Hudsonville judge jails attorney for telling client not to tell about past drug use

Unbelievable, jailed for doing what the Constitution requires of an attorney..

12-7-2011 Michigan:

HUDSONVILLE -- For Stanton attorney Scott Millard, a scheduled court hearing Friday was to be a simple arraignment for a 20-year-old client on a minor-in-possession charge.

It took only minutes before Millard was on his way to jail on a contempt charge, an order that left lawyers with Millard's law firm crying foul.

Hudsonville District Court Judge Ken Post sent the 29-year-old Millard to jail about 11 a.m. Friday after he reportedly advised his client not to answer questions about past drug use.

Millard was out of the clink in about four hours after an Ottawa County Circuit Court judge granted an emergency stay on the contempt sentence.

But attorneys with Miel & Carr PLC say Post stepped outside his legal bounds and want changes in his courtroom.

"The judge threw (Millard) in jail for asserting his client's Fifth Amendment rights," said Josh Blanchard, a co-employee of Millard at Miel & Carr. "It seems inappropriate to me to jail an attorney for being an attorney."

Blanchard is appealing Post's contempt ruling and also asking for the Ottawa County Circuit Court to take superintending control of the district court on minor-in-possession matters.

"We think the procedures that are employed by the district court in these cases are improper and don't comply with the law," he said.

Judge Ken Post referred questions to Chief District Court Judge Brad Knoll.

Knoll said he could not comment specifically on the contempt case against Milllard, but said judges are allowed to ask questions about a person's background in setting bond.

"One of the factors is whether a person is currently using drugs or if they have a history of drug use," Knoll said. "There's a certain level of autonomy available to judges."

He said he could not say whether Post stepped over any boundaries without reviewing a transcript of the hearing.

Before he was sent to jail Friday -- a term that was supposed to last until 6 a.m. Monday -- Millard was "calm and respectful," Blanchard said.

"The questions to the client were generally about when and where was the last illegal controlled substance you used," Blanchard said. "The answers to those questions could tend to incriminate someone."

Blanchard said the event left Millard disappointed and frustrated.

"It was not a pleasant experience," he said. ..Source.. by

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

KETV Omaha Nebraska Requires a Facebook Account in Order to Comment: BIG DEAL or not?

12-7-2011 Nebraska:

Recently registered viewers of KETV.com (Omaha Nebraska) received a message from KETV which is very disturbing and may be a trend, the message was:

"We wanted to take a moment to tell you about an important site improvement that will affect the way in which users comment on news stories on our website. Following a site improvement on October 20 commenting on news stories will require signing in through a Facebook account. This improvement will allow even more of the community to engage in news story commenting and provide a better overall site experience for all of our users. Because of the transition, existing commenting accounts will no longer be able to login.

This change does not affect your ability to upload photos and videos to u local with your existing u local account. We encourage you to continue to do so. You will also continue to be able to engage other u local members and comment on media within the u local section using your existing account.

Thank you "

Now, most folks would say, so what, and not comment if they do not have a Facebook account. Remember, Facebook prevents any registered sex offender from having a account, so they will automatically be prevented from expressing their opinions on any news story, especially important are those about sex offender issues which affects registrants.

This issue should not be dismissed lightly, because look who apparently owns KETV.com (at the very bottom of their site) (click on "KETV Jobs" THEN "Hearst Television Inc Careers Home" and see what comes up), this is shocking, dozens of other stations across the country.

The question now is, is this change in "Commenting Policy" just for KETV.com or does it apply to all stations apparently owned by Hearst Television? If there is any doubt that Hearst owns KETV.com just review their "Privacy Policy" and there is nothing in the the "Terms of Use" for KETV.com with respect to a requirement of a Facebook account in order to comment.

Folks may want to contact KETV.com (they say they want to hear from folks) and complain about this apparent selection of who in the public may comment on news stories.

Finally, is this a local Omaha Nebraska Policy or nationwide? Likely only individual registered users of all their stations nationwide will know because they are not making it known publicly.

I would like to hear from folks if this is happening in other areas, please include the paper in question.

Thanks,
eAdvocate

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

The Mozilla Story - They Need Help to Continue Development

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Child Abuse: Why People So Often Look the Other Way

12-5-2011 Global:

Of all the missed chances outlined in the grand jury report regarding the allegations of child sexual abuse by former Pennsylvania State University assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, two moments stand out: One, a 2000 incident when a janitor allegedly witnessed Sandusky performing oral sex on a middle school-age boy, and the other, a 2002 incident in which a graduate assistant, now a coach at the school, allegedly saw Sandusky anally raping a boy of about age 10 in the university locker room.

Both men reported what they'd seen to their supervisors, and according to grand jury testimony, both were distraught — the janitor so much so that his co-workers thought he might have a heart attack. But neither man stepped in to stop the abuse in the moment, decisions that have raised criticism in the wake of the scandal.

"I think everyone believes that they would go in and break that up," Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday (Nov. 13).

But while child abuse experts say that catching perpetrators in the act is rare, child abuse goes unreported and uninterrupted more often than not. And given the unexpected nature of seeing a man sexually abusing a child, even well-meaning eyewitnesses might freeze up.

Swept under the rug

According to the child sexual abuse prevention organization Stop It Now!, as many as one in three girls and one in seven boys experience sexual abuse. By far, most of those cases go unreported. Statistics vary, but studies suggest that only about 12 percent to 30 percent of child sexual abuse cases are reported to the authorities.

Hierarchical organizations such as the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts have come under fire for covering up or failing to appropriately deal with the sexual abuse of children. But it's not just organizations that turn a blind eye, said Jeanetta Issa, the president and chief executive officer of the Child Abuse Prevention Association (CAPA). Families frequently deny child abuse in their midst too, Issa told LiveScience. In one case Issa was familiar with, an adult woman who had been sexually abused by her brother throughout her youth began to see signs that her niece might have become his next victim. The woman finally spoke out.

"In her whole family, nobody believed her," Issa said. "They tried to have her committed to a mental hospital."

Despite stereotypes of creepy-looking men in white vans, child abusers are actually usually the most likeable, gregarious people around, Issa said. They get close to kids not only by charming them, but by charming the people protecting them.

"They don't only groom the kid, they groom the parents," Issa said.

In the case of a powerful, famous man like Sandusky, it can be even harder to speak up, said Elizabeth Saewyc, a nursing professor at the University of British Columbia who specializes in treatment of abused children.

