The Klaas Act

Speed Freak Killer Gives It Up for a Candy Bar

2012-02-22T11:30:00.001-08:00

Wesley Shermantine is the scum of the earth. Ondeath row for murdering four people, Shermantine and his partner in crime LorenHerzog are suspected of killing as many as two-dozen people during an uncheckedcrime spree throughout the 1980’s and 90’s. At long last, more than a decadeafter being sent to death row, Shermantine is squealing like a pig, leading theauthorities to where the bodies are buried. Thus far more than 1,000 bonefragments have been recovered from the first of three bone yards. Two victimshave been identified.

Shermantine didn’t give up the killing fields tounburden himself before the Lord, and he didn’t have an attack of conscience. Hewasn’t trying to do the right thing by giving resolution to the families of hisvictims, and he wasn’t negotiating for a reduced sentence or even to get off ofdeath row. No, Wesley Shermantine wanted a candy bar.

That he puts such a small value on life should comeas no surprise. Shermantine and his childhood friend Loren Herzog engaged amethamphetamine fueled killing spree that spanned two decades and terrorized aCentral California community around Stockton, California. They killed in drug inducedfrenzy, they covered their crimes by eliminating witnesses, but mostly theykilled for the thrill. Their victims were mostly young, defenseless women whohad no idea what they were getting into, and were ultimately unable toextricate themselves from the grip of unrelenting evil. Shermantine bragged of kidnapping,raping, torturing and killing more than 20 victims.

Last month Shermantine accepted Sacramento,California based bounty hunter Leonard Padilla’s $33,000 offer for informationleading to the recovery of his victims. He claims that he wants to use themoney to pay victim restitution, purchase headstones for his deceased parents,and fund an inmate account that will allow him to purchase candy bars from theprison commissary. We know that Shermantine is a narcissistic psychopath wholacks conscience, so dismissing victim restitution as motivation is a nobrainer. Perhaps he does want to purchase headstones for his parents, but theywill be tiny and cheap. In the final analysis it is instant gratification, theability to stuff his fat face with Mars bars that really flushes Shermantine’s toilet:that and the fact that in September, 2010 Loren Herzog was inexplicably paroledfor his complicity in their criminal enterprise.

On January, 17, 2012 the bounty hunter called Herzogand told him that his partner in crime was leading the authorities to theirmass graves. Later that day Herzog hanged himself in his state-issued trailer just outside the gates of theHigh Desert State Prison in Susanville: one down one to go.

The debate rages on. Is Shermantine the beneficiary ofblood money, or is this a legitimate means of bringing resolution to thefamilies of the missing? Although they refused Shermantine’s offer to revealtheir daughter’s remains in exchange for $10,000 years ago, Cyndi Vanderheiden’sparents are grateful to Leonard Padilla for finally bringing their daughterhome. Upon learning that their daughter’s remains had been identified ChevyWheeler’s mother told the Associated Press that, “Thisis a happy day. We can finally have some closure." However, Susan Kizer, themother of missing Gayle Marks, also believed to be a victim of the speed freakkillers, said that she's offended by the $33,000deal. "He has been found guilty of murder," shesaid. "Why should he get any kind of pleasure, anything that would bringhim any pleasure from all that?"

Philosophically,I am opposed to profiting from crime. Therefore, I understand and empathizewith Ms. Kizer’s outrage. But as the father of a child who was missing for65-days I can tell you that knowing enables relief. It provides resolution, andalthough the hole in your heart will never heal, you will be able tocompartmentalize the tragedy knowing that resolution has been achieved. Knowingthat your child is not being tortured, being able to bring them home forburial, so that they can at long last rest in peace is a benefit that cannot becalculated.

Let Shermantine gorgehis fat face with Snickers and Almond Joy’s. Studies prove that eating too muchsugar has serious health consequences. With a little luck he will contract diabetesand/or heart disease and die sooner rather than later. Unless of course Padilladoesn’t actually pay the money as promised and Shermantine’s lust is denied.Now that would be an ironic, and fair, resolution to the sordid saga of thespeed freak killers!

Alabama Legislature Steps Up to Protect Kids!

2012-02-15T14:35:00.000-08:00

Ihave been part of an effort in California to legislate a Megan’s Law update byincluding internet identifiers as part of the registration process. Last yeartwo bills carefully drafted to address this singular issue (AB 755 – SB 57)were killed in committee, meaning they never made it to the floor of therespective houses for an up and down vote. It makes one wonder why California’slawmakers prioritize the privacy of registered sex offenders ahead of thesafety of children? The Alabama State Legislature has no such compunctions.This afternoon I testified on behalf of the Alabamians Against SexualExploitation Act, which will bridge the gap between Megan’s Law and the 21^stCentury, and do more. Much more!

“Mr. Chairman and members of the committee I want tothank you for affording me the opportunity to talk about this very importantissue. Sometimes, when we get our priorities mixed up we need a reality check.The Alabamians Against Sexual Exploitation Act is that reality check.

Human trafficking is a criminal business thatprofits from enslaving people for sexual servitude and forced labor. It is thefastest growing and second largest criminal industry in the world today (secondonly to drug trafficking and tied with illegal arms). According to theTrafficking in Victims Protection Act, which was signed into law by PresidentGeorge Bush in 2000, human sex trafficking occurs when, 'a commercial sex act isinduced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to performsuch act has not attained 18 years of age.'

Since2000, we have learned that the U.S. is as much a supply country as it is ademand country. In fact, we are supplying much of our own demand. Every yearbetween 1.6 and 2.8 million children run away annually in the U.S., half ofthose runaways are girls. Within 48hours of hitting the streets, one third of these children are lured or recruitedinto the underground world of prostitution or pornography. The average age atwhich girls first become victims of prostitution is 12-14. For boys, the entryage is 11-13. These kids are victims of human trafficking and each and everyone is somebody’s child.

We glamorize pimp culture in music, on TV and at themovies. We create pimp celebrities and legitimize them in mainstream media. Wephotograph pimps at Players Balls and marvel at their ostentatious displays ofwealth when we should be putting them in prison. Pimp-controlled commercial sexualexploitation of children is linked to escort and massage services, privatedancing, drink and photographic clubs, major sporting and recreational events,major cultural events, conventions and tourist destination.

At the same time we criminalize kids who findthemselves under the control of pimps. These kids are often portrayed ascriminals, drug addled crack whores who are incarcerated rather than assistedonce law enforcement brings them in off of the street. These kids are notcriminals, they are victims. Many of them are missing. Many, but not all haverun away or are throwaway children.

It is not so “Hard Out There for a Pimp”. Pimps are humantraffickers and should be prosecuted as such. Under the Alabamians for SexualExploitation Act pimps will be prosecuted, imprisoned and forced to register assex offenders. They will pay fines that will fund victim services for thechildren they have exploited.

But wait, there’s more. Sex offender registrationand community notification, otherwise known as Megan’s Law was adopted by all50-states in the late 90’s. Megan’s Law is based on the premise that convicted sexoffenders pose a threat to society and that the public deserves to know whenthey are in the community. When Megan’s Law was enacted the Internet wasnot the ubiquitous presence that it is today. The AlabamiansAgainst Sexual Exploitation Act will also allow Alabama to bridge Megan’s Lawinto the 21^st Century.

We know who the registered sex offenders are in ourneighborhoods and towns, but not in our virtual, online communities. The AlabamiansAgainst Sexual Exploitation Act requires registered sex offenders to provide Internetemail addresses, social networking profiles and other online identifiers sothat social networking sites can scour relevant profiles from their onlinecommunities.

Theconcept of convicted sex offenders including their Internet identifiers as acomponent of the sex offender registration process was successfully legislatedin New York in 2008 and has thus far been responsible for removing more than24,000 sex offender profiles from social networking sites.

I urge the members of the committee to vote YES onThe Alabamians Against Sexual Exploitation Act."

Powell Family Secrets

2012-02-10T11:01:00.000-08:00

“Itis a federal crime to knowingly possess, manufacture, distribute, or accesswith intent to view child pornography (18 U.S.C. §2252). In addition, all50 states and the District of Columbia have laws criminalizing the possession,manufacture, and distribution of child pornography. As a result, a personwho violates these laws may face federal and/or state charges.”

Imagesof animated incestuous sex were found on Josh Powell’s computer after his wifeSusan was reported missing in 2009. According to the Pierce County Sheriff’sDepartment the images were realistic computer-generated depictions of parent-childsex. So, why, after Utah authorities discovered these images, was Josh allowedto retain custody of his children? Why did Chuck Cox, Susan’s father and the boy’sgrandfather, only learn about this revelation this morning as he was beinginterviewed on the Today Show?

In Utah,possession of child pornography is classified as a felony of the second degree.The penalty for individuals convicted of a felony of the second degree is 1-15years in prison and a possible $10,000 fine. The authorities found childpornography on Josh’s computer shortly after his wife Susan disappeared, sothey knew that he was guilty of a felony of the second degree. Yet, theyallowed him to leave the state unimpeded. Had they pursued those chargesinstead, Josh would be in prison right now and Charley and Braden would stillbe alive.

The newly revealed incest animation was referenced during a court appearance last week. Joshwas attempting to regain custody of his children which he lost when his father,with whom he was living, was arrested on child pornography and voyeurismrelated charges last September. At a custody hearing last week, the judge ruledthat Josh would have to undergo an extensivepsychosexual evaluation, polygraph test, and counseling before he could regaincustody of the boys. There is no way that Josh could hold up under such close scrutiny. Like a rat in a corner, Josh Powell had nowhere torun, and there was no place left to hide.

Sinceacquiring custody in September 2011, the boys, once “disconnected, like robots,”were “slowly but surely realizing that they were safe and happy.” Where theyused to run away from their grandparents when they talked about Susan, they nowengaged the conversation. For the first time since their mother’s 2009disappearance Charlie and Braden were in a nurturing environment that allowedthem to share their feelings and perhaps even their secrets.

Oneof the reasons Chuck and Judy Cox wanted custody of the children was to protectthem from their father. Charlie and Braden’s intuition was acute, but for naught. They dislikedattending the supervised visitations with daddy. Last Sunday Josh Powell committedthe ultimate act of abuse against his two boys. Was he simply trying to coverup the truth about what happened to Susan, or was something even more sinistergoing on?

Many incarcerated sex offenders justify theirbehavior by telling you that they were abused when they were children. In other words, they were caught up in agenerational cycle of abuse, mirroring behavior that was perpetrated upon them andpaying it forward to the next generation of children. I won’t pretend to understand the psychologyof this behavior; only that it occurs often enough that should be takenseriously.

We nowknow that Josh Powell and his father Steven both kept secrets. They both had childpornography on their computers. Steven videotaped women and children, includingSusan, without their knowledge. Josh had a very troubled past that includedattempted suicide, a threat to murder his mother with a butcher knife, andkilling his sister’s pet hamster. One has to wonder what prompts a young boy toacts of extreme violence, and why those acts are only now being revealed. Whatother dark secrets are buried in the Powell family history?

Thefinal burning question that will never be answered might explain the whole sordid mess. Did Josh murder his wife because she caught him havingsex with one or both of their young sons?

The Son of a Bitch Tried to Chop Off Their Heads!

2012-02-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

No wonder he always looked like he was sucking on lemons. He was holdingback a taste much more acerbic than lemon juice. First he killed their mother,his wife, and concocted a cockamamie alibi that carried him forth until hecould commit the ultimate betrayal. Then the son of a bitch tried to chop offtheir heads before immolating them in a homemade inferno that also spat himback into the hell from which he came.

The disappearance of Susan Powell was never a real mystery. Joshmurdered Susan on December 6, 2009. The weather was bitter cold. I can almostimagine Susan watching the 5:00 pm weatherman predict that a winter storm was projected to drop more than a foot of snow overnight. Of course she agreed whenhe closed his forecast with, “You do not need to travel tonight.”

Susan, her husband and sons, were reported missing by her parentsthe next morning. Josh and the boys showed up later that evening, but notSusan. She was never seen again!

Josh’s story was a poorly fabricated lie. But it seemed to foolthe authorities, because, as we found out only after the fact, herdisappearance was not reclassified as a murder until almost two years later. Josh wasconsidered a “person of interest”, but apparently not enough interest toactually hinder his style.

About a month later Josh packed up the boys and moved out ofstate to live with his father, another lemon-sucking pervert, in Puyallup,Washington. Josh and his father Steven launched a campaign to assassinate Susan’scharacter and threatened to publish her childhood journals online. A judgeissued a permanent injunction stopping that plan. Shortly thereafter StevenPowell was arrested on child pornography and voyeurism related charges. Steven’sdaughter Jennifer Graves expressed relief after hearing that her father hadbeen arrested, telling a reporter, "They'regetting him off the streets now and he won't be able to take advantage ofinnocents in the future." Steven remains in Jail, butsomehow Josh was able to slither under the radar one more time.

He lost custody of the children to Susan’s parents, but notaccess. A judge gave him supervised visits. The boys began to blossom once theyescaped Josh’s toxic influence. I’m using toxic as a synonym for evil here. Theymay have even begun to talk about the night Susan disappeared. I wonder if Josh was aware that his son Braden may havedrawn a picture of a van with three people in it and told caregivers it showedhis family going camping and that, "Mommy's in the trunk.” We could ask him, but…oh no, we can’t becausehe’s in Hell and still not cooperating with the authorities.

Josh Powell carried more red flags than a Chinese New Year parade.He showed no remorse or regret that his wife was missing. His alibi was apitiful fabrication. He wasn’t cooperating with the police. His own sisterhated him. His father was a known pervert. He segregated the kids from Susan’sfamily as he allowed them to be exposed to perversion. He tried to assassinateSusan’s character. It was all there in plain sight. Why couldn’t the court seethe facts that screamed from the headlines for more than two years?

Baby Ayla and the Code of Silence

2012-01-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

I had a long phone conversation with Justin DiPietrothe other day. He seems like a genuine fellow and readily answered thequestions I posed to him regarding the disappearance of his daughter baby Ayla.I am not going to divulge anything that is not already in the public arena as Idon’t want to betray his confidence. However, the one thing that I continue tofind troubling about this case is the code of silence that Justin adopted earlyon. Whether it was self-imposed or requested by law enforcement, the collateraldamage done to his character and reputation is as large as it is far reaching.

It has been more than four weeks since baby Ayladisappeared from her bedroom in the house that she shared with Justin, and hehas only recently made himself available to the press. In the meantime babyAyla’s mother Trista Reynolds has attacked Justin as relentlessly and effectivelyas General Sherman scorched the earth on his march against the Confederatestates in the Civil War. On December 19, two days after the little girl wasreported missing in Waterville, Maine, Trista told Nancy Grace that Justin was “vindictive” and “verbally abusive”. She further claimedthat he has refused to let her have Ayla for even one day since he took custodyof her in October and that Ayla would return from visits with Justin, “Withbruises on her or…with a pulled muscle”.

