The Oregonian
Saturday, March 5, 2011
By Harry Esteve
SALEM — Part of the public fury that grew over former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s admission that he sexually abused an underage girl was that he could not be prosecuted for the crime — the statute of limitations had expired long ago.
Now Oregon lawmakers are considering a change that would eliminate the time limit on when someone accused of abuse or assault of a minor could be prosecuted.
“I just think there is no rationale that we deny children the ability to seek justice later on in life,” says Rep. Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone, who is pushing the proposed change in the law.
The proposal, contained in House Bill 3057, gets its first public hearing Monday and will likely generate a fight pitting prosecutors against defense attorneys. Some district attorneys say young sexual assault victims need extra protection. Defense lawyers say the change would make it far more difficult for people to make the case that they’ve been wrongly accused.
Oregon has a six-year statute of limitations on most sex crimes. However, the law allows a longer time period if the victim is under 18. In that case, the crime can be prosecuted any time before the victim turns 30, or within 12 years after the crime is reported to police or the Department of Human Services.
But even those extended time periods aren’t always enough, says John Foote, Clackamas County district attorney.
“Child abuse is a lifelong event,” he says. “It stays with people their whole lives. Sometimes society ends up paying for it. Sometimes the victim does.”
The bill offers one more layer of protection if abusers understand they could be prosecuted long after the crime, Foote says. “When you’re in the work we’re in, protecting children, you realize these kids need all the protection they can get because the effects are so devastating.”
Innocent defendants need protection, too, says Gail Meyer, lobbyist for the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. Completely removing an already lengthy statute of limitations stacks the deck against them, she says.
In criminal cases, as opposed to civil ones, the defense has no right to depose witnesses, Meyer says. Most of the crimes fall under Measure 11′s mandatory sentencing guidelines and it takes a 10-2 jury verdict to convict.
“Add that to a delayed report of 20, 30, 40 years, it’s just too much,” she says. “It just spells a disaster for justice.”
Goldschmidt offers the most high-profile case in Oregon of a crime that went unreported until it was too late to prosecute. In May 2004, the former governor and Nike executive confessed that he had sex with an underage girl when he was Portland mayor in the 1980s. He kept the crime secret for years, in part by making payments to the victim as part of a court settlement.
Despite the criminal nature of his abuse, Goldschmidt faced no chance of prosecution. The bill Hunt is pushing would apply to offenses that occurred before or after the law’s effective date, but would not allow prosecutors to open old cases.
Goldschmidt has since disappeared from public life, but community outrage hasn’t let up. It flared again over reports of the recent death of his victim, and a story in The Oregonian in which the victim gave several interviews to former columnist Margie Boule that offered grim details of her abuse by Goldschmidt.
Hunt says the Goldschmidt case is far from the sole reason he introduced the bill. It’s as much about reports of abuse within the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts as it is about Goldschmidt, he says.
Hunt’s wife, Tonia Hunt, is executive director of the Children’s Center of Clackamas County, which works with young abuse victims. As a result, he says, he hears stories on a daily basis about the terrible things that some adults do to minors.
“We want victims to come forward, whether they’re still children or whether they’re adults,” Hunt says. “Ultimately, they’re not going to heal or move on until justice has been promised and achieved.”
Citizens Unite to Transform Oregon
The Oregon Center for Christian Values is convening a statewide vigil in Salem on January 11, 2011 -National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Citizens from across the state will be converging on the state capitol. We will stand together on the marble steps and bear silent witness to the epidemic of human trafficking that is attacking our community.
At 10:00 AM on January 11th, Citizens will gather at Cone Chapel on Willamette University campus in Salem. In preparation for the day, there will be hot coffee and refreshments, and an overview of the event. At 11:00 am the crowd will march across the street to the marble steps of the State Capitol, where television news crews and print journalist will be waiting.
The assembled gathering will listen to public officials who have led the fight against Human Trafficking. County Commissioner Diane McKeel will open the event. Senators Bruce Starr and Suzanne Bonimici will join Representatives Andy Olson and Carolyn Tomei on the capitol steps to explain why these new laws are so critical. These State Legislators have shown true leadership, and they are indispensable in passing new laws that will help end human trafficking.
Many non-profit organizations will have booths set up inside the state capitol in the Galleria. The Oregon Center for Christian Values will be joined by Door to Grace, International Justice Mission, Compassion2one, SARC , Shared Hope, and others. In addition, several civic groups will be present, led by Oregonians Against Trafficking Humans (OATH), joined by Catholic Charities, the Soroptomists, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, SOS Beaverton, and Zonta.
