A Dallas-area child psychiatrist had to register as a sex offender after pleading no contest to charges of taking indecent liberties with a 10-year-old girl. But Dr. William Olmsted can still keep his medical license. The Texas Medical Board will allow Olmsted to practice as long as he does it in a group setting and stays away from kids. (It’s not clear how he’s going to practice child psychiatry if he can’t have contact with kids. Maybe teleconferencing?)
But now, a second family has come forward to say that Olmsted behaved inappropriately when he treated their 10-year-old daughter, the Dallas Morning News reports. In 2005, the family says, Olmsted dropped his pants in front of the girl. Her parents pulled the girl out of treatment and reported the incident to the medical board, but say there was no follow-up.
“To find that the state board knew of not one but two complaints of impropriety with young girls and yet allowed this doctor to continue his practice with children is unconscionable,” the father wrote in a statement. “I am severely disappointed with the state of Texas right now and doubtful of its ability to stand watch.”
At least one state legislator is looking into whether laws need to be changed so doctors don’t get to keep their licenses so easily. The Texas Medical Board says that currently, licenses are revoked only if a doctor is convicted. Although Olsted pleaded no-contest to the charges, he received a sentence of six years’ deferred adjudication in January, which means that judgment will not be decided until then. The victim was a neighbor of Olmsted’s who was visiting his kids when he touched her inappropriately and sucked her toes.
One Kentucky church is extremely forgiving. On Sunday, the City of Refuge Worship Center ordained a sex offender as a pastor. Mark Hourigan, 41, was convicted in 1998 of two felony counts of sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy. He served more than four years in prison and has to register as a sex offender for life (see his registry mug shot above).
Randy Meadows, one of the church’s pastors, told WAVE TV News that Hourigan, who joined the City of Refuge two years ago, has paid his debt to society. But others aren’t so sure. Protesters marched in front of the church in Germantown, Ky., on Sunday, and some of them compared Hourigan’s ordination to the Catholic Church’s cover-up of pedophile priests. “I’m scared for the children of Germantown,” one resident said.
While many states have laws barring sex offenders from trolling Web sites such as MySpace or even driving ice cream trucks, Kentucky apparently has no statute forbidding them from becoming ministers. City of Refuge did make one restriction on Hourigan — he can’t have any contact with kids.
Teens have been doing it, now it’s teachers’ turn.
A Detroit-area middle school teacher allegedly sent 10 sexually explicit text messages and a partially nude photo of herself to one of her 14-year-old students. Michelle Simsonson, 28, has been charged with enticing a minor for immoral purposes and distributing sexually explicit material to a minor.
Simsonson had been the boy’s teacher during the past school year, but has since resigned from Sashabaw Middle School, the Detroit Free Press reported. She was arraigned in court last week.
The boy told investigators that he and his teacher began texting each other in the fall, but then the content became more sexually explicit. He said he told her to stop and that there was never physical contact between the two.
If convicted, Simsonson faces up to four years in prison.
A New York social studies teacher pleaded guilty on Tuesday to having sex with a male student seven times in an empty second floor classroom after school.
Melissa Weber, 28, who taught at a public school in Queens, NY, has given up her teaching license and will enter sex-offender treatment, the New York Daily News reported. For the second-degree rape plea, she was sentenced to 10 years probation and is barred from all social networking sites frequented by minors.
The boy’s mom found out about the sex incidents when she looked at her son’s cell phone and saw messages and calls from Weber. The teacher’s lawyer says that Weber is remorseful and that her behavior was the result of a dysfunctional childhood.
When Weber was initially charged, she denied the allegations. She told police that the teen had been the aggressor and grabbed her butt.
Photo from Facebook
A Chicago-area man accused of child porn has so far avoided jail, but a federal judge has ordered that he must pull down the shades in his home from dawn to dusk and turn over all of his cameras.
Mario Meschino, a former public school bus driver, has been charged with possessing, receiving and transporting child porn over the Internet. He’s admitted to having sexual images of minors on his computer as well as taking pics of clothed kids who rode his school bus, according to a criminal affadavit.
He hasn’t been convicted of any crime yet and is currently out on bond. But dozens of his neighbors in Plainfield, Ill., went to court this week, complaining that he has been taking photos of area kids from inside his home, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Authorities said they found photos of neighborhood kids — all clothed — when they searched Meschino’s home and computer. It appeared that the kids did not know they were being photographed.
On Wednesday, a judge declined to revoke Meschino’s bond but instead made the unusual order for the suspect to shut his window shades. However, Judge Martin Ashman admitted that the photos were “somewhat creepy,” although “you don’t revoke a bond because of creepiness.”