The next day, onDecember 20, Justin issueda statement through the Waterville Police Department saying that he “has noidea what happened to Ayla,” and disputing prior media claims by Reynolds thatthe two hadn't been in communication with one another in recent weeks. OnDecember 23, Trista told the Today Show, "Itrusted him to keep her safe, and now she is missing and I don't know where sheis. I blame him right now. He did not protect her the way he was supposed to."On the 28^th, Justin issued a second statement throughWaterville police, repeating that he doesn't know what happened to Ayla andthanking community members for their support. The next day Trista told MattLauer, "He says he’s not in hiding, but why won’t he come out, why won’t he talkto me? What’s he so afraid of?” On Dec. 30, the State Police take overjurisdiction after it is announced that they now suspect foul play in the disappearanceof baby Ayla.

Finally, on Jan. 2, Justin appeared on the TodayShow justifying his silence, saying that in the first few days, “I was emotionally incapable of coming out to do aninterview.” He also said that the police initially advised him against doingmedia interviews because it could hinder the investigation. Within the lastseveral days Justin has been embroiled in a public controversy over the resultsof his polygraph exam. My advice to Justin, and to Trista is to keep it simpleand tell the truth. If you do that you won’t have to backtrack.

Justin’s publicappearances have been erratic and forced, but ineloquence is not a crime, it issimply an inconvenience. However, one thing does stand out: he has refrainedfrom attacking Trista Reynolds. He has not mentioned her substance abuseissues, her lack of a permanent address, or her failure to travel fifty-milesto the scene of the crime to physically confront him. Instead he kept the focuson his missing daughter. I believe that speaks to his credit.

I have long believedthat the parents have a duty to advocate on behalf of their missing children. Evenif you are paralyzed by grief and fear it is important to find the strengthwithin to be there for your child. You want to get the public invested and youwant to ensure that law enforcement maintains an aggressive and active investigation.As baby Ayla’s case demonstrates, public advocacy also provides you with anopportunity to defend yourself. To fail to do so is to create, as Justinsuccinctly put it, “A helpless situation”.

Is Justin DiPietro involvedin baby Ayla’s disappearance? I have no way of knowing, just as I have no wayof knowing if Trista Reynolds has any anything to do with this ongoing mystery.However, I do know a few things. I am absolutely convinced that this is not astranger abduction. Strangers don’t lurk in sub-zero temperatures any more thanthey target children with broken arms. I also know that these are troubledyoung adults who have a toxic relationship. I still believe that the universeof potential suspects is small and that the answer to what happened to babyAyla exists within the murky waters of dysfunction. We need to stop chasingshadows and leave the investigation to the authorities. If they dig deep enough they will learn thetruth.

An Act of Moral Cowardice

2011-12-28T10:42:00.001-08:00

Petaluma's Polly KlaasFoundation was honored by the US Dept. of Justice this week, being named the2011 Missing Children Nonprofit of the year by the United States Department ofJustice’ Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

In Oct. 1993, Violet and I founded the Polly KlaasFoundation (PKF) to protect ourselves from potential speculation that we wouldmisappropriate money donated to help find Polly, who had been kidnapped on Oct.1. Upon learning of Polly’s tragic death on Dec. 4, it was our intention tolobby for laws that would protect children, use the remaining $283,000 to helpfind other missing children, and continue fundraising. On October 21, 1994,without my knowledge or permission, the PKF board of directors secured atrademark for the name Polly Klaas. In November 1994, in an act of stunningmoral cowardice, the board of directors of the PKF voted me off the boardduring a secret meeting that I was not privy to. When they informed me viatelephone I felt as if I had lost my daughter yet again. Violet and I were nolonger welcome at the Foundation that we had created and hoped would becomePolly’s legacy.

In September, 1994 several events foretold our rockypath and lonely crusade. On the 13^th I stood on the podium withPresident Clinton on the White House south lawn when he signed The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The President gave me the first pen that he used to sign the bill.Among other things the Crime Bill provided for 100,000 new cops, allocated$6.1-billion in prevention funds for at risk children, and nearly $10-billionfor prison construction costs.

Days later the board of directors informed me that Iwould no longer be allowed to pursue criminal justice legislation, arguing thata non-profit organization is prohibited from advocating for new laws. They knewthat this was not true and continued supporting and promoting legislation longafter they gave me the boot.

Before the month was out I had submitted a separatenon-profit application to create the KlaasKids Foundation, from which to lobby,advocate and promote legislation. The PKF board said that I had created aconflict of interest by finding an avenue that would allow me to pursue goalsthat they forbade me from pursuing. This became the justification for kickingme out of the Polly Klaas Foundation. Ironically, one of the stated goals onthe Polly Klaas Foundation’s current mission statement is to effect legislationwhich, “Will ensure that children can be safe intheir own homes and communities.”

When Violet and I were shown the door we had $2,000,a fledgling non-profit that would become the KlaasKids Foundation and sense ofurgency. We believed that there was no time to lose, because otherwise everyonewould forget. We struggled. She worked a regular job, I volunteered my time. Welived frugally, turning our home into an office, with a small loft devoted topersonal space. We worked 18-hour days writing, advocating, traveling andotherwise pursuing our window of opportunity. Fortunately, our voice was beingheard on television, radio, in the op-ed pages of newspapers and at KlaasKids eventsthroughout the country.

As KlaasKids built a solid reputation for action andaccomplishment the PKF struggled. With just a few months of operating expensesleft in their account, they launched a high profile car donation program. Forthe next several years a confused public donated millions of dollars worth ofvehicles as the PKF produced minimal results.

How do I know this to be true? Because over the pasttwo days many people, even some that I have known for years, congratulated mefor the OJJDP recognition as the 2011 MissingChildren Nonprofit of the year.

The KlaasKids Foundation may not have won any awards, but I will stack our accomplishments up against any other missing children's NPO. Below I have outlined some of KlaasKids 2010accomplishments. I have left off our Print-A-Thon programs and the tens ofthousands of free Child ID Kits that we distribute throughout the year.

· KlaasKids offersmultiple levels of support for the missing and their families. From grassrootssearch-and-rescue assistance, to human trafficking intervention; fromlegislative support to providing experts to the media, KlaasKids remains at theforefront of safety innovation and proactive advocacy.

In 2010, KlaasKids’ search and rescueefforts provided assistance in 86 cases. Our search center has also played anactive role in 33 missing person/trafficking cases. Of those, eight out of ninechildren were rescued from human trafficking. In the other 25 cases, nine weresafely located, four were recovered, and 12 remain missing.
KlaasKids actively advocated forCalifornia’s Chelsea’s Law, which increases prisontime, prohibits sex offenders from entering parks frequented by children, andincreases use of trackable GPS devices to monitor paroled offenders.
We also supported California laws AB33, which requires law enforcement to establish written procedures on how tohandle missing child cases;
AB 34, which will reduce the time tonotify the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and California’s ViolentCrime Information Center (VCIC) from four hours to two;
AB 1022, which establishes a positionin the Department of Justice for a new director to oversee missing childrenrecovery processes.
KlaasKids alsocontinues to work with the Flying J chain of truck stops to bring a broadcastquality suite of television options to America’s 2,000,000-plus long haul truckdrivers, so that they can become an army of first responders whenever atelevised Amber Alert is issued in the United States.
In September,KlaasKids initiated a lawsuit against California’s Department of Mental Health(DMH) for releasing tens of thousands of potential sexually violent predatorsin violation of Jessica’s Law, which was passed in 2006 Jessica’s Law mandatesthat, prior to release from prison, violent sex offenders who meet certainoffense criteria be evaluated in person by two expert psychiatrists orpsychologists. If the experts agree that the prisoner is a violent sexualpredator with a high risk of reoffending, they must be referred to the DistrictAttorney for civil commitment proceedings. However, in many cases since 2007, theDMH has provided only a cursory “paper screening,” or records review, ofpotential predators by only one mental health professional in lieu of an expertpanel in-person evaluation.
On the proactive front, KlaasKids long-standing relationship with FightCrime: Invest in Kids has paid great dividends. As you will read in thisedition, the California branch of this national non-profit organization, led bymore than 400 police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys, and crime survivors,has ensured that California is the nation’s leader in supporting after-schoolprograms.

The Devil Next Door

2011-12-27T14:14:00.000-08:00

From the killers Facebook page

Who rolled out the red carpetfor this monster? 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon is dead. Her babysitter, 39-year-oldMichael Plumadore, has been arrested for murdering her.

From the killers MySpace page

But, it gets worse: much worse. Despitehaving three felony convictions for battery, auto theft and forgery, Plumadorewas deemed fit to not only care for, but have unsupervised access to threedefenseless young girls. According to Aliahna’s grandmother Aliahna and her twosix-year-old sisters were staying with Plumadore for about a week because Aliahna’sstepfather works at night and sleeps during the day and her mother wasrecovering from the flu. Plumadore was the last person to see Aliahna, whosuffered from both physical and emotional problems, alive.

Aliahna was reported missing on12/23, and on 12/26 Plumadore admitted that he killed her by “striking her inthe head multiple times with a brick while she was standing on the front stepsof his residence.” He subsequently dismembered her body by cutting it up with ahacksaw and placed small pieces of her body in freezer bags and disposed ofthem in a dumpster located nearby. Finally, he kept her head, feet and hands inthe freezer at home.

Defense attorneys love to pointout that our prisons are filled with individuals who have been caught inindiscretions. That hard luck men and women have been driven by circumstance tocommit crimes. However, as this and so many other cases point out, the truth ismuch harsher and more difficult to accept: evil exists! There are certainindividuals with a propensity to victimize others. Many of these individuals gothrough their lives committing crime after crime after crime with noconsequence for their actions. Occasionally, they will get caught breaking thelaw. Then the criminal justice system will work with them to mitigate thenature of the crime, allow them to plea down to a lesser offense, and oftentimesescape prison altogether. This is why individuals with horrific criminal pastsare walking free to commit these horrific atrocities.

I know all too well the horrorof losing a child to violence, but what was Aliahana’s mother thinking when sheallowed her three daughter to stay with Plumadore for a week? Did she know thathe was a three time loser? Surely, she knew that their trailer park was a havenfor registered sex offenders. I understand that she was getting over the flu,but that does not justify shirking her parental responsibility. At best itprovides a pitiful excuse.

It is our responsibility asadults to ensure the safety and well being of children. In cases where familiesfail government agencies are supposed to step in and fill the gap. Her mothersent her to sleep with the devil and government failed to protect her from athree time loser. In Aliahna’s case both family and governmentfailed and the result is a horror beyond imagination.

As government budgets are cutdramatically the release of vicious criminals is easily justified. We must be vigilantto ensure that the safety of children is not compromised by bottom linepoliticians who use budget shortfalls to justify the release of violentcriminals.

Jonathan's Gift

2011-12-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

During the course of one year I lost my only child to violence, my youngest brother to the ravages of illness and a grandmother to time. I survived these tragedies a better, stronger, and more determined person, because I was nurtured by the grace of angels.

The hand of God touched me on the day Polly was born. The first time I held her in my arms I experienced the power of unconditional love. This perfect baby was mine, and I would love and protect her forever. For me, this was the miracle of birth.

I was fortunate that Polly was my companion on this earthly pilgrimage. The strength of her commitment enhanced my understanding of the human condition and provided me with clarity of vision. The depth of her emotion taught me that caring for others could strengthen my own self worth and expand my horizons beyond material values. The purity of her love defined her final act. She faced her worst fears with courage worthy of the most seasoned combat veteran. On shaky knees, as the devil was stealing her into the night, her final words were, "Please don't hurt my mother and sister." My greatest teacher was only twelve-years-old.

That night the angels dipped their wings over Petaluma and re-claimed one of their own. In life Polly shared her gifts with those who were touched by her presence, but in death she touched us all. The welfare of a little lost girl surmounted religious, ethnic and political barriers. Millions of eyes were looking for her and millions of hands were clasped in prayer for her safe return. Her presence on earth set a course that millions of years of evolution, thousands of years of legislation and hundreds of years of struggle and strife couldn't accomplish. She brought us together as one. Those were Polly's angels.

The nation rose like a phoenix in the wake of Polly's tragedy and demanded answers. For sixty-five days we navigated the murky waters of despair toward a fate that tantalized us with glimmers of light, and then doused our hopes with uncertain veils of darkness. Finally the prayers of Polly's angels were answered, but not as we expected. Polly's unselfish bravery in the face of doom provided the target and her commitment of love gave us the weapon to use in the eternal struggle between good and evil. In bitter irony we discovered that in order to win the war, we sometimes have to lose a battle.

Seven months later I visited my brother Jonathan on his deathbed. He seemed to be recovering and was excited to see me. I held his hand as he told me the following story. "Earlier today Polly visited me. She fluttered above me like a butterfly on tiny wings. I asked her why her wings were so small? She said that it was because she wasn't ready to go yet. Then Polly said, 'Get ready Uncle Jonny, because you will be joining me soon and there are a great big pair of wings waiting for you.' I asked her if I should hurry? Polly said, 'No, Uncle Jon, you want your wings to get as big as they can, and together we will take a ride that is better than anything at Disneyland." Two days later Jonathan died. Now he is with Polly on a fantastic voyage.

My grandmother was very old, bed ridden and fragile, so we didn't tell her about either of these misfortunes. Besides, she was riding horses, and wanted to get to the top of the mountain where Polly was waiting for her and the sun was disappearing over the horizon. She is now with Polly, and the sun has set and I know something that I never realized before. The angel we were seeking was guiding us all along.

Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchen

2011-12-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

Secretsfrom my Tuscan Kitchen is a cookbook written by my friendJudy Witts Francini. Judy and I worked together at San Francisco’s StanfordCourt Hotel in the mid 1980’s. When I moved to San Francisco during a difficulttime in my life, I spent an awful lot of time at Judy and Cathy’s apartment,listening to punk rock, sipping Stoli and tasting Judy’s budding culinarycreations. Judy began her culinary career as a pastry chef in California, but in1984 declared that she was going to move to Italy to pursue her culinaryaspirations and “find a real man”.

Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchen is the culmination of more thantwo decades of total immersion into the cultural and gastronomical sensibilityof Tuscany. This beautiful book contains nearly 100 of Judy’s favorite recipeswhich she also teaches at her culinary program Divina Cucina which is based inFlorence. From Antipasti (appetizer) to Dolci (dessert), recipes are logicallyorganized and each is paired with a note page so that you can apply and notate modificationsto your own taste. Given that Violet and I are addicted to the Primo Piatto(first course) I return time again to Judy’s exquisite Naked Ravioli andoutrageous Risotto.

Delight your friends and family with the fresh,creative, and beautiful dishes in Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchen. Autographed copies of this fabulous cookbook, whichI highly recommend, are available through Judy’s Divina Cucina website. If youare looking for last minute Christmas gifts that will wow and impress therecipients you cannot go wrong with Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchen!!!