Please join us on the state capitol steps on January 11th, and demonstrate that Oregon citizens are willing to stand together to fight injustice, end human trafficking, and transform our state.
11:00 AM Vigil on the State Capitol Steps.
National Human trafficking Awareness Day.
OCCV.ORG info@occv.org 503.222.2072
Monday, August 16, 2010
www.OregonLive.com
A 22-year-old Portland man faces federal sex-trafficking charges for allegedly transporting a 13-year old girl to three other states where he forced her into prostitution and beat her when she resisted.
Jefferson Bryant Davis, 22, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Janice Stewart today who denied him bail. A jury trial for the sex-trafficking and transportation counts has been set for October 19, 2010, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.
According to the indictment, Davis transported the girl from Portland to Washington, California and Nevada with the intent that she engage in prostitution. He allegedly beat her and threatened her when she tried to refuse.The victim and her family sent statements to the court expressing their fears if Davis were to be released, the justice department said.
Davis allegedly got the girl’s address and threatened to kill her family if she talked to the police. He also made references to a gang affiliation.Davis faces a mandatory minimum 15-year sentence to a maximum of life imprisonment if convicted of sex trafficking of a minor under 14. He faces a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence to a maximum of life imprisonment for conviction of each of the counts of transporting her.
The FBI and Salem Police investigated the case which was brought by the Oregon Human Trafficking Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kemp Strickland is prosecuting the case.To provide a local tip on a human trafficking, authorities ask that callers contact Multnomah County Sheriff Deputy Sgt. Keith Bickford at (503) 251-2479.
by JEFF BARNARD, Associated Press Writer
kgw.com
August 19, 2010
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — James Auchincloss — who as a boy carried the wedding train of his half-sister Jackie up the aisle as she married John F. Kennedy — was jailed Wednesday after admitting to possessing child pornography.
Auchincloss, 63, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of encouraging child sex abuse, the charge generally brought against people possessing child pornography, for having computer images of naked boys.
Jackson County Circuit Judge Mark Shiveley ordered Auchincloss to serve 30 days in jail on each count, to be served concurrently, as part of three years of supervised probation. Auchincloss also registered as a sex offender, and agreed to undergo treatment as such, with no unauthorized contact with minors.
He was indicted a year ago on 25 counts after his longtime personal assistant, Edward McManus, told investigators he had seen Auchincloss and co-defendant Dennis Vickoren viewing pictures of naked boys in sexual poses at Auchincloss’ home in Ashland.
Vickoren, 58, of Ashland, also pleaded guilty to two counts Wednesday and received the same sentence.
McManus said outside the courtroom that the sentence was “not enough.” “I do not feel justice was served, nor was it swift,” he said. “I thought I would feel differently today. I thought I would have a sense of closure. I am disappointed.”
McManus noted that the sentencing came two years after he told authorities that Auchincloss and Vickoren kept an extensive collection of child pornography in books, slides and computer files at Auchincloss’ hillside bungalow.
Prosecutor David Hoppe said investigators reviewed the images seized from Auchincloss’ home and identified local residents in them, but after interviewing them were unable to elicit any complaints of actual sexual abuse of a child.
Defense attorney Carl Caplan told the judge that none of the photos depicted sex acts, and Auchincloss and Vickoren “did not realize they were operating in the world of child pornography.”
Auchincloss and Vickoren will pay $1,000 in assessments and forfeit seized images deemed to be pornography. Others will be returned to them.
Caplan read a statement in which Auchincloss apologized to the victims of his crimes, declaring the acts unacceptable and stupid.
“I will do whatever is necessary to prove to them and society that I will be a better person,” Caplan read.
An heir to a wealthy family that made a fortune in oil and financing, Auchincloss is the half brother of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. He went on to be a patron of the arts and an amateur historian, and moved to Ashland, home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 15 years ago.
Friends of Auchincloss said Jackie later treated him like a pariah. Various reasons have been given, including the fact that Auchincloss served as a source for the racy Jackie biography titled “Jackie, Oh,” by author Kitty Kelley.
YahooNews.com
August 11, 2010
By BROOKE DONALD, Associated Press Writer Brooke Donald, Associated Press Writer
SAN JOSE, Calif. – A California woman sued the governing body of U.S. competitive swimming and her former coach, claiming he sexually abused, humiliated and harassed her when she was a teenager training under his supervision.
The suit announced Wednesday is one of several around the country alleging USA Swimming covered up wrongdoing and allowed a culture of abuse to exist in coaching ranks.
USA Swimming declined to comment on the latest case but said it investigates misconduct complaints and revokes membership if behavior was inappropriate.
