January 2014 - week 5 - Recent News | NAASCA.org - National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse

National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse

child abuse trauma prevention, intervention & recovery

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Occasionally we bring you articles from local newspapers, web sites and other sources that constitute but a small percentage of the information available to those who are interested in the issues of child abuse and recovery from it.

We present articles such as this simply as a convenience to our readership ...

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Here are a few recent stories related to the kinds of issues we cover on the web site. They'll represent a small percentage of the information available to us, the public, as we fight to provide meaningful recovery services and help for those who've suffered child abuse. We'll add to and update this page regularly.

We'll also present stories about the criminals and criminal acts that impact our communities all across the nation. The few we place on this page are the tip of the iceberg, and we ask you to check your local newspapers and law enforcement sites. Stay aware. Every extra set of "eyes and ears" makes a big difference.

Local doctors say child sex abuse is happening at 'alarming rates'

(Video on site)

by Kaitlyn Bolduc

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -- Every day, there's a new case, children emerging from all corners of Multnomah County that are young victims of sex abuse in need of help, according to doctors.

"Over the course of the week, we will see what is about the average size of an elementary classroom of kids. That's a lot of children," said Kevin Dowling, CARES Northwest executive director.

One in every four girls and one in every seven boys are victims of child sex abuse, according to doctors, statistics, they say, that are clearly troubling.

"I've worked here for 19 years, and I think you get the sense that, shouldn't we have seen all of the kids by now?" said Dowling. "Not a week goes by that there's not a case, and I think about how we are doing this to our children? How come we let this continue to happen to our kids?"

FOX 12 sat down with a panel of doctors at CARES Northwest, a child abuse assessment center in North Portland. These are the doctors that work day in and day out with the region's most vulnerable kids.

"We know the abuse is happening. We know it's happening at alarming rates," said Kim Jacobowitz, CARES Northwest family support team member.

Doctors say there aren't necessarily more instances of sex abuse happening now. Rather, more kids are beginning to feel comfortable reporting the abuse than ever before.

"I think what [it] is, is that people are doing a better job listening to kids," said Dr. Linda Lorenz, retired CARES Northwest and Kaiser Permanente Northwest Pediatrician.

"So when they make a disclosure, people are more likely to give kids help than they were 20 years ago. I think it's hopeful," she said.

What hasn't changed in the last 20 years, doctors say, is who usually commits these crimes.

"We see people that the families trust and allow into their households. That's who is sexually abusing kids, and that hasn't changed," said Lorenz.

A trusted friend, youth leaders, teacher, coaches and, more often than not, family members - doctors say those are the most common predators, not strangers.

"Sometimes I wish people were aware of how common abuse is. If they knew I think they'd want to do something about it," said Dowling.

To protect kids, these doctors say, the focus should be on providing kids with a safe place to always share their feelings.

"Most importantly, we need to get kids and parents to talk about the event and what happened and helping them to create an environment where it's not too shameful to talk about it," said Lorenz.

Above all else, doctors say, prevention is key.

That means teaching kids how to protect themselves from abuse and what to do when they need help, says Lorenz, who believes that is the only way to truly stop the cycle of abuse.

"Ultimately, that would be the way," said Lorenz. "We'd like to put ourselves out of business."

Doctors at CARES Northwest teach classes on the topic of prevention. For more information, visit http://www.caresnw.org/who-we-are/prevention

There are countless other community organizations that support victims of abuse, including:

http://oaasisoregon.org

http://sarcoregon.org

http://www.morrisonkids.org

To view part one of FOX 12's investigative series on child sex abuse, click this link: Woman abused by priest speaks out

http://www.kptv.com/story/24570233/doctors-seeing-a-classroom

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Maine

Experts say children sexually abusing children is not that rare

by Nok-Noi Ricker

HARRINGTON — The 11-year-old boy in this Washington County town accused of gross sexual assault is perhaps the youngest person in Maine history to be charged with this serious crime, according to Maine law enforcement officials.

The accused boy and his alleged victim, an 8-year-old boy, were both students at Harrington Elementary School, where outraged parents staged a protest earlier this week after learning the accused was allowed to remain in school.

The criminal charge and the subsequent outcry also placed renewed attention on a seldom discussed issue in Maine: a child sexually abusing another child. Experts say the incidence of kids molesting or raping other kids is not that rare.

“Juvenile sexual offenses are an issue anywhere,” said Sue Righthand, a Rockland-based clinical psychologist who works with the Department of Corrections and has published several reports on sexual offenders in Maine.

Pre-teen and teenage boys account for more than one-third of sexual crimes involving other children reported to police in the United States, according to a 2009 U.S. Department of Justice study about juveniles who commit sex offenses against children.

“Although those who commit sex offenses against minors are often described as ‘pedophiles' or ‘predators' and thought of as adults, it is important to understand that a substantial portion of these offenses are committed by other minors,” the study states.

The study also found that over 90 percent of juvenile perpetrators of child sexual crimes are boys, and that when the victim is a boy, he is usually younger than 12. This is because male juvenile offenders “tend to focus on much younger and sexually immature boys rather than their peers.”

“There appears to be a peak around age 13 or 14 with offenses against younger children,” said Righthand, who also is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Maine.

Educating young people about what is appropriate behavior and helping offenders develop healthy relationships are keys to preventing recurrence and should be a statewide goal, she added.

“There is a lot we could do as a society,” she said.

This sentiment rings true with the mother of the 8-year-old boy in Washington County, who is now enrolled in private school. The Bangor Daily News is not naming her to protect the identity of the alleged victim.

She said this taboo topic must be discussed, so parents can better protect their children.

“It's been all over that school for a month and everybody needs to talk about it,” the mother of two said. “(Parents and school staff) need to learn how to deal with it and they also need to be taught about safety and sexual abuse.”

A lot is done about “stranger danger” but not enough has been done to educate people about others who could hurt them, she said. The Harrington mother, who knows the accused boy well, believes the boy charged will only change his ways with proper psychological treatment.

“He needs a lot of therapy and a lot of help,” she said. “I really do hope he gets it.”

Crimes often unreported

Between 2003 and 2012, there were 156 Mainers age 17 or younger charged with committing rape or attempted rape, according to data in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Juveniles accounted for 19 percent of the 815 arrests for those crimes in Maine during that period. Statutory rape and other sex offenses are not included in the FBI data.

The federal crime data reveals nothing about who was sexually assaulted, so there is no way to tell how many of the victims were children. Anecdotally, however, police say that in cases of juvenile sexual assault, the victims are often other juveniles.

“Juveniles likely offend against other juveniles, although I don't have any actual data to back that up,” said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Of the 368 reported rapes in Maine in 2012 — the last year data is available — police arrested five teenage suspects — all males — out of 53 people charged, the crime index shows. Of the five, two were 13 or 14, one was 15, one was 16 and one 17, according to data provided by McCausland.

Although determining the exact figures for sexual assaults involving child perpetrators and child victims in Maine is difficult, said Cara Courchesne, communications and outreach coordinator for the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault, it's clear the crime is a major issue.

“Almost 50 percent of our calls that we get on the crisis and support line are regular people who are calling on behalf of a child or are adults who were sexually abused as children,” she said. “It's a big problem.”

One of every 12 high school students in Maine — 13.3 percent of girls and 10.4 percent of boys — report they have been physically forced to have sex, Courchesne said.

A recent national study estimates that 42.2 percent of female rape victims were children when the crime happened and 27.8 percent of male victims were age 10 or younger, she said.

Victims should know it was not their fault and they are not alone, she said, adding that several sexual assault support centers in Maine are ready to help both boys and girls.

Rape and other sexual crimes often go unreported, Courchesne and other experts say.

“It's still a very daunting process, after just going through something that traumatic,” Courchesne said, explaining why sexual assault victims often don't come forward. “It's definitely safe to say a vast majority of sex assault crimes are not prosecuted. People feel a lot of shame and … the idea of facing a criminal justice system is difficult.”

To help overcome the stigma, the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault gave thousands of prevention education programs in 2013.

“We reached about 30,000 students last year in Maine,” Courchesne said.

Treating young sex offenders

A dozen juveniles are incarcerated at Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston and Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland for sex offenses, according to Scott Fish, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

Those convicted of sexual crimes and others with identified deviant sexual behaviors are enrolled in the two facilities' Sexual Behavior Treatment programs.

The program has four phases: identifying and assessing youth with sexual behavioral problems, providing therapy about sexual abuse and its effects, deciding what charges are necessary against each individual to prevent future crimes, and assessing the risks associated with community reintegration.

