• LA police pore over 12,000 pages of priest abuse records for leads

    By Dan Whitcomb, Reuters

    LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles police are combing through some 12,000 pages of priest abuse records released last week by the city's Catholic archdiocese to determine whether to open any new criminal investigations, authorities said Tuesday.

    Many of the cases detailed in the more 120 personnel files were already known to law enforcement, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said, and others could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had run out.

    Don Bartletti / Pool via Reuters, file

    Cardinal Roger Mahony, shown in 2010, was stripped of all public and administrative duties after being linked to efforts to conceal child sexual abuse by priests. Police are using 12,000 pages of documents released by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to look for leads that could strengthen old cases or prompt new ones.

    But detectives wanted to make sure no leads had been missed in documents made public by the archdiocese as part of a 2007 civil court settlement, officer Bruce Borihanh said.

    "Now that the list is available we want to be proactive and look at that list," Borihanh said. He said that he was not aware of any specific case that investigators were focused on and that it was possible no new leads would be discovered.

    The probe marks the latest development following Thursday's release of the files, which has already led Archbishop Jose Gomez to strip his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties.

    Mahoney's former top aide, Thomas Curry, also stepped down as bishop of Santa Barbara. Both men had been linked to efforts to conceal the abuse.

    In further fallout, the Los Angeles Unified School District severed its ties on Monday with a priest who, the files show, was once accused of molesting a teenage girl.

    Father Joseph Pina, 66, took a job working for the school district in 2002, several years after he resigned as a pastor and was placed on inactive leave by the church. An attorney for Pina has declined to comment to Reuters on the matter.

    The Los Angeles archdiocese, which serves 4 million Catholics, reached a $660 million civil settlement in 2007 with more than 500 victims of child molestation in the biggest such agreement of its kind in the nation.

    Mahony at the time called the abuse "a terrible sin and crime."

    Related:

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    NY priest apologizes for saying child is often seducer in sex cases

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  • Juror: Sandusky's lack of emotion at verdicts was 'confirmation'

    In an exclusive interview, juror Joshua Harper tells TODAY's Lester Holt that the decision to convict Jerry Sandusky hinged on the credibility of his accusers and the testimony of independent witnesses.

    By NBC News and msnbc.com staff

    A juror in the Jerry Sandusky trial said Saturday that the look on the former Penn State football coach's face as the guilty verdicts were announced was "confirmation" that they had made the right decision.


    Joshua Harper told TODAY that Sandusky had shown "no real emotion, just kind of accepting because he knew it was true," he added.

    Sandusky, 68, was convicted Friday of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and faces a minimum sentence of 60 years in prison, NBC News reported.

    The former longtime defensive coordinator for the Penn State football team had denied all 48 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years.

    Investigations will continue in the Sandusky case related to how Penn State handled the case, and some officials are facing perjury charges. NBC's Michael Isikoff, Ron Allen, and Legal Analyst Wes Oliver join MSNBC's Ed Schultz to discuss the details of the case as well as community reaction to the verdict.

    Two grand jury reports accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the boys, whom he met through his Second Mile charity for troubled children.

    Harper told TODAY that the jurors "were on the same page" when they began their deliberations and had focused on "the facts and determining credibility."

    MSNBC's Ed Schultz talks with Jeff Herman, an attorney who specializes in representing sexual abuse victims, about the difficulties the victims in the Sandusky case would have had in stepping forward with allegations.

    He said the men who testified that they were abused appeared to be telling the truth.

    "I think there were a couple that I felt [were] very credible. I mean, it's hard to judge character on the stand, because you don't know these kids, but most were very credible, I would say all," Harper told TODAY.

    Defense attorney Joe Amendola speaks outside the courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., after his client, Jerry Sandusky, was found guilty of sexually abusing children.

    He added that the fact that they all told similar stories about Sandusky was "very convincing."

    Harper said they had not convicted Sandusky of rape over the incident witnessed by former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary -- who said he had "no doubt" that Sandusky engaged in anal sex with a boy in a Penn State shower -- because McQueary "did not see any actual penetration."

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    "We did not have the evidence that that very first charge happened," Harper said. "We were in agreement ... that we could not convict him of that first count."

    Sandusky was acquitted on two other counts as well -- one an indecent assault charge involving "Victim 6". The man testified that Sandusky had given him a bear hug in the shower but at one point he just "blacked out."

    The other acquittal was an indecent assault charge related to "Victim 5", who said Sandusky fondled him in the shower.

    The jury had worked "very well" together, he added, discussing misgivings about some parts of the case and discussing "inconsistencies." "We were patient," he said.

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  • Month-long ICE crackdown nets 190 child porn suspects; 18 victims rescued

    ICE

    A search warrant for a child pornography case.

    By Kari Huus, msnbc.com

    Federal agents targeting child pornography offenses say they arrested 190 people in May and rescued 18 children who were being victimized by the accused perpetrators, in a stepped-up focus on these crimes.


    Kari Huus


    Follow Kari Huus on Twitter and Facebook.


    The Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which investigates a wide range of crimes that cross state or national borders, is one of the main federal agencies — along with the FBI — to handle child porn and exploitation investigations. That includes tracking perpetrators who use the Internet to lure or meet child victims, to persuade them to send nude pictures to produce porn or to receive or distribute child pornography.

    The targeted operation coincides with the end of the school year, said ICE spokesman Dani Bennett.

    "From our perspective the summer months are times when kids are not in school and many have unsupervised access to the Internet," said Bennett. "It’s a good time to remind parents that the person they are chatting with may not be the person they are chatting with. ... Every social network, every wonderful tool the Internet provides can be exploited."

    Among the arrests reported by ICE:

    • Joshua Stewart, 23, arrested in Rochester, N.Y., on May 4 on charges of coercing and enticing a minor via the Internet, which allegedly began as "sexting" with the 13-year-old.
    • Thomas Wright, 54, arrested May 16 at his residence in Bangor, Mich., on an outstanding federal arrest warrant accusing him of manufacturing and possessing child pornography. Wright allegedly persuaded an underage boy to participate with him in illegal sexual conduct while he photographed the encounters. Wright also secretly videotaped the boy involved in other sexual activity, according to ICE. Wright allegedly transported the images from his home in Michigan to Florida.
    • Cedric Conner, 35, of Lafayette, La., arrested May 4 in Lafayette for allegedly producing child pornography based on his sexual assault of a 7-year-old victim whom he babysat.

    Nine of the suspected child predators were arrested in the San Diego area, including a 28-year-old Marine Corps helicopter pilot who is accused of possessing 4,000 images and 43 video files of child pornography, some depicting child bestiality and child bondage, according to a report by NBC San Diego. NBC identified him as Capt. Joshua Taylor, who was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

    The arrests made during the month-long Operation Orion were mainly in the United States, but also included arrests in Spain, the Philippines, Argentina and the United Kingdom.

    Judge refuses to dismiss Sandusky charges; trial set to bein Monday

    The 190 arrests in May represented a  “significant number” for one month, Bennett said. ICE arrested 1,455 suspected child predators in the 2011 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, 2011, she said, up from 922 a year earlier.

    Typically, she said, ICE is responsible for more than half of the federal cases involving child sexual exploitation.

    In 2011, Bennett said, agency investigations resulted in 915 convictions on child porn-related charges with sentences ranging from a few years to life in prison, depending on the severity of the offense and the age of the victim — who are sometimes as young as infants.

    As part of the operation, ICE worked with local authorities and child protection agencies to move child victims to safety, including removing them from exploitative parents.

    "We are getting better at it," said Bennett. "This is one of the most important things we do."

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