The lawsuit claims swim coach Norman Havercroft sexually abused Jancy Thompson over a five-year period in the 1990s, beginning when she was about 15.
The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of alleged sexual abuse. However, the now 28-year-old has chosen to speak publicly.
Thompson, who graduated from police academy and does gang intervention for a nonprofit group, said she came forward to help affect change.
“I was robbed of my childhood and never performed to my full capabilities,” she said. “I want to ensure that no one has to endure what I went through and carry such a burden the rest of their lives.”
A telephone message left at a listing for Norman Havercroft in Corona del Mar was not immediately returned.
The alleged abuse took place at various locations in Santa Clara County, including a Los Gatos swim club where Thompson trained, the homes of Thompson and Havercroft, and at a school, according to the 44-page lawsuit first filed June 18 and amended July 30.
Havercroft is accused in the lawsuit of groping, engaging in sexual acts, providing pornography and buying an Internet camera for “cyber” sex.
The abuse carried on after Thompson turned 18, even though she never gave consent, according to the suit filed in Superior Court in San Jose.
The suit also claims Havercroft abused another female and says USA Swimming knew about that case and did nothing to remove Havercroft from his position. That woman is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“In the worst of ways we claim that he took advantage of the coach-athlete relationship, exerting his power and authority,” attorney Robert Allard said.
The suit also claims Thompson witnessed Havercroft inappropriately touch and massage several underage females.
USA Swimming has come under fire for its handling of alleged abuse cases but said it was taking steps to keep young athletes safe. At least 46 coaches and officials have been banned for life, mostly for sexual misconduct.
The organization will vote on measures at its national convention in September that include a new athlete protection policy, expanded background checks, and a requirement that all adults who interact with swimmers become members of the organization.
In the lawsuit, Allard called it a belated effort that demonstrates a “callous indifference to the health and safety of the young swimmers across the country.”
In the Thompson case, simple steps would have prevented the alleged abuse, he said.
“Just a basic look into it, do something about it and remove the man from coaching,” Allard said. “It’s not hard.”
(This version CORRECTS Corrects date lawsuit filed to June 18 instead of 19. Updates with details from lawsuit, ADDS background, byline. photo links. This story is part of AP’s general news and sports services.)
by David Krough, kgw.com Staff
kgw.com
Posted on August 3, 2010 at 2:27 PM
Updated Wednesday, Aug 4 at 8:08 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. — Child sex criminals were put in the cross hairs by the federal government Tuesday with new tools for law enforcement in Oregon.
Department of Justice officials on Tuesday released a report on the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction.
Law enforcement wants to focus on prevention of child pornography, online enticement, child sex tourism and sexual exploitation on Native American reservations.
U.S. Marshals Service targeted the top 500 most dangerous, non-compliant sex offenders in the country. In Oregon, a full-time deputy marshal was added as the Sex Offender Investigations Coordinator.
“Sometimes an investigator needs to step back and take a look and communicate with other agencies that are also working on it. The goal in the end is to bring all these individuals to justice,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Cory Cunningham.
The agency also created a new database to coordinate efforts statewide. The department also re-launched a website to combat sex crimes against children at ProjectSafeChildhood.gov.
Multnomah County Commissioner Dianne McKeel applauds to the focus on child exploitation, but believes the Portland Metro is also in desperate need for a shelter to house and treat the victims of the child sex trade.
“The shelter is a safe place for them to be and it’s also learning the skills that you need to go out into the world,” said McKeel.
McKeel believes newly approved federal funding could have a local shelter open within a year.
If you or anyone you know need help recovering or escaping from the child sex trade, the Sexual Assault Resource Center can be reached 24 hours a day. 503-640-5311.
by Teresa Blackman
KGW.com
August 2, 2010
VANCOUVER, Wash. – A high school band teacher in Vancouver was arrested Sunday for allegedly having sexual encounters with a 17-year-old girl who had been his student since her freshman year.
Tyler Benedict, 30, was charged in court Monday with two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor.
Benedict was working as a band teacher at Heritage High School in Vancouver when the sexual acts occurred, according to Sgt. Kevin Allais with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Police were alerted by the teen’s parents who said they became suspicious after noticing inappropriate messages on her cell phone and computer that turned out to be from Benedict, Allais said.
The teen later told police that her relationship with Benedict was romantic and sexual. The detectives also said that when they interviewed Benedict, he admitted that he had a sexual relationship with his student.
Court documents obtained by KGW said that Benedict had performed oral sex on the teen on two occasions.