“We get involved at the point of arrest — at the point of referral,” said Dave Barrett, the Juvenile Community Corrections administrator for Region 3, which includes Bangor, Calais, Dover-Foxcroft, Ellsworth, Houlton, Lincoln and Presque Isle.

Juveniles convicted for sex crimes make up only a small portion of those incarcerated in the youth programs, he said.

When young people charged with sexual assaults are presented to the court, they are usually given an opportunity to avoid entering a juvenile corrections facility by entering a treatment program and “engaging in counseling that would address the issues presented in the case (so) we don't see them do this again,” said Melanie Portas, assistant district attorney for Androscoggin County. “If they were victims, we try to get treatment for that.”

If they do land at Mountain View or Long Creek, they'll enter the treatment program that includes “intensive clinical interventions with not only the youth but the family,” Barrett said. “The family is at the center of what is going on here.”

Intervention treatment is effective, according to data about therapy program graduates that was analyzed by the University of Southern Maine's Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service. “Between 2006 and 2009, 78 kids were treated and released, and one person was charged [with a sex crime] as an adult,” Barrett said. “With effective treatment, the recidivism rate is extremely low.”

Righthand, who co-wrote a 2010 report “Reducing Sexual Offending Among Juveniles in Maine,” said effective treatment programs work with teenagers and young adults because their “brains are still developing up through at least age 25.”

“The keys are to help these youth to develop prosocial and respectful and caring lifestyles,” she said. “There is reason to have hope.”

And for victims, Righthand added: “It's not their fault if it happens to them. If somebody does perpetuate sex abuse, they do need to be helped to take responsibility (for the crime) and not do it again. These are our kids and our future.”

http://www.sunjournal.com/news/0001/11/30/experts-say-children-sexually-abusing-children-not-rare/1485695

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Government Report Calls for More Vigilant Reporting of School Sexual Abuse

Many school officials are 'unaware of their roles and responsibilities' in preventing abuse

by Allie Bidwell

A federal watchdog agency is challenging other departments to better disseminate information to help schools prevent and report sexual abuse, and to more vigilantly track and analyze incidents of sexual abuse committed by school personnel, according to a report released Thursday.

The Government Accountability Office found in its report – requested by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. – that although 46 states have laws requiring school officials to report child sexual abuse and 43 have penalties for not reporting incidents, many states and school districts vary in how they promote awareness and prevention training for school personnel, as well as in how they report suspected abuse.

"Children have a right to be safe in schools and schools have a legal and moral obligation to fulfill that promise," Miller said in a statement. "We must take every available and reasonable step we can to ensure that the people and schools that are entrusted with our children every day protect them from abuse."

Those discrepancies in policy and reporting measures have led to many schools being unaware of their responsibilities in preventing abuse, the report says.

Title IX, an education law that prohibits sex discrimination in any education program receiving federal funds, also has provisions prohibiting sexual harassment. That means sexual abuse of students and sexual misconduct by school personnel are prohibited under Title IX, the report says.

"Schools have the responsibility to prevent sexual abuse under Title IX, but too many of them do not fully understand or comply with the existing requirements, leaving kids vulnerable to abuse and harassment," Miller said. "Protecting kids from sexual abuse in schools is not a choice; it's the law."

But just 18 states require school districts to provide awareness and prevention training on sexual abuse and misconduct, the report found. And of those 18, fewer than half required that Title IX coordinators (school employees who oversee compliance procedures), cafeteria and janitorial personnel, and bus drivers take that training. In only five states did the awareness and prevention training cover the applicability of Title IX to sexual abuse against students.

The report also cites a 2004 report from the Department of Education, which found nearly 1 in 10 students are sexually abused by school personnel – such as teachers, principals, coaches and bus drivers – at some point during their academic careers.

"However, the prevalence of sexual abuse by school personnel remains unknown, in part, because some cases go unreported," the report says. "Further, the term sexual abuse may not capture the full spectrum of the issue."

Some inappropriate behaviors that may not be captured under the umbrella of sexual abuse in state laws include "grooming behaviors" like giving extra attention to one student or giving gifts to a student's family. Using sexual language and gestures, committing written or verbal sexual advances and sharing sexual photos and videos are classified as "sexual misconduct," according to the study – but they still can fall outside the sexual abuse category. However, these definitions vary from state to state.

"Sexual abuse of students by school personnel raises particular concerns because of the trust and responsibility placed with schools to ensure a safe and productive learning environment," the report says.

In response to the report, Deborah Delisle, the Department of Education's assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, said the department is revising its Adult Sexual Misconduct training module to target a wider audience that will include school volunteers. She also said that "to the extent possible," the department will look into ways to better track the prevalence of child sexual abuse by school personnel.

"The Department shares the view, outlined in this report, that sexual abuse by school personnel raises particular concerns because of the trust placed with schools," Delisle said in her response. "Child sexual abuse has a wide array of significant detrimental consequences on the physical, psychological, academic, and behavioral development of children. ... Still, there remains much that needs to be done."

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/30/government-report-calls-for-more-vigilant-reporting-of-school-sexual-abuse

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Tennessee

Victim's Long Silence Didn't Help Rapist Priest

by JEFF D. GORMAN

A Tennessee priest was properly convicted of criminal sexual abuse and aggravated rape related to decades-old attacks, a state appeals court ruled.

An altar boy at St. Dominic's Church in Kingsport testified that his pastor, William Casey, starting abusing him in 1975 when he was 10. The abuse included oral sex and anal penetration, according to the victim's testimony.

The victim said he had been reluctant to speak out because his mother told him that she was in love with Casey, who was supposedly going to leave the priesthood to marry her. He also felt nobody would believe him and that he had been taught that priests were God's representatives on Earth.

Casey meanwhile professed to love the boy, with whom he claimed to have a "special" relationship, the victim later testified. Casey gave him a medallion and 10 shares of Piedmont Airlines stock, he said.

The abuse ended in 1980 when the victim's "uncontrollable" behavior landed him in jail, and his father moved him to Louisville, Ky. He testified that he pushed the memories "down deep," leading to problems with drugs, alcohol, anger, divorce and bankruptcy.

In 1999, when he was 34, the victim opened up for the first time to his third wife. He had just watched an HBO special that claimed that more than 100,000 survivors of clergy abuse were in the United States, along with 4,000 priests who had been credibly accused.

The victim then told his mother two years later. She advised him to consult a priest and not to pursue anything against Casey.

In 2009, he told his father, who told him to "get over it."

He told a representative of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the police that same year, and he told the captain of the Knoxville Diocese in April 2010.

Father David Boettner, vicar general of the Knoxville Diocese, testified that he, a bishop and a deacon then confronted Casey with the accusations. Casey had replied, "unfortunately, I'm guilty."

Sue Frazier-Bear, a therapist with the Children's Advocacy Center, testified that an average male who is the victim of child sexual abuse will not disclose what happened until his 40s.

The victim's testimony detailed three instances of Casey sexually abusing him. Casey did not testify in his defense.

A Sullivan County jury convicted Casey and sentenced him to 35 to 40 years in prison.

He appealed, but the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the victim's testimony contained sufficient evidence to support the conviction.

Casey also failed to show that his due process rights were violated by the decades-long "pre-accusatorial" delay.

"The abuse that occurred in this case was homosexual in nature, a fact which the victim testified weighed heavily on his mind throughout his extended silence," Judge John Everett Williams wrote for a three-member panel. "During the time that the victim was abused, and to a lesser extent even today, the social stigma attached to male rape may reasonably increase the likelihood that there will be a delay in the reporting of any such abuse."

"As this victim became an adult, his own mother's love for his abuser could only serve to reinforce his concerns that anyone whom he told about being raped would find his allegations incredible and refuse to believe him," he added. "Consequently, we agree with the trial court that although the victim's delay in reporting the sexual abuse was considerable, the reasons for the delay were reasonable and understandable."

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/01/30/64994.htm

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California

A lost boy finds his calling

Romanian orphanage survivor hopes his documentary can spare children from suffering

(Video on site)

Someone dims the lights, and an old video clip begins to roll. In a dank room, dozens of children with shaved heads crouch naked in puddles of urine, fight over a bucket of gruel, lie tethered to radiators. One little girl's leg juts up at a grotesque angle; she uses her hands to scoot across the wet floor. Several kids rock back and forth or hit their heads against the wall.

The footage is not easy to watch, even for those who remember seeing it on television more than two decades ago. The Berlin Wall had just fallen, and Eastern Europe's communist dictatorships were rapidly collapsing. A few months after the execution of Romania's leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, in 1989, Western journalists discovered a desperate underworld of abandoned children warehoused in unheated orphanages.

