Child molestor faces child porn charges

Business leader faces child pornography charges

Posted by Amalie Nash The Ann Arbor News January 15, 2008 16:02PM

An Ann Arbor business executive accused of molesting boys he met through the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washtenaw County has been charged with possession of child pornography, officials said.

Prosecutors charged Michael John Brooks, 46, with four counts of possession of child sexually abusive material. Brooks is a vice president and chief compliance officer for Sigma Financial Corp. in Ann Arbor.


Washtenaw County Sheriff's Cmdr. Dave Egeler said deputies discovered child pornography on a computer disk seized during the molestation investigation. In November, Brooks was charged with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He is accused of assaulting boys he met through USA Hockey and Big Brothers-Big Sisters during a 12-year span dating back to 1995. The boys were between the ages of 8 and 16.

Brooks' attorney has denied the allegations.

Brooks is scheduled to have a preliminary examination Wednesday on the original sexual assault charges,. It's expected that he will also be arraigned at that hearing on the child pornography charges, which are punishable by up to four years in prison.

Ann Arbor youth mentor accused of sexual misconduct

Posted by Art Aisner The Ann Arbor News

November 28, 2007 07:39AM

An Ann Arbor business executive lauded for his work in mentoring youths is facing criminal charges that he molested boys he met through the Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Washtenaw County, police said.

Michael John Brooks, 46, is charged with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He is accused of assaulting boys between the ages of 8 and 16 during a 12-year span dating back to 1995, said Washtenaw County Sheriff's Cmdr. Dave Egeler.

Three accusers - including two brothers - came forward to police in October, alleging Brooks improperly touched them at his home and when he took them on short trips when they were children, Egeler said.

Mark Bilkovic, Brooks' Farmington Hills-based attorney, disputed the allegations and cautioned against calling the accusers - now 24, 20, and 18 - victims. He said Brooks has previously been accused of similar acts by at least one of the men outside the court system after Brooks refused to give him money.

"He categorically denies every allegation made against him by these individuals," he said.

Egeler said police are investigating whether additional victims exist, given Brooks' history of volunteer work with Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Washtenaw County and as a host for athletes involved in USA Hockey tournaments.

"We're seriously looking at all the information we have on him and his activities because we have reasonable concerns about him being a predator due to his connections with these groups," Egeler said.

Just last week, Brooks, a vice president and chief compliance officer for Sigma Financial Corp. in Ann Arbor, was named a finalist in the national 2007 Community Leadership Awards for mentoring excellence. The awards are given annually to recognize financial advisers across the county for exemplary leadership and community contributions.

In a written statement issued Tuesday afternoon, Big Brothers-Big Sisters officials said Brooks is no longer with the organization and emphasized they have a thorough screening process for all staff and volunteers.

"We are shocked and deeply saddened by the news that one of our former volunteers has been identified in connection with an allegation of sexual misconduct," Jennifer Spitler, executive director, said in a statement. "Big Brothers Big Sisters has zero tolerance for abuse and we will continue to refine our practices to ensure the safety of all the children we serve."

A preliminary hearing that had been scheduled Tuesday in Washtenaw County District Court was adjourned to Dec. 11. Brooks remains free on $15,000 bond, court records show.

Local authorities arrested Brooks in Florida earlier this month after searching his Ann Arbor Township home, where they seized computers and other evidence, Egeler said.

http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2007/11/ann_arbor_youth_mentor_accused.html

85 years for child porn

Three men plead not guilty to child porn

By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian

A Missoula man and two Butte men pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court on Tuesday to charges of receipt and possession of child pornography.

If convicted, Jon Arnold Chaussee of Missoula and Toby Renner and James Lee Winn, both of Butte, face a mandatory minimum of five years in a federal prison. They could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervision. The men are currently released on special conditions.

The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia Hurd. However, it is unclear whether the cases are related.

On Monday, a 53-year-old Great Falls man, Kenneth Edward Threadgill, was sentenced to 85 years in prison for creating and possessing child pornography.

The Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigated the case by targeting peer-to-peer file-sharing networks that offered child pornography on the Internet.