Oh, and Judy had no trouble finding that "real" man she was seeking in 1984. She has been happily married to Andrea Francini for many years now.

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle

2011-12-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

On October 11, 2011 five-year-oldJahessye (Jessie) Shockley seemingly fell of the face of the earth. One monthlater her mother Jerice Hunter stared into the lens of a television camera anddeclared, “Jahessye, mama coming to get you. Mamacoming!”

America is in denial that evil exists in the handthat rocks the cradle. We prefer to think of our monsters as shrouded, facelessmen lurking in the dark. However, a current case illustrate that asconvenient as this perception may be, moms and dads can also be infected withanti-social impulses, destructive compulsions, and violent tendencies.

It was reported thatJahessye disappeared from the family home under the care of three siblingswhile her mother ran errands. There were no signs of forced entry so policeinitially believed that Jahessye had walked out through the front door and wandered away when no one was paying attention. A hastilyissued Amber Alert and thorough search of her Glendale, Arizona neighborhoodprovided no leads to her whereabouts.

No suspect or person ofinterest was named, yet within days Jerice Hunter accused the authorities of unfairly focusing their investigation on her, because of her criminal past. Jerice’ mother Shirley Johnson further chargedthe police and media with racism, claiming that the case was not receiving muchdeserved attention because the little girl was black. On November 21, 2011Jerice Hunter was arrested on child abuse charges directly related to Jahessye's disappearance. The authorities announced that they do not expect torecover Jahessye alive.

In 2005 Jerice Hunter was charged with torturing another 7-year old daughter and causing corporal injury her other three children. Her mother Shirley Johnson told the police that Jericewhipped the child with an extension cord while the child was being held down by her husband, registered sexoffender George Shockley. In 2006 torture charges weredropped in exchange for a “no contest” plea. Hunter was subsequently sentencedto 8-years in prison and denied her parental rights because she was considered athreat to the well being of her children. Jerice justified her criminal behaviorby claiming that she had been abused as achild.

Jerice Hunter's mother Shirley Johnson, the woman who taught Jerice how to discipline and abuse kids, received custody of the four children named in the criminalcomplaint. Little Jahessye,born shortly before her mother went to prison, was turned over to other relatives.Upon her release from custody four years later Jerice moved to Arizona where grandmaShirley decided to ‘reunite the family’ without going through legalproceedings. Upon an order from Phoenix Police little Jahessye wasturned over to her mother in August, 2010. Jerice now had total control over thechildren she had gone to prison for abusing and the daughter who woulddisappear within the next ten months.

Jerice was eight months pregnant when Jahessye disappeared, so she was not allowed to take the polygraph she saidwould prove her innocence. By the time Jerice gave birth at the end of October,Arizona Child Protective Services (CPS) had removed the other three children from hercustody and placed them in foster homes. They quickly did the same with herinfant. Jerice now refuses to take a polygraph exam.

Once free of her mother’s control Jahessye’sthirteen-year-old sister told her foster mother that Jahessye was keptin a bedroom closet and deprived of food and water and that she had seen herwith black eyes and bruises and cuts to her face and body. She also reportedthat clumps of Jahessye’s hair had been pulled out. Shewent on to say that Jahessye did not look alive, that she looked like a zombie andthat the closet where Jahessye was kept looked like a grave and smelledlike dead people.

The sister said that a few days before Jahessye wasreported missing Jerice spent the entire day cleaning the apartment and cleaning hershoes from the closet with soap and bleach. The police found a receipt thatshowed Jerice bought a bottle of bleach two days before she reportedJahessye missing. Jerice was arrested for child abuse on November21. She has since been released and has not been charged with Jahessye’sdisappearance.

This case oozes deferred responsibility.It wasn’t Jerice Hunter’s fault that she tortured and abused her kids: afterall, that’s how she was treated when she was a child. It’s not Phoenix PD’sfault that Jahessye was returned to her mother because children belong withtheir parents. California CPS wasn’t responsible for actions that took place inArizona, and Arizona CPS couldn’t prove abuse despite numerous complaints and repeated reports documenting Jerice’s sad and sordidhistory with children.

The disappearance of Jahessye Shockley is a familialand institutional failure. Her mother has proven unfit time and time again. Thecourt knew it, but failed to take appropriate action. Jerice Hunter had beenreported to CPS more than once, yet they failed to take appropriate action. The police who ordered Jahessye return to her abusive mother now scramble to locate the little girl whosedisappearance has rocked a community.

We only know two things for certain. JahessyeShockley did not fall of the face of the earth, and her mother should neverhave been allowed to regain custody of her children.

One November 9, 2011JericeHunter stared into the lens of a television camera and declared, “Jahessye,mama coming to get you. Mama coming!”

It Came From Hell!

2011-12-08T10:36:00.001-08:00

He’s only twenty-years-old, slight of frame, with areceding hairline and a bad complexion. His name is Ryan Brunn and he possessesqualities that are both unique and rare to mankind. He lacks conscience andreceives great joy from inflicting pain and suffering upon others. Such great joy,in fact, that his most recent bloodlust was only satisfied after he had kidnapped,bludgeoned, raped, stabbed and murdered seven-year-old Jorelys Rivera.Then he disposed of her remains by tossing her into a dumpster, compacting hertortured little body and hoping that his crime would not be discovered. But itwas.

Brunn was not regurgitated from Hell last Thursdayso that he could attack little Jorelys on Friday. He had been preparing for hismoment for two decades. As the authorities retrace the steps of his sordid lifethey will no doubt uncover other victims who were able to escape the full wrathof his budding sadism. The human victims may be able to assist in peeling backthe layers of his grotesque life. Unfortunately, as they do so they will be forcedto relive their own pain, suffering and extreme victimization. The animal victimswill not. Perhaps it was while torturing and killing animals that he first becamesexually aroused. If so, he would not be the first as this is a common traitamong sexual sadists.

Jorelys is not dead simply because Brunn wanted toeliminate witnesses to his rape. If it were that simple he would have strangledher to death. Instead he leveled incalculable violence upon her little body inthe form of blunt force trauma and stab wounds. It was only in the throes ofthis massive perversion that he was able to achieve the sexual release that wasthe goal of his attack. Had he not been captured he would have repeated thisscenario again…and again…and again ad nauseam.

So, it is the memory of little Jorelys that willsustain him for the next several decades. He will sit in his cell and relivehis greatest triumph through dreams, masturbation, and other facets of his twistedimagination. It is only the death of her victimizer that will finally free Jorelysfrom her ongoing victimization. When his eyes become as unblinking and unseeing as her, that Jorelys torment will finally end once and for all.

How do I know these things to be true? Fifteen yearsago I spent six months sitting in a courtroom as prosecutors built the caseagainst my daughter Polly’s killer. I listened to psychiatrist afterpsychologist detail the mind of a sexually sadistic psychopath. Their argumentswere so convincing that he was sentenced to death. He still sits on death rowand, as he told Psychiatrist Lewelen Jones, “Masturbates twice daily and thinksof tying up female victims of past crimes." I can think of no better justification for the deathpenalty.

The News of the World is Not All Bad

2011-12-06T22:26:00.001-08:00

Like the rest of the world I was appalled at the recent revelationsabout the phone hacking and illegal wiretapping scandals that have caused GreatBritain’s News of the World (NOTW) to shut its doors. Members of senior staff havebeen arrested for criminal conspiracy and corruption charges. Allegations ofbribing police officials, anti-competitive practices, computer and phonehacking among other charges have been leveled at News Corporation and itsiconic Chairman Rupert Murdoch. Cell phone messages from celebrities,politicians, and members of the royal family were illegally accessed, creatingan atmosphere of fear and intimidation. However, the incident that really mademy skin crawl was learning that thirteen-year-old kidnap and murder victim Milly Dowler’s cell phone account wasmanipulated by NOTW operatives leading her family and the police to believethat she was still alive. However, it is theNOTW response to another missing child case that I would like revisit.

OnJuly 1, 2000, eight-year-old Sarah Payne disappeared from West Sussex, England.Seventeen days later Sarah’s remains were recovered from a cornfield aboutfifteen miles away in Pulborough. Convinced that their daughter hadbeen the victim of a sex predator, Sarah’s parents Sara and Michael demandedchanges that would be more protective of Great Britain’s children. The Payne’s then joined forces with leadingtabloid newspaper News of the World to campaign for life-prison terms for childkillers and public access to identifying information on Great Britain’s 110,000registered sex offenders. The campaign became known as Sarah’sLaw.

Utilizing its formidable resources and with broadpublic support, the newspaper launched a petition drive demanding public accessto and longer sentences for convicted sex offenders. The NOTW then published the photographs and addresses of 50known sex offenders. This action ignited vigilante reprisals despite appeals againstviolence.

Because of our work to legislate sex offenderregistration and community notification (Megan’s Law) in the UnitedStates, the NOTW contacted KlaasKids and invited us to Great Britain to helpadvocate on behalf of Sarah’s Law, and counter scathing governmental and conservativemedia condemnation. During a July, 2000 meeting with British Home Office JuniorSecretary Paul Boateng, I was told that the government intervened and warnedunsuspecting women only when incarcerated sex offenders place lonely heart adstrolling for single mothers of young children. However, the minister thencondemned the NOTW ‘name and shame’ campaign. He stated that communitynotification was not an option because the government believed that ‘outing’sex offenders would drive them underground, and that disclosing their addresseswould promote vigilantism. I told the Secretary that suggesting that communitynotification will drive registered sex offenders underground belies the realproblem. The offenders are already underground and community notification is aremedy, not a symptom.

The American example of Megan’s Law demonstratedthat punitive penalties for failing to comply with the terms of sex offenderregistration did not force offenders underground: instead, they promotedcompliance. Numerous studies also indicated that imposing prison penaltyenhancement for individuals who misuse sex offender registration information toexact vigilante justice were effective as very few registered sex offenders had been publicly threatened.

On September 12, 2000 Sara and Michael Paynedelivered 700,000 petition signatures to the British Home Office. On September 25,Violet and I returned to Great Britain to join Sara and Michael Payne in addressingthe annual Labor Party convention. It was our fervent hope that the BritishGovernment, which now stood alone in opposition, would acknowledge the will of thepeople and replicate America’s bold and successful experiment with communitynotification.

Unfortunately, it was not to be so. In December2001, recidivist sex offender Roy Whiting was convicted of murdering SarahPayne and sentenced to 50-years in prison. In the end it took a more thandecade to convince the government and the authorities that Sarah’s Law wassound policy. In April 2011, that the Home Office finally announced that Sarah’s Lawwould be implemented. Like Megan Kanka’s mother before her, Sara Payne's belief that her daughter would be alive had she known that asexual predator lived in her community forced a change in national policy. Now,parents can access information on registered sex offenders in theirneighborhood and use the information to protect their children.

During our work on behalf of Sarah’s Law webefriended NOTW editor Rebekah Brooks and her successor Andy Coulson, both of whom now face serious criminal charges. Theyhelped a grieving mother achieve her dream of protecting children throughlegislative change. Their benevolence seemed genuine as they asked for nothing inreturn. We were proud of our work on behalf of Sarah’s Law and grateful for theexperience, as grueling as it ultimately became.

However,a few months ago it was revealed thatthe NOTW had also hacked into Sara Payne's cell phone account. That, in turn, leads me to wonder if they did the same to me after insisting that I use oneof their cell phones during our visits across the pond?

Baby Lisa and the Loss of Faith

2011-12-01T11:58:00.001-08:00

Baby Lisa’s parents have asked supporters not to hold anymore vigils for the missing one-year-old on their front lawn. Really? So thereare people trying to help; trying to keep the story alive in hopes ofrecovering the little girl and the family is asking them to stop. A familyspokesperson said that the vigils made a return to normalcy impossible and thatthe vigils were upsetting Lisa’s half brothers. Meanwhile the authorities havereported no new developments in the case.

Volunteers who are invested in the safe return of baby Lisaneed support from the family, not indifference or condemnation, yet they have beenblown off by Jeremy and Deborah. After all, it has been demonstrated time andtime again that the recovery of an abducted child requires a full team effortthat includes volunteers. But no: instead of assisting in baby Lisa’s recovery,the volunteers are told that they are making it impossible for the family toreturn to a normal routine.

How normal can life be if your home has been broken into,your infant has been kidnapped and remains missing and your other children are leftto believe that an evil boogeyman who has already stolen your sister remains atlarge? If your lawyer and not your heart speak on your behalf then your senseof normal probably belongs in a courtroom, not a living room. If you canconvince yourself that a return to normal means that there should be no morevigils on your front lawn then you are either in denial or something moresinister is afoot. It took many years after my daughter Polly’s tragedy beforeViolet and I were able to adjust to our new normal. We had lost a piece of oursoul, our vision of the future as her tragic fate severely challenged ourfaith.

What must the step-brothers think of this most recentdevelopment? It seems like vigils on their lawn would be the least of their worries. We know that five and eight year old children register fear, havenightmares and are totally dependent on their parents for their survival. So Ihave to wonder what Jeremy and Deborah are telling them about the disappearanceof their little sister. I also wonder if they have asked, “What would you do ifI was kidnapped?”

Howwould you like Jeremy and Deborah to be your parents? It would be like hoveringoff the edge of a cliff with a severe case of vertigo and no one to hold onto.

The CASE Act: Coming to a Ballot Near You!

2011-11-30T08:52:00.001-08:00

Becausethe California State Legislature just doesn’t get it, a new, powerfulinitiative is being prepared for the November 2012 California general electionballot. The Californians Against Sexual Exploitation (CASE) Act will strengthenpenalties against human trafficking and update Megan’s Law for the 21^stCentury. I am calling on the good citizens of California to support the CASEAct. Californians are very clear about where they stand on criminal justice andvictims rights issues and the CASE Act is yet another opportunity to make goodpolicy.

In1994, the Three Strikes and You’re Out ballot initiative (Proposition 184) passedoverwhelmingly because the law abiding citizens of California were sick and tiredof coddling career criminals. The result was a dramatic reduction in crime. Effortsby professional politicians to weaken the Three Strikes law have failedmiserably. Jessica’s Law (Prop. 83) passed by a similar margin in 2006, becauseCalifornians wanted greater monitoring of sex offenders and harsher prisonsentences for child molesters.

Californiansalso enjoy some of the most expansive and forward thinking victim’s rights inthe USA because of voter demands. In 1982, Californiavoters passed the country’s first Victims Bill of Rights (Prop. 8) that, amongother things, granted crime victims the right to be notified of, to attend, and to state theirviews at, sentencing and parole hearings. Marsy’s Law (Prop. 9), which waspassed by voter initiative in 2008 expanded upon those rights by adding newprotections and safeguards for victims of violent crime.