Around 180,000 were estimated to be living this way, and seeing them on ABC's “20/20” spurred thousands of Americans to rush to save Romania's forgotten children.

Some of those Americans are sitting here on an October afternoon in 2012, at the Homewood Suites hotel in Davidson, N.C., along with the Romanian children they adopted. Now in their teens and early 20s, these adoptees are too young to remember much of their home country.

But one person in the room remembers.

“That's Izidor, in the red sweater,” someone interjects as a little boy with a big smile appears on the screen. The boy is 10, but he is the size of a much younger child, stunted by malnutrition.

Izidor Ruckel, 32, is still small, with haunted brown eyes and close-cropped hair. He is the reason everyone is here today.

As a child, his fierce determination to get out of the orphanage propelled him into the arms of an American family. As a newly adopted adolescent, he fought for his orphanage friends to come to America, too. As an adult, he has become an activist for the tens of thousands of children who still languish in Romanian institutions.

Determined that they should not have to relive the nightmares he endured, he wants to help them in the same way he was once helped: by taking their story public.

‘It set off a wildfire'

The ABC crew arrived at Izidor's institution on a cold morning in 1990 and talked its way past a befuddled gatekeeper.

It was not the first Romanian orphanage the “20/20” team visited, but it was the worst.

“It was like an insane asylum,” recalls Janice Tomlin, a producer who was there that day. “We saw kids in straitjackets, we saw kids in a cage. .?.?. We saw this boy who was literally starving, dying.”

Under Ceausescu, birth control and abortion had been banned, and women were pressured to bear at least five children to provide workers and fighters for the nation. Countless children were institutionalized, sometimes because of disabilities but often simply because their parents couldn't afford them.

The children wrapped their arms around the visitors' legs. There was Marin, a dark-haired Roma boy with an infectious smile; Ana, who was blind and bedridden but sang with plaintive, perfect pitch; and Izidor, a bright-eyed boy with a limp.

The journalists produced a multi-part exposé that shocked American viewers and helped trigger an unprecedented surge in international adoptions in Romania and throughout the Eastern Bloc.

“My phone was ringing literally nonstop,” said Tomlin, who later adopted two infant girls there herself. “American couples, all of whom had the saddest stories of trying to adopt, specifically wanting to adopt a particular child they had seen in our report.”

News organizations across the world presented Romania's orphanages as a symbol of a decayed empire.

“It set off a wildfire,” said Adam Pertman, executive director of the New York-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

Thousands of Americans flew to Romania to rescue children. In the post-revolution chaos, there was almost none of the regulation and oversight usually required for adoptions.

Many adoptive parents knew nothing of the effects that sensory deprivation and neglect had wrought. Many of the children had become emotionally marooned, unable to process or return affection. “People didn't know that they should prepare themselves to raise a child who may have special needs,” Pertman said. “People just sort of figured generally that love would conquer all.”

In 1990, 121 Romanian children received American adoption visas. The following year, the number shot up to 2,594. Americans continued to adopt there until early 2004, when Romania banned most international adoptions amid charges of corruption and rumors that U.S. families were trafficking children and selling their organs. By then, Americans had adopted about 8,000 children from Romania and tens of thousands more from Russia, Kazakhstan and other former East Bloc countries.

Izidor's challenge

Speaking before the audience in North Carolina, with just a touch of an accent and an edge of anger, Izidor describes life in the drab concrete Hospital for Irrecoverable Children in the remote Transylvanian town of Sighetu Marmatiei. His diction is formal and a little stiff, even as it is sprinkled with casual expressions like “bro” and “Jeez Louise.”

“If you did anything that even slightly annoyed them, they would either drug you, beat you or put you in a straitjacket — anything to keep you quiet,” he says. The back of his head is lashed with scars.

“A healthy child placed in one of these orphanages?” he says, his voice catching. “Give it one year and that child's hopes and dreams and future have been taken away from him.”

Izidor opens the floor for questions. People congratulate him on his successes, so impressive because they are so unlikely: At age 11 he was plucked out of the orphanage by an American family in California and now lives in Denver, where he supports himself with two low-wage jobs. Being a “professional orphan” is, as he wryly calls it, his third job.

He is the rare one from that original cohort who can live on his own, and certainly the most activist. From personal experience, he knows what a powerful tool a video camera can be. And so, along with another Romanian American adoptee, Izidor plans to make a documentary about Romania's current “orphans.” This gathering is a fundraiser to pay for their trip. They figure they need $30,000.

“This is something that can maybe change the course of history for the next generation,” he tells the audience. “Or even for the present one.”

Izidor visited some government-run institutions in 2005. Though the children were no longer dying of starvation, he says, many were neglected and abused. When these institutionalized children grow up, child welfare advocates say, there are few services to help them adjust to life as adults. Many end up homeless, shut out even from the facilities they grew up in.

Izidor even recognized some of his Sighetu friends, grown now and living on the streets. “I feel terrible for them,” he says. “Some of these kids have never stepped a foot out, and when they're 18 they don't have any skills.”

After the presentation, as Izidor accepts donations and signs copies of a memoir he wrote about his life in the orphanage, a square-jawed 14-year-old with straight black hair tucked under a backward baseball cap approaches and grins shyly.

“I'm Jared Smith,” he says. “I'm from Romania as well.”

“So,” Izidor asks, “how's your life going?”

“Um, it's been very good,” Jared says. He and his brother were adopted as toddlers by a couple in North Carolina, he tells Izidor, and he is interested in helping abandoned children in Romania. Izidor tells Jared to consider volunteering with a local organization that plans to send American students to work with children in Romania.

“I feel like I have it really good,” Jared says, “and I should do something about it.”

Izidor knows the feeling. But he isn't sure how good he has it. When a woman in line asks what he is doing now with his life, he lowers his head.

“I work at not the greatest place,” he says softly. “I work at the airport, and the other place is — ” he whispers: “Wal-Mart.”

“That's not a bad place,” the woman says. But Izidor has loftier goals.

After everyone leaves, he counts up the cash and checks.

Eight hundred and twenty dollars. It's a start.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2014/01/30/a-lost-boy-finds-his-calling/?tid=hpModule_1f58c93a-8a7a-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e

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Ohio

Ariel Castro's nephew indicted on child porn charges

by Jonathan Grass

CLEVELAND -- Jeremi J. Alicea, the nephew of Ariel Castro, was charged with 22 counts relating to child pornography Thursday, according to Cleveland NBC station WKYC.

Court records reveal Alicia, who turns 27 today, faces 21 counts of pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor and one count of possessing a criminal tool, which the news station reports was a laptop.

The alleged crimes occurred between Sept. 17 and Oct. 8.

Alicea's uncle made national headlines last year after he was revealed to have held three women captive in his Cleveland home while repeatedly raping and assaulting them for a decade. He committed suicide in his prison cell in September after pleading guilty to his crimes.

Alicea lives in Bedford, a suburb of Cleveland.

Read WKYC's report here.

http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/01/ariel_castros_nephew_indicted.html

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Gacy survivor Dati on life and new book, I Am Me

by Carrie Maxwell

As a 9-year-old, Patrick Dati's life changed forever when serial killer John Wayne Gacy raped him in the men's bathroom of the now defunct Goldblatt's department store on a winter morning in January 1972.

It took Dati, who is openly gay, 35 years to reveal this information; he details that event as well as other events that have shaped his life in his debut book, I Am Me: Survivor of Child Abuse and Bullying Speaks Out.

The genesis of the book began about six years ago when Dati's psychiatrist suggested that he write his thoughts down in a diary so he could release therapeutically what he'd gone through. Dati started writing the diary; then about three-and-a-half years ago his best friend and mentor Bob, who is a writer, asked to read and review his diary. About three weeks later Dati got together with Bob, who insisted that Dati's story would be a New York Times bestseller that would help save lives if he turned his diaries into a book.

"In March of last year Bob retired from his job and he offered to take on the manuscript again," said Dati. "He knows me better than anyone else in my life. We found a technical writer who could take the manuscript and translate it into a book format. From there we found a publisher and the book has been out for about three weeks. I've had a number of people reach out to me and thank me for the book already."

The book begins with a prologue where Dati shares how Bob, who is also gay, helped him break free from the constraints that Dati's family and society put on him. Dati also recounts the years of anti-gay abuse and bullying that he faced at the hands of his older brother, Marco, beginning at the age of 5 as well as what happened to him on that fateful day when Gacy raped him.