"When someone is a very prominent and powerful figure, it is very difficult for people to feel like they should say bad things about them," Saewyc told LiveScience. People may also start to doubt themselves, she said, worrying that they'll ruin the suspected abuser's life if they're wrong.

And in the case of Penn State, Saewyc said, people who heard about the alleged abuse may have been blinded by their loyalty to their organization.

"When it's a prominent person in a respected institution, there is going to be damage, not just to that person but to the institution," Saewyc said. "People may pay attention to those consequences."

Eyewitness inaction

All of these psychological barriers keep people from speaking out, but what's unusual about the Penn State case is that in two separate occasions, witnesses said they saw obvious abuse occurring. In 2000, the janitor cleaning the locker room who saw Sandusky performing oral sex on a young boy, according to grand jury testimony, told his co-worker that he had "fought in the [Korean] war … seen people with their guts blowed out, arms dismembered. … I just witnessed something in there I'll never forget." The janitor, who now has dementia and resides in an assisted living facility, told his supervisor what he saw, but no report was ever filed. Co-workers said they feared losing their jobs if they made accusations.

In 2002, now-assistant coach Mike McQueary, then a graduate student, saw Sandusky assaulting a boy in the showers, according to the grand jury report, which also stated that McQueary saw that both Sandusky and the boy had seen him and immediately left the room. McQueary called his father and reported what he'd seen to head coach Joe Paterno the next day, the testimony stated.

That Sandusky allegedly got caught in the act even once is rare, Issa said.

"We see 12,000 clients a year," she said. "In all of that, very seldom does anybody actually walk in and actually witness the abuse." [Challenges for Male Victims of Sexual Abuse]

The very rarity of the situation may have made it difficult to react, said Peter Ditto, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine, who studies moral decision-making. People often have very strong ideas about what they'd do in a situation — stop the rape, save the child — but crises can cause the mind to freeze, Ditto told LiveScience.

Research on the "bystander effect," the surprising fact that many people will stand by while terrible things happen, suggests that when something horrible occurs, people often go into a kind of denial, thinking that if it were really this bad, somebody else would be stopping it, Ditto said. (Involving other people makes the bystander effect worse, in fact, by diffusing the sense of responsibility to do something.)

"It's that crisis, split-second sort of quality," Ditto said. "Here this thing happens that's almost impossible to believe, and you're paralyzed for a while as to what to do. … In these kinds of crisis situations, delay is tantamount to not helping. Your opportunity is right there, to help, to stop it, and then you delay, you walk out and it's all kind of over."

A 1985 study found that the bystander effect influences people with more masculine personalities the most. In the research, 20 students took part in a group discussion via headphones in which one participant pretended to start choking. Actual gender didn't influence which people called for help, but those whose personalities were higher in stereotypically masculine traits such as "athleticism" and "aggressiveness" were more likely to sit idly by. Reporting in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the researchers speculated that perhaps highly masculine people feared potential embarrassment and "loss of poise" and thus hesitated longer before reacting.

While fire drills and emergency simulations can prepare people for disasters and prevent the "freeze" response to a crisis, it's tougher to run through potential scenarios in which you walk in on a respected figure abusing a child, Ditto said.

"People misunderstand how ambiguous situations are, just the uncertainty, you don't know quite what's happening," he said. "It's hard to know how to get out of that delay."

Sandusky's reputation probably contributed to the continued silence, Saewyc said.

"It would take a remarkably self-confident person to say something, step in and do something, in the face of one of the most powerful people on campus and someone who is famous," she said.

Stepping in

But both Saewyc and Issa said that no matter the hurdles to reporting, doing so is crucial. What should have happened in the alleged child-sexual-abuse cases, Issa said, is that the eyewitnesses or their superiors should have immediately contacted the state child abuse hotline.

"If they can't get their hands on that number, by golly, law enforcement would be fine," Issa said. And that goes for janitors and passersby, not just educators and other legally mandated reporters.

"Just because you're not required by law to report does not mean that you're not morally and ethically bound to do something to save a child," Issa said.

Nor should people hesitate to report if they haven't witnessed the abuse personally, Issa said. It's not the job of the person reporting the abuse to authorities to have an airtight case; the investigation is up to child welfare and law enforcement.

"It's literally if you suspect abuse. It's not that you have to personally witness it," Saewyc said. "It is better to err on the side of protecting the young person than it is to walk away from it." ..Source.. by Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Is Child Sexual Abuse on the Rise?

12-5-2011 Global:

According to the nation's top experts, children are actually safer from physical and sexual abuse than they have been for decades

With the stream of accusations of child sexual abuse not losing any gusto lately, from the ever-growing charges against former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky to allegations of such behaviors by assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, it'd be easy to assume a real upsurge in such abuse.

But that may not be the case.

First, Sandusky was accused of sexually molesting at least eight boys over the past 15 years; he has pleaded not guilty to the more than 40 charges against him.

Then last week Fine of Syracuse University was fired amid accusations of sexual abuse. So far three men, including two former Syracuse ball-boys, have come forward stating that Fine molested them as minors.

Neither Sandusky nor Fine has been found guilty of any crime, but these are only the latest in what seems to be a year filled with news reports about sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Earlier this year an ABC News investigation revealed that USA Swimming (the governing body for the sport up to and including the U.S. Olympic team) has banned for life nearly 40 swimming coaches over the last decade because of sexual misconduct. [Child Abuse: Why People Look the Other Way]

So what's going on?

According to the nation's top experts, children are actually safer from physical and sexual abuse than they have been for decades. A National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect issued by the Department of Health and Human Services found that both physical and sexual abuse of children have dropped significantly over the past 20 years: From 2005 to 2006, an estimated 553,000 children suffered physical, sexual or emotional abuse, down 26 percent from the estimated 743,200 abuse victims in 1993. And between 1993 and 2005, the number of sexually abused children dropped 38 percent, while number of children who experienced physical abuse fell by 15 percent and those who were emotionally abused declined by 27 percent.

In fact, incidence of sexual abuse of children began to drop two decades ago, according to Dr. David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

In his book "Childhood Victimization: Violence, Crime and Abuse in the Lives of Young People" (Oxford 2008), Dr. Finkelhor notes, "The child victimization declines of the 1990s were something new, and not simply the extension of trend lines from the past. For example, available data on child abuse show strong increases in all forms of maltreatment from the mid-1970s into the 1990s. After a short plateau, the sexual abuse decline seemed to start in 1992, and the physical abuse decline gained momentum after 1996. Many analysts did not interpret the earlier rise as necessarily indicative of a real increase in child maltreatment but rather as the result of a new public and professional mobilization to identify and report cases. But some data suggested real increases in the 1980s."