In November 2006, agents learned that a computer using Threadgill's Internet Protocol address was sharing images of child pornography with other peer-to-peer users.

A forensic analysis of Threadgill's computer equipment revealed more than 600 images of child pornography. The images include children less than 12 years old engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Agents discovered videos of a young female victim on camping trips with Threadgill. The girl is shown nude and engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Threadgill's vehicle is also shown in the video.

Digital images found on the man's computers show Threadgill with the same victim while both are nude. The pictures were apparently taken of their reflection in a mirror.

Other images show a victim younger than 2 who Threadgill photographed while baby-sitting for a friend. The child is shown on a quilt that agents located on Threadgill's bed. The child is nude in the image.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, Threadgill will likely serve all the time imposed by U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon. He will have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for good behavior, but the reduction cannot exceed 15 percent of the overall sentence.

Life for Child Molestors

Bill would give molesters life on 2nd offense

Associated Press
Tuesday, January 8, 2008


TALLAHASSEE — A legislative panel stood and applauded the father of 9-year-old-murder victim Jessica Lunsford on Tuesday before approving a bill he said would have prevented her death.

Mark Lunsford, sometimes pausing to choke back tears, spoke on behalf of the measure (HB 85) that would send child molesters 18 years or older to prison for life if convicted more than once of molesting a child under 12.

"If John Evander Couey would have got life for his second offense, I wouldn't have spent Christmas alone," Lunsford said.

Couey, 49, was sentenced to death last year for kidnapping Lunsford's daughter, raping her and burying her alive in his yard.

Couey, already a convicted sex offender, took the girl in February 2005 from her bedroom to his nearby trailer in Homasassa. Her body was found some three weeks later in a grave about 150 yards from her home in the Citrus County community.

The bill unanimously cleared the House Budget and Policy Council after lawmakers and the audience gave Lunsford a standing ovation. It next will go to the House floor after the Legislature convenes its regular annual session in March. An identical Senate bill (SB 496) has not yet had a committee hearing.

The measure adds the harsher penalty to the Jessica Lunsford Act lawmakers passed in 2005.

It includes tougher penalties for sex crimes against children and requires lifetime electronic monitoring for sex offenders who target children once released from prison. Another provision requires fingerprinting and background checks for contractors, vendors, sports referees and others who regularly go onto school property. Those convicted of certain crimes are barred from schools and their grounds.

The existing law already requires a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and permits a maximum of life for a first or subsequent offense for intentionally touching the breasts, general area of buttocks of a child in a lewd or lascivious manner.

Lunsford said many victims are psychologically scarred by such crimes.

"Which child has it the worst, one that survives or the one that dies?" he said. "No one will every hurt my daughter again. ... What about these kids who survive?"

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Dick Kravitz, R-Jacksonville, called child molesters "subhuman" and research has shown they cannot be cured because they have a natural desire for children.

"If that's your natural sex drive you're never ever going to stop offending," he said.

Canada "easy" on sex offenders

More needed to protect children from sex offenders; 'We need to have some mechanism in Canada where we're not forced to wait for the next victim, but we can keep these guys past their warranted expiry dates'

Posted By JONATHON JACKSON
Posted 1 day ago

At least two prominent Canadian victims' rights advocates agree better safeguards are needed to keep repeat sexual offenders like Owen Sound native Philip Publuske away from potential victims.

"What does it take? How many children have to be harmed?" Heidi Illingworth, executive director of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, asked after being told Publuske is out of jail despite being convicted five times in the last seven years of sex crimes involving children.

"Generally, sex offenders are the biggest recidivists and (child pornographers) are very prolific offenders."

Publuske was released Monday from the Maplehurst Correctional Centre in Milton after serving his most recent sentence for possession of child pornography. He was convicted of that offence in July 2007 after being arrested earlier that month at his home in Cambridge.

Police have warned he poses a risk to re-offend, but Illingworth said they are often powerless to do anything but warn the public.

"They're very limited in what they can do beyond that," she said. "We need to have some mechanism in Canada where we're not forced to wait for the next victim, but we can keep these guys past their warranted expiry dates.