Two overlooked areas of concern addressed by theCASE Act are human trafficking and online predation. The CASE Act will increaseprison terms for human traffickers and increase fines for human traffickers upto $1.5M to fund victim services. It will remove the need to prove force toprosecute sex trafficking of a minor as well as mandate human traffickingtraining for law enforcement. Sex traffickers will be required to register assex offenders, and all sex offenders will be required to disclose internetaccounts and identifiers. Finally the CASE Act will prohibit the use of sexualhistory to impeach or prove criminal liability of trafficked victims.

Accordingto the Trafficking in Victims Protection Act, which was signed into law byPresident George Bush in 2000, human sex trafficking occurs when, “a commercialsex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person inducedto perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.” Between 1.6 and 2.8million children run away annually in the U.S., half of which are girls. Within48 hours of hitting the streets, one third of these children are lured orrecruited into the underground world of prostitution or pornography. Theaverage age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12-14. Forboys, the entry age is 11-13. These harrowing statistics provide broadjustification for the CASE Act, because to turn our backs on the tens ofthousands of children being trafficked in California is simply another form ofvictimization.

Sexoffender registration and community notification, otherwise known as Megan’sLaw was adopted by all 50-states in the late 90’s. Megan’s Law is based onthe premise that convicted sex offenders pose a threat to society and that thepublic deserves to know when they are in the community. When Megan’sLaw was enacted the Internet was not the ubiquitous presence that it is today.The CASE Act requires registered sex offenders to provide Internet emailaddresses, social networking profiles and other online identifiers so thatsocial networking sites can scour relevant profiles from their onlinecommunities. The concept of convicted sex offenders including their Internet identifiersas a component of the sex offender registration process was successfullylegislated in New York in 2008 and has thus far been responsible for removingmore than 24,000 sex offender profiles from social networking sites.

I have joined CASE Act authorsCalifornia Against Slavery and the Safer California Foundation to get thisimportant measure on California’s 2012 general election ballot. We know that inthe United States predators are fulfilling their voracious appetite for underageprostitution with at-risk American teen aged children. This is a stain on oursociety. We also know that we can stop sexual predators from using the Internetto prey on innocent children by closing the Internet loophole of anonymity viathis administrative procedure. Since the California State Legislature isunwilling to take these reasonable steps to create safe streets it is left tocitizens like you and I to take control of our own future.

Do you want to help make the CASE Act areality? If you live in California youcan lead a groupof volunteers in your community by helping to gather the 750,000 signatures requiredto qualify the CASE Act for the 2012 ballot. You can also host a house party toraise awareness and raise funds; or create and conduct your own fundraisingevent. If you run a nonprofit agency or are sworn member of a law enforcementagency you can endorse this important and groundbreaking initiative. Act now toget in on an effort to create a safer and better California byactively supporting the CASE Act.

Where Have All The Children Gone?

2011-11-23T11:48:00.001-08:00

I approach Thanksgiving with mixed feelings. On onehand it reminds me of the family that I no longer have and that makes me feelsad and self-pitying. Thanksgiving also means getting together with family,whatever that happens to mean, and engaging over a sumptuous feast and thatmakes me feel optimistic and hopeful about the future. However, I cannot shakethe feeling that there are missing children who have been forgotten ordismissed by society who will not have an opportunity to break bread with theirfamilies this year and members of those families are at best complacent aboutthis sad turn of affairs.

In Gilbert, Arizona the mother of five-year-old Jhessye Shockleyhas been arrested on child abuse charges “directly related” to little Jhessye,and the authorities don’t believe they’ll find the child alive. This shouldn’tcome as a surprise because the mother has already spent four-years in a penitentiaryfor child abuse. What is surprising is that she had custody of Jhessye, threeof her siblings and was eight-months pregnant at the time of the little girl’sdisappearance. How could a racist spewing, child abusing ex-convict who wasmarried to a registered sex offender gain control over a precious five-year-oldgirl who required nurturing and not torturing. Society failed to protectJhessye from a monster.

Weneed to own this. We cannot allow unfit parents or guardians to regain custodyof children in the aftermath of a history of abuse, criminal behavior andneglect. Our tax dollars pay the family judges, child protection services andother entities designed to protect children from those who would do them harm,yet they are nowhere to be found when they are needed most.

InKansas City, Missouri the parents of baby Lisa Irwin have circled the wagons, shutout the authorities, and refused to do media interviews because life isn’tfair. Instead, they have chosen to allow a ‘defense’ attorney from New Yorkorchestrate a sham campaign designed to complicate the truth. Now the case islosing momentum, the investigation seems stalled in its tracks, and hired gunsare calling the shots. Baby Lisa deserves way more from her family.

I learned a long time ago that life is not fair. Wedon’t get what we deserve and we cannot withdraw goodwill from a savingsaccount. Sometimes we find ourselves thrust into situations that are beyond ourcontrol without the skill set required to respond effectively. Sometimes shithappens…and just we have to deal with it. If the parents of the missing childare not publicly fighting for her return, then how motivated will the rest ofus be? Baby Lisa’s parents have not owned their reality. They are not dealingwith it, they are hiding from it. The bottom line is that Lisa has missed herfirst birthday and will not spend Thanksgiving with her family.

In Bellevue, Washington the mother of two-year-oldSky Metalwala is nowhere to be found. Remember that early on the morning ofNovember 6, her car ran out of gas as she was taking her sick child to thehospital. So, she left the toddler strapped in his car seat, left the car doorunlocked and walked a mile with her four-year-old daughter to the nearest gasstation. When she returned an hour later the little boy was missing, promptinga massive search effort that has thus far turned up nothing. Funny thingthough: the car had plenty of fuel in the gas tank, and she did not return witha gas can. The little boy disappeared, or was reported missing four days aftercontentious divorce mediation. In 2010, mom was involuntarily committed to a mental health center afterher husband claimed she had dreams about killing her children. Shealso has a profile on a ‘sugar daddy’ website where she is apparently offeringherself to the highest bidder. In response Sky’s mom has said that her husbandwas a "sadistic Muslim Pakistani" and no one had "any idea"how "difficult" the whole affair had been. Dad, who hasattended a local Christian church since 2006, has fully cooperated with theauthorities since day 1. Trouble is, he is not going to spend Thanksgiving withthe little boy the courts refused to allow him to visit.

Certain bio-moms and bio-dads seem to think that they can dispose oftheir children without consequence as long as they lawyer up and refuse tospeak with the authorities. Why does Sky’s mother feel that she can get awaywith this kind of criminal behavior? Because we live in a post Casey Anthonyera where criminal behavior is condoned, excused or otherwise justified.Silence buys freedom and the U.S. Constitution buys cover. If you can’t findthe body, you can’t prove the crime.

In light of Penn State and Syracuse Universityallegations we need to pay more attention to our institutions. Not onlyinstitutions of higher learning, but also those whose job it is to protectchildren from abuse, neglect and abduction. The National Center for Missing andExploited Children is the most high profile of those institutions. In fact theterm exploited children is in their name, but what exactly are they doing toprotect children who are clearly being exploited?

Are they writing legislation that will hold familyjudges accountable or make child protection services more responsive? Are theyeducating society to the danger signs of exploitation or abuse? As I see it,they are simply waiting until the ultimate abuse has occurred and postingpictures of children who are already dead or missing on their website? We oweit to our children to ask the hard questions and hold somebody accountable forthis obvious social failure.

Penn State's Shame

2011-11-18T10:47:00.001-08:00

Child sexual abuse is all sexual activity between an adult and child. Certain sexual activity between children is also sexual abuse.

In light of recent revelations surrounding the Penn Stateand now Syracuse University sex scandals, parents are rightly concerned aboutthe safety of their own children. After all, if we cannot trust institutions ofhigher learning to protect and not exploit our children, then who can we trust?Unfortunately, child sexual abuse has existed in the seamy underbelly ofsociety forever. Usually, we try to ignore it, but sometimes, and this is oneof those times, the revelations are so gross and disturbing that we must engagethe debate. What is child sexual abuse, what is being done to prevent it, aremy kids being abused, and how can I personally engage this issue?

The widespread institutional abuse of children has beencommon knowledge ever since the Catholic sex abuse scandal started receivingbroad public attention in 2001. Therefore, it should come as no surprise thatindividuals that want to abuse and exploit our children will seek positionsthat will provide them with unsupervised access to children. We see it in thenon-profit world, schools, pre-schools, churches, fraternal organizations andthe athletic field. This is why President Clinton signed the Volunteers forChildren Act of 1998. Now organizations and businesses dealing with children,elderly, and the disabled may use national fingerprint-based criminalhistory checks to screen out volunteers and employees with relevant criminalrecords. The Internet has provided a new virtual playground that needs to bethe topic of its own story.

Weshould be aware of the warning signs in children and adolescents of possiblechild sexual abuse. If very young children have knowledge about specific sexacts it is not age appropriate sexual behavior and warrants furtherinvestigation. The same goes with young children behaving sexually in publicplaces.

Behaviorsto watch for when adults are with children include: inappropriate touching,hugging, or kissing, particularly when the child resists. Secret interactionswith children also raise a red flag. When the adult seems ‘too good to be true’and offers to babysit, take your children on unsupervised outings, lavishesgifts or inappropriate praise, you have reason for concern. Signs that an adultmay be at-risk to harm a child include spending most of their free time withkids, and having a ‘special’ child friend that may change from year to year.

Signsthat a child or teen may be at-risk to harm another child include spendinginordinate time with younger children rather than peers, or forced sexualinteraction on other children. Also, children may be at-risk of harming otherchildren if they have not received appropriate counseling for their own abuse issues.

So,how do we as responsible adults combat the insidious onslaught of child sexualabuse in our own communities? Insist that groups and organizations thatyou interact with to have written and transparent policy guiding adult/child behavior.Support local non-profit organizations that deal with child abuse issues and reportinstances of suspected abuse.

Society needs to look upon this as a learning opportunity. TheCatholic Church has not yet recovered from their ongoing sex scandal becausethey did not respond appropriately. Instead of facing the situation head on,they tried to cover up, dismiss and deny sexual abuse in their own ranks. Tothat end, their standing in the world and the faith based community remainstainted. Were it not for their ubiquitous position and unprecedented wealth theCatholic Church would not have survived their shame.

Any individual involved in the cover-up of child sexualabuse at Penn State or any other institution of higher learning needs to beremoved from their position of trust and prosecuted to the full extent of thelaw. Society demands that the safety of children is the highest priority and thosethat abuse that trust must be held accountable. To do less is simply anotherform of child abuse.

In light of these new charges and allegations every school inAmerica now has the opportunity to evaluate their own internal policies. Theycan get ahead of the situation by sweeping their own records. How have theyhandled sex abuse situations in the past? Take a look at current allegationsand decide whether they have made the correct choices. If they take that stepthen the Penn State and Syracuse victims will at least have a legacy.

FCC Regulatory Action on Trucker TV Could Save Lives

2011-11-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

WhenNorth Carolina truck driver Beano Francis spotted a white Ford Escort headedsouth on Interstate 85 in July, he recognized the car from an “Amber Alert" and quickly notified authorities. Police say the West Virginia mandriving the car had "met" the 13-year-old girl online beforeabducting her and credited Mr. Francis for his fast action, but he was actuallyjust the latest trucker to answer a family’s prayers and help an abducted childreturn safely home.

It was big news, but professional truckers responding to AmberAlerts is actually fairly common – it was even the second success story inNorth Carolina in July alone. My family's introduction to the long-haul truckercommunity came when my daughter Polly was kidnapped in 1993 and the drivershelped circulate flyers far and wide. You rapidly realize that truckers are outthere on the roads and at highway rest stops, convenience stores, gas stations,and fast food restaurants where persons on the run frequently try to escape.

So it has been a bit mind-boggling over the past several yearsthat a broad-based alliance that includes the foundation we formed in the wakeof Polly’s murder, KlaasKids, has been unable to convince the FederalCommunications Commission to approve a proposal that would literally bringhundreds of thousands of new truck drivers into the missing persons loop.

The proposal we support has been made to the FCC by ClarityMedia Systems, LLC, a subsidiary of Flying J Inc., the company that owns andoperates all those Flying J travel plazas. Under U.S. Department ofTransportation regulations, commercial truckers must spend at least ten hoursor more per day resting. If the trucker’s cab becomes their “living room on theroad,” then those Flying J plazas are their community centers.

However, one service that truck drivers have never been able toaccess in their on-road living rooms is basic television. Clarity has proposedto change that by providing 70 channels of television programming, includingfive of its own locally-produced channels to entertain and inform truckers.This localized, low-powered system would reach truckers in these on-road livingrooms, effectively creating a video hot spot limited to within the truck-stopperimeter – but they need FCC approval.

Perhapsmost importantly for those concerned with missing persons, Clarity’s proposalincludes a Public Safety and Alert channel that will allow truckers to receivenews flashes, special reports, and full-length programming about unresolvedmissing person cases from local television stations, national cable andsatellite channels, and Clarity channels. And in addition to high-profilecases, the service will also feature lower-profile cases that may have failedto receive media attention, including missing adults excluded by their age fromthe Amber Alert system.

Weat the KlaasKids Foundation know firsthand the valuable role that informed longhaul drivers can play in fulfilling our mission to recover missing persons andlook forward to working with the Alert effort to highlight specific cases.

To many of us, this frustrating case just seems like such ano-brainer: It costs the taxpayers nothing; it provides professional drivers witha service they want and need; it saves lives. We will never know how manypeople might have been saved in the years this has languished in the FCCprocess, but surely it is time to allow Clarity to implement its proposal.

Let'sface it, we sure could use more of those trucking heroes like Mr. Francis inNorth Carolina. Families hoping for just such a miracle should not miss theirchance because of regulatory inaction.

Call Kurtis Investigates: Psychic Detectives « CBS Sacramento

2011-10-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

Call Kurtis Investigates: Psychic Detectives « CBS Sacramento

Baby Lisa and the Superman Syndrome!

2011-10-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

Baby Lisa’s parents have resisted the authoritiesattempts to re-interview Lisa’s half brothers, who were in the home when shewas snatched, saying they were concerned for the boys' well being. Tomorrow law enforcement will finally have anopportunity to re-interview the boys for the first time sinceshe disappeared on October 3 or 4. The boys, eight and five-years-old, have onlybeen interviewed for fifty and thirty-minutes respectively.

Wouldn’t it be to thechildren’s benefit to help solve the case rather than have suspicion focused onthe family and an evil mystery lingering over their heads forevermore? Little boys long to beBatman, Superman or Captain America. They fantasize about “saving the day” andrescuing the damsel in distress. Baby Lisa’s brothers will never have a betterchance to turn fantasy into reality than they have right now. They need to betalking about what they do or don’t know; trying to solve the case andunderstanding the evil that lurked within. Only then will they be able tomature knowing that they did everything that they could to help find theirlittle sister.