Overall, Dr. Finkelhor told LiveScience.com, "There is very little evidence that child sexual abuse is on the rise in the U.S., and considerable evidence that it is declining, including data from law enforcement, child protection and surveys of victims themselves." He added that though the prevalence of child sexual abuse worldwide is hard to assess, "there are some indicators of decline in other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom."

Many of the recent accusations of sexual abuse date back many years; just because the public is hearing more about it now doesn't mean that it's on the increase. Thus while the barrage of news reports about sexual abuse of children may make parents fearful, the reality is that kids today are safer than ever.

Causes of the drop in child sexual abuse are complex and not completely understood. Some experts point out that the overall crime rate dropped significantly during the same time, and that child abuse rates fell along with murder and assault rates. Other analyses credit the economic prosperity of the 1980s and 1990s as improving overall social conditions, while still others note that tougher penalties for sex crimes led to higher numbers of offenders being jailed. It's also likely that greater social awareness of child abuse through television news (and even Hollywood films such as "Mystic River") resulted in parents taking more precautions for their children's safety. Like most social problems, there's no simple answer. ..Source.. by Benjamin Radford and LiveScience Bad Science Columnist

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

2 Va. sex offenders continue to protest treatment

12-4-2011 Virginia:

Two sex offenders who previously staged a rooftop protest at their psychiatric facility have barricaded themselves in a supply closet.

William Dewey and Victor Johnson are two of nearly 300 offenders being held indefinitely at the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation in Burkeville for treatment after their prison sentences.

Fellow resident Timothy East says Dewey and Johnson locked themselves in a closet Sunday morning and planned to remain inside indefinitely.

East also said that center officials threatened to prosecute residents who refused to return to their rooms during the incident.

Dewey and Johnson climbed atop an awning outside the facility on Nov. 21 and tied nooses fashioned from bed sheets to a building support. Both have said the facility is run more like a prison than a psychiatric center. ..Source.. by Richmond Times Dispatch

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Woman Charged in Murder for Hire

12-3-2011 Tennessee:

Clarksville, TN – Natalie Danielle Haines was arrested after soliciting to have the father of her twin children, Jack Louis Janes (9/25/81), a registered sex offender, murdered.

On December 1st, 2011, Police received a tip that Natalie Danielle Haines had solicited to have the father of her children, Jack Louis Janes murdered on more than one occasion. The case was turned over to the Special Operations Unit.

They established telephone contact and texted with Haines to arrange a meeting with her on December 2nd at a Fort Campbell business’ parking lot to “work out details of the murder for hire”.

At the meeting, Haines was quite straightforward about wanting Janes murdered, provided a map and physically pointed out Janes’ residence, vehicle descriptions, and emphasized that it needed to be done before the morning of December 3rd. The price to be paid was $60.00 in marijuana and $90.00 cash.

Haines and Janes do not live together and have been embroiled in a custody battle for the three year old male twins. Additionally, Haines was arrested for a domestic assault on Janes in October 2010.

The children are in DCS custody.

Anyone with information, call the lead investigator is Detective Demone Chestnut, 931.648.0656, ext 4013. ..Source.. by Clarksville Online

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Burp in Class, Face Juvenile Detention in New Mexico

12-3-2011 New Mexico:

School children everywhere, here is an unsolicited lesson in proper class etiquette. Never, ever insult your teacher, or spew bad language in the middle of class. You shouldn't tease your classmates, and you shouldn't cheat during your exams.

Oh, and don't burp in class. You might get arrested for that.

That is exactly what happened in the case of one 13-year-old from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The student let out some gas in the middle of a PE class on May 11.

His actions seem relatively normal. They might even be considered harmless. If you've ever quickly downed your lunch or guzzled some soda the feeling of gas welling in your stomach and throat is all too familiar. And one of the only ways of relieving that pressure is to burp. Maybe it's not polite to do so in front of a classroom of your peers, but it's definitely not that abnormal.

What else are you supposed to do - suck it in and hope it goes away by itself?

Unfortunately, it seems that burping is simply unacceptable in the Albuquerque school that the student attended. His belch landed him in a juvenile detention facility after he was disciplined. He was also suspended for the rest of the school year.

He was never actually charged in the incident.

A lawsuit has now been filed against the principal, teacher, and a city police officer. The suit alleges violations of the student's due process rights since he wasn't given the opportunity to defend against the suspension, according to CBS News. Due process rights usually give individuals a chance to defend themselves against deprivation of liberty - such as an arrest.

So far, a spokeswoman for Albuquerque Public Schools contacted by CBS News said she couldn't comment on the suit as she hadn't seen it yet. ..Source.. by Cynthia Hsu

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Nova Scotia man gets 18 months for poking holes in girlfriend's condoms

12-3-2011 Nova Scotia:

HALIFAX - A Nova Scotia man convicted of sexual assault for poking holes in his girlfriend's condoms and having intercourse with her was given an 18-month prison sentence Friday in a case the Crown said was without precedent.

Craig Hutchinson, 41, attempted to hug his father but was pulled back by officers and taken into custody after he was sentenced in provincial Supreme Court in Halifax.

Judge Richard Coughlan said Hutchinson's pre-meditated actions in piercing the condoms and his breach of trust with the woman were aggravating factors in the case.

"Incarceration is the only suitable way to express society's condemnation of Mr. Hutchinson's conduct," Coughlan said.

Hutchinson's mother buried her face in her hands and sobbed loudly as the sentence was delivered.

The Clyde River, N.S., man was convicted in September but found not guilty of aggravated sexual assault.

At the time, Coughlan said the woman only consented to sex on the understanding intact condoms were being used, and that Hutchinson knew she didn't want to have a baby.

The woman became pregnant and had an abortion in the fall of 2006, and later suffered an infection of her uterus, which was treated with antibiotics.

Coughlan found that Hutchinson sabotaged the condoms and aimed to have a baby with the woman, who cannot be identified under a court-ordered publication ban.

The judge said Hutchinson later told the woman about the sabotaged condoms through text messages.

Crown lawyer Kim McOnie argued earlier in the day that Hutchinson's crime warranted a two-year prison term because he exhibited no remorse for what happened.

Outside court, she said the case was unusual.