Dati chose the title of his book because "I am finally myself after all of these years." He prefers to think of himself as a survivor, not a victim.

"I really appreciate the opportunity I've been given to be a voice for the LGBT community by sharing my story," said Dati.

The most important lessons Dati wants readers to glean from reading his memoir is not to hide who you really are as a gay person because by being closeted he made his life miserable. "I wanted to please the people who I thought loved me," said Dati.

With the book Dati also wants to be the voice of all of the Gacy victims who lived and feel like they can't come forward about what Gacy did to them. He has heard from two of Gacy's victims who found Dati's website and reached out to him via Facebook to thank him for what he is doing, however, they haven't come forward.

"Eighty-five percent of men and boys don't come forward about being abused. I want to show them don't be ashamed, don't be fearful of what people think and come forward. You can survive this," said Dati.

Through his website www.youandmecanstopbullies.com, Dati noted that he has heard from many people who have been bullied, abused and/or molested/raped.

An advocate for several organizations, Dati does a radio show once a month for the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse and is a member of the speakers bureau of Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network [RAINN]." Where I lead with my advocacy is to tell people that it gets better and you need to have hope," said Dati.

"My technical writer does social work with individuals such as myself and what we are looking to do is an educational book for parents, teachers and the general public about the warning signs to look for when a child has been abused or bullied," said Dati of his future writing plans. "For example, after Gacy raped me in the third grade my grades dropped and that caused me to have to repeat third grade. I developed obsessive compulsive disorder [which wasn't diagnosed until I was an adult] as a result of the rape."

Along with his desire to continue writing, Dati has plans to become a public speaker.

Today Dati shares his life with his partner, Greg, and his 17-year-old daughter from a previous marriage to a woman. "My life is amazing. It will be two years in August 2014 since I met Greg. We met on a Sunday when I took a bike ride along the lakeshore to clear my mind since I was writing my book at the time; I thought I had finished my last chapter, which is different now," said Dati.

Dati will be holding book signings at Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted St., on Feb. 21 at 6-9 p.m., and the Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St., on March 22 at 12-3 p.m.

I Am Me is available in both book and Kindle formats at amazon.com and at Unabridged Bookstore, 3251 N. Broadway.

Visit www.youandmecanstopbullies.com for more information about the book and Dati.

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Gacy-survivor-Dati-on-life-and-new-book-I-Am-Me/46038.html

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Texas

Grandfather Warned CPS About Toddler's Safety

The maternal grandfather of a toddler who was found unconscious and died earlier this month says he loved his granddaughter.

Plano police arrested 25-year-old Melinda Lynn Muniz on Tuesday and charged her with capital murder in the death of 2-year-old Lillian Grace Ford. Muniz is the fiance of Ford's biological father and lived at the home where the toddler was found unconscious, police said.

Doug Reeves, Ford's grandfather, delivered a letter to Child Protective Services two days before the child's death and apparent staged home invasion. The letter expressed concern about "physical injuries that Grace had suffered in the past."

"I had written up a three and a half page letter spelling out incidents along the way things that should be troubling to CPS," Reeves said. "I was hoping they's reopen the case."

CPS had already gotten involved in the family's life over bruises Reeves discovered, and over a Benadryl overdose.

"We were saying to ourselves, talking, something really bad's gonna happen to Grace," Reeves said. "We just had a gut feeling."

Reeves said he wanted his granddaughter in a safe place.

CPS acknowledged the letter and told NBC 5 that it will be a part of the internal review of Ford's case.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Grandfather-Warned-CPS-About-Toddlers-Safety-242704991.html

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'American Idol' judge says abused need to be heard

Kara DioGuardi isn't ashamed about what happened to her, and she's certainly not going to hide it.

The 43-year-old is a mother, a wife, an award-winning singer-songwriter, music producer and “American Idol” judge and she is also a sexual abuse survivor.

It's taken DioGuardi a lifetime to come to terms with what happened to her, and to heal, but luckily, it gets easier with age, she said.

“I can absolutely stand here and say, yes, I'm healed,” DioGuardi says, speaking by phone. “But you know, I'm 43 years old, I had a lot of years to work on it. And I had a lot of perspective as well.”

DioGuardi will share her experience and her perspective Feb. 6 at the fourth annual Julie Valentine luncheon.

The event this year is the largest fundraiser for the local nonprofit, and it helps fund the center's day-to-day operations, including emergency and long-term services and advocacy to victims of sexual assault and abuse.

This year's event is sponsored by Silent Tears, a collaborative effort funded by Greenville philanthropists Lisa and Bob Castellani to address child sexual abuse in South Carolina.

The nonprofit presented a yearlong study this past May that revealed statistics for this state as well as suggestions for improving them.

DioGuardi, with her entertainment industry credentials, is a bit of a change for the fundraiser, which has in the past brought in speakers such as Ed Smart and Elizabeth Smart. But DioGuardi's message, and her life, match well with that of the Julie Valentine Center.

“The one thing we tell all of our clients is that when abuse or assault happens it might be a defining moment in their lives, but it's not going to define who they are,” said Shauna Galloway-Williams, executive director of the Julie Valentine Center.

“That's how she's handled every challenge in her life. It's something she uses creatively for her music and she never lost sight of what her ultimate goals are — being a leader in the music industry.”

DioGuardi was a well-known face in the music and entertainment industry when she went public about her personal history with abuse in her 2011 memoir, “Helluva High Note.” The book detailed her experience including being molested as a child and later being raped as a young adult.

A media frenzy ensued, for which DioGuardi still is frustrated.

“That was never the intention of my book,” DioGuardi said adamantly. “The intention was to show how my life events influenced my songs.”

Indeed, DioGuardi's songs are an apt reflection of how her life has changed.

Growing up in a music-oriented family with the sounds of her father's Frank Sinatra albums, or a relative playing the piano or singing, “Music was part of the fabric of every day,” DioGuardi said. It has remained a reliable constant throughout her life and a measure of her healing as well.

“It helped me kind of find those places inside that were in need to healing and that I needed to discuss,” DioGuardi said. “Because you can't really heal unless you bring it to the surface.”

But healing is a process, and DioGuardi has worked hard to do that.

She has continued to climb higher in the music industry. Google Top 40 lists over the past decade and you can find DioGuardi's name attached.

Through her work with Warner Brothers and as co-CEO of Arthouse Entertainment, she's worked with everyone from Pink, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera to Rascal Flatts and Santana.

“The thing we want to show with our speakers is that this happens everywhere and to everyone; anyone can be impacted by sexual abuse and sexual assault,” Galloway-Williams said. “And the outcome doesn't have to hold you back forever.”

The Julie Valentine Center has held its fundraiser on or around Valentine's Day as a way of illuminating issues most can't imagine, but ones the center faces daily.

Julie Valentine was the name given to an abandoned baby who was found 23 years ago by a man who was picking flowers for his wife for Valentine's Day. The name has come to represent the center's work to give a voice to silent victims and to provide a path toward healing.

“When you've been assaulted or abused you often feel alone, ashamed, guilt and frustration, and you feel like you're in that all on your own,” Galloway-Williams says. “And I think the most powerful message is you're not alone in this.”

At the luncheon next week, her message will be twofold, DioGuardi said, for victims and to the public — speaking up is necessary. She's incredulous about statistics that show the rate of sexual assaults similar to statistics for breast cancer.

“Somehow with sexual abuse we don't want to talk about it, and that's part of the issue,” DioGuardi said.

“Victims feel shamed and they feel like they did something wrong and it has nothing to do with something they did or didn't do. Me talking about it in the book was like I don't feel bad that I'm telling you this; this has nothing to do with me, I didn't do anything wrong.”

Healing isn't always fast, and it's rarely easy, but it does happen.

“I don't define my life through that I was abused,” DioGuardi said. “I feel like it was a challenge in my life that I had to work through, and I wanted to show people that you can work through it and you can get to the other side.”

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20140130/NEWS/301300032/-American-Idol-judge-says-abused-need-to-be-heard?nclick_check=1

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Connecticut

Officials urge unified effort against child sex trafficking

by Karen Florin

Hartford — A Connecticut girl was sexually abused by her biological father at age 2 and removed from her home by the state Department of Children and Families.

By age 9, she had been raped by her adopted father and was once again removed from the only home she knew.

“By 14, she was out on the streets, prostituting,” said Stefania Agliano, a social work supervisor from DCF.