Jerry Piland, Executive Director of Human Resources for the Evergreen School District, released the following statement via email on Monday: “The district is waiting for the police report. The allegations are very serious and the district will take extremely strong actions if this has occurred. Those strong actions will be that he would no longer have a job.”
Benedict has worked at Heritage for the past three years.
Bail at the Clark County Jail was set at $10,000. The court documents also said that Benedict was placed on suicide watch while in custody.
Benedict is married and lives in Ridgefield, Wash. with his wife.
by KGW.com Staff and Anne Yeager
August 2, 2010
VANCOUVER, Wash. – A Vancouver man who police described as “violent” was arrested for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl and also forcing her to commit sex acts on his friend, according to investigators.
Samuel Chapman, 28, of Vancouver was charged with kidnapping, rape, burglary and harassment, according to police spokeswoman Kim Kapp.
Court documents obtained by KGW said that the girl told investigators Chapman has assaulted her 10 times in the past, but she was afraid to tell police because he threatened to hurt her family.
The girl said she met Chapman at a park in January and had since engaged in a “fear-based” relationship. She said he told her that he would kill her mother if she told anyone about what was happening.
The girl said that Chapman told her he loved her, but at the same time, forced her to do things sexually she didn’t want to do.
Friday morning she said he forced her into a van where he punched her with a closed fist 30 to 40 times, then forced her to perform a sex act.
On Friday morning at 2:30 a.m., the girl’s family called 9-1-1 for help after they said Chapman came to their home, grabbed the girl by the ponytail, slammed her against a wall and then dragged her into a van.
“He showed up my house at 2:45 and pulled me out of bed by the hair,” the girl said. “Pulled me out of bed, threw my little sister into the entertainment center, and then pushed me back into bed.”
“It kind of hurts because I haven’t had that much of a childhood.”
By SCOTT K. PARKS / The Dallas Morning News
sparks@dallasnews.com
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Pedophilia has dogged the Boy Scouts for decades, and the issue shows no signs of going away. No one knows how many men have infiltrated the organization for immoral sexual purposes.
News organizations and child advocates are awaiting an Oregon court’s ruling on whether thousands of internal files documenting suspected pedophiles in Scouting should be released to the public.
The so-called “ineligible volunteer” files are kept at the Boy Scouts’ national headquarters in Irving.
Spanning two decades between 1965 and 1985, they tell unspeakable stories.
The files were entered into evidence during a civil court case pitting former Boy Scout Kerry Lewis against the Scouts’ national council and its Portland-area branch.
Lewis alleged that a Scoutmaster had sexually abused him repeatedly when he was a Scout during the 1980s – even after the Scoutmaster had been identified as a pedophile.
The case ended in April when a jury returned an $18.5 million verdict against the Scouts.
Kelly Clark, one of Lewis’ attorneys, successfully argued that the BSA had reacted defensively to allegations that it hadn’t done enough to identify and prosecute pedophiles in its ranks, preferring instead to quietly expel them.
Evidence showed that Scout leaders often did not tell parents that pedophile Scoutmasters had abused their children. The Oregon jury’s verdict sent a clear message to Scouting, Clark said.
“The short version is that you cannot put the mission of the organization above the safety of kids, no matter how divinely inspired you think it is,” Clark said.
The Scouts plan to appeal the Oregon verdict, but they face similar pedophile cases around the U.S.
Virginia Starr, a spokeswoman for the Scouts, addressed the issue in e-mailed answers to questions from The Dallas Morning News. She said the organization established a Youth Protection Program in the late 1980s and has repeatedly improved it during the last 20 years.
Scout leaders are no longer allowed to meet one on one with boys. Mandatory youth-protection training for all Scoutmasters and other adult volunteers was adopted just last month. Criminal background checks for volunteers are required.
In addition, Scoutmasters and Scouts cannot sleep in the same tent unless they are father and son. Separate shower arrangements are made for adults and children on campouts.
Jim Brunner, Scoutmaster of Troop 300 in Plano, is among the many adult volunteers watching the pedophile cases as they go to court. He said the allegations are decades old and do not reflect today’s reality.
He praised chief Scout executive Bob Mazzuca and the national office for adapting to the times, even to the point of including warnings against pedophiles in the legendary Boy Scout Handbook.
“The Boy Scouts are on the cutting edge of youth protection,” Brunner said. “They’ve led the way.”
Pedophiles present one problem for the Scouts. The ban on gays presents another challenge. It essentially forces families to decide whether it’s ethical to belong to a group that discriminates against people based on sexual orientation.
Mazzuca said his organization’s position is essentially synonymous with the U.S. military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
“The issue only becomes an issue when a person makes it an issue,” he said in an interview with The News. “Sexuality has no place in Scouting in any context.”