Let's not just kick them out of prison and see who he hurts next."

Publuske's most recent sentence is the latest entry on a rap sheet filled with offences against children:

ø In February 2000, Publuske received 18 months in jail and three years of probation after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation. The charges involved oral and anal assaults on three young boys he met through a youth program in Owen Sound. Other charges, including possession of child pornography, were withdrawn in exchange for guilty pleas to the three offences.

ø In July 2003, Publuske was convicted of possessing child pornography. Police found 137 still images at his Kitchener home in March of that year, while he was still on probation for his previous convictions. He received six months in jail and two more years of probation despite telling the court how "deeply ashamed" he was of his crime.

ø Another child pornography charge from July 2004 was dismissed after a judge ruled Publuske's rights had been violated by police who searched his Kitchener home and found child porn on his computer. They initially arrested him for breaching his probation by failing to keep appointments with his probation officer.

"I'm not sure they (probation orders) do an awful lot of good," said Gary Rosenfeldt, the executive director of Victims of Violence. "Some of these people molest kids on the way to see their probation officers, so what do you do?"

Rosenfeldt and his wife Sharon helped to found Victims of Violence after their son Daryn was murdered by notorious serial killer Clifford Olson.

Rosenfeldt says he believes pedophiles like Publuske cannot be treated and should be locked away for as long as they remain threats - a lifetime, if necessary.

"It's a sexual preference. It's children that turn him on . . . and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it," he said.

"The only way to deal effectively with these people is to put them in a psychiatric centre and keep them for an indeterminate period of time. Other than that, we're going to simply put up with these people coming back on the streets."

Illingworth said there has been some success in treating pedophiles and re-integrating them into society, but it requires a very intensive support system she acknowledged doesn't and can't exist everywhere in the country.

"Letting these guys back into the community with very little supervision, that's certainly a very dangerous situation," she said. "We understand that a lot of society doesn't even support that, having an offender in the community even with that intense supervision, and when you look at it from the victims' perspective and the perspectives of the children who have been hurt, it's really difficult to want to give anybody another chance."

Both Illingworth and Rosenfeldt have high hopes for Bill C-27, legislation which would treat offenders in a way similar to "three strikes" laws do in some jurisdictions in the United States.

If the bill is passed, anyone convicted three times of violent or sexual offences and sentenced to at least two years in prison on each occasion would have to show why they should not be declared dangerous offenders, subject to indeterminate prison sentences with no possibility of parole for seven years.

But the success of any such law as it is applied to pedophiles depends on the willingness of prosecutors, judges and parole boards to recognize the seriousness of the situation.

"We have to take steps to protect our children," Rosenfeldt said. "It's recognizing by the Crown and by the courts of the reality of the situation, that there's no cure for these guys.

"They don't recognize this. They think that with a little bit of counselling, (pedophiles) can change and find older women more attractive. It doesn't work that way.

Canada has a long way to go in terms of protecting their citizens from dangerous sex offenders and pedophiles. Rosenfeldt has it right. These people are just wired wrong, and there is no way to "fix" them.

Free classes to teach personal safety

Bonita Middle School students get lesson in safety

JEAN AMODEA,
Special to The Banner
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

If you couldn’t attend the PTC meeting last Thursday night at Bonita Middle School, you missed out on information that could one day save your child’s life.

Karen Leskin, PTC president, introduced the presentation, “Kids ’N Power.”

It was co-presented by Chad Wilbur, owner and 5th degree black belt instructor of ATA Black Belt Academy, and Dennis Hemberger, retired NYC police officer who served with the undercover pedophile squad.

Wilbur opened with an overview of self-defense tips and techniques. To a rapt audience of middle school students, Wilbur admonished that at the academy, “We teach the right time to use techniques of martial arts — we are not here to teach you how to punch and kick — no bullying.

“We teach life skills, courtesy, respect, discipline and how to react with the right moves to get away in a bad situation. There is one time and one time only to use martial arts — for self defense,” he said.

Wilbur told parents they should teach and review safety tips with their children regarding: strangers approaching their child, what to do if someone touches them the wrong way, and how to encourage children to trust their own intuition and instincts in an uncomfortable situation.