Presenters at a forum on sex trafficking of children Wednesday told stories meant to spark outrage and action among the audience of nearly 300 people at the Connecticut Convention Center. The state has documented 198 cases of domestic minor sex trafficking in the past five years, and those, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy pointed out in his introductory remarks, are just the cases that came to light.

Most of the 198 victims, who were 11 to 18 years old, were runaways who had been involved with the child welfare agency at some point in their young lives. Commissioner Joette Katz, referring to the victims as “our kids,” called on the judges, prosecutors, social workers, lawmakers and law enforcement officers in the audience to work with the agency to prevent children from being sexually exploited for commercial gain. No new state money has been allocated to fight the problem, but legislators have passed new laws with tougher penalties for those who purchase advertising for commercial sex acts involving people under 18 and those who pay for sex with those under 18.

The most compelling testimony Wednesday came from Audrey Morrissey, associate director of an organization called “My Life My Choice,” and a survivor of sex trafficking. She was in “the life” from ages 16 to 30, starting from a street corner in Boston's red-light district, known as the Combat Zone, and moving “up” to a local strip club when her pimp went to jail.

“I had finally found a world in which I belonged,” said Morrissey, now 51. As a child living in the “hood,” she didn't fit in as a light-skinned black woman whose parents owned a three-family home. Her mother was not the nurturing type, Morrissey said, and she was bullied at school. She lost her virginity at 14 to a boy who told her not to come back to his house if she would not have sex, Morrissey said.

“I literally felt my childhood draining from my body,” she said. A month later, she was pregnant. By 16, she said, her daughter's father, whose cousin was a pimp, talked her into selling her body, saying she would do it if she loved him and that they could use the money to get a car and apartment.

By 26, Morrissey was pregnant again and addicted to heroin. By 30, pregnant with her third daughter, she went into treatment and left “the life.” She said she couldn't count the number of times she was raped and robbed.

Today, Morrissey works with young girls to keep them out of prostitution. After Wednesday's program, she was en route to a DCF group home to speak with children in the agency's custody.

“This has been going on since before your time, my time,” Morrissey said. “The only difference is, we're aware of it and trying to take steps to help these children.”

The presenters referred to prostitution not as “the world's oldest profession,” but as “the oldest form of oppression,” and said women and children are criminalized and sometimes have their mugshots published in newspapers while little attention is given to “johns” who patronize them.

“The demand drives the supply,” said Agliano, who estimated that on any given night in the United States, 100,000 to 300,000 children are having sex with five to 25 customers.

While most victims are girls, presenters said that boys are also involved in sex trafficking. Dr. Sharon Cooper, a forensic pediatrician, said children who are victimized are in a “perfect storm,” with a society that is not shocked by explicit sexual matter and pervasive online bullying, sexual violence, drug addiction and social network recruiting. They come from homes where there is physical or psychological abuse, family dysfunction, alcohol or drug abuse, mental illness and incarceration, she said. They also come from all parts of the country, including cities, suburbs, rural areas and Indian Country. Many use illegal narcotics to cope.

Girls are reaching puberty earlier, Cooper said, and their brains are not fully developed until they are in their 20s. The average age for boys who see their first adult pornography is 11, and “the neurons in their brain is convincing them that they are experiencing what they are seeing,” she said.

“When a child sees (him or her) self only as a sexual object, it is easy for them to be manipulated,” she said. Pimps recruit from homeless shelters, hubs of transportation, jails, street corners, villages and through sexually oriented businesses, including, sometimes, the hip hop music industry and reality TV.

The “finesse pimp” lures children under the guise of romance or by promising a better life, she said. The “gorilla pimp” abducts victims or purchases them from another pimp and controls them through intimidation or violence.

The “life” often results in a number of illnesses and early death, Cooper said.

Officials from the FBI, state police, Department of Homeland Security and Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane stressed that a unified response is necessary to stop sexual trafficking of minors. In December, local, state and federal agencies teamed up to investigate sexual trafficking on the Mashantucket Pequot reservation and charged a Providence woman with transporting a 16-year-old girl to the Two Trees Inn in Ledyard to have a paid sexual encounter.

http://www.theday.com/article/20140129/NWS12/140129627/1047/nws

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Pennsylvania

Man To Stand Trial In Fayette Co. Fatal Child Abuse Case

by Ross Guidotti

UNIONTOWN (KDKA) – A man will stand trial in connection with a case of child abuse that left his 20-month-old daughter dead in November.

Domer Burkholder, Jr., 30, of Uniontown, is charged with criminal homicide and child endangerment in the death of his 20-month-old daughter, Kaylee Jo Burkholder.

According to Pennsylvania State Police, Burkholder is accused of striking the child in the abdomen. The incident happened at the Holiday Mobile Home Park in North Union Township.

The little girl was taken to Uniontown Hospital, and then transferred to Children's Hospital where she died from her injuries.

On Wednesday, District Justice Wendy Dennis' parking lot became a rowdy scene of nasty accusations by friends and supporters of the suspect and those supporting his wife and the child's mother, Jessica Burkholder.

Both Burkholders faced preliminary hearings. Domer Burkholder waived to court charges in connection with the death of his 20-month-old baby girl in November of last year.

“It should have never happened. It just should have never happened,” said Jessica Burkholder.

She was initially charged with endangering the welfare of a child by not taking the little girl to the hospital.

On the stand Wednesday, Jessica said she watched husband allegedly punch the child in the stomach, the injuries eventually fatal.

Her testimony came in exchange for a plea deal of child endangerment.

“Walk in my shoes,” said Jessica. “Yeah, there's going to be people that hate me. Till they really know, they have no idea.

Katie Ritenour spoke after the hearing, which included testimony that the family's four children were living in a poorly kept house with strangers also staying there, sometimes 11 people at a time.

“She lied the entire time; everything she said was a lie,” said Ritenour. “She did not take that baby to the hospital to get the baby help, and she should face the same charges as him.”

The couple's three remaining children are now in foster care.

“I'm fighting to get my kids back. I'm doing everything – taking classes, counseling,” said Jessica.

But that reunion may be a long way off as part of the plea has Jessica serving six to 23 months in prison followed by two years' probation.

While Jessica remains free till her formal sentencing, her husband remains in the Fayette County Prison without bond. His trial date has not been set.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/01/29/man-to-stand-trial-in-fayette-co-fatal-child-abuse-case/

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California

Workshops on reporting child abuse offered in Red Bluff

by Staff Reports

RED BLUFF — Reservations are being taken for the third annual Child Abuse Reporting Workshop on Feb. 4, presented by Tehama County Child Abuse Prevention Council.

Two identical sessions will be conducted: 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. at Red Bluff Community/Senior Center, 1500 S. Jackson St.

Sessions will be led by professionals in the legal and social services fields, with time for questions after presentations.

Workshops are open to anyone in the hopes that training will help people recognize physical, emotional, sexual or neglectful child abuse and encourage reporting to authorities. Participants will learn about the legal aspects of child abuse, procedures practiced in Tehama County and services available for children and families affected by these behaviors.

Advance registration is required for the free workshops. To register, contact Mike Lindsey at 529-1500, ext. 114, or visit http://goo.gl/4XGcqc .

http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_25024872/workshops-reporting-child-abuse-offered-red-bluff

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Michigan

Tax returns to aid child abuse prevention efforts

by Daily Press & Argus

Livingston County residents have the opportunity this tax season to directly increase funding to local child abuse prevention efforts.

In filling out Form 4642, LACASA encourages residents to place a check mark on Line No. 6: Children's Trust Fund - Preventing Child Abuse in Michigan. Donation amounts of $5, $10 or more can be made, and will be deductible on 2014 federal tax returns.

The agency's Child Abuse Prevention Council is a designated local council of the Michigan Children's Trust Fund, which provides grant funding for child abuse prevention programs provided by the CAP Council in Livingston County.

The Children's Trust Fund will boost CAP's grant funding this year and next according to the number of residents from Livingston County who make a donation.

http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20140128/NEWS01/140128011/Tax-returns-aid-child-abuse-prevention-efforts

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Reporting of school sexual abuse plagued by confusion, spotty data, GAO says

by Gil Aegerter and Joel Seidman

Sexual abuse of children by teachers or other public school employees is likely underestimated because of a patchwork reporting system and involvement of numerous local, state and federal agencies in investigating such claims, according to a new government report obtained exclusively by NBC News.

The report by the Government Accountability Office raises numerous questions about how closely public schools are following federal requirements for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse allegations or suspicions involving the public school employees who oversee the 50 million children enrolled in the nation's public K-12 schools. The report also raises doubts about the accuracy of the data on the scope of the problem.