"Because there was no precedent for it, I think both the road to conviction and getting a custodial sentence was a bit of an uphill battle," McOnie said outside court.

"Certainly, the Crown is pleased with today's decision."

During his sentencing arguments, defence lawyer Patrick MacEwen told the court that Hutchinson exhibited no violence and should receive a two-year suspended sentence followed by probation.

"As far as sexual assault cases are concerned, this is at the low end of the scale," he said.

Coughlan disagreed.

"A suspended sentence would be totally inadequate given the facts present here," he said.

In a previous trial for the same offence, Hutchinson was found not guilty of aggravated sexual assault. But that 2009 decision was overturned by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, which ordered a new trial.

Coughlan also ordered Hutchinson to be placed on the federal sex offender registry for 20 years. ..Source.. by Aly Thomson, The Canadian Press

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Nebraska eyes impact of changes to sex offender registry

12-3-2011 Nebraska:

Lincoln, NE – Two years after Nebraska followed a federal mandate to add more names to the public sex offender registry, some state senators question whether the approach makes the public any safer.

At a recent hearing about the use of the sex offender registry before the State Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, the largest number of people offering testimony to the state senators were the people whose names are listed on the registry.

“I am a convicted sex offender,” began the testimony of Todd Rung of Lincoln. “I was convicted of enticement via computer in 2008. I was one of the first people charged with this crime in the state.”

Rung spent time in jail for attempting to set up a sexual encounter a 15-year-old girl. Until his arrest, he was unaware the person he swapped online messages with was actually a police officer. At the time of his conviction, he knew his photo and current address would be listed on the registry for ten years. By the time he was released from prison in 2010, a new law passed by the Legislature changed the rules. It increased the amount of time Rung would be listed on the State Patrol’s website.

“I was a ten-year, and now I’m a 25-year,” Rung told the senators.

He’s not alone. Dozens of others who previously had been kept on private police lists are now publicly identified as sex offenders. Rung argues the changes made by the state are unfair and unnecessary. Others feel they’re part of an important public safety campaign. Some members of the Legislature who supported the tougher approach two years ago now wonder if it might undermine the usefulness of the online list. Legislation likely to be debated next year would authorize a study of how the changes approved in 2009 impacted the registry’s effectiveness.

It’s a debate over what has become the most prominent and, in the view of some, the most politically popular tool law enforcement created for use by the general public.

Prior to the changes, Nebraska used psychological assessments to categorize convicted sex offenders into three different lists, depending on levels using the assessment of psychologists. The expert analyses determined how likely an individual was they were to again participate in a sex crime. The lists were maintained by the State Patrol.

The list of those considered to be of the lowest risk was for the private use of law enforcement. A second list of people with a higher risk of re-offending could be shared with institutions like schools and organizations that dealt with children. The people considered at the highest risk of offending again, and of the greatest concern to the public, would have their photos and addresses listed on the State Patrol’s website. The system earned praise from both law enforcement and professionals who treated sex offenders and their victims.

“The good folks in the State Patrol did a lot of research on how would be the best way, and how we can improve upon that, and I believe they had a really good idea going,” said RoxAnne Koenig, coordinator of Adult Offender Treatment Services with Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska. She sat on a governor’s task force that reviewed how the state deals with those who commit sex crimes.

“The majority of people were not on the Internet and were not on the public registry,” Koenig said. “They simply did not meet the criteria for being that dangerous.”

The current law abandons any psychological assessments in favor of rankings based solely on the type and seriousness of which crime of which they were convicted.

The change, according to the Nebraska State Patrol’s registry website, implemented a requirement that “all registered sex offenders would be listed on the public, online list. The classification or ‘risk levels’ will no longer be used and all registered sex offenders will be categorized by registration duration.” In the old system, someone would be placed on the registry for either ten years or his or her entire life. The new rules set timeframes at 15 years, 25 years, or life.

Their names now show up almost immediately after conviction, a feature strongly supported by child safety advocates and many in law enforcement. Col. David Sankey, the superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol, explained that the patrol is getting names added to website “in a matter of days.” In an interview with NET News, he explained that “under the old system, it could take months and sometimes more than a year for an individual to get through the hearing process and the appeal process before we get the public notified.”

The changes in Nebraska were part of a national push brought on by a federal law known as the Adam Walsh Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2006 (also known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, or SORNA). Congress wanted to create uniform reporting standards for states feeding information into a national sex offender registry. It also broadened the definitions of what constituted a sex crime and made it a federal offense for sex offenders to fail to update information about their whereabouts and employment to local law enforcement.

Passing the law was a major victory for advocates of tougher penalties and long-term tracking of anyone accused of sex crimes, especially those victimizing children.

“These improvements will help prevent sex offenders from evading detection by moving from one state to the next,” proclaimed then-President George W. Bush at the signing ceremony at the White House. “Data drawn from this comprehensive registry will also be made available to the public so parents have the information they need to protect their children from sex offenders that might be in their neighborhoods.”

To date, however, only seven states (Ohio, Delaware, Florida, South Dakota, Michigan, Nevada, Wyoming, as well as the Umatilla and Yakama Indian tribes) have fully complied with the federal law. In July, Nebraska was informed that its efforts to meet the federal requirements did not go far enough, especially in the public identification of juvenile sex offenders. States failing to comply with the federal guidelines could lose some of the federally controlled money collected from drug arrests. In Nebraska, that’s estimated at more than $160,000, used by the State Patrol.

“We’ve seen a lot of negative consequences come out of making that change,” said State Sen. Amanda McGill of Lincoln.

She is among the lawmakers urging a re-examination of a law she once supported. “In retrospect, we question whether we are really protecting people with the high number of people out there who aren’t truly a risk. And the politics of that, if we will be able to change the law, are extraordinarily difficult.”

In October, the Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary Committee held one in a series of hearings in advance of the likely introduction of LR 254.

Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, introduced the legislation. The resolution authorizes a study of the changes in the Nebraska Registry made in 2009. Senators want a review of which state laws will get someone listed on the registry, how often offenders are required to update their information, whether the new requirements are an excessive burden to both police and those listed on the registry, whether the reporting requirements improve public safety and the cost to both state and local government for following the federally-mandated rules.

At the start of the hearing, committee chair Ashford said in his prepared statement: “It has been suggested by opponents that the state is less safe as we have shifted to a system that lumps all offenders together under a single registry instead of separating those who pose little or no risk of reoffending from those who are likely to reoffend.”

At the hearing, Col. Sankey of the State Patrol, stated changes in the system have worked well and provide the public with more information than ever before.

