Articles Tagged with children

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On Friday, the parents of two young boys who authorities allege tried to trade their children for money, or possibly drugs, have entered a plea of no contest to charges of felony attempted child abandonment.

Lancaster residents Vincent Calogero and Sarah Nilson, the parents of two toddlers, were reportedly under the influence of a controlled substance when they began offering the children to strangers. The sheriff’s department speculated that they were trying to give the boys away in order to obtain cash or narcotics.

Deputies dispatched to the family’s home to investigate reported child abuse and arrested 38-year-old Calogero and 32-year-old Nilson.

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A Florida father allegedly left his two young sons in the back of his locked car in a parking lot while hanging out in a strip club. He has been accused of child neglect.

According to staff at the establishment Willie Lee Jordan Jr., 23, visited Fort Myers gentleman’s club Scarlett’s Cabaret on Thursday, and he was asked to leave because he did not meet the dress code standards of the club. He returned in proper attire later in the evening.

One of the security guards on shift heard the cries of a child and went to investigate where the sound was coming from. He came upon Jordan Jr.’s locked SUV which had the windows open a couple of inches, and he saw two young boys alone in the back seat. A 3-month-old infant was crying and found in an upside down position in an unbuckled car seat. The other child, a 3-year-old boy, was sitting in the back seat and also crying.

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A physical education teacher working at Herndon Barstow Elementary School in the Clovis Unified School District has been accused of punishing students by briefly constricting their necks with a jump rope. The victims are all children between the ages of 9 and 11.

Detectives reported that the incident occurred on Thursday afternoon when the teacher, Peter Samhammer, allegedly utilized disciplinary measures consisting of holding a jump rope around their necks for a brief time before releasing them. Visible red marks were left on the neck and shoulder areas of the victims.

The Central Unified School District responded to the situation by releasing a statement confirming that Samhammer, who worked as a seasonal employee, has been placed on official administrative leave. They also announced, “Student safety is a top priority for the district and as such, we are fully cooperating with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and will continue to do so throughout the course of its investigation.”

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An independent teaching contractor who instructed a music program in more than one Southern California school district is currently under investigation for allegedly contaminating flutes with his semen before giving them to young students.

On September 29th, parents of the students attending elementary schools in Fountain Valley, Los Angeles, Fullerton, Inland Empire, Fullerton, Chatsworth, Capistrano Unified and Newport-Mesa, and a minimum of five other school districts in Southern California received email alerting them about an ongoing investigation regarding the possible contamination of flutes that had been distributed to the children.

It has not yet been determined which of the schools in each district may have been affected by the suspected tainted instruments. Accounting for the time it will take to investigate the considerable amount of sites in the districts, administration felt it was a priority to communicate with parents as soon as possible.

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The Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, comprised of the combined efforts of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and DA’s office, the FBI and the California Highway Patrol, shut down an alleged prostitution ring in a raid in Compton this Wednesday resulting in a total of 36 arrests.

As reported by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, 8 people were rescued during the mission including three girls who are purportedly commercially sexually exploited children, and five women who were identified as the possible victims of human trafficking. The children are currently being cared for by the Department of Children and Family Services.

Sheriff’s deputies working undercover obtained a large number of the arrests. 16 of the men were arrested for allegedly soliciting undercover law enforcement agents for sexual relations. Three additional men, 27-year-old Demario Bell, 25-year-old Damon Thomas, and 37-year-old Damien Henry were taken into custody for felony pandering after allegedly attempting to recruit undercover detectives to work for them in the commercial sex industry.

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Authorities reported that an observant airline passenger aboard a flight from Seattle, WA to San Jose. CA spotted a man sitting in the seat in front of her allegedly sending alarming texts regarding child sexual assault. The screen display was large enough that she was able to capture photographic evidence of the conversation, and she alerted the flight crew about the incident.

The suspect, 56-year-old Michael Keller, was spied sending text messages to 50-year-old Gail Burnworth consisting of details about molesting children. Both Kellar and Burnworth are residents of Tacoma, Washington where Burnworth provides babysitting services. Police speculated this is what gave Kellar access to the victims: two children ages 5 and 7. The relationship between the suspects currently remains unknown.

After the passenger, who has chosen to remain anonymous, spoke with the flight attendant on board the law enforcement at the San Jose airport was notified. When Kellar disembarked the plane he was taken into custody immediately. Seattle police arrested Burnworth.

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In a carjacking incident in Westminster the carjacker claims he was not aware of the three children inside the vehicle. The children’s father had left the car idling in a parking spot in front of a water store while he went inside, only expecting to be in there a short time.

Thien Nguyen’s defense attorney, in his opening statement, acknowledged that his client stole the Lexus SUV from a Westminster parking lot and led the police on a chase through multiple red lights.

Nguyen’s attorney also admits that his client quickly realized that there was an 11 year old boy in the passenger seat. But his lawyer denies that Nguyen purposely kidnapped the two boys and a girl. His lawyer also denies that his client intentionally rammed into other cars.

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