There are viable techniquesfor interviewing children that are gentle, non-invasive, and non-threatening. Originallydeveloped to draw out information from child sexual abuse victims withoutre-victimizing them, forensic interviewing of children has broad acceptance inthe criminal justice community. Typically, a specially trained interviewer willsit down with child in a comfortable, home like setting. Oftentimes interviews arevideotaped, and other interested parties including law enforcement,prosecutors, medical personnel and defense attorneys monitor the interview. Thisis to guarantee the interviewers objectivity, ensure that he/she employednon-leading techniques and that relevant case information was not overlooked. Thegoal of the interview will determine levels of victimization and elicitinformation that will stand up in court.

Baby Lisa and the Loss of Urgency!

2011-10-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

Baby Lisa’s parents have circled the wagons, hired a platoonof lawyers and consultants, and cut off communications with media and lawenforcement. Critical decisions are made by committee. Their other two childrenare off-limits to law enforcement, mommy’s story shifts and shudders, and hercommentary reveals more questions than it answers. Access to the house isrestricted and a cadaver dog picked up the scent of decaying human remains inthe master bedroom.

The abysmal choices and questionable behavior of baby Lisa’smom and dad have left them exposed. One result of their failure to eliminatethemselves as suspects in baby Lisa’s disappearance is that her parents arebeing tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. They and their representativesclaim that they are being scapegoated; that the authorities have to pin thecrime on someone and that the parents are the obvious choices.

However, there are too many law enforcement professionalswith too much experience from too many agencies for that to be true. The FBI,who has been involved since the beginning of the investigation has prioritizedmissing children since 1993. They have a written protocol and agents that arespecifically trained in missing child investigations. Given their standing inthe law enforcement community and the resource that they bring to bear onmissing person cases, it would be counterproductive and reflect badly on theagency to force blame on innocent and suffering parents.

No, I believe that the family’s failure has been home grownand nurtured with ignorance and bad advice. Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley’s choiceto allow others to make critical decisions relevant to their daughter’sdisappearance hinders the case and undermines their moral authority. It appearsas if their needs take precedent over the recovery of their daughter. It replacesa sense of urgency with a need for caution.

82% of all abductions involve a family member. Therefore, oncea child has been reported missing law enforcement is going to focus resourceand attention on family members. To do otherwise would be irresponsible. It isin the best interest of the child, the family and the investigation for familymembers to fully cooperate with the authorities so that they can eliminatethemselves from suspicion and allow law enforcement to focus on other possiblescenarios. That is what I did, and that is what hundreds if not thousands ofother parents have done when their child or children mysteriously disappear. Thatis not what baby Lisa’s parents are doing.

Can the U.S. Military Rescue Baby Lisa?

2011-10-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

MissouriGovernor Jay Nixon has called upon members of the 1139^th MilitaryPolice Company of the Missouri National Guard to assist in the search for LisaIrwin, who has been missing from her Kansas City home since October 4. Twenty-five membersof the unit have joined police in ground searches for 10-month-old baby Lisa. This is avery good sign as the military can contribute many disciplines and resources toa Search and Rescue operation.

I firstbecame aware of the military’s potential impact on missing persons when mydaughter Polly was kidnapped in 1993, during Fleet Week in San Francisco. This is the time of year when the U.S. Navy, including theBlue Angels, descends upon the San Francisco Bay to show off. During an appeal for search parties, many sailors and otherlocal military personnel volunteered their services. It soon became apparent that many of these highly organizedsoldiers had expert training in Search and Rescue operations.

The U.S. military is the best-equippedand trained search and secure force in the world, especially when force size isconsidered;
Units are constantly training in fielddeployment;
They utilize techniques and the mostadvanced communication, sensing and surveillance electronics available in theworld;
The military can rapidly deploy to themost inaccessible areas;
They have mobile secure communication;
The military has night vision and sensingavailability that is unsurpassed. They“own the night”;
The armed forces have a proven chain ofcommand that is non-jurisdictional.

Will babyLisa be found? It is still too early to say, but it is a big world and she is a little baby. However, the military’s involvement inher case is definitely an asset.

Baby Lisa's Private Eye: Asset or Liability?

2011-10-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

Baby Lisa is still missing, so a high profile Private Investigator has been hired on her behalf. Will his presence help, hinder or make no discernable difference in the investigation into Baby Lisa’s disappearance? Obviously, this question is not easily answered.

I hired a Private Investigator when my daughter was kidnapped. Hap Lipset came highly recommended and was an internationally known Private Investigator whose specialty was electronic surveillance. After initially offering to share Polly’s case information, the Petaluma Police and FBI reneged and left my investigator to his own devices. By the end of the investigation three-months later, the best information that Mr. Lipset was able to provide to me was that a local newspaper was preparing to do a hit-piece on me. I was able to correct the record with the newspaper before the article was published and forestall an erroneous, but possible uncomfortable episode.

Private Investigators can definitely contribute to and enhance a missing person investigation. They provide an extra set of eyes and ears. However, while Private Investigators may investigate criminal matters, they do not have police powers. They cannot arrest or detain suspects.

Unlike sworn police officers, Private Investigators are not bound by the Miranda warning. In other words, they do not have to advise criminal suspects that self incriminating statements may be used against them. They may bring years of experience and local knowledge to the investigation.

If your child is missing and you wish to retain the services of a Private Investigator, there are certain things that you should consider. Particularly given that the law enforcement agency in charge of the investigation will most likely refuse to share evidence or other case information. The background, experience, and area of expertise of the Private Investigator you are considering must be synchronized with the goal you are trying to achieve: the recovery of the missing child.

Private Investigator’s come in various shapes, sizes, backgrounds, levels of experience and expertise. In a missing child case you want a Private Investigator that has a law enforcement background and contacts within the jurisdictional agency. You want an investigator with personal knowledge of the community and you want an investigator with a background in missing persons. In an ideal world you want someone who has actually found missing persons. Therefore, you want a local man or woman that has hopefully retired from law enforcement and has adequate resources to end run official stonewalling to either obtain or verify case information.

In one case that the KlaasKids Foundation was involved in the family of the missing person was interested in hiring a Private Investigator. I recommended an individual whom I had known since 1993 when he worked Polly’s case as a special agent for the FBI. He was able to verify that the FBI was involved in the case and that the local authorities were conducting a viable and thorough investigation. He recommended that he continue monitoring the investigation and provide the family with regular reports. Although the family appreciated the information, they decided to go with a pro-bono grandstanding Private Investigator who was unable to keep any of his promises and had virtually no impact on either the family or the investigation.

The Private Investigator that has been hired to work Baby Lisa’s case is named Bill Stanton. Mr. Stanton is from New York and seems to specialize in executive protection, not missing persons: Strike One!. This morning Kansas City Police Capt. Steve Young said that Private Investigators have no more access to crime scene evidence than the general public: Strike Two! Mr. Stanton has told at least one media representative that he is not in Kansas City in his capacity as a Private Investigator, but rather as a consultant or a new set of eyes. Therefore, his mission is not clear: Strike Three!

The decision on whether or not to hire a Private Investigator comes down to a matter of value, time and resource. What value can the Private Investigator provide that will assist in recovering the missing person? In this case it looks like that Mr. Stanton is a stranger in a strange land who must begin at square one. That in itself is a liability. Time is critical in recovery. More than a week has already passed and we seem no closer to finding Baby Lisa than the day that she disappeared. What resources does the Private Investigator bring to the case? In this case a reputation for bravado, and an opportunity to fuel the media cycle for a day or two.

Baby Lisa is still missing and the longer this goes on the grimmer the prognosis.

KlaasKids Continues to Provide Child Safety

2011-10-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

The KlaasKids Foundation Print-A-Thon has been providing free Child Identification throughout the USA since 1994. Our oldest and most loyal sponsor, the St. Louis, Missouri based Dave Mungenast Auto Family has been hosting KlaasKids signature child safety event since 1996. This Saturday 10/15 marks our 15^th annual Print-A-Thon in St. Louis, MO.

The Print-A-Thon is a high energy child safety event that utilizes 21^st Century technology. KlaasKids fingerprints and photographs children, provides their parents with DNA Collection Kits, pro-active child safety information, and a nine-point-plan on what to do if a child disappears.

Always free to the public, the KlaasKids Print-A-Thon has been serving America’s families for more than a decade. Since 1994, the KlaasKids Print-A-Thon has fingerprinted and photographed more than 1,000,000 children at no cost to families and without data basing personal or private information. The Print-A-Thon is always underwritten by community minded sponsors like the Dave Mungenast Auto Family who wish to maintain safe communities and give back to their loyal customers.

The Print-A-Thon utilizes imaging systems originally developed for federal law enforcement agencies by Sentry Technology that integrate digitized computer technology to fingerprint and photograph children quickly without ink or film. Parents immediately receive an English or Spanish language 81/2 X 11 inch Bio-Doc® featuring forensic quality, magnified fingerprints, updated photograph, and blank form fields for personal and identifying information. The back of the Bio-Doc provides safety rules for kids, safety suggestions for parents, instructions for properly storing DNA samples using household items and the 9-step emergency plan. Since the Foundation does not database children’s personal or private information privacy is guaranteed. Parents receive the only existing copy of the “Bio-Doc”®.

On Saturday, October 15, KlaasKids will conduct Print-A-Thon’s at 4-separate Mungenast Automotive Family locations. KlaasKids is flying in our “A” Team to ensure that St. Louis continues to receive the high quality, professional Child ID service that Dave Mungenast and KlaasKids has been providing since 1996.

On event day one of our “A” Team coordinators will fingerprint and photograph children at each location from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm. Since it only takes between 1 and 2 minutes to serve each child, hundreds of families can take advantage of this free service during the course of the event. Because the Foundation utilizes computerized/digitized technology we are able to develop magnified, forensic quality fingerprints on children as young as 3-months old: a feat that no other system can duplicate. KlaasKids Foundation coordinators will answer child safety questions and distribute no cost child and parent safety information. Don’t miss out on this rare and unique opportunity.

Facilitating a Print-A-Thon is a win/win for all the parties involved. It allows our fantastic sponsors to fulfill social responsibility by creating safer communities. It provides parents with an opportunity to engage a safety dialog with their children in a fun and positive environment. However the biggest winners of all are the kids, because they receive tools that enable them to make choices and decisions that will help to avoid victimization in the first place. Individually, none of us has the power to effect profound change, but, by reaching out and linking arms, together, we can change the world.

I will travel to each location with kidnap survivor Midsi Sanchez to meet families, reacquaint with old friends and make new friends.

The Strange Case of Baby Lisa

2011-10-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

A possibly tragic but instructive situation is playing out in suburban Kansas City, Missouri right now. Initially, the case of baby Lisa Irwin garnered national attention, a massive multi-jurisdictional law enforcement response, and much sympathy for her distraught family. However, in the past 24-hours the case has changed dramatically. Baby Lisa’s case has deteriorated because her parents have made some terrible choices that have focused attention back upon themselves, and raised questions about their intent.

10-month-old Lisa Irwin was reported missing after her father came home from a late shift at work at 4:00 am last Tuesday morning. A distraught Jeremy Irwin said that, "the front door was unlocked, the windows were open, the lights were on and she (baby Lisa) was nowhere to be found." He also said that three cell phones had been stolen off of the kitchen counter.

An Amber Alert was issued at about 7:00 am on Tuesday morning. The Kansas City Police Department is the lead agency in the investigation. Two days after baby Lisa was reported missing her mother, Deborah Bradley said that the police TOLD her she had failed a polygraph exam. Police will neither confirm nor deny that this is true. A local television station reported that the parents have made a “deal” with national media and will no longerspeak with local media outlets.

Also on Thursday, after many hours of what seemed like nonstop questioning Lisa’s father told the police that he needed a break from questioning and asked if he could leave the interrogation room. Shortly thereafter law enforcement held a press conference claiming that the family had stopped cooperating, although the family disputes that claim.

When children disappear attention always falls squarely on the shoulders of the family. This is because 82% of all abductions are family centric. Therefore, the family has to answer all questions, regardless of how tedious they seem, until law enforcement is convinced that they are innocent of wrongdoing. Only then will law enforcement be able to focus their full attention on the other possible scenarios. Those scenarios include: other family members; friends and neighbors; peripheral contacts; registered sex offenders; and finally the most ominous scenario of all – stranger abduction. If more than 300 police, search and rescue professionals and FBI agents are dedicating all of their time in the case of the missing infant, then the parents should stay on the hot seat until they are cleared of suspicion. To put their own needs ahead of baby Lisa’s recovery is pitiful and shortsighted.

All kidnappings are local events. Certain cases, such as baby Lisa’s, draw national attention. Satellite and microwave broadcasting trucks appear as if out of nowhere as miles of cable crisscross the missing child’s neighborhood. Correspondents fly in and set up live shots across the street from the family home. We get breathless reports and updates every hour on the hour. In fact, cable news outlets have come to depend upon true crime stories to drive their ratings.

For a brief moment in time baby Lisa has fulfilled America’s obsession with true crime and a good mystery. However, if there are no new developments interest will be impossible to sustain. Eventually, national media will move onto the next crime de jour. Satellite connections will be broken, antennas will telescope back down, cable will be coiled and stored and the correspondents will climb into their rental cars and fly off to their next destination. Now, the only outlet for getting the word out will be the local media. And, how receptive will they be if they were snubbed by the family seeking wider attention on the national stage?

Kidnapping is local and times are tough. Law enforcement will investigate as long as tips come in and the investigation moves forward. But, unless the public demands their full attention they will drift off to other cases and other crimes. If the parents of the missing child are not front and center on the local television screen recruiting public support, the fragile coalition of trust that includes law enforcement, media, the public and the family can crumble like a house of cards.

As bad as it looked for baby Lisa after the Amber Alert was activated, it is beginning to look even worse now.

What I Know About the Death Penalty: Part 1

2011-10-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

I am unapologetic about my support of the death penalty because I do not believe that a majority opinion or the law of the land in 37-states and the Federal government requires apology of defense. Unfortunately, a public relations campaign waged by death penalty abolitionists has found such support in media circles that many people believe that our death rows are filled with innocent men and women who are denied due process as they are being led to the slaughter.

Since the days of Perry Mason, television has fed the public a constant diet of citizens accused and convicted of capital murders that they did not commit. Currently, the plethora of CSI series would have us believe that forensic evidence miraculously and regularly exonerates innocents as they rot in prison cells.

The wrongful accusation, conviction, imprisonment and execution of innocents is a staple of The Good Wife on CBS, which recently featured Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck and the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. The elegance of that particular case is that it is impossible to prove if Willingham truly was innocent as the Good Wife and Scheck claim, or was the remorseless arsonist who was executed in 2003 for torching his three young daughters in 1991. The point is that on these television programs forensics are always definitive, defense lawyers are never wrong, and innocent people are convicted, imprisoned and executed.

Of course, print media is complicit as well. Convicted killer Roger Coleman made the cover of Time Magazine on May 18, 1992 with the caption “This Man Might Be Innocent: This Man Is Due To Die”. Fourteen years after being executed DNA evidence proved that Coleman was guilty of murdering his sister-in-law.