"While Education, HHS and Justice all have data systems that capture information from state and local entities about child abuse, none capture(s) the extent of sexual abuse and misconduct perpetrated by public K-12 school personnel," the report said.

One key issue is who receives reports from educators. Under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, each state is required to have a law for mandatory reporting requirements, along with procedures for screening and investigating reports. Most states require that allegations be reported to a state or local child protection service, the GAO report said, while about two-thirds designated law enforcement (there was overlap in the two categories).

"I was quite stunned by the fact that there's still several states that don't have that requirement to report to law enforcement," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who requested the report. "They report to each other but that doesn't necessarily solve the problem. It may in fact lead to problems."

Even when state law requires reports to be made to outside agencies, sometimes the information never goes beyond a school district, the report said – whether because of uncertainty about whether a report is necessary, delays in reporting or outright failure to report allegations or suspicions of abuse. Miller said such confusion was unacceptable.

"Many school districts believe they just have a need to report to their school principal, to the superintendent of the school," Miller told NBC News. "They don't recognize that under state law, where they have the laws, they have an obligation to report this to law enforcement officials."

The GAO report cites a case in which an elementary school teacher who had been suspected of inappropriate behavior in one district was allowed to resign, then went to work at a school in another district. After he again was accused of inappropriate behavior, school officials in the new district investigated but then reported to the parents that the investigation had been closed. Only when a teacher reported rumors to her police officer husband did a criminal investigation begin: The teacher eventually pleaded guilty to eight counts of aggravated sexual abuse in the second district and two counts in the first district. Neither district reported the allegations to state authorities.

The GAO report does not name the school where the abuse occurred or the teacher, but by comparing details from the GAO report with published accounts NBC News identified it as a case involving the Urbana, Ill., school district and Jon White, who was sentenced in 2008 to 60 years in prison.

The Urbana school district superintendent and the elementary school principal were convicted of misdemeanors for not reporting the allegations, and the district's human resources officer pleaded guilty to the same charge. All received sentences of court supervision and community service, and all retired after the police investigation began. The former principal and former HR director declined to comment to NBC News. The former superintendent did not respond to a request for comment.

Urbana attorney Tom Bruno, who represented three of the families who sued the school district after their daughters were abused, said the law on reporting requirements is clear enough – as long as it's followed.

"Why struggle so hard to say 'I was confused about my duty to report'? Just report it," he told NBC News. "There's no punishment for reporting a suspicion that turns out to be nothing."

Bruno said the families are still grappling with the psychological effect on their daughters.

"I'm not sure they know the damage yet," he said. "It might be analogous to being exposed to a toxic chemical. You sit back and hope that 20 years from now nothing bad is going to happen. But you just don't know."

The GAO report found that the confusion involved not only state laws but also the reporting requirements under Title IX, part of the federal education law that prohibits sex discrimination -- including sexual harassment -- in federally funded education programs. Investigators visited school districts in several states and found that some were interpreting Title IX to include mandatory reporting of adult-to-adult or student-to-student incidents, but not adult-to-student incidents.

GAO investigators said they also found that most states do not require training of educators on sexual abuse, even though experts say it's critical to preventing abuse. The report said such training might keep school officials from discounting their own suspicions or observations. Such was the case in Urbana, said Denny Mickunas, a plaintiffs personal injury attorney who assisted Bruno in the lawsuits.

"They essentially blew off those complaints," he said. "As with many pedophiles, Jon White was very adept at manipulating not only children but the adults around them."

There was a discrepancy in the report about how many states make reporting mandatory for educators. "According to GAO's survey, 46 states have laws that require school personnel to report child abuse and designate the agency that investigates reports (local law enforcement and/or child protection services (CPS), and 43 establish penalties for not reporting," the report said. But the five states identified by GAO staff as having responded "no" or not having responded to the survey questions do indeed have such laws. It was unclear if the responses were a result of the wording of the questions, a misunderstanding of the questions or some other issue.

The GAO report said its survey found that background checks were the primary tool used by states to prevent sexual abuse, but the report added that there was wide variation in what those checks encompassed. Five states reported having no background checks for school employees, the report said. Six reported consulting only state law enforcement data, and three said they consulted only federal data.

Forty-two states reported having professional standards or codes of conduct, and 22 of those reported that those codes helped to define boundaries between students and teachers or staff, including the use of cell phones and social media. Fifteen states said they specifically address "grooming" – "behavior intended to establish trust with a student to facilitate future sexual activity."

The report says the federal government, led by the education secretary, should:

• Develop comprehensive materials for states, districts and schools that outline steps to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse by school personnel.

• Identify mechanisms to better track and analyze the prevalence of child sexual abuse by school personnel through existing federal data collection systems.

• Clarify responsibilities of personnel in public K-12 schools under Title IX.

In a letter responding to the GAO, the Education Department said it:

• Was "taking action to revise its Adult Sexual Misconduct training module … to target a wider audience, including school volunteers."

• Would "explore methods to track and analyze the prevalence of child sexual abuse by school personnel."

• Would make clear that Title IX applies to sexual harassment at K-12 schools and prohibits sexual harassment of students by school employees.

The department also said "it is vital that all states have a policy requiring background checks of all adults working with students."

Neither the Justice Department nor Health and Human Services provided formal responses to the GAO.

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/29/22497476-reporting-of-school-sexual-abuse-plagued-by-confusion-spotty-data-gao-says?lite

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Nebraska

Child Advocacy Center Reacts to Sexual Assault By Teacher

by Andrea Flores

The Child Advocacy center says it's the comments condoning, and even praising the male student who says he was sexually assaulted by Carrie Miller, that perpetuate the problem of male victims not reporting abuse. It's a problem they're trying to put an end to.

One in every six men experience sexual abuse before the age of 18, but many of the cases go unreported.

"They don't come forward, they don't talk about it, for the fear of the types of comment and judgments that are going to be passed," said CAC Executive Director, Lynn Ayers.

The Child Advocacy Center says it's negative responses from the community that continue the problem of silence in victims.

"For male victims, there's just a lot of stereotypes that go with it in terms of that they wanted it, somehow they were asking for it, somehow they caused it to happen," said Ayers.

Counselors at CAC say sometimes there's confusion about what constitutes sexual abuse, but the definition is clear.

"If the victim is under the age of 16, and the perpetrator is 19 years of age or older, it's sexual assault," said Ayers. "They are manipulating the child based on the relationship of power and trust, a position of respect and admiration."

And when kids do come forward, the CAC says the work to regain trust has just begun.

"It causes a lot of self-doubt, a lot of shame, a lot of confusion," said Ayers. "It will impact male victims, as well as female victims, down the road in their adults years when it comes to trust and intimacy in relationships."

That's why the CAC says it's important for the community to understand the implications of sexual abuse.

"This is tough stuff, but you can't have anything but respect for the courage it takes for someone to come forward and talk about it," said Ayers.

The CAC says female perpetrators are rare, making up less than 5 percent of abusers, but they do exist. Out of the more than 1,000 clients the CAC helped in 2013, only 35 percent were male victims.

http://www.1011now.com/home/headlines/CAC-Reacts--242672561.html

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Florida

Remains of 55 bodies found near former Florida reform school

by Bill Cotterell

TALLAHASSEE (Reuters) - Excavations at a makeshift graveyard near a now-closed reform school in the Florida Panhandle have yielded remains of 55 bodies, almost twice the number official records say are there, the University of South Florida announced on Tuesday.

"This is precisely why excavation was necessary," said USF professor Erin Kimmerle, head of the research project. "The only way to truly establish the facts about the deaths and burials at the school is to follow scientific processes."

On a hillside in the rolling, tall-pine forests near the Alabama-Georgia border, a team of more than 50 searchers from nine agencies last year dug up the graves to check out local legends and family tales of boys, mostly black, who died or disappeared without explanation from the Dozier School for Boys early in the last century.

The school, infamous for accounts of brutality told by former inmates, was closed by the state in 2011.

The University of South Florida was commissioned to look into deaths at the school in the Panhandle city of Marianna, after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced the presence of 31 official grave sites in 2010.

Excavation began last September with bones, teeth and several artifacts from grave sites sent to the University of North Texas Science Center for DNA testing.

Members of 11 families who lost boys at Dozier have been located by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office for DNA sampling and researchers hope to find 42 more families for possible matching.

State investigators initially located 31 suspected graves in the woods across a busy highway from the shuttered reform school. Kimmerle's more detailed probes raised the number to 50 or 51 last year, and USF announced on Tuesday the searchers had found remains of 55 bodies.

