he learned of accusations against King, the colonel said he pursued them vigorously, and he recommended on June 1, 2006, that King be suspended for 30 days, demoted and transferred to the Interstate 24 weigh station in Manchester.

King retired before the department could conduct an internal investigation on the second incident, he said.

The patrol this year created a new professional standards unit to investigate and root out troopers who are guilty of misconduct, the colonel noted.

The retired trooper has been a Brownsville alderman for some time, his attorney said, and had worked for the state since 1975.

A 10-day suspension was recommended for King in 1999 after he was accused of using his state position to track down contact information for a married woman he'd seen at a Huddle House restaurant. State records say King called the woman at home and asked her out on a date.

He said it may have been overturned, but the spokesman could not answer that definitively Friday.

Two other troopers have recently gotten in trouble over sex-related allegations. Trooper James Randy Moss received international attention in May when a porn actress said she performed oral sex on him during a traffic stop in exchange for his overlooking drugs in her car.

Just a week later, on June 6, Walker moved to fire Harold "Steve" Max, a West Tennessee trooper accused of showing up at a married woman's home while on duty on several occasions and propositioning her, allegedly grabbing her breast and her buttocks, records show.

Retrieved July 1, 2007 from http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/NEWS0201/707010400

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:41 PM | Permalink

07/01/07

Madbury N.H. (AP) - The longtime police chief in Madbury can no longer serve as a police officer in the state.

The New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council decertified Chief George Taylor after concluding he submitted false documents to the council.  The council was looking into questionable documents about firearm  qualifications, employee background checks and part-time officer working hours. Taylor has been Madbury's chief for more than 30 years. He met with the council last month, and on Tuesday its members voted to revoke his certification. Council officials will not discuss specifics. "As we teach all police officers, integrity and honesty are paramount in maintaining the public's confidence in the profession itself," said Michael Prozza Jr., Sullivan County Sheriff and council chairman. "While it is sad that police misconduct exists in the first place, this action should at the same time send an important message to the citizens of this great state that The Council takes such misconduct seriously." Taylor's name will now be entered into a nationwide database of decertified police officers. Madbury Lt. Joe McGann is filling in for Taylor.
Retrieved July 1, 2007 from http://www.sunjournal.com/story/219105-3/NewEnglandNews/NH_chief_loses_police_powers/

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:38 PM | Permalink