Forty-Eight Children Recovered

Press Release
For Immediate Release
February 23, 2009 Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691
Forty-Eight Children Recovered in Operation Cross Country III

During the past week, the FBI joined our law enforcement partners in a three-day national enforcement action as part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative. This operation, known as Operation Cross Country III, included enforcement operations in 29 cities across the country and led to the recovery of 48 children being prostituted domestically. Additionally, 571 criminals were arrested on a combination of state and federal charges for the domestic trafficking of children for prostitution and solicitation.

“We continue to pursue those who exploit our nation’s children,” said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III. “We may not be able to return their innocence but we can remove them from this cycle of abuse and violence.”

In the spring of 2003, the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, in partnership with the Child Exploitation-Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), formed the Innocence Lost National Initiative to address the growing problem of children forced into prostitution. This program brings state and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and social service providers all from around the country to NCMEC, where the groups are trained together. In addition, CEOS has reinforced the tr aining by assigning prosecutors to help bring cases in those cities plagued by child prostitution. To date, the 32 Innocence Lost Task Forces and Working Groups have recovered 670 children. The investigations and subsequent convictions have resulted in lengthy sentences, including multiple 25-years-to-life sentences and the seizure of more than $3 million in assets.

SEEKING INFORMATION

THE DETAILS SURROUNDING THE CRIMEOn Tuesday, June 8, 1999, the bodies of Wilson Edison Black Elk, Jr. and Ronald Owen Hard Heart were found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation(PRIR) in South Dakota, several hundred yards north of the Nebraska-South Dakota border near White Clay, Nebraska. The two victims, both residents of PRIR, were last seen on the main road to Pine Ridge, South Dakota from White Clay, Nebraska on Sunday, June 6, 1999. Authorities have determined that both victims were murdered.

Wilson Edison Black Elk, Jr.

Ronald Owen Hard Heart

Victims (Deceased) REWARDThe FBI is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murders of Wilson Edison Black Elk, Jr. and Ronald Owen Hard Heart.

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST AMERICAN EMBASSY OR CONSULATE.

DIRECTOR
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535
TELEPHONE: (202) 324-3000

Trial Begins For Man Charged In Strangling

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
By Marie Rohde
mrohde@journelsentinel.com

After Calvin Pirtle took his live-in girlfriend to work and dropped off her kids at school, he brought another women home, where they had sex before he killed her and hid the body in the basement, according to opening statements at his murder trial Tuesday.
But Pirtle’s attorney told a Milwaukee County jury Tuesday that his client was not guilty of the first degree intentional homicide charge he faces because he never intended to kill 21-year old Yasmine Tatum-Massey on September 17, 2008.
“It was not an intentional act,” said Scott Anderson. “It was a reckless act.”
In his opening statement, Assistant District Attorney mark Williams painted the jury a picture of a gruesome crime and it’s discovery.
When Pirtle’s girlfriend got home she found large pools of blood on the carpet.
Pirtle, 30, said it was his. She found a pair of women’s shoes and a curling iron, and he said they were gifts to her.
Her suspicions mushroomed when Pirtle told her to stay out of the basement, Williams said.
Later that evening , when police arrived at the house next door on unrelated matter, she asked them to come to her apartment….and see the blood. They left when Pirtle said it was his.
“That night she didn’t sleep,” Williams told the jury. “She wanted to go to the basement.”
Early the next morning she slipped out of bed and discovered the 21 year old victim’s body, in a garbage bag stuffed in a trash barrel…..When she heard Pirtle, she pretended to do laundry.
The girlfriend then called 911, Williams said. Pirtle caught her on the phone and when she insisted that he tell her what happened , he said:
“I was giving someone a tattoo and they didn’t want to pay me and I lost it.”
The victim died of strangulation but was badly beaten and stabbed twice, Williams said.