"Locating 55 burials is a significant finding, which opens up a whole new set of questions for our team," said Kimmerle.

"All of the analyses needed to answer these important questions are yet to be done, but it is our intention to answer as many of these questions as possible."

Research will continue in areas adjacent to the graveyard, dubbed "boot hill" by school officials and inmates a century ago.

Greg Ridgeway, acting director of the National Institute of Justice, praised Kimmerle's work. He said the discoveries made by the USF team "will not only bring resolution to these cases but will add to our knowledge about investigations of missing and unidentified persons in jurisdictions throughout the country."

http://news.yahoo.com/remains-55-bodies-found-near-former-florida-reform-232708887.html

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Deleware

Ex-doctor terrorized girl for years

by RANDALL CHASE

GEORGETOWN, Del. (AP) — A former Delaware pediatrician accused of waterboarding his female companion's daughter by holding her face under a faucet terrorized the girl for several years and exercised total control over her, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

In opening statements in the trial of Melvin Morse, deputy attorney general Melanie Withers portrayed Morse as a brutal and domineering ‘‘lord and master'' of his household, abusing the girl for years while her mother acquiesced in silence.

‘‘The defendant controlled every single aspect of that child's life, including whether she had the right to draw breath,'' Withers told jurors.

Defense attorney Joseph Hurley told jurors that the girl and her mother, Pauline, have told many conflicting and false stories to authorities over the years and that the waterboarding charges are unfounded.

Hurley said Pauline Morse herself told investigators that the alleged waterboarding was nothing more than hair-washing, which the girl did not like, and that it was sometimes threatened as a form of punishment.

‘‘There was no water on her face cutting off her breath,'' Hurley said.

Melvin Morse, 60, has pleaded not guilty to child endangerment and assault charges. He has specifically denied police claims that he may have been experimenting on the girl. Morse has authored several books and articles on paranormal science and near-death experiences involving children. He has appeared on shows such as ‘‘Larry King Live'' and the ‘‘The Oprah Winfrey Show'' to discuss his research, which also has been featured on an episode of ‘‘Unsolved Mysteries'' and in an article in ‘‘Rolling Stone'' magazine.

The allegations of waterboarding came after Morse was accused of grabbing the girl by the ankle in July 2012 and, as her younger sister watched, dragging her across a gravel driveway. He was arrested on misdemeanor endangerment and assault charges and released on bail.

When the girl, then 11, was subsequently interviewed, she told investigators that Melvin Morse also had disciplined her by holding her face under a running faucet at least four times since 2009, a punishment she said he had called ‘‘waterboarding.''

Withers said the alleged abuse surfaced after the girl fled her house and showed up on the doorstep of a girl with whom she rode the school bus.

Withers said the girl decided to run away the day after Morse dragged her across the driveway, threw her on her bed and spanked her, then told her she would be punished the next day like she never had been before.

‘‘That threat is what spurred her to action. ... She feared the worst,'' Withers said.

In a videotaped police interview shown to jurors Tuesday afternoon, Morse denied abusing the girl but recounted how he struggled to get the recalcitrant child into the house after the family arrived home from a trip to Montreal.

‘‘She was kicking so much at times I dropped her,'' Morse told an investigating officer. Morse also told the officer that the unprecedented punishment he warned of was telling the girl she would have to clean her room thoroughly, and threatening to throw away her Harry Potter books.

At the same time, Morse acknowledged that family services officials became involved with the family in 2009 when the girl said he had slapped her.

The jury also was shown photographs of the girl taken by a forensic nurse after the July incident. One photograph showed the girl, with dark shadows underneath her eyes, smiling broadly. Others showed several areas of slight bruising and abrasions on her legs, arms and back.

Hurley said the girl has been questioned repeatedly by child protection officials over the years since saying that she had been sexually molested by a female half-sibling and that she gave no indication that she was being abused by Melvin Morse.

Pauline Morse agreed last year to plead guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment charges and to testify against Melvin Morse. Hurley told jurors that Pauline's testimony is motivated by her desire to be reunited with her daughters, who currently remain in foster care but with whom she is allowed to have supervised visits.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2014/01/28/prosecutors-doctor-terrorized-girl-for-years/IswGMTNYgHO1gTgK5nlRXP/story.html

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North Carolina

Rape crisis center marks 40 years of healing

by Zoe Schaver

When he was sexually abused by a family member at age eight, Dean Coglaiti had nowhere to turn.

Education about child abuse prevention didn't exist in his school in the 1960s or in many other schools in the United States, and he had no way of knowing if other services existed for him where he lived in California.

But a few volunteers on the other side of the country — in Chapel Hill — saw the need for a local rape crisis hotline and began fielding survivors' calls in 1974. That effort eventually became the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, which helped Coglaiti, now a Chapel Hill resident, heal more than 40 years later.

Today, 10 paid staff members and dozens of volunteers provide rape crisis services to more than 600 clients per year at the center, which is entering its 40th year.

The center runs a 24-hour crisis hotline, houses support groups and workshops, holds community education sessions and trains adults in child abuse prevention.

Shamecca Bryant, the center's executive director, said the center's goal is to maximize support for sexual assault victims in multiple areas of their lives.

“One way the center has grown is in doing more work with professionals in the community — doctors and therapists and other individuals that may come in contact with survivors of sexual violence,” Bryant said.

“We want to make sure that any organization or entity that a survivor might be faced with, they are getting the same level of care, and that it doesn't re-traumatize them.”

To celebrate the center's 40th anniversary, volunteers will be traveling around the state between January and March to train people in sexual violence prevention.

Coglaiti, like many other survivors, buried his trauma for a long time. A few years ago, he started therapy and joined a support group at the center.

“When you're with a therapist, it's one-on-one. In a group situation, you're exposing yourself to whoever else is in the room of this secret that you've kept for a long time,” he said. “It gave me confidence, it took away the shame of what happened to me. It's transformative.”

Today, Coglaiti works as a “companion” on the center's hotline. To work the hotline, volunteers must undergo almost 70 hours of training.

“Being able to live in a county that has a center like that is pretty amazing because it's not available in a lot of places,” he said.

A sexual assault survivor named Kate, who wishes to be identified by her first name, has been trying to bring her case to trial for two years, but many such cases never make it. Kate said the center is what has kept her going.

“It's good to be able to go there and say, ‘I'm having a weak moment,' and have them be there and encourage me,” she said. “They remind me why I'm doing this.”

Bryant said the center will continue to strive to be a vocal presence in the Orange County community as it moves forward with its next 40 years.

“We want to make sure that we take time to acknowledge the 40 years of survivors, volunteers, staff members (and) board members who have committed time and energy to the agency, as well as thank all the donors who have supported our work for so long,” she said.

“Our services are still needed, and we want to let people know we are still here.”

http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2014/01/rape-crisis-center-marks-40-years-of-healing

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From Philly to Dallas, ex-priest a 'brutal abuser' without remorse

by WILLIAM BENDER

WHEN BILL Johnson moved into a Dallas apartment complex in October 2012, a neighbor named James rolled out the welcome wagon. Sort of.

"Oh, great, another old queen moving in," James said as Johnson and his friends unloaded his belongings at Crescent View Apartments in the Texas city's Oak Lawn section.

Johnson, 54, an unemployed financial adviser, figured that James was just being nice, one gay man to another in the "gayborhood."

"I think he was trying to be friendly and joking," Johnson said. "He doesn't have a muffler on his mouth, as my mama used to say."

Johnson had no way to know it at the time, but the neighbor was James Brzyski, a defrocked priest described in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office's 2005 grand-jury report as one of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's "most brutal abusers."

The 6-foot-5 Brzyski allegedly preyed on at least 17 altar boys in the 1970s and '80s, subjecting them to "unrelenting abuse, including fondling, oral sex and rape," according to the report.

Brzyski, 62, has managed to leave all that behind. In Dallas, he reinvented himself as a jovial former Xerox employee who'd lost millions after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Johnson initially had no reason to doubt that backstory. You don't automatically suspect that your new neighbor is a child rapist.

"He said before he retired that he worked for Xerox for 30 years," Johnson said.

Brzyski is able to move from one community to another in relative anonymity - at least until his behavior gives him away - because the Archdiocese won't disclose his whereabouts, or the whereabouts of 23 other Philadelphia priests who have been defrocked for abusing minors.

So Johnson and Brzyski became friends last spring. They were part of a small group at Crescent View that would relax at the pool, or get together for dinner or wine. None of them knew at first that they'd let a "monster" into their circle, Johnson said.