Parents were further instructed to set up a “secret code word” with their children. This word would be required by anyone, other than the parents, picking up the child from school or other activity.

“Parents, you have to tell your kids that pedophiles could be professional people, relatives, or the guy next door. They will lure your kids with money, pets, candy or even a request for help. Adults don’t ask a child for help,” he said.

Parents should know where their children are at all times, and know numbers to call if their child is missing.

“There are three levels of self defense: thinking your way out of a bad situation; seeing your way out of a bad situation; and defending yourself in a bad situation. Your body belongs to you. Whatever your bathing suit covers, is your area – that is your safe zone,” Wilbur warned. “Remember, your first line of defense is run – get free and run. And scream. Loud.”

Cody Leskin, sixth-grader and first-degree black belt student at ATA said his self- defense training “makes me feel safe.”

Hemberger continued the presentation with sobering statistics about sexual offenders and pedophiles via fact sheets.

“The average victim who is abducted and murdered is approximately an 11-year-old girl who is described as a ’low risk, normal’ kid from a middle class neighborhood with a stable family relationship who has initial contact with their abductor within a quarter of a mile from her home,” he said.

To drive home the vulnerability of such a youngster, he had an 11-year-old female student stand while he gave the description. It worked, as shivers ran through the parent audience. Hemberger said there are 536 registered sexual offenders and 47 registered sexual predators in Lee County alone, with nine registered in zip code 34135.

Packets for child’s DNA sample were passed out with other tips for collecting other identification samples and how to store them in the event of an abduction.

The program concluded with a demonstration of moves effective in warding off an attacker. Assisted by Cory Carbary, St. John Neumann High School junior and current ATA martial arts student, a second-degree black belt, Wilbur selected several students and showed them the power they already have and could use in an emergency.

“Martial arts training is so important – there’s always someone bigger out there. We have to alert the kids to the danger that’s out there today,” said Carbary.

Wilbur has plans to offer the program bi-monthly, free and open to the public.

For information, call Chad Wilbur at ATA Black Belt Academy, Naples 593-5456 or at the Bonita Springs location at 948-8610.

Chad also needs to tell these kids that it is okay to do this to people that they know who try to violate their "safety zone". Uncle Bob and cousin Bill need a swift kick in the nether region if they try to get their jollies too!

Why the housing market is down!

Sex Offenders Could Affect the Value of Your Home

The results of a study evaluating the impact of sex offenders who live in a neighborhood and their impact on property values has just been released.

The study, specifically, focused on Mecklenburg County. Compared to other states, North Carolina has a good record for keeping track of registered sex offenders. In Mecklenburg County, there are more than 500 registered sex offenders.

The two economists who conducted the study monitored home sales in the county for one year. They tracked where sex offenders moved in and out of neighborhoods. According to their study, the resell value of a home decreases if a sex offender lives within one-third of a mile of the home.

In Mecklenburg County, home values dropped about 4-percent in neighborhoods with registered sex offenders. For example, a home valued at $150,000 lost about $6,000 of its value due to the presence of a sex offender who lived down the street.

Researchers found that sex offenders are responsible for a $58 million decrease in property values in Mecklenburg County.

No wonder homes across the nation are not selling!

Daughter Swapper

Daughter Swap

A man in Huntersville is accused of offering to swap his own daughter for sex in exchange for sex with another man's daughter.

According to the Huntersville Police Department, the man arranged a meeting last week after trying to swap his 10-year-old daughter for sex.

Several agencies are working on this case and we expect them to make an arrest soon.

WBTV News is not revealing the man's name or showing his face in order to protect the girl's identity.

We have learned the man lives in a big house, has two children and runs his own computer program.

He joined a sex-driven chat room using the screen name "daddaughter10nc."

From his home in Huntersville, he started messaging back and forth with a man in Fairfax, Virginia.

They talked about swapping their daughters for sexual activity. The Huntersville man even admitted to having sex with his own daughter.

He didn't realize the man in Fairfax County was actually a cop.

On the day of the arranged swap, the dad was surprised when Huntersville PD knocked on his door with a search warrant.