An interesting article (to say the least) which is stirring up many perspectives across the country.

Sixth-graders shoot porn video at school

5 days ago

Officials in the Mexican state of Campeche are scrambling for answers after a pornographic video shot by and starring elementary school students appeared on the Internet. In the brief clip, three sixth-grade boys are seen performing a number of sex acts while in an empty classroom. “It is real, the case is real, the video exists,” a concerned Education Department spokesman said. Although no adults are pictured, the teachers union is also investigating to find out how the students had access to the room. The unsettling scenes were discovered after one boy’s mother saw the clip online and recognized her own son. The students have not been disciplined, but have been offered psychological counseling.

For decades, Brooklyn prosecutors pursuing child molesters netted few complaints or convictions in the borough’s cloistered, politically powerful community of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Rabbinical authorities banned relatives of the abused from reporting the crimes to non-Jewish authorities; those few who spoke out were shunned — expelled from synagogues, their children expelled from schools — or pressured into dropping their cases.       

As Sharon Otterman and Ray Rivera reported in The Times this week, this intolerable situation has slowly begun to change, as some community members have dared to speak up for the victims, no matter the personal cost. While some religious leaders now say that molesters should be turned over to the police, too many still insist on covering up these crimes.       

Instead of protecting their community, they are doing enormous, shameful damage.       

Brooklyn’s district attorney, Charles Hynes, who has received considerable political support from ultra-Orthodox rabbis, has been accused by victim advocates of not doing enough to face the problem. His office denies this, noting he roiled the community in 1999 in accusing a prominent rabbi of witness-tampering in a child abuse case and three years ago set up a hot line for child abuse complaints in the community.       

He needs to do a lot more to help the victims and demonstrate his independence. Mr. Hynes can start by ending his policy of refusing to announce the names of accused molesters from the ultra-Orthodox community. He does not shield the names of other defendants, and no other city district attorney employs such a selective policy, according to The Times.       

Mr. Hynes’s insistence that victims might hesitate to come forward if defendants were identified is absurd. The clear message to the victims is that the system is intent on protecting abusers.       

Studies find that the problem of child abuse in the Brooklyn community is no greater than elsewhere. What is needed is far more of the candor and initiative displayed last summer by a religious court in Brooklyn’s Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic neighborhood. The court ruled the traditional prohibition against mesirah — turning in of a Jew to non-Jewish authorities — did not apply in cases of sexually abused children. “One is forbidden to remain silent in such situations,” it declared. Everyone who cares about children should listen.       

WISCASSET, Maine — Attorneys and the judge involved in the sex-crime trial of Gregory Vrooman were scheduled to meet Friday to determine how to proceed in light of a courtroom assault on Vrooman on Thursday that brought the proceedings to a halt, according to Lincoln County Superior Court clerk.

Vrooman, 46, of Nobleboro, was assaulted by a spectator and hospitalized Thursday morning as the court was preparing to reconvene his trial following jury deliberations. Vrooman, a 24-year veteran of the Maine State Police, is on trial for numerous charges involving sexual abuse of a girl under the age of 14. The alleged assaults happened between December 2009 and November 2010.

Vrooman is on unpaid administrative leave from the Maine State Police.

The court clerk said that the jury had been in deliberations prior to the assault and was preparing to return to the courtroom. The jurors were not present for the altercation, in which William Harrison, 39, of Charlestown, Mass., allegedly attacked Vrooman from behind as he sat at the defense table. Police who were in the courtroom said that Harrison landed at least two punches, injuring Vrooman’s face.

Lincoln County District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau said the Harrison is a family member of the alleged victim in the case.

Harrison, who was quickly subdued by Lincoln County deputies and court officers, was charged with assault and taken to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. He was released on $5,000 bail later in the day, according to the jail’s administration.

Rushlau said Friday morning that court officers had been notified by the jury that a verdict had been reached, but that no one except for the jurors know what it is at this point.

“The next step is obviously to have the verdict delivered,” said Rushlau, who said he and others were meeting Friday to determine when that will happen. “This is completely unprecedented.”

Rushlau said it would be up to the court to decide whether the altercation could interrupt the legal process.

“That’s a decision for a trial judge,” he said. “If the verdict is guilty, it potentially gives the defendant another avenue for appeal, but I can’t personally see that that would be successful. [The assault] certainly did disrupt the ordinary course of a jury trial.”

Rushlau said that Vrooman has the right not to be present for the reading of the verdict, but said no decision on that front had been brought to his attention. Rushlau was unsure whether Vrooman remained hospitalized Friday morning.

Neither the jury nor the judge in the case, Justice Jeffrey Hjelm, were present during the assault.