The June 12, 2000 cover of Newsweek Magazine featured death row inmate Ricky McGinn. Again, the suggestion was that an innocent man was about to be executed. McGinn stated that DNA testing would prove that he didn’t rape and murder his 12-year-old step-daughter. Under intense media pressure Texas Governor George Bush ordered a 30-day reprieve. When DNA testing proved that McGinn was guilty beyond any doubt he was finally executed.

Wouldn’t you be surprised to learn then, that at the end of 2009 there were 1,613,740 prisoners under state and federal jurisdiction, yet less the total number of DNA exonerations for any kind of felony is less than 300? To date, despite years of parading remorseless killers as innocent victims the abolitionists and other death row apologists cannot definitively demonstrate that an innocent man has been executed.

The ultimate irony is that death penalty abolitionists crave the execution of an innocent man so that their indignation can run amok, while those who favor the death penalty pray that an innocent is never executed so that the fragile system of ultimate justice can be preserved.

Michelle Le Memorial Comments

2011-09-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

It was a summer of conflicting emotions and fast paced events.

When I first met the Le family they seemed isolated, desperate, and hopeless. Their precious Michelle had disappeared. The Hayward police said that she was a victim of murder, yet she was nowhere to be found. Ultimately, the family led by brother Michael, cousin Krystine, and uncle Eric rejected that premise and promised to spare no resource in rescuing or recovering Michelle.

What began in isolation quickly morphed into collaboration: first with KlaasKids and law enforcement; ultimately with the Buddhist Temple, Safeway, Websleuths, countless local vendors, media representatives and a dedicated cadre of volunteers. One might wonder what drove these diverse groups and individuals to reach out to this family that had gathered in solidarity from all over California and whom most of us had only just met.

Was it their refusal to go quietly into the night? Was it their willingness to unblinkingly look the devil in the eye? Or, was it the face of a seemingly lost soul smiling angelically from missing flyers on telephone poles, storefronts, and media reports. Perhaps it was all of these things, but maybe it was something even more. Maybe, just maybe we were nurtured by the grace of angels.

Events were scheduled and searches were organized. Michelle’s family found strength in fellowship and resolve in the solidarity of purpose. Timelines were established, evidence was analyzed, and strategies were devised. Search teams were dispatched, time and time again, with little regard for personal comfort as a larger purpose drove us all. We looked and looked and looked yet again, but try as we might the angelic face that smiled from billboards and late night dreams continued to elude our grasp. But it mattered not, for we had climbed onto the wings of angels as the bright light of informed choice overwhelmed the darkness of despair.

Searches continued and an arrest was made. The Hayward PD provided us with new information, fueling hope, but the truth continued to elude our grasp. And then, seemingly, another angelic intervention. On the last afternoon of the last scheduled search for Michelle, a dog with the namesake of another stolen child owned by the mother of that child, led us to a tragic conclusion. The search for Michelle was over. She can now be put to rest with the dignity and respect that all good people deserve.

It is now autumn, and soon the leaves will be falling from the trees.

Son, my heart breaks for you, because I understand the agony of losing a child to the forces of evil. However, I am here to tell you that time will give you the gift of being able to recover a life of purpose, meaning and love. Eric, your leadership and intelligence positioned you perfectly as an interim Incident Search Commander. I would follow you anywhere. Michael, when we met you were a boy, but today you view the world through the eyes of a man who has experienced more than his youth would suggest. And Krystine, you put a promising career on hold to hold onto a promise you made to your beloved cousin, and you can always take solace in the knowledge that it was a promise kept, though not as you would have wished.

The experiences that you have recently suffered have the ability to sharpen your focus and make you stronger, better people than you otherwise might have been, because now you are guided by the spirit of angels.

You might ask how I know these things to be true. The answer is simple: the angle on my shoulder has told me that the angel we were seeking was guiding us all along.

Big Reward for Bad Behavior

2011-09-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

The other day I sat in a satellite uplink studio in San Francisco with an earpiece in my ear and a microphone clipped to my lapel, staring at a camera lens during a taping of the Nancy Grace Show. 2,854 miles away in Orlando, Florida Drew Kesse, the father of Jennifer, a 24-year-old woman who has been missing since Jan. 24, 2006, was sitting in a similar room, wired up in a similar fashion, during the taping of the Nancy Grace Show. The Topic of the program was Dr. Phil’s interview with Casey Anthony’s parents George and Cindy.

A week earlier Drew Kesse came out swinging. He called the Anthony’s “a disgrace and an insult to every missing person and their families,” and Dr. Phil “a pimp for (airing) this garbage”. I was looking forward to supporting Drew’s position on the program, but alas the opportunity was never presented. Therefore, I’d like to take a moment to explain why Drew is right, why Dr. Phil is wrong, and why the Anthony’s have outstayed their welcome.

Drew and I have some things in common with George and Cindy. Like the Anthony’s, we both experienced the loss of a loved one. My daughter Polly was missing for 65-days before her remains were recovered. Drew still doesn’t know what happened to his daughter. However, he does know that she was taken against her will and remains missing to this day. That’s pretty much were our commonalities with the Anthony’s end, because from the moment that both of our daughters disappeared we had only one goal: to pursue the truth in recovering our girls. We didn’t pursue celebrity or wealth. We were willing to do whatever was necessary, including turning in members of our own families to get our children back.

On the other hand, the Anthony’s wouldn’t know the truth if it kicked them in the butt. Their daughter Casey is apparently unable to tell the truth, and even if she did, how could you believe her? George and Cindy, as was demonstrated again in the Dr. Phil interview, are not only unable to acknowledge the truth, but continue to excuse and justify their daughter’s narcissistic, homicidal behavior.

During the interview Cindy said that grand mal seizures, a brain tumor and possible postpartum schizophrenia could potentially explain Casey’s behavior. I’ve never heard of seizures prompting murder, and according to the Psychologist on the Nancy Grace Show postpartum schizophrenia is a mental disorder that doesn’t even exist. No, the similarities that Drew and I share with the Anthony’s begin and end with the disappearance of our daughters.

Generally, the families of missing or murdered children struggle financially. In our single minded determination to recover our lost children we put other worldly considerations aside. Families give up incomes, or become too depressed to work. Medical and psychological costs can devour huge amounts of our savings. Failure or inability to attend to mundane bookkeeping can result in home foreclosures and or mounting debt. I am not complaining; I am simply stating the truth as I understand it.

According to all credible reports Dr. Phil did not pay the Anthony’s for the interview. Instead he donated nearly $500,000 to a “charitable organization currently being formed to honor their granddaughter called Caylee’s Fund.” Truth be told, Caylee’s Fund does not yet exist, therefore it is not a charitable organization, and therein lies the rub.

The Anthony family is handsomely rewarded for abysmal behavior. Casey gets away with murder, George and Cindy lie and parry and deny the truth, yet they receive a huge payoff from a daytime TV program seeking sky-high ratings. Caylee is still dead and the truth be damned.

DOA: Megan's Law for the 21st Century

2011-08-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

John Gardner, the registered sex offender now serving a lifesentence for killing Chelsea King and Amber Dubois, last logged into hisMySpace account on Feb.24, 2010, the day before he murdered Chelsea King. Anemail account linked to Gardner’s profile was registered with MySpace; howeverthe social networking website did not know who he was or what he had done, sothey were unable to implement their zero tolerance policy toward registered sexoffenders. This is because Megan’s Law does not require California’s 123,821 registered sexoffenders to submit emailaddresses or other forms of Internet identification.

Megan’s Law is based on the premise that convicted sexoffenders pose a threat to society and that the public deserves to know whenthey are in the community. Since Megan’s Law was signed into law andimplemented in 1996, all 50-states have registered individuals convicted offelony sex crimes. Law enforcement collects personal, private and identifyinginformation from the registered offenders. They then release some of thatinformation to the public so that we can use it to protect ourselves from knownthreats in our neighborhoods. Law enforcement maintains all of the informationcollected from registered sex offenders in secure databases so that it can beused for investigative purposes.

This system served society well until communities expanded beyond our streets and neighborhoods to include Internet based social networking sites. Until social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace have an effective mechanism to monitor registered sex offenders they will continue to exploit the Internet’s anonymity and troll for victims in online communities.

California Senate Bill 57 (SB-57) would have updated Megan’s Law by requiring registered sex offenders to provide law enforcement with their email addresses and other Internet identifiers. Social networking websites would then be able to use that information to monitor or scrub registered sex offender profiles from their online communities.

SB-57 is based on legislation passed in New York in 2008. The Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP), which was sponsored by New York Governor, then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, has thus far successfully removed more than 24,000 social networking profiles belonging to registered sex offenders. SB 57 is also consistent with the federal KIDS Act of 2008, which requires sex offenders to provide email addresses as part of the state regulations.

Unfortunately, this important legislation was placed on the suspense file in the Assembly Committee on Appropriations where it died. The official reason that SB-57 was placed on suspense is that it was thought to be too costly for California to administer. However, in reality SB-57 only required a new form field to be entered onto an existing database. And, compared to the millions of children who would have been protected from the lurid advances of Internet predators like John Gardner who use social networking sites, minor administrative costs are inconsequential.

As has been demonstrated so many times in the past few years, government has failed us yet again. The fate of SB-57 was in the hands of Assembly Committee on Appropriations Chairman Felipe Fuentes (D-San Fernando Valley). Chairman Fuentes had the power to remove SB-57 from the suspense file and put it to the committee for a vote, where it surely would have passed, yet he failed to do so.

We have lost our opportunity to drag Megan’s Law into the 21^st Century. Instead children who use social networking sites remain at risk of being victimized by known sexual predators. Our elected leaders have made a stark choice. The safety of California’s children is not a priority.

A New Concept: The Polly Center

2011-07-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

Brad's Suburban

KlaasKids strives to remain on the cutting edge of child safety. To that end, on July 23, 2011 we introduced a revolutionary concept in child abduction and exploitation response. The Polly Center, located in Pensacola, Florida is a proactive missing child resource center. It was created to provide a preemptive response network to serve families of missing persons. This regional resource center will also provide abuse prevention programs for children and services for victims of exploitation.

Responding to a missing person case is akin to communities responding to natural disasters. When a 911 call is placed reporting a missing person, the response must happen very quickly as time lost can be critical and even life threatening. So it is with natural disasters: communities must respond from the ground up. Currently, most communities have an emergency disaster response plan which consists of pre-planning and the identification of resources necessary to respond to a give disaster. The Polly Center will mirror that approach as it applies to missing person and human trafficking cases.

The concept behind the Polly Center is based on events that happened and surrounded my daughter Polly’s case in 1993. The entire community of Petaluma: business; churches; individuals; fraternal organizations all came together to assist in building the search effort for Polly. For the past 18-years KlaasKids has been responding to communities that are grappling with predatory or highly suspicious missing child cases. However, each time that we respond we have to invent the wheel all over again by locating relevant resources. With the Polly Center much of that work will already be in place and resources will be put on alert to respond as necessary.

A preemptive response plan includes creating key partnerships with law enforcement, businesses, civic organizations and churches willing to participate during the search for a missing person or willing to assist in the rescue and recovery of victims of exploitation these partnerships allow the Polly Center to create a response framework prior to a missing response or rescue attempt.

Currently, we have the support of local authorities including the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

Several agreements have been established with key organizations. California based BeyondMissing will provide parents with a parent flyer tool. They will be able to upload pictures, fill out form fields and quickly create a professional English or Spanish language missing child flyer that can be shared via fax or email. The Florida Coalition against Human Trafficking will provide assistance in identifying and placing victims. The Gulf Coast Kids House, a Children’s Advocacy Center, will provide services to child abuse victims. Area Search and Rescue teams will provide professional services in the search for missing persons

The Polly Center is the brainchild of Brad Dennis, the KlaasKids Foundation National Director of Search Operations. Brad, who has more than 25-years of experience in search and rescue and crisis management, has managed search efforts for more than 180-missing and exploited children throughout the United States, including the community assisted search effort following Polly’s 1993 kidnapping. Most volunteer search protocols currently being used were developed by Brad during the search for Polly.

If KlaasKids finds success with the Pensacola based Polly Center we intend to replicate the template throughout the United States. We know that such an ambitious vision will be difficult to implement and will take time, but we believe that our children are worth it. Don’t you?

Why America's Long Haul Truckers Deserve TV Service

2011-07-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

This evening Nancy Grace made a call to action to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency that regulates broadcast media, to grant a license so that America’s vast long haul trucking community could at long last be able to watch a suite of television options during their federally mandated rest stops. Climb on board and demonstrate your support of this important initiative by letting the FCC know how you feel.

Since 2004, the KlaasKids Foundation has been aggressively participating in a case at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington, DC. KlaasKids wants the FCC to approve a proposal that will unleash major resources for the cause to recover missing children and adults at no cost to Government. The case has suffered from prolonged delays, and we need your voice to arouse the FCC from its slumber and jar it to action.

The proposal we support has been made to the FCC by Clarity Media Systems, LLC, a subsidiary of Flying J Inc., the company that owns and operates hundreds of Flying J travel plazas across the country’s highways. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires America’s 2-million long haul truck drivers to spend 10-hours or more per day resting. Flying J provides a variety of vital services to long haul truckers making it a popular and viable rest destination. However, one service that truck drivers have never been able to access is basic television service. Clarity has proposed to provide 70 channels of television programming – local stations, national cable and satellite channels, and its own specially originated program channels to entertain and inform long haul truckers during federally mandated rest stops.

In other words two million people, four million eyes that could immediately respond to word that a person is missing and seek to locate them are not getting that word. Clarity’s proposal will enable these drivers -- who are out on the roads and at highway rest stops, convenience stores, gas stations, and fast food restaurants where persons on the run frequently go – to receive news flashes, special reports, and full-length programming about unresolved missing person cases from local television stations, national cable and satellite channels, and Clarity channels.

Of particular note, Clarity proposes to originate a special Public Safety and Alert Channel that will focus on the plights of missing persons. With my assistance, programming will be produced to highlight high profile cases like the disappearance of Morgan Harrington from a concert at Virginia Tech University on October 20, to low profile cases that failed to receive media attention to missing adults who are excluded by their age from the Amber Alert system. Clarity will make this special channel the default channel that every truck driver sees when he turns on the television set while at rest in his cab and that plays continuously in the common areas of the highway travel plazas.

I know firsthand the valuable role that informed long haul drivers can play in fulfilling our mission to recover missing persons. When Polly was abducted, the long-haul driver community made a point to circulate her poster broadly in the hope that she could be recovered. Had the service that Clarity proposes been available when Morgan Harrington disappeared from a rock concert tens of thousands of long-haul drivers in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, DC, Maryland and other surrounding or regional states could have been alerted and on the lookout for her immediately following her abduction. Instead, her whereabouts remain unknown without this effort even being made. There are thousands of similar examples.