"He puts on a great front, and he's a great guy to hang around with," Johnson said. "Until you find out about him."

In the pool, on the Web

Over the summer, Brzyski's neighbors realized that something was wrong.

They saw him playing with young boys in the pool. He bragged about going online to find males who appeared to be underage and said he liked "fat boys," Johnson said. A Facebook page that Brzyski has used - with a different name and corresponding email address - includes a photo of a shirtless overweight boy with an obscene caption.

Brzyski, neighbors say, was acting like a pedophile - the same man who the Archdiocese acknowledges abused boys at St. John the Evangelist School in Bucks County and St. Cecilia School in Philadelphia's Fox Chase section decades ago.

But in Dallas, he was just a retired Xerox worker.

"There are people in the complex that always have their nieces and nephews over, and he would get in the pool and pick the boys up and throw them and play with them," Johnson said. "But he wouldn't pay any attention to the girls."

Maggie Caster, a friend of Johnson's who lives at Crescent View, also found Brzyski's behavior suspicious. She said he had given one child candy and money.

"He was the only one that was really interacting with them in the pool, which we found unusual," Caster recalled. "There was a group of us adults, and just the kids playing among themselves, and he was over with the kids."

Johnson said that Brzyski had been reaching out to boys he met online and that some of the pictures he'd received were of males who appeared to be underage. Caster also saw some of the photos and said the males seemed to be minors.

After Brzyski sent a box of candy to one of them, Johnson said, the kid "texted him telling him not to send things to his house because his parents open his mail."

"I said, 'James, that tells you right there he's not 18,' " Johnson said.

Even at dinner, Caster said, Brzyski would steer conversations toward young males and it quickly would become an "inappropriate situation."

"We would be talking about something random and he would take his computer or phone out and show us pictures of these boys," Caster said. "He just seemed like he was a pedophile. His characteristics were very much that way."

Attempts by the Daily News to reach Brzyski were unsuccessful. He did not respond to an email or a voice mail left on his last known phone number.

'We were horrified'

Alarmed by his behavior, Brzyski's neighbors went online a few months ago and found news stories about his past, including a 2008 Daily News article about Brzyski and other pedophile ex-priests cut loose by the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

Prior to that, no one at Crescent View had known the real James Brzyski. Not even the apartment manager.

"We were horrified by the stories we read about him. When I asked him about it, his reply was that he was abused by priests in the seminary so he thought that was OK," Johnson said. "I said, 'James, that's not saying you're sorry. That's making excuses for horrendous behavior.' "

They spread the word to their friends, including those whose nephews Brzyski had targeted in the pool over the summer. Brzyski tried to do "damage control," but ultimately moved out last month, Johnson said.

"I was a victim of child abuse, and I don't play that game or put up with people that have done it, especially with people that have no remorse," Johnson said. "He said, 'Yeah, that went on a long time ago,' and 'I can't believe you looked me up on Google,' and 'Real friends don't do that.'

"But real friends don't go around raping people," Johnson said. "He never said sorry or felt guilty about it. That, to me, is despicable."

Public records show that Brzyski, the son of a Philadelphia police officer, has traveled coast to coast since leaving the Archdiocese, with addresses including Virginia Beach, Va., and West Hollywood, Calif.

He surfaced on a dating website as "JUSTINBLUE," asking potential dates whether they would "mind putting on some weight" and "enjoy the company of more mature men." He's recently used an email address under the name "Joshua," according to Johnson.

"He's considered a sex offender. He should register," said Adriana Ramirez, Crescent View Apartments manager.

But Brzyski, who attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and was ordained in 1977, doesn't have to register as a Megan's Law sex offender because the Archdiocese kept his case under wraps in the 1980s, when allegations that he was sexually abusing children were first reported to church leaders, according to the city's 2005 grand-jury report.

In an Oct. 31, 1984, letter to then-Cardinal John Krol, the Rev. John W. Graf, an assistant chancellor, provided an update on "the Father Brzyski situation." Graf told Krol that he had advised a psychological counselor at Bishop Egan High School not to treat one of Brzyski's alleged abuse victims "because of the sensitivity of the situation" and in order to retain "confidentiality."

Archdiocese officials did not notify police, and Brzyski continued to abuse children, according to the grand-jury report. He left active ministry in 1985, but it wasn't until March 2005 that the Archdiocese formally kicked him out of the priesthood - laicized him, in church terminology - after concluding that he had sexually abused minors. By then, it was too late to file criminal charges, because of the statute of limitations.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Brzyski is among a diaspora of unregistered sex offenders unleashed by the Roman Catholic Church since 2002. Few safeguards prevent the former priests from abusing again.

"The reason these guys are walking free is because church officials shielded them. Were it not for the actions of the church hierarchy, many of these guys would be in jail," Clohessy said. "I think that increases the moral and civic duty of bishops to say more than, 'Well, he's not in the diocese anymore.' "

Philadelphia Archdiocese spokesman Kenneth Gavin said the Archdiocese maintains current addresses for sex-offender priests who receive a pension and tries to keep track of those who, like Brzyski, are not receiving a pension.

"Like any other organization, we do not release that type of personal information publicly," Gavin said.

Gavin said the Archdiocese tries to protect communities from defrocked priests who abused minors.

"Although a laicized priest is no longer serving the Archdiocese or under its supervision, steps are taken to notify local law enforcement when a priest who has been laicized due to a substantiated allegation of abuse of a minor changes residency," Gavin said.

That information, however, is not typically distributed to neighbors. For Brzyski, the last place of residence that the Archdiocese has on file is in Virginia in 2007, Gavin said. Public records show that he later had addresses in Wisconsin and California before moving to Dallas. On the Archdiocese website, Brzyski's residence is listed only as "private."

"The Archdiocese has worked vigorously over the past three years to reform the way it protects the people it serves, including new policies and procedures, new standards of ministerial behavior, new Archdiocesan review board members and mandated reporter training for tens of thousands of clergy, staff and volunteers," Gavin said. "All of the steps taken will continue to be announced publicly. Additionally, they exceed what is currently required by law in many instances."

Gavin said Brzyski is too young to receive a pension from the Archdiocese, but would be paid if he becomes eligible.

"As with any other former employee, should he be eligible and apply for a pension in the future, we would proceed as required by the law," Gavin said.

'He's out of control'

Brzyski's choice of Dallas is ironic, because the man who blew the whistle on him in the 1980s lives only a half-hour away. The Rev. James Gigliotti, pastor of St. Maria Goretti in Arlington, Texas, said he was unaware that Brzyski was living nearby and was disturbed to hear neighbors' reports about his behavior around kids.

In 2002, Brzyski was charged in Virginia with attempted sexual battery involving a 17-year-old boy, but the charges later were withdrawn, the Inquirer reported in 2005. He previously had run a children's-birthday-party business from his East Falls home, the paper reported.

"These people have chutzpah, I'll tell you. They have no sense of decency. There are no boundaries," Gigliotti said of ex-priests like Brzyski. "That man has hurt so many kids. He's out of control."

Gigliotti, 66, said he told Graf, the assistant chancellor, about Brzyski's abuse in the early 1980s.

"I was told to keep my mouth shut and that it's being taken care of," Gigliotti said.

Gigliotti said he understands that civil and canon law may limit what information Philadelphia Archdiocese officials believe they can release about Brzyski and other defrocked priests, but he said that doesn't absolve them of responsibility.

"They shoot themselves in the foot. There is an opportunity to be transparent here," he said. "It's a moral imperative. You have to protect the public, too, just like you have to protect the flock."

Brzyski's former neighbors in Dallas want to warn his new neighbors and their children, but they don't know who they are.

"We don't know where he is now," said Caster, his former neighbor at Crescent View.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140129_From_Philly_to_Dallas__ex-priest_a__brutal_abuser__without_remorse.html

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Oregon

Local doctors say child sex abuse is happening at 'alarming rates'

by Kaitlyn Bolduc

PORTLAND, OR -- Every day, there's a new case, children emerging from all corners of Multnomah County that are young victims of sex abuse in need of help, according to doctors.

"Over the course of the week, we will see what is about the average size of an elementary classroom of kids. That's a lot of children," said Kevin Dowling, CARES Northwest executive director.

One in every four girls and one in every seven boys are victims of child sex abuse, according to doctors, statistics, they say, that are clearly troubling.

"We know the abuse is happening. We know it's happening at alarming rates," said Kim Jacobowitz, CARES Northwest family support team member.

Doctors say there aren't necessarily more instances of sex abuse happening now. Rather, more kids are beginning to feel comfortable reporting the abuse then ever before.