The Patrol continues to maintain both the public and private lists of registered sex offenders.

“The intent of the sex offender registry is not to be punitive,” Sankey said. “It’s just a community notification program. To meet that intent, we are informing the community of sex offenders that have been convicted and are out in the communities.”

Sen. Ashford pointed out at the hearing that there are those who believe the change in the system is an improvement. “It should be noted that supporters of LB 285 argue that the changes made under this law make the registry more fair to all citizens of the state of Nebraska who violate an offense that requires registration in that the same violation will yield the same length of time on the registry,” Ashford said in his prepared statement.

Testimony at future hearings about the resolution will also provide an indication of public sentiment about taking a hard line on labeling sex offenders remains as strong as when the law was passed. Members of the Judiciary Committee are currently the focus of a lobbying effort launched by people now on the registry and their families. Half a dozen of them, including Todd Rung, testified at the hearing.

“It’s like having a scarlet letter. It’s like the witch hunts of the old days,” he told the committee.

Later, during an interview at his home, Rung said private counselors believe he’s unlikely to reoffend. A father with four kids in the house, the 40-year-old, trained as a union mason, said it’s been difficult for him to get any work. He would like the state to drop its requirement that an offender’s place of employment be listed on the public registry.

“It virtually makes you unemployable. What employer wants that tie to a sex offender?” Rung asked.

Koenig, the therapist with Lutheran Family Services, believes the stigma of being a sex offender in the job market might actually increase the potential for re-offending.

“In some ways it may be a response of hopelessness for someone on the registry,” Koenig said at her office in Bellevue. “You can’t get different sorts of jobs. You can’t get housing. What have we done to mitigate the risk (of reoffending) for that person? Almost nothing.”

“They need to have income, they need to feed themselves,” she continued. “They need to engage in society in a responsible manner.”

As of this summer, the U.S. Department of Justice informed Nebraska that its rules were still not tough enough and, as is called for in the Adam Walsh law, the state could still lose up to $160,000 in federal grant money. The State Patrol and Attorney General’s office believe additional changes made in the administrative rules and procedures may be sufficient to keep the state in compliance with the federal rules.

The Judiciary Committee will decide in the coming weeks whether to advance the legislative resolution calling for a study of the registry in motion. ..Source.. by Bill Kelly, NET News

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

University of Illinois reviewing sex abuse policies

12-3-2011 Illinois:

CHAMPAIGN | The University of Illinois is reviewing the policies and educational programs on its three campuses that relate to the prevention of sexual abuse after allegations surfaced of such behavior by coaches at Penn State and Syracuse.

Illinois, experts say, joins universities across the country in taking a look at how schools handle such allegations.

But some school officials say they'll wait to make changes, anticipating potential new laws and government higher education policies that could tighten requirements on the reporting of suspected sexual abuse. And one Illinois lawmaker already has filed legislation that would make such a change.

University President Michael Hogan said Friday at a meeting of university trustees in Springfield that he created a task force to begin the review and determine whether existing policies and procedures are adequate.

"All of us are saddened and shocked by the tragic news from Penn State, regarding the handling of sexual abuse reports dating back several years," Hogan said in a statement. "Immediately after these events came to light, I had a regularly scheduled cabinet meeting and put this on our agenda."

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has been charged with the sexual abuse of eight young boys, and allegations surfaced of possible sexual abuse by an assistant basketball coach at Syracuse, Bernie Fine. Sandusky acknowledges he showered with boys but says he never molested them. Fine has called the allegations "patently false."

Other universities either are or soon will be examining their own policies because of those situations, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, an organization that represents university presidents and chancellors.

"I suspect within a year every institution of higher education will do a top-down review of their policies and procedures," Hartle said. "It's very similar to what happened following the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, when every institution reviewed their policies regarding emergency notification of the campus community."

The University of Georgia this week announced a similar survey and at least some other Illinois universities say they're conducting their own review.

The University of Illinois task force includes a university lawyer and the directors of human resources and the university's Office of Ethics.

Hogan said the group will:

- Inventory state and federal laws and campus policies related to sexual abuse, and look for area where background checks should be conducted but aren't for job applicants, employees and others on the campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Springfield and Chicago.

- Determine whether the laws and university procedures are consistent with each other and adequate.

- Set up sexual harassment training for all university employees.

- Identify situations that might require extra oversight, such as the many youth sports, band and academic camps held on the university's campuses.

The group will then report back to the president and the trustees who oversee the university.

There's no timeline attached to the work but it shouldn't take long, university spokesman Tom Hardy said.

Illinois universities also conducting reviews include Western Illinois and Southern Illinois, officials at those schools said Friday.

But SIU isn't likely to make any changes right away, spokesman Dave Gross said, because the school anticipates changes in state and federal laws and policies it has to follow on the reporting of crimes such as sexual abuse.

"Officially, our legal counsel is looking at all of our policies and training in regards to this area," Gross said. "(But) any changes in those policies and rules are premature in light of what's likely to come down."

At the state level, one change may already be on the way.

Rep. Dwight Kay filed legislation earlier this month that would add employees of universities and other institutions of higher education to school personnel such as public school teachers and others required by law to report suspected abuse. The change would specify that coaches and their staffs are included.

"The reason that there is a need here for a change is because 'school personnel' has not always been interpreted to apply to colleges and universities," said Kay, a Republican from Glen Carbon. "We need to clean that up." ..Source.. by David Mercer

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Sexual harassment? Boy, 7, accused after groin punch

Construing a child's conduct by adult standards, standards the child does not understand. What is this world coming to...

12-3-2011 Massachusetts:

A 7-year-old boy has been accused of sexual harassment after punching a fellow first-grader in the groin, but the boy's mother says he was acting in self-defense.

Tasha Lynch told The Boston Globe that her son, Mark Curran, was being choked during the Nov. 22 incident on a school bus, and has been afraid to go back to school in South Boston ever since.

“I think my kid was right to fight back [after he was choked],’’ she said. “He wasn’t doing anything except protecting himself.’’

A spokesman for the Boston public schools confirmed the incident had been classified as possible sexual harassment, but declined to comment it. Curran faces suspension or being transferred to another school if his actions are deemed to be sexual harassment, according to a letter from his school.

“Any kind of inappropriate touching would fall under that category,’’ school spokesman Matthew Wilder said to The Globe. “The school administration is conducting a full investigation that has not concluded yet. Certainly, once that investigation is through, we’ll then make a final conclusion as to who will be disciplined and how.’’