In a two-page document titled “2009 Report to the Nation,” Mazzuca makes no mention of youth protection or any of the other issues that threaten to distract Scouting from its mission.
Instead, the report is filled with facts: Scouts collaborate with 118,000 educational, faith-based and community organizations; 52,470 Scouts earned the Eagle rank in 2009; Scouts contributed more than 700,000 hours to projects beneficial to streams, lakes, oceans and other bodies of water.
Concluding his interview with The News, Mazzuca said, “We plan to be here for another hundred years.”
By MAUREEN DOWD
July 16, 2010
TheNewYorkTimes
If the Vatican is trying to restore the impression that its moral sense is intact, issuing a document that equates pedophilia with the ordination of women doesn’t really do that.
The Catholic Church continued to heap insult upon injury when it revealed its long-awaited new rules on clergy sex abuse, rules that the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said signaled a commitment to grasp the nettle with “rigor and transparency.”
The church still believes in its own intrinsic holiness despite all evidence to the contrary. It thinks it’s making huge concessions on the unstoppable abuse scandal when it’s taking baby steps.
The casuistic document did not issue a zero-tolerance policy to defrock priests after they are found guilty of pedophilia; it did not order bishops to report every instance of abuse to the police; it did not set up sanctions on bishops who sweep abuse under the rectory rug; it did not eliminate the statute of limitations for abused children; it did not tell bishops to stop lobbying legislatures to prevent child-abuse laws from being toughened.
There is no moral awakening here. The cruelty and indecency of child abuse once more inspires tactical contrition. All the penitence of the church is grudging and reactive. Church leaders are merely as penitent as they need to be to protect the institution.
Can you imagine such a scene in the confessional?
“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I am as sorry as my job or school requires me to be.”
“But my daughter, that is not true penitence. That’s situational penitence.”
After the Belgian police bracingly conducted raids on the church hierarchy, inspired in part by the horrifying case of a boy molested for years by his uncle, the bishop of Bruges, a case that the church ignored and covered up for 25 years, the pope did not applaud the more aggressive tack. He condemned it.
In a remarkable Times story recently, Laurie Goodstein and David Halbfinger debunked the spin that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had been one of the more alert officials on the issue of sexual abuse:
“The future pope, it is now clear, was also part of a culture of nonresponsibility, denial, legalistic foot-dragging and outright obstruction. More than any top Vatican official other than John Paul, it was Cardinal Ratzinger who might have taken decisive action in the 1990s to prevent the scandal from metastasizing in country after country, growing to such proportions that it now threatens to consume his own papacy.”
If Roman Polanski were a priest, he’d still be working here.
Stupefyingly, the new Vatican document also links raping children with ordaining women as priests, deeming both “graviora delicta,” or grave offenses. Clerics who attempt to ordain women can now be defrocked.
On Beliefnet, Mark Silk, a professor of religion at Connecticut’s Trinity College, suggested that the stronger threat against women’s ordination is not “a maladroit add-on” but the medieval Vatican’s “main business.”
After the Vatican launched two inquisitions of American nuns, it didn’t seem possible that the archconservative Il Papa and his paternalistic redoubt could get more unenlightened, but they have somehow managed it.
Letting women be priests — which should be seen as a way to help cleanse the church and move it beyond its infantilized and defensive state — is now on the list of awful sins right next to pedophilia, heresy, apostasy and schism.
Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, the chairman of the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, asserted, “The Catholic Church, through its long and constant teaching, holds that ordination has been, from the beginning, reserved to men, a fact which cannot be changed despite changing times.”
But if it was reserved to celibate men centuries ago simply as a way for the church to keep land, why can’t it be changed? If a society makes strides in not subordinating women, why can’t the church reflect that? If men prove that all-male hierarchies can get shamefully warped, why can’t they embrace the normality of equality? The Vatican’s insistence on male prerogative is misogynistic poppycock — enhancing American Catholics’ disenchantment with Rome.
In The New Republic, Garry Wills wrote about his struggle to come to terms with the sins of his church: Jesus “is the one who said, ‘Whatever you did to any of my brothers, even the lowliest, you did to me.’ That means that the priests abusing the vulnerable young were doing that to Jesus, raping Jesus. Any clerical functionary who shows more sympathy for the predator priests than for their victims instantly disqualified himself as a follower of Jesus. The cardinals said they must care for their own, going to jail if necessary to protect a priest. We say the same thing, but the ‘our own’ we care for are the victimized, the poor, the violated. They are Jesus.”