Caribou - The former chief of the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department has been indicted on several sex charges.
Aroostook County District Attorney Todd Collins said Monday he cannot divulge much information about the charges against 67-year-old Roy Woods, but said there are two alleged victims.
Woods was indicted last week on three counts of unlawful sexual contact, one count of unlawful sexual touching and three counts of assault. He was not arrested and an arraignment has been scheduled for July.
The Bangor Daily News reports the alleged crimes reportedly all occurred in Caribou.
Woods resigned in January after 44 years with the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department, including 21 years as chief. In his resignation latter, he cited medical reasons for stepping down. He could not be reached for comment.

In an all-too-rare show of bipartisanship, 15 Senate Republicans joined with the Democratic majority last month to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, the landmark 1994 law that is key to efforts against domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.       

Unfortunately, the lopsided 68-to-31 Senate vote halted G.O.P. opponents only temporarily. The House Judiciary Committee last week approved its version of the reauthorization bill, which not only omits improvements the Senate bill made to the law but also removes existing protections for immigrant women, putting them at greater risk of domestic and sexual abuse.       

The Senate’s measure ensures that victims are not denied services because they are gay or transgender. It also strives to ensure that domestic violence crimes committed by non-Indian men in tribal communities are prosecuted. The Senate bill also would modestly expand the availability of special U-visas for undocumented immigrants who are victims of domestic violence. That move was supported by law enforcement to encourage victims to come forward and testify against their abusers.       

The regressive House alternative removes these and other improvements, including new protections for students on college campuses. The House measure would eliminate a confidentiality requirement in current law that protects the identity of immigrant women who file domestic violence complaints against a spouse who is a citizen or legal resident and allows the women to apply for legal status on their own.       

House Republicans claim there is a big fraud problem in this area, but there is no hard evidence of that. And their plan to end the centralized handling of these issues by a Vermont-based office would undermine the government’s ability to detect untruthful stories.       

House members on both sides of the aisle who are serious about combating domestic violence must work to defeat this atrocious bill. If that fails, the Senate will need to insist on fixing it during the reconciliation process.       

VATICAN CITY — The Legionaries of Christ, a powerful but troubled worldwide religious order whose founder became enmeshed in a sex scandal years ago, said Friday that the Vatican was investigating seven Legion priests over allegations of sexual abuse of minors.       

The investigation cast a new shadow upon an order already struggling to move beyond revelations that its charismatic founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, had fathered several children and molested under-age seminarians.       

On Friday, the order said that after looking into “some allegations of gravely immoral acts and more serious offenses” committed by some Legionaries, internal preliminary investigations “concluded that seven had a semblance of truth.” Those cases were forwarded to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that handles investigations of sexual abuse, the Legionaries said in a statement.       

The Vatican confirmed that the Congregation was investigating “cases of abuse” carried out by Legionaries but did not address the allegations. The inquiry was first reported by The Associated Press.       

Officials at the order followed the existing canonical procedures and brought these cases, “which for the most part date back decades,” to the attention of Vatican authorities, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said in a statement.       

With nearly 900 priests and 70,000 lay members worldwide, the order was founded by Father Maciel in Mexico in 1941. Over the decades, the charismatic leader, who was a prodigious fund-raiser, built it up into a wealthy and politically influential group, and Pope John Paul II singled out Father Maciel as the model for dynamic priesthood.       

But that legacy crumbled when revelations emerged that Father Maciel had fathered several children, abused seminarians and misappropriated funds. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI removed Father Maciel from priestly duties and restricted him to a life of prayer and penance. He died two years later.       

In 2010, the pope decided against dissolving the order and instead appointed his own delegate to oversee it and make reforms. The Vatican said at the time that the majority of Legionaries had been unaware of Father Maciel’s double life, “a life devoid of scruple and of genuine religious sentiment.”       

But many critics contend that the order’s leaders must have known of the wrongdoings of Father Maciel, who was born in Mexico and began his religious empire there. A request for an investigation brought to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1998 was quashed a year later by the current pope, who was then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and head of the Congregation. He reopened the inquiry in 2004.       

The Legionaries said Friday that the order examined all accusations — or well-founded suspicions — it received involving its members, even as it reached out to victims and sought to protect the rights of those involved. It also said that in some cases the police had carried out preliminary investigations.       

Of the seven cases referred to the Congregation at the Vatican, all but one involved sexual abuse dating back decades. One case referred to more recent abuse, the Legionaries said.       

The cases of two other priests accused of other crimes had also been referred to the Congregation.       

The Legionaries also said that civil or canonical investigations had exonerated an unspecified number of priests accused of abuse, but did not elaborate.       

In all cases, the priests accused of wrongdoing have been restricted in their ministries for the duration of the investigation, though this did not constitute an admission of guilt. “The protection of children and of communities is of the utmost importance for the Legion,” the statement said.       

In Mexico, people who said they had been victimized by the order have sought to keep up pressure on the church. During the pope’s visit to Mexico in March, the victims demanded a meeting with the pontiff, and a book was released detailing multiple cases of abuse by Father Maciel.       

“As with everything in the Vatican, it comes many years too late,” Roberto Blancarte, a professor and expert on the Mexican Catholic Church at Colegio de México, said of the latest inquiry.