Boy took his gloves, choked him, kid says

Lynch said she could tell her son was upset when she picked him up from the bus stop after school on Nov. 22. She said she asked him what was wrong, and he told her another boy had choked him and taken his new gloves.

Furious, Lynch said she went up to the bus driver and demanded to know what had happened.

“He just smiled and shrugged,’’ she said. She called school officials but no one got back to her, so the following week she had her older son took Mark into the principal's office to tell her, reported The Globe.

“I just thought they were going to call the parents, tell us both to come in and make the boys shake hands,’’ Lynch said. Or, at least, make the other boy return her son's gloves. Instead, Tynan Elementary school officials began questioning Mark about his role in the scuffle.

“They didn’t believe me,’’ Curran told The Globe on Thursday. “I didn’t get my gloves back.’’

Tynan Elementary School Principal Leslie Gant didn't believe that Mark was acting out of self-defense, Lynch told The Globe.

“She said, ‘It doesn’t matter who hit who first,’ ’’ Lynch said. “‘He said he hit him in the testicles. That’s assault. That’s sexual assault.’"
advertisement

I said: ‘The kid choked my son first and that’s called attempted murder. He said he couldn’t breathe.’’’

The school sent a letter to stating her son was accused of sexual harassment and endangering physical safety of other students.

A hearing for Curran will be held on Monday.

Lynch has told the school she doesn't want her son riding the bus without an adult there to make sure he's safe. ..Source.. by msnbc.com staff

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Group hits states on sex trafficking

12-1-2011 National:

A whopping 40 states and Washington, D.C., received a failing grade for their efforts to stop child sex trafficking, according to a new report released Thursday.

Those states earned a D or F from the non-profit organization Shared Hope International for not having laws on the books adequately protecting children or punishing those responsible for child sex trafficking. To combat their poor grades, the report urged states to adopt more stringent laws targeting sex trafficking.

“States must enact human trafficking laws that are consistent with each other and federal law in scope and penalty so as to prevent migration of trafficking crimes to more lenient states or onto tribal lands,” the report stated.

According to the report, experts say at least 100,000 American children are abused through prostitution each year, and states must work to eliminate demand, prosecute traffickers, identify the victims and offer protection, services and shelter to them

Many victims come from the child welfare system or are runaway and homeless youth, according to another Shared Hope International report. A common factor among many victims is a history of physical or sexual abuse in the home, while other children targeted often have older boyfriends or parents who use drugs.

Texas, Missouri, Illinois and Washington emerged with the highest grade: B. No states received an A, while 15 earned a D and 26 scored an F.

According to the report, four states — West Virginia, Maine, Wyoming and Virginia — do not have human trafficking laws. And 10 states — Colorado, Hawaii, West Virginia, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Wyoming and Virginia — do not have human trafficking laws that specifically include sex trafficking as a form of the crime on the books.

Samantha Vardaman of Shared Hope International said Thursday that child sex trafficking is “happening here in the United States in large numbers.” To develop the report card grading framework, Vardaman said the organization analyzed each state’s code of laws and then wrote an in-depth report for every state with recommendations.

“There was a range of grades. There were no A’s, and there were many F’s, leaving much room for improvement in the coming year,” she said at a Thursday press conference.

Five states do not have laws making it a crime to purchase or sell sex acts with a minor online, and 19 do not make it a distinct crime to buy sex with a minor, Vardaman said. Four states — Iowa, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Wyoming, along with D.C. — do not make it a crime to go online to buy or sell sex acts with a minor.

Meanwhile, only four states in the nation define abuse and neglect to specifically include sex trafficking — without this, it is difficult for child protective services to intervene, Vardaman said.

The key to reform, Shared Hope International president Linda Smith said, is to unify the legislative framework across the nation for child sex trafficking.

“Each state’s laws show omissions in protective provisions for child victims, and lack strong laws to prosecute the men who rent the bodies of other men’s children,” Smith said in a press release. “Early in our research it was clear that responses to child sex trafficking must originate at the state level.” ..Source.. by MACKENZIE WEINGER

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Brian Dickerson: If the blinds were open, was it a crime to look?

12-1-2011 Michigan:

Can you be a peeping Tom without leaving your own house?

Dr. Howard Weinblatt is about to find out.

Weinblatt is a 65-year-old Ann Arbor pediatrician whose life, until last week, was unblemished by allegations of criminal or ethical wrongdoing of any kind.

But on Tuesday, the Free Press and other news organizations reported that the Washtenaw County prosecuting attorney had accused Weinblatt of watching through a window as a 12-year-old girl undressed.

I happened to be on the phone with my wife when the news of Weinblatt's arrest appeared on my computer screen, and I read her the first couple of paragraphs of the story.

"Creep," she muttered.

And what parent wouldn't second that emotion, armed with the same cursory facts? We have a 10-year-old daughter of our own. And the image that conjured itself in my wife's head, and my own, was of a depraved old man lurking in bushes outside his victim's house, his silhouette invisible against the darkness as she prepared to bathe or go to sleep in her brightly illuminated room.

Except that Weinblatt apparently wasn't in anyone's bushes on the four occasions last month when he is alleged to have "surveilled an unclothed person," a felony punishable by up to two years in prison. He was in his own home looking out his own window and into a window of his neighbor's house.

And if merely looking into somebody's house from somewhere outside the owner's property is a crime, then it's one I (and every other man who ever walked a dog, went for a bike ride, or slipped out for a smoke after dark) have committed, probably more than once.

Where's the beef?

I know what you're thinking: Surely there's more to the Weinblatt case than that. And I and a lot of other dog owners certainly hope you're right.

But neither the Washtenaw prosecutor's office nor the Ann Arbor police are saying much about the case beyond the boilerplate criminal complaint prosecutors issued last week.

On Wednesday, I asked Washtenaw Prosecutor Brian Mackie's spokesman, Steve Hiller, to confirm that Weinblatt was being charged for surveilling that took place from his own home, without the aid of a telescope, binoculars, or a still or video camera.

"We don't want to comment beyond what we say in the complaint," he said.

Well, I continued, where does the complaint say the defendant was standing when he allegedly spied on his neighbor?

"It doesn't," Hiller said. (Mackie didn't respond to my voicemail seeking elucidation of this cryptic response.)