In short, with Clarity’s programming in the cabs of their trucks and at their rest stops during their government mandated rest periods, professional long-haul drivers will become an army of millions of law-enforcement-minded first responders to disseminate vital information to their colleagues, apprehend abductors, and recover our missing dear ones.

Please add your voice to the wake-up call that we will soon be sending to the FCC demanding that it stop sitting on this important case and approve Clarity’s proposal. To do so, please select this link, type in your own words the reasons why it is important for the FCC to act immediately to make this public safety service a reality, and return to me. We will bring your words to the direct attention of the FCC Chairman and Commissioners right away.

Social Networking and Missing Kids

2011-07-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

Not every parent has the good fortune to have their missing child profiled on television or in nationally distributed magazines. Most families must find other ways to raise awareness and distribute information about their missing children.

Social networks have a reach that extends around the world with hundreds of millions of profiles, and the ability to embrace causes. These invaluable resources provide no-cost opportunities that were inconceivable when Polly was kidnapped in 1993.

If your child is missing, you can take advantage of opportunities available from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube.

These free sites enable you to create informational profiles of your missing child. You can post articles, photographs, testimonials, blogs, and videos. By organizing your profile and editing content to create a compelling presence, you can link and interact with vast networks of individuals and organizations interested in your issue. Cross-pollinating with true crime websites like Websleuths provides you with allies who are dedicated to maintaining interest in and solving ongoing cases.

A Southern California mother whose two children were reported missing 15 years ago tracked them down in Florida using Facebook. The children’s father had taken off with them in 1995 when they were still toddlers, but in March 2010 the mother found her daughter’s profile after searching for her name on the social networking site. My friend Robert McConnell used Facebook to locate his daughter, who was illegally kidnapped to Indonesia by a noncustodial mother in 2003. Personally, I regularly use my Facebook profile picture to post photos of America’s missing.

Child abduction is a big problem in China, with thousands of children disappearing each year. According to the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, as many as 1.5 million children are beggars. Most of them have been forced into servitude and many of them are kidnap victims. A viral Twitter (Weibo) campaign, launched on January 25 by social scientist Yu Jianrong, encourages citizens to post photos of child beggars and compare them with photos of missing children. More than 220,000 netizens responded and so far six children have been reunited with their families.

In an unrelated case, 33-year-old Peng Gaofeng recovered his son who was kidnapped in 2008 through a micro blog. When law enforcement efforts proved futile, Peng posted his son’s picture on Weibo. A newspaper reporter tweeted about Peng’s micro blog campaign to his 110,000 followers. It was reposted more than 5,000 times before a citizen compared the missing boy’s photo to a child who looked just like him. It turned out to be the same child. The reunion video posted on the Internet became an online sensation and captured the attention and respect of authorities.

Of course, liabilities do exist. Information may not be accurate or time sensitive. A visible time stamp on missing flyers will mitigate social networking shortcomings. Outdated information posted on social networking sites can be distracting. Time and resources are wasted when misinformation passes from hand to hand – Particularly if the case has been resolved. Before information is distributed it should be verified with Law Enforcement or National Crime Information Center.

Overall, the assets outweigh the liabilities. The Internet empowers the families of missing persons. With new and innovative applications constantly in development, the possibilities inherent in social network websites and other online innovations are limited only by our imaginations.

A Father's Hope

2011-06-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

KlaasKids has been helping the family of missing nursing student Michelle Le ever since her case was reclassified as a homicide. For the past two weeks we have offered advice, counsel, experience and our hearts as the family struggles to reconcile fear and confusion with a desire to recover their daughter. Today is the third day of the Michelle Le volunteer ground search, and despite my misgivings that anybody would show up early in the morning on Father’s Day, we have already dispatched more than 90-volunteers and it is not yet 9:00 am.

Instead of waiting helplessly for 26-year-old Michelle’s case to run its course, the Le family decided to become pro-active, and that’s when they called KlaasKids. KlaasKids Search & Rescue Director Brad Dennis flew into San Francisco from his home base in Pensacola, FL last Wednesday night to organize and facilitate the search effort. We instructed the family to secure a facility that could be, used as a staging area, to send a press release requesting search volunteers, and to keep an open line of communications with the jurisdictional law enforcement agency, the Hayward, CA Police Department.

Our design is to create an infrastructure that will endure beyond our departure. To that end, we have been training family members as we dispatch volunteers. It is an enormous task, because there are so many moving parts including, but not restricted to: indoor staging locations with electricity, adequate parking, and plumbing; map acquisition and office supplies; projector for PowerPoint presentation; bottled water and food; administration and media relations; volunteers and directors.

So, here it is 10:00 am and we need to vacate this building within the next two hours. More than 100-searchers are in the field and all need to be de-briefed upon their return. Brad is flying back to Pensacola tomorrow morning and the search will be put on hold for at least a week. Where it goes from here is anybody’s guess, but have confidence that Michelle’s family will rise to the occasion.

Personally, I get great satisfaction from a job well done. There are many missing persons in the San Francisco Bay Area, but the only one people are talking about is Michelle Le. Coverage of her disappearance has dominated local television and radio. Approximately 450 volunteers have responded over the past three days and we have eliminated many high probability search areas. We have created a strategy for the future and the Le family understands the dynamics of our operation.

Will any of this bring Michelle home? I don’t really know. However, I do know that without KlaasKids involvement and our mentoring things would have gone quite differently for her family. Now, they have the tools to match their determination. They have the infrastructure to support their need. And, they have the structure to support their vision.

Casey's Eyes!

2011-06-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

The Anthony women have pretty eyes. Like her mother before her and her daughter for a brief moment in time, Casey’s large almond shaped, blue-green eyes once held an alluring quality. They drew women to her side and men into her bed. They seemed to express joy in portraits and candid shots taken with her daughter, little Caylee. They even captivated a lawyer, who waded into the deep end of the pool before he realized that he didn’t know how to swim. Now Casey’s eyes stare straight ahead, toggling between occasional bursts of anger and lifelessness as real as the little girl in the duffel bag that she tossed into the swamp.

When young Casey decided to escape reality and depend upon deception and ploys to achieve her goals, her eyes kept her secret. When she was with friends they expressed carefree desire, and when she was with her family they were guarded. However, now that the details of her deceit are being revealed one after the other, her eyes have finally betrayed her evil intent. The jury, sitting mere yards away, on the opposite side of the courtroom, cannot avoid the blank stares as her world unravels. The unblinking lens of the television pool camera transmits every blank expression around the world before she can hope to wipe away the next non-existent tear.

If eyes are truly the window to the soul, Casey is in deep trouble. Instead of shining brightly Casey’s eyes are absorbing the light, turning the courtroom into a dark chamber of her tortured heart.

Like a vampire caught in the bright light of a desert noon, Casey has nowhere to hide.

Double, Double Toil and Trouble; Fire Burn, and Caldron Bubble

2011-06-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

When lies roll off of a tongue as easily as water runs downstream, and those lies convince you that water actually runs upstream, you know that you are dealing with an accomplished liar. When the details of those lies are intricate, multi-generational and occasionally grounded in reality, you know that you are dealing with a master manipulator.

Casey Anthony had distilled a fantasy life that suited her purposes: she didn’t have to work, she had few responsibilities; and she had a circle of ever changing hot-body friends that would host her at trendy nightclubs and in-house parties.

Life was not perfect however. The carefully crafted happy, no sweat, no worry demeanor that she displayed to friends turned bitter and resentful in the home she shared with her family. Casey seemed in constant conflict with her mother, avoiding real issues through fabrication and deceit in order to secure a roof over her head and stability in her life.

Little Caylee, the daughter that her mother Cindy pressured her not to put up for adoption hampered her lifestyle and further exposed her shortcomings as a tug of war for the affections of the toddler erupted between mother Casey and grandmother Cindy. As much as she needed her family to manage the necessities of life, she needed her freedom to enjoy "La Bella Vita".

This bubbling cauldron of desire, deceit, resentment, and need brewed a toxic concoction that would expose a family’s twisted psychology, naked desires, unholy bonds and homicidal tendencies.

Sex, Lies and Videotape

2011-06-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

The environment of emotional overload in the Casey Anthony murder trial has been replaced by an atmosphere of objectivity as law enforcement testimony begins. Emotion has been replaced by reason, and investigative clarity has trumped obfuscation. Lies are amplified even more when they are repeated by the law enforcement professionals who interacted with the family. Now that the police are testifying it is becoming increasingly difficult to extend the abuse excuse for Casey Anthony’s behavior. For the time being, the case moves from the dysfunctional family dynamic to behavior, storyline and lies. Casey has free will, and her choices are her responsibility, regardless of the circumstances of her life.

The investigation concluded that Casey’s employment claims were false, that her litany of friends and associates, including Zanny the nanny, were fantasy, and that her convoluted explanation that, “I've been looking for her (Caylee) and have gone through other resources to try to find her,” is as ludicrous as it is disingenuous. Casey’s July 16, 2008 handwritten statement to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has proven to be a total fabrication. None of the persons named in the elaborate storyline even existed, and none of the events occurred. As the extent of deceit becomes more obvious one has to conclude that Casey Anthony has been exposed and that it is becoming increasingly difficult for her to hide behind the litany of lies that she has spent her adult life building.

How does the defense counter the wall of evidence that is being constructed by law enforcement? Since they cannot effectively impeach the institutions, they go after the individual investigators and attempt to dismantle the wall of evidence brick by brick by brick. They accuse the lead investigator Yuri Melich of unprofessionalism because he briefly blogged on the popular Websleuths true crime website. The judge didn’t buy it. Just like the big bad wolf in the Three Little Pigs, sometimes you can huff and you can puff, but you can’t blow the house down.

The Ultimate Betrayal

2011-05-31T21:48:00.000-07:00

The Casey Anthony trial is demonstrating something I have known for far too long: the great drama in the courtroom is not demonstrated through stunning revelations; instead it is demonstrated via raw, unfiltered emotion. An intimate drama played out in court as the final and defining 911 call was being played for the jury, the call made by Cindy Anthony only moments after learning that her beloved granddaughter had been missing for more than a month. Prosecution witness Cindy Anthony slumps in the witness stand doubled over in the agony of loss, grieving for the three-year-old granddaughter that defined her world as her recorded voice repeated, “I have a 3-year-old who has been missing for a month.” At the defense table, murder defendant Casey Anthony offered the jury a peek into the black void of her soul, betraying no emotion as her mother’s voice reverberates throughout the courtroom, “it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car.”

These are the kind of details that cannot fail to impress the jury.

Happy Birthday Colton Clark! Where in the world are you?

2011-05-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

I am given to introspection on this day before National Missing Children’s Day. Two separate but connected items crossed my desk this morning. While scanning our files I came across a flyer for 10-year-old Colton. An Amber Alert was not issued, but after 3-days of searches the Sheriff issued a Missing Child Alert. Colton’s whereabouts remain a mystery 5-years after the fact. Soon thereafter I received a letter from 10-year-old Dominic, whose modest donation demonstrated the giving and trusting nature of children and means more than he will ever know. One item was as heartbreaking as the other was heartwarming.

On April 20, 2006 at approximately 1:30 pm, Colton Clark disappeared from his adoptive parent’s home in Seminole, OK. On April 22, Seminole County Sheriff Joe Craig issued a BeyondMissing, Missing Child Alert to no avail. Instead of celebrating his fifteenth-birthday with his family today, Colton remains missing. Sheriff Craig believes that Colton is dead is based on a “gut feeling”, but there is no evidence that Colton is dead. Neither is there evidence that he is alive. Like so many before him, Colton Clark seems to have vanished off of the face of the earth. Occasional tips are still received, but they lead nowhere. As time passes, the leads become more infrequent as hope for Colton’s recovery diminishes.

Earlier today we received a handwritten letter from ten-year-old Dominic that stated in part, “I would like to help you help others and save kids lives”. The 3-one-dollar-bills enclosed overwhelmed me. Dominic, wise beyond his years, doesn’t realize that we don’t want his money. We want to protect him, not to take from him. Dominic’s gesture, so heartfelt and innocent, illustrates the impressionable nature of children, and the influence technology has upon their impressionable minds. Instead of spending Dominic’s generous donation we are going to frame it with his letter and hang it on the wall of our office as a reminder of our sacred promise to our children.

The world belongs to the children and we are only holding it in trust until they are old enough to take possession. For far too long the burden of child safety has been placed on the shoulders of the children. While it is important for kids to be knowledgeable and aware it is our responsibility as adults to ensure that every child has the opportunity to live in a safe and secure world. By addressing the escalating problem of crime we will attain our mission of stopping crimes against our children.

California Sex Offenders Have a Friend In Sacramento: His Name is Tom Ammiano

2011-04-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

OnApril 26, the CaliforniaAssembly Public Safety Committee waspositioned to do something quietly wonderful for California’s children. Insteadthey sent a loud and clear message that they are more concerned with the rightsof California’s registered sex offenders than they are about the safety of California’snearly 10-million children.

AssemblyBill 755 (AB 755) would havecreated California’s Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act,or CAL E-STOP, which would require sex offenders to register any internetservice provider to the California Department of Justice. The Departmentwould then provide this information upon request to third-parties, to allowthem to restrict or remove sex offenders from their services.

Sexoffender registration laws are necessary because: sex offenders pose a highrisk of re-offending after release from custody; protecting the public from sexoffenders is a primary governmental interest; the privacy interests of personsconvicted of sex offenses are less important than the government’s interest inpublic safety; and the release of certain information about sex offenders topublic agencies and the general public will assist in protecting the publicsafety.

Megan’s Law built a community notificationcomponent into already mandated sex offender registration laws. It is namedafter 7-year-old Megan Kanka who was kidnapped from her front yard, raped andbrutally murdered by a recidivist sex offending neighbor in 1994.

Communitynotification assists law enforcement in investigations; establishes legalgrounds to hold known offenders; deters sex offenders from committing new offenses;and offers citizens information they can use to protect children fromvictimization.

InCalifornia convicted sex offenders are required to register annually with locallaw enforcement. As part of the process they are required to reveal certain personaland identifying information. Internet identifiers such as email addresses andIM handles are not required simply because the Internet was not a factor in themid-90’s when sex offender registration and community notification laws werewritten. CAL E-STOP would have dragged Megan’s Law into the 21^st Century by adding a new form field tothe Megan’s Law registration form that will compel them to provide Internetidentifiers, so that that information can be used to protect children fromvictimization and exploitation.

Supportfor CAL E-STOP was as impressive as it was expansive. California lawenforcement associations, victim’s rights groups, and child advocacyorganizations among others stood solidly behind the proposed legislation.Facebook, which had never before taken a stand, publicly favored CAL E-STOPbecause they want to provide a safe environment for their vast community. Weeven had a letter from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Chief of Staffendorsing the intent of CAL E-STOP, which was modeled after a law in New Yorkthat has successfully removed more than 11,000 registered sex offenders fromFacebook and MySpace since 2009.