Father, son indicted in prostitution case

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Thursday, February 26, 2009

A federal grand jury indicted a father and son from Milwaukee on counts of prostituting teenagers here and across state lines, according to court documents.
Todd “King Tut” Carter,38, and his son, Nicholas Harrison, 19, were indicted Tuesday.
Each is charged with conspiracy and three counts of trafficking minors. Additionally, Carter was indicted of two counts of enticing a minor.
According to court documents, Carter has been a pimp for 20 years and more recently used his son to recruit girls to be prostitutes because he was closer to their age.
Carter required teens to have sex with him first as “training,” and then he would arrange for them to engage in prostitution, often advertising on Craigslist……,Carter was denied bail.
If convicted, the men face the possibility of life in prison.
TEENAGER, GIRLS-BOYS-YOUNG PEOPLE-IF SOMEONE IS HURTING YOU OR HAS YOU WHERE YOU DON’T WANT TO BE……CLICK AND GIVE ME A CLUE SOME CONTACT INFORMATION….A PLEA FOR HELP…AN IDEA OF HOW TO FIND AND HELP YOU. I WILL FIND YOU!

Bill aims to curtail use of Indian Logos

Schools would be fined for symbols judged offensive.

Associated Press
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Tuesday February 24, 2009

The bill calls for the state Department of Public Instruction to investigate complaints about race based names, nicknames, logos or mascots.
School boards would have a chance to argue the logos or mascots don’t discriminate or amount to harassment or stereotyping.
“It’s 2009. It’s time we put this behind us. It’s the Native American’s heritage first and foremost. If they’re not feeling honored, then it’s time to get rid of it,” said the bill’s author, Rep. Jim Soletski (D-Green Bay).
I could use the term (SQUAW) being taken off of our roads, lakes and highways, also. This is a term that non-Indians used to imply vagina’s when they spoke of Native American Women.

Supreme Court Upheld Gun Control For Convicted Batterer’s

The Supreme Court upheld the broad reach of a federal gun-control law Tuesday and said that no one who has a conviction for any crime of domestic violence may own a firearm. The 7-2 decision strips gun rights from tens of thousands of people who were convicted or had pleaded guilty to an assault against a spouse, a live-in partner, a child or a parent. These crimes include not just felonies, but misdemeanors.

“Firearms and domestic strife are a potentially deadly combination nationwide,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said.

Gun-control advocates and law enforcement officials praised the ruling. On average, more than three people are killed each day by domestic partners, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. About 14% of police officers who are killed in the line of duty die in response to a domestic violence call, the group said.

Since 1996, federal authorities have turned down more than 175,000 prospective gun buyers because of domestic violence charges, according to the Brady Center. Most of them could have had their rights restored had the court ruled the other way. Tuesday’s ruling did not involve the 2nd Amendment and its right “to keep and bear arms.” Last year, the high court ruled that law-abiding citizens had a constitutional right to have a gun at home for self-defense, but it said felons could be denied gun rights.

In 1968, Congress made it illegal for felons to own a gun in the United States. Lawmakers in 1996 extended this ban to include those convicted of “a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.”

Until Tuesday, however, it had been unclear who is covered by this provision. Only about half the states have laws that make domestic violence a crime. Across the nation, prosecutors often charge offenders with an assault or battery. Two years ago, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal gun ban did not extend to state charges involving assault or battery. Randy Hayes, a West Virginia man, had challenged the federal law after he was convicted of illegal gun possession. He was found with three guns in his house in 2004. Ten years earlier, he had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery against his then-wife. Ruling for Hayes, the appeals court said this “generic battery” conviction did not count as a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence,” and it freed him from the federal charges.

The Supreme Court overturned that ruling Tuesday in United States vs. Hayes and restored the broad view of the federal law. Ginsburg’s opinion said the ban on gun ownership extends to any person who has been convicted of any crime involving “physical force or the threatened use of a deadly weapon,” so long as there was a “domestic relationship” between the perpetrator and the victim. Congress sought to keep “firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers,” she said, but the law would be a “dead letter” in much of the nation if it were read as narrowly as Hayes sought.

Only Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia dissented. They focused on the precise words of the law and said it should be applied narrowly. [...]

Two Oregon Men Plead Guilty to Federal Hate Crime

WASHINGTON – Gary Moss and Devan Klausegger of Medford, Ore., pleaded guilty today to conspiring to interfere with civil rights, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King for the Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Karin J. Immergut for the District of Oregon.

According to facts stipulated in their plea agreements and set forth in the indictment, on May 26, 2008, Moss poured a flammable liquid on the front lawn of the victims’ residence in the shape of a cross and the letters “KKK”. Klausegger handed Moss a small explosive device that Moss used to ignite the flammable liquid. Moss and Klausegger admitted that this was done with the intent to interfere with the victims’ rights under the Fair Housing Act because one of the victims was African-American.