Larry Margolis, an Ann Arbor lawyer retained by Weinblatt, insisted in an e-mail that all the prosecutor's allegations "are limited solely to conduct allegedly occurring within the confines of his personal residence." Nor, he added, has anyone asserted that his client used a scope or camera to spy on his neighbor.

A new frontier?

Neither Margolis nor Mackie's spokesman could cite a previous case in which an alleged peeping Tom was successfully prosecuted for taking in the view from his own house. "We're researching that very question," Margolis said.

Not that any of this matters much: How many people are going to lead their children into the examination room of a pediatrician who has been charged with ogling naked little girls, even if those allegations are ultimately debunked, reduced or abandoned?

Still, it seems preposterous on its face to suggest a man should or could go to prison for watching anything that unfolds in the next door neighbor's window, absent some evidence that he choreographed it himself.

Although, just to be on the safe side, I'm going to talk to the dog about walking herself. ..Source.. by Brian Dickerson

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Willful Ignorance: Penn State, Don't Ask - Don't Tell, and Others

12-1-2011 National:

According to James Carse, Professor Emeritus at NYU, there are three kinds of ignorance: ordinary ignorance, willful ignorance, and higher ignorance. The first is the very essence of learning -- you move from unknowing to knowing -- like learning history, science, facts and trivia. The second type, willful ignorance, is when you know something but choose to pretend you do not. The third type of ignorance is lofty in scope and hard to achieve -- it is a reverence for the unknown -- for mystery -- or what may be unknowable. It is infinite, as Carse notes, 'the intellect ... never comprehends truth so precisely that truth cannot be comprehended infinitely more precisely' (p. 15, The Religious Case against Belief). A higher ignorance allows us to be open and curious in the face of knowing that we do not know.

The most disconcerting form of ignorance is when it is willful. We seem to be living in a culture that condones it more and more. The Penn State sex abuse tragedy is a perfect example of willful ignorance where individual values were ignored in the face of a culture of secrecy. As discussions emerged around 'how can this happen?' I started to see that willful ignorance can be accepted as part and parcel of a cultural mindset.

Our government adopted a stance of willful ignorance with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The military was told to pretend that gay men and women were not present in the military by acting ignorant to its occurrence. It was an official government policy validating willful ignorance.

I've been working with a human rights organization lately on a book about survivors of the sex trade. As we talked about the book, it became clear that we hoped to get people to become aware of the presence of harmful actions of human against human when sex is for sale. The question we kept asking was,

"Should girls and women be sold for sex?"

We heard story after story of westerners (often college students) buying sex from prostitutes while on vacation in Brazil or Cambodia or other travel destination. It's very unlikely these men and boys are fully aware of the abuses and bondage of females in prostitution that is connected to buying sex. I doubt many men would do so if they fully understood the extent of violence toward women and girls that underlies or is connected to their purchase. The average prostitute starts at 12-13 years of age and begins that life because of being sold or forced into servitude because of poverty, lack of education, or dire family conditions. Few people would think that at 12 years of age, a decision to sell oneself for sex would be truly of 'free choice.'

There is both an element of ordinary and willful ignorance when it comes to buying sex. Naivety arises because we aren't that well informed about the insidious nature of the sex trade, the abuses that are connected to pornography, strip clubs, and other mainstream sex for sale media. Yet willful ignorance arises when we are somewhat informed and yet ignore it for the pursuit of individual pleasure. Willful ignorance arises when we pretend it happens 'over there' -- somewhere foreign to our backyard, affecting girls and women who we wish to think are different from our own mothers, sisters, and daughters.

While the driving force behind the sex trade is money, it is willful ignorance that keeps it alive. It is unlikely we can change the financial incentives overnight; but we can change our minds. If we -- as a nation -- reject willful ignorance and pledge to act in awareness, the sex trade and its abuses will likely fall by the wayside.

Sometimes I think it comes down to defining or reminding ourselves of a personal code of conduct -and asking if willful ignorance is okay in light of that ethic. What is your personal ethic? It is a question I rarely asked myself to recite specifically. When I did so, however, I realized my ethic is 'to be kind', defined as acting in ways that are 'helpful, not harmful.' That ethic seems to underlie most of the rules of conduct prescribed by religions or secular laws (do not kill, do not lie, do not steal, etc.) and it certainly simplifies the list. Although we can never be sure that a course of action will have the effect we intend (e.g. a surgeons scapel might lead to death even though the intent was to help). if we offer an action with an intent of helping, not harming, we have done our best.

It can also lead to a change in behavior if we remember to act in ways that help and not harm. My guess is that people purchasing women or girls for sex would not do so if they were guided by the ethic of 'help, not harm.' Removing blinders of willful ignorance and following a personal ethic of kindness would do much to stop the sex trade of girls and woman around the world.

Willful ignorance happens all the time and it is up to each of us to battle it individually and then around us when it arises. A battle is an appropriate metaphor because countering willful ignorance requires action, often contrary to self-serving interests. It requires learning about the effects of ones actions on others and may involve sacrificing personal pleasure for the benefit of others.

When we choose to act in ways that we know are detrimental to others or the planet and pretend to ourselves that it is not so, we acknowledge and accept willful ignorance. There are numerous examples from my daily life that reveal my own willful ignorance -- overuse of electricity when others have none, not recycling all the time, throwing away food, wearing animal products without knowledge of whether they were derived from factory-farms, buying products that may have human slavery in the supply-chain without knowing so, and the list goes on and on. Even under the best of circumstances, willful ignorance will be present. But everyday, I attempt to minimize its occurrence and act in ways that are consistent with my personal ethic -- help, not harm.

The Sandusky affair brought to light the need to recognize our individual roles in shaping the kind of ignorance we wish to live by. Rather than criticize the errors in judgment evident in the Penn State case, we would be wise to acknowledge our own examples of willful ignorance and work to eliminate them as much as possible. In a culture where each person holds a personal ethic to the highest standard, willful ignorance will have a hard time taking hold.

Ignorance is part and parcel of being human, we always know less than we think we know, but it is our job as human beings to reduce ordinary ignorance, eliminate willful ignorance, and aspire to higher ignorance as much as possible. ..Source.. by Susan Smalley, Ph.D.

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Man choses county prison over possible shorter state term

12-1-2011 Pennsylvania:

Judge tells Snare required therapy can only be had in state facility

HOLLIDAYSBURG - Given his choice, a Williamsburg man decided Tuesday he would rather serve time for child sex-abuse in the Blair County Prison as opposed to state prison.