Meschino’s lawyer said that the neighbors were too paranoid and were unfairly convicting Meschino before trial. But neighbors said they feel their kids are being stalked. “We’re not going to feel comfortable until he’s in prison,” said one neighbor who owns a pool adjacent to Meschino’s backyard.
Photo by Dana Graves
Hernandez
A Florida mom not only endorsed her son’s sexual relations with a teacher, but allowed them to go to Disney World for a weekend getaway. That’s according to accusations from Miami police.
Her 15-year-old son allegedly had an affair with a sixth grade teacher at his religious school, the Miami Herald reported. Shortly after the couple got back from Disney World on Saturday, Maria Guzman Hernandez, 32, was arrested. She was charged with sexual battery on a child over whom she had custodial authority. The boy has been suspended from Our Lady of Charity school.
The boy’s mother, 44, is disputing just exactly what she knew about the affair. On Wednesday, a judge ordered that mother and son undergo psychological testing and counseling. He also warned that the relationship between the boy and his teacher had to end and the mom mustn’t encourage it.
Jonathan Vance got control of the email, Facebook and MySpace accounts of at least 50 teens and young women and tried to blackmail them into giving him nude photos. The 24-year-old Auburn, Ala., man was sentenced on Friday to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty, the Birmingham News reported.
Vance hacked into the accounts of victims in Alabama, Missouri and Pennsylvania from 2006 to 2008, according to federal investigators. Sometimes, he contacted them through instant messaging and pretended to be a friend. Other times, he acted like a secret admirer and got them to answer intimate questions about themselves and then blackmailed them for their electronic passwords. Vance also weaseled into email accounts by combing through public Facebook pages to glean info such as birth dates, schools and hometowns.
Once Vance got into the accounts, he promised victims that he would get out if they gave him nude photos in exchange. Or he would threaten to publicize their emails or other info. Most of the victims ignored him, but three sent him nude pictures.
Last month, a man was arrested in Atlanta on similar charges. Patrick Connolly had allegedly hacked into the computers of teen girls around the world since 2005.
Teens have been charged with child porn, sent to jail and even forced to register as sex offenders for “sexting.” But now some Vermont lawmakers want to pass a bill that would give kids legal cover if they send X-rated photos and videos to each other.
Supporters are quick to say that they don’t condone sexting — they just don’t want the teens to be put in the same category as your run-of-the-mill child molester. “There’s no public interest in labeling them as sex offenders for engaging in a perverted, albeit new, form of courtship,” T.J. Donovan, a county prosecutor, told the Burlington Free Press.
The proposed law would make it legal for explicit photos to be consensually exchanged between those ages 13 to 18.
In Ohio, lawmakers also are considering legal protections for sexting teens. The bill proposes that incidents be charged as a misdemeanor so that teens are not labeled as felons and sex offenders. For adults, though, transmitting nude photos of minors would still be a felony.
A well-regarded children’s writer is being accused of liking children in ways that are illegal. Kevin Patrick Bath, 50, of Portland, Ore., who writes under the name K.P. Bath, was charged in U.S. District Court this week with one count each of distributing, transferring and receiving child pornography, and two counts of possessing child pornography. He entered pleas of not guilty to each count, the Oregonian reported.
Bath is the author of “The Secret of Castle Cant,” which was described by one reader on Amazon.com as “wonderfully witty and intelligent,” and “Escape from Castle Cant,” which one child on Amazon called “my favorite book ever.” The feds say Bath had been actively trading child pornography with individuals in Washington and Ohio. A forensic
examination of his computer and data storage revealed well over 100 video files and thousands of still images of child pornography, the Oregonian said. Many of the videos depicted children as young as four being sexually abused.
Bath’s web site, Kpbath.com, was immediately taken down. So was his author page at his publisher, Hachette. His next book, “Flip Side,” has been canceled. The writer had been a volunteer at a children’s library but is barred from any contact with children before his trial. “It definitely was a shock to the library staff who knew him,” Cindy
Gibbon of the Multnomah County Library told Fox 12. She stressed that he was never alone with children.
Phillip Alpert, 18, was mad at his girlfriend. So he sent out a naked photo of the 16-year-old to dozens of her friends and family members. Maybe he should have just dated her best friend instead.
Orlando police booked Phillip on a felony child porn charge. After the high school senior was convicted, he was required by state law to register as a sex offender. His attorney is now fighting to get the teen removed from the registry. Phillip says he is being excessively punished for a stupid, immature act. “You will find me on the registered sex offender list next to people who have raped children, molested kids, things like that,” Phillip told CNN.
How teens should be punished for “sexting” is controversial. Some police and prosecutors say that teens need to realize that sending nude photos isn’t a harmless joke — child molesters could get hold of the X-rated material.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against prosecutors who had threatened to file child porn charges against three teens featured in explicit photos. In March, a judge agreed to temporarily block the charges.