Moss and Klausegger were indicted by a federal grand jury on July 16, 2008.

“Bias-motivated acts of violence are offensive to our nation’s fundamental values,” said Loretta King, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting the federal laws prohibiting violent acts motivated by hate.”

“Crimes committed in the name of racial hatred tear at the very fabric of our society,” said U.S. Attorney Karin J. Immergut. “All members of our society must be free to live without fear that they will be targeted because of their race.”

Moss and Klausegger face a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

Sentencing has been scheduled for May 5, 2009, before Judge Ann Aiken.

This case is being prosecuted by the Assistant U.S. Attorney Bud Fitzgerald and Trial Attorney Roy Conn from the Civil Rights Division.

When Police Are Offenders!

This is one lucky-smart-lady!
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Saturday, February 21, 2009

Police officer faces battery, weapon counts

A Milwaukee police officer has been charged with punching his girlfriend and threatening her with a handgun. (HIS HANDGUN)

Chou Lor, 22, faces two misdemeanors:
battery and endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon. If convicted , Lor would face fines of up to $10,000 and up to nine months in jail on each count.

According to the criminal complaint, Lor’s girlfriend said he became angry with her while they were driving back from his mother’s house on February 15. 2009.

He pulled over, punched her in the face with a closed fist, then pulled out a gun, held it to her face and threatened her life.

When he lowered his weapon, the women took the keys from the car. Lor thought she had thrown them from the car and when he got out to look for them, the women moved over and tried to drive off, the complaint says.

But Lor returned to the car and the women drove to a police station to report the crime.

Milwaukee Police Department spokeswomen Anne E, Schwartz said Lor has been with the department for three years and has been suspended with pay in connection with the charges.

When Teen Dating Turns Violent

Chicago Tribune
Friday February 20,2008
By Megan Twohey and Bonnie Miller Rubin

1 in 10 teens suffer abuse in romantic relationships, and many think it’s often justified.
Two of three programs created by the federal Violence Against Women Act in 2005 to address teen dating violence were never funded.
“This incident has brought the issue into sharp focus.” said Esta Solar president of the California based Family Violence Prevention Fund. “This type of education is not happening in any broad or consistent way. We need to take it to a scale, to make sure it’s happening in every community.”

Warning Signs Sources of Help
Signs of an abusive relationship
1. Your boyfriend or girlfriend: hits, slaps,pushes or kicks you.
2.Controls where you go, what you wear and what you do.
3.Tries to stop you from seeing or talking to family of friends.
4. Calls you derogatory names.
5. Sends repeated text messages.
6. Forces you to do something sexual when you don’t want to.
Signs that your friend or child may be in an abusive relationship.
1. Apologizes for his or her behavior and/or makes excuses for them.
2. Frequently cancels plans at the last minute for reasons that sound untrue.
3. Seems worried about upsetting him or her and making them angry.
4. Giving up things that used to be important to him or her and becoming increasingly isolated.
5. Weight, appearance or grades have changed dramatically. These could be signs of depression, which could indicate abuse.
6. Injuries that he or she cannot explain, or the explanations given don’t make sense.

Internet Teen Sex Trade

Feds Arrest Alleged Online Pimp In Sacramento

Stephen McKesson, 22, allegedly used online bulletin board Craigslist to market and traffic teen prostitutes in the Sacramento area.

An alleged high-tech pimp has been arrested and accused of trafficking teenage prostitutes, according to authorities.

Stephen McKesson, 22, allegedly used online bulletin board Craigslist to market and traffic teen prostitutes in the Sacramento area, some as young as 13 years old. Federal investigators accuse him of using playing cards with provocative pictures of teenagers to market them to strangers.

Investigators say they caught up with the suspect when a friend of one of the teens recognized her in an online posting and called police.

McKesson raped and beat the teens to force them to obey him, authorities said. Some of the teen girls even gave birth to his children.

He is now facing a laundry list of charges for those allegations, and is being held without bail.
CBS5
What do I think….? Call us….comment…..let us help you…..
300.000 children forced into sex slavery every year in the U.S. If we can not protect our children then what are we?
GET INVOLVED
For info on how to help or items to include in a care package, call the local Coalition Against Human Trafficking: 525-4807

Send your tax-deductible donations to the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking to: 9260 Cove Ave., Pensacola, Fla., 32514