That could mean a longer term behind bars, Blair County Judge Hiram A. Carpenter explained to Corey Allen Snare, 42, of 2347 Lower Clover Creek Road.

Snare was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in the county jail for sexually abusing two girls, ages 13 and 14, in separate incidents last year. He was also placed on five years' probation after his jail term.

Snare will be required to undergo sexual therapy, Carpenter said.

The Blair County Prison does not offer sexual abuse programs, the judge said, and he went on to explained that the Pennsylvania Board of Parole and Probation may not authorize Snare's release on parole from the county jail at his 18-month minimum unless he receives treatment.

That means that Snare could end up serving his maximum time in jail - three years - before being released and having to find resources in the community that can provide the required treatment.

The alternative would be to go to state prison where treatment is offered, the judge proposed.

Snare had a clean criminal record up until the abuse charges arose last year, Carpenter said. Snare is a veteran of the Army who spent a year in Kosovo, and he has a good work record.

With his prior spotless background, Snare had the right to provide input into the location where he would serve his sentence, Carpenter said.

Snare said he was willing to do whatever it takes, which would mean undergoing treatment when he is released from jail.

The state Sexual Offender Assessment Board reviewed Snare's case and found he was not a violent sexual predator. Snare still will have to register his address with state police, a requirement under Megan's Law, Blair County Assistant District Attorney Russell Montgomery said.

Both incidents occurred when the girls visited the Snare home, authorities said.

Snare began to text the 14-year-old girl during the summer of 2010. He also began to touch the girl, police said. He stopped when she said she was going to tell her father. He then asked her to send him a picture of her in her bathing suit when she went to the beach.

Snare was charged with abusing the second girl while she was staying at his house in November 2010, police said. When she told him to stop, he did.

Snare has 30 days to change his mind and accept a state prison sentence. After that, Carpenter said the decision is out of his control. ..Source.. by Phil Ray

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

University of New Hampshire: fans can't ignore child-sex scandals

12-1-2011 New Hampshire:

But it could never happen here, right?

One month, two mind-blowing child-sex abuse scandals within two of the preeminent programs in college sports.

Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky faces charges that he sexually molested eight boys over a period of 15 years, a scandal that has rocked the university, already resulting of the firing of the university president and iconic football coach Joe Paterno, and athletic director Tim Curley getting placed on administrative leave for their roles in a cover-up.

Longtime Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine was fired on Sunday in the wake of accusations that he molested young ball boys. Speculation is whether iconic head basketball coach Jim Boeheim can distance himself from it enough to keep his job.

The two scandals have thrust a spotlight into the corners of big-time college athletics that few fans spend time thinking about, the stuff that goes on with middle-aged men when they're not on the sideline in plain view.

They've also put more focus on awareness.

"The fact of the matter is, we talk about this sort of thing, not just child sex abuse, all the time," said UNH athletics director Marty Scarano, who is a Penn State grad and former member of the athletic department there. "I think (people) know UNH well enough that we take these things very seriously here."

It's easy to muster outrage and disgust at the thought of grown men forcing themselves sexually onto anybody, never mind young boys. But now administrators like Scarano know they'll be held to an even higher degree of what-did-they-know and when-did-they-know-it should something criminal happen in their domains.

Scarano, who's always maintained that it's his job at UNH to "coach the coaches," said he's used the widespread publicity of these scandals as a "coachable moment." He sent out a memo last week to all staffers, reminding them, among other things, of the Clery Act, which demands colleges and universities report any information about crimes, and publish annual crime statistics.

Last year, the University System of New Hampshire's general counsel and secretary, Ron Rodgers, ran a protocol meeting attended by all of the school's head coaches. One of the points hammered home was the issue of transparency, and how important it is at a place like UNH.

"My coaches know how we expect them to conduct themselves and we're not going to suppress any information," said Scarano.

Penn State and Syracuse. If there were two more iconic college sports programs when I was growing up in the 1980s, I didn't follow them.

Nittany Lions football, under Paterno, was the good guy in the white hat (and black shoes), the no-nonsense team with nationwide appeal that was more substance than style, and could still go toe-to-toe with the flashy, corrupt powers like Miami and Oklahoma.

Syracuse, in addition to being the best team in the East — Dom Perno was still at UConn back then, not Jim Calhoun — had the Dome, the most exciting and intriguing setting to watch a college basketball game in the country.

I still remember my first trip to the Dome, during spring break from college in 1993, sitting two rows from the court during the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament and staring up into forever.

"Where's your tan?" quipped my father, upon my return.

Now, the architect of that success at Syracuse, Boeheim, is fighting for his life and legacy. At first dismissive of the allegations against Fine, his longtime friend and colleague, he'd softened his stance a bit in comments made after Tuesday's 84-48 over Eastern Michigan.

"I'm saddened in many ways by what's unfolded," said Boeheim. "When the investigation is done, we'll find out what happened on my watch."

The role of a big-time sports program, especially in non-urban areas like State College, Pa., and to some degree Syracuse, N.Y., a small city in a rural part of the state, is tough to understand fully unless you're part of it.

Described as the "economic engines" of their regions, these programs produce not just a winning sports team to cheer for in the fall or winter, but millions of revenue dollars, thousands of jobs and a sense of program-as-community. It makes the men who run these programs god-like.

One story to come out of the Penn State scandal sums it up perfectly. When the university president asked the 84-year-old Paterno a few years back to retire, JoePa simply said no.

Tough to imagine any coach — or program — building up that kind of omnipotent power in Durham.

"It's easy for us to say (something like this could never happen) because there aren't tens of millions of dollars at stake," said Scarano. "But, while we don't have that kind of money in play, it comes down to a moral compass."

Scarano, a Pittsburgh native, graduated from Penn State in 1978. From 1980-83 he worked in the school's athletic department.

"I just pulled out one of the old football media guides," he said. "My picture is side by side with Tim Curley. It's very poignant for me."

As sports fans, the tendency is often to wish these stories would go away. It's why thousands of Penn State students flocked to a rally supporting Paterno the day after he was fired and why the Syracuse community seems to be going out of its why to steer the focus back to X's and O's, opponents and rankings.

Even in our state, fans would probably rather read about how the UNH football team is preparing for its upcoming Division I playoff game at Montana State than what its administrators are doing to take steps against potentially criminal behavior in their own backyards.

But burying our heads in the sand and pretending it's sports business as usual would be the worst thing we could do.

Provided we're all in agreement that we never want to see tragedies like these happen again. ..Source.. by Mike Zhe

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...