Oppositionincluded: Legal Services for Prisoners with Children; California Coalition forWomen Prisoners; California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, and the ACLU.

Withtheir 4 - 3 vote against CAL E-STOP, the California Public Safety Committee hasfailed to close the door on tens of thousands of registered sex offenders andsexual predators who will use social networking sites to prey on California’schildren. We now know that they have blood on their hands. What we don’t knowis just how much.

Creating Order out of Chaos!

2011-04-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

The two guiding principles that drive missing person cases are chaos and order. Chaos rules the family. Their precepts of normalcy are obliterated, and their faith is oftentimes challenged, as they are thrust into a foreign environment that defies logic and experience. Law enforcement, especially if the jurisdictional agency has limited experience investigating missing child cases, is also subject to chaos. Chaos reigns in the community as rumor and innuendo inevitably insert themselves and anonymous bloggers level outrageous theories or point accusatory fingers at family members. Finally, chaos is multiplied as the second wave of predators inserts themselves into ongoing investigations.

I can speak from experience that there is nothing to prepare a family for the disappearance of a child. Whether they are missing for ten minutes in a department store, or months during a lingering investigation, panic and fear quickly dominate our emotions. But, because of our experience, professionalism and issue knowledge the KlaasKids Foundation can be a stabilizing force after a family invites to search for their missing child.

One hopes that order dominates official efforts to investigate and solve the case. Fortunately, many if not most law enforcement agencies have missing child investigative templates or protocols to guide their efforts. Unfortunately, most law enforcement agencies have little to no experience in missing child investigations, and their best efforts can be chaotic at best. However, as State and Federal resources are drawn into investigations protocols, templates, and experience usually, but not always, increase exponentially.

Media is a wild card. In the rush to be first many media outlets throw caution to the wind and report rumor as fact. Or, they offer speculation and opinion as hard knowledge. When Polly was missing certain television reporters would breathlessly report that her remains had been found every time a dog bone was turned over. However, there are also media outlets that take a much more rational, cautious and deliberate approach to these troubling cases. Again, the approach is dependent upon experience, attitude, and a desire to be first as opposed to do the right thing. Personally, I believe that newspapers demonstrate the most restraint and usually provide the best overall service. That is because viable newspaper stories historically have depth based in knowledge. Conversely, the most damage can unusually be found on the blogosphere. After all, blogging requires zero experience, many bloggers exist under the cloak of anonymity, and they are not burdened by standards or ethics.

Then there is the world of non-profit agencies. We are the gray area between government and the private sector. Most non-profit child locator services exist to help the family. Although many NPO’s in our sub-category are founded with the best of intentions, not many survive long enough to pursue long term goals or intentions. Those unable to survive, and those numbers have increased these past few years, dissolve because of dissent from within, they are unable to achieve sustainable funding, or do not have the leadership and vision necessary to get beyond adrenalin driven emotional response to tragedy.

For more than 17-years the KlaasKids Foundation has worked very hard to bring order to our approach. We attempt to respond to all aspects of the missing child issue with professional standards and reason. We adhere to proven protocols, some of which we have developed and others that we have adopted from other agencies. We represent families as we seek the cooperation of law enforcement, community and media. In other words, we try to bring order and provide hope to families that are frozen in fear as they try not to seek salvation beyond hope.

Our most critical, difficult and sensitive work is always in the immediate aftermath of tragedy. We talk with families, offer counsel and resources and when necessary intervene with search and rescue resources. We must demonstrate to law enforcement that our participation will enhance their efforts, will remove responsibility from their overburdened shoulders, and that we can be trusted with a seat at the table. This kind of trust will never be assumed, but must be earned every time that we show up at the scene of the crime. Unfortunately, resistance has not decreased as our portfolio has increased. Therefore, we must continue to pursue the dual goals of bringing order to chaos, and assisting in the recovery of missing persons.

Assembly Bill 755: Online Safety Legislation in California

2011-04-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

In her continuing efforts to protect children from sexual predators online, Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani, in conjunction with the KlaasKids Foundation for Children and former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly, introduced on Friday Assembly Bill 755 (AB 755), the California’s Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act (E-STOP) legislation.

AB 755 will require convicted sex offenders to register their email addresses and online identifiers and service providers with the California Department of Justice. That information is then made available to social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook to assist them in removing sexual predators from their sites.

“I understand that MySpace and Facebook have long had policies banning sex offenders on their websites and they have routinely used state registries in the past to block thousands of convicts from joining.” stated Galgiani, “AB 755 will help with this labor-intensive process for social networking sites. I look forward to working with KlaasKids and Mr. Kelly on this important child protection legislation.”

“As a leader in child safety legislation, the KlaasKids Foundation realizes that few safeguards exist to protect children who use the Internet.” said Marc Klaas in a statement on Friday, “That is why we are proud to serve as a Sponsor of this bill authored by Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani that provides protection to California’s children who use Social Networking websites. By bringing a framework to California that has proven successful in New York, we can contribute to the safety of this dynamic virtual playground that has so greatly impacted society.”

At the end of 2010, New York State Attorney General Cuomo announced that Facebook and MySpace have removed approximately 11,721 profiles associated with 4,336 dangerous sexual predators registered in New York since the law was implemented in 2008.

First proposed by then-Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly in 2006, the E-STOP framework allows more effective policing and removal of sex offenders from online sites where minors may congregate.

"E-STOP's implementation in New York and the use of sex offender registries by Facebook, MySpace, and other sites have helped build a safer Internet by removing tens of thousands of convicted sex offenders from social networks. We need to upgrade our protection systems here in California. At Facebook, we led the way in supporting E-STOP and I'm excited to stand with Assemblymember Galgiani as we put the right framework in place to build a safer California for kids and adults alike" said former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly.

A Modest Proposal

2011-04-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Psychics don’t solve missing person cases, yet they insist upon injecting themselves whenever a missing person report reaches the media. Psychic saturation in a given case is dependent upon how widespread it has been reported, the amount of reward offered, and the location from which the person was reported missing. In other words, a case reported in suburban San Francisco will receive more psychic chatter than a case reported out of Western Texas. At best psychic involvement constitutes a distraction, at worst it diverts resources and delays resolution.

Psychics exploit family member’s fears and a desperate desire to know what happened. Psychics don’t have special insight; in fact their predictions tend to veer widely off the mark. They are either impossible to prove, or they tend to be so generic as to be useless. They may say that the missing person is dead and at the bottom of a body of water, or they may say that they see rolling green hills, a highway off ramp, and hear a babbling brook. Well you can’t check at the bottom of every body of water and the geographic description includes all of Northern California and beyond.

The temporary hope delivered by psychic predictions is dashed by the realization that they are inevitably wrong. Any other profession with a zero success rate would be acknowledged utter and hopeless failure, but psychics deny their reality and move onto the next case. Peer review doesn’t exist, but if it did, the baseline for judging and evaluating performance would be a continuum of total failure.

Psychic involvement could be curtailed if there was a consequence for inaccurate predictions, thereby allowing investigative resources to continue pursuing viable leads. One logical way to achieve this goal is to charge psychics for resources wasted when diverted to their unfounded predictions.

Obviously, families are not in a position to charge for this information because they are desperate for information, regardless of the source. And psychics can be very convincing through a combination of lies and fear. However, law enforcement is another matter all together. If the jurisdictional law enforcement agency secured a written promise from psychics that any resources diverted to their involvement in a case would be charged to them should the investigation prove fruitless, you wouldn’t find a psychic in America willing to sign on the dotted line.

The trickledown effect of this action might conceivably impact so-called psychic credibility. Once it became known that psychics are unwilling to put their money where their predictions are, they would be exposed for the frauds that they are. All of the relevant parties would be better served. Families wouldn’t hang false hope on mindless guesses and law enforcement wouldn’t have to distract attention away from a viable investigation.

If you don’t believe me just ask Shawn Hornbeck’s parents. In 2003, Browne claimed that eleven year old Shawn Hornbeck had been abducted by a very tall man with long black dreadlocks and a blue sedan, and that his body could be found near two large, jagged boulders in a wooded area about 20 miles southwest of Richwoods, MO. Shawn Hornbeck was found alive 4-years later. Sylvia Brown has never apologized for the agony that she put Shawn’s parents through.

Psychic Detectives & Other Nonsense

2011-04-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

Psychic detectives are the vanguard of a second wave of predators that also includes tabloid journalists, cheesy defense lawyers and photo-op politicians. They use tabloid newspapers and talk shows to boast about their accomplishments and predict success. They materialize whenever children are kidnapped and circle the cases like vultures on a fresh carcass.

They scan the media for the haunting eyes of desperate parents willing to do anything to recover their children and then they show up on your doorstep, literally or figuratively, to make the pitch. They claim to be on the cutting edge of communications, able to predict future events and reach into heaven and hell with their mind. They hold your hand, massage your psyche and convince you that the only thing separating you from their extraordinary gift is your money. However, some simply require airfare and living expenses, what we call a vacation. They seem to answer the prayer that ends the nightmare, but only if you can afford the ticket.

Frantic parents will do anything and they offer something, which is better than nothing. Few of us posses the resources to underwrite crisis, let alone psychic detectives so they should be reminded that a substantial reward awaits whoever solves the case and returns the stolen child.

Although that strategy eliminates most psychics, some maintain a foothold by appealing to superstitiously vulnerable family members. They make provocative predictions. In California, rolling hills, a road or highway, perhaps a building or a bubbling brook. In Arizona, sand dunes replace rolling hills and cactus substitutes the bubbling brook: In other words, they describe ninety-five percent of the geography of the western United States.

Psychic detectives do not posses supernatural insight, they do not converse with the missing or the dead, they never bring children home. However, their rambling predictions may have filled in enough gaps to pad their resumes and claim the reward.

A few months after Polly was recovered a psychic claimed that she solved Polly’s case on the television program Hard Copy. Not only was she using my daughter’s death to promote herself, but she also dismissed all of the wonderful people: police, media, and volunteers who worked so hard and tirelessly to locate my child.

In truth, that psychic detectives contribution to the case was counter productive. As always seems to be the case with psychic predictions, her interference created distraction. Law enforcement resources are diverted toward useless endeavors as phantom leads disappear into thin air. One cold and dark November evening many of us were lurking around somebody’s property because the psychic said that it held the key to my daughter’s disappearance. With the heightened sense of paranoia that already existed in the community that property owner would have been well within his rights to blow us away on the spot for trespassing. We were very fortunate that night, because although he did angrily confront us, he had absolutely nothing to do with the crime we were investigating.

In the end, and despite their protests, there is not even one case of a psychic truly assisting or solving a missing child case. It’s just smoke and mirrors. Their references do not support their claims and law enforcement cannot acknowledge their existence. Instead, their wishful thinking collides with your desperate hope and leaves you diminished.

Unfortunately, the next time a little child is kidnapped and mom and dad reach the end of their emotional string the vague, empty promises of the psychic detective will rebound off the stark walls of the missing child’s bedroom and a photo or toy will be palmed as the negotiations are engaged. It is inevitable: I predict it.

Fifty in Fifty

2011-04-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

Last week I was invited to participate in an interim HLN series that is scheduled for a daily, 10-week run. Nancy Grace: America’s Missing, proposes to feature 50 missing person cases on weekday evenings during primetime in an effort to generate the leads that might return the missing to their families. I thought it was a terrific idea and immediately agreed to participate. For years missing child advocates, the families of the missing and other concerned citizens have been hoping for a television program focused on this singular issue. Imagine my disappointment then when the vast majority of comments linked to a story about the program were scurrilous, petty and mean spirited.

I have been providing television commentary on missing children since October 1, 1993, the day my twelve year old daughter Polly was kidnapped from a slumber party in her bedroom. Although i totally appreciate these opportunities they have been ad hoc and have occurred in numerous formats, from local morning shows, to network newsmagazines, to staged reenactments. There has never been a program that dealt with this issue on a regular ongoing schedule. The episodic drama Without A Trace was popular for a few years. John Walsh has always featured missing kids on America’s Most Wanted and Larry King Live often highlited missing child cases. Unfortunately, Larry retired from television about a month ago. Nancy Grace has been the most passionate high profile missing persons advocate and she has featured hundreds of missing person cases on her program since it began running on HLN in February 2005.

There is no question that Nancy’s advocacy has had positive results. Last December a viewer in San Francisco recognized a missing twelve year old girl that had been featured on Nancy Grace and called the police. The case was solved and the girl returned to her family.

Strong advocacy raises the profile of any issue informs the public, and promotes solutions. Just look at the progress that has been made as it relates to the missing. In 1993, we didn’t have sex offender registration or community notification, now Megan’s Law has been adopted throughout our country. Back in the day, law enforcement didn’t have any protocols to deal with missing person investigations, now there are national, regional, and local protocols, not to mention the Amber Alert. When Polly was kidnapped, America had a turnstile system of justice that regurgitated the same high profile offenders again and again, who systematically committed crimes of ever escalating violence. Now we have truth-in-sentencing and three-strikes-and-you’re-out. Crime is down, violence is reduced and more missing persons are being recovered.

By the time the second episode of Nancy Grace: America’s Missing aired on Jan. 18, it became obvious that the show had struck a chord. Two of the missing children profiled in the first program had been recovered and a real time tip was phoned in as the show profiled Lindsey Baum, who has been missing since June 26, 2009. On the third show we learned that the maltreatment of children with disabilities is 1.5-to-10 times higher than of children without disabilities, and that immediate family members perpetrate the majority of neglect, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

The Associated Press story, reprinted in the Huffington Post, dealt with the substance of the new venture, but the comments it generated were inspired by anger and jealousy. The vast majority of the commentary completely ignored the issue or the fact that this limited series provides a long sought breakthrough for those invested in the plight of the missing. They paid no attention to the broken hearts, lost souls or desperate families who are pinning their hopes on the prospect of having a previously dead case profiled in primetime. They chose to ignore the fact that for many people this is an important issue and for some it is the most important issue. Instead they seemed to mock tragedy, advocacy, and hope. The people who read and comment on the Huffington Post consider themselves sophisticated, intelligent, socially and politically aware. However, at least in this forum, and there is nothing else upon which to judge them, are mean spirited, small minded, and cynical.

I used to think of my heart as a walnut, because for some years I lost the ability to cry. If that is true, then the anonymous posters on the Huffington Post must have hearts the size and consistency of a pomegranate seed: small and bitter with a hard core.

Where is Hailey Dunn?

2011-04-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Until Jan. 3, a week after she disappeared on December 27, 13-year-old

Colorado City, TX middle school cheerleader Hailey Dunn was classified as a runaway. Police Chief John Bevins declaration has been parroted by local media, most notably local radio station owner Jim Baum, who told the local NBC affiliate, "To tell you the truth, this is the first time, and I've been here 30 years, that we've had a runaway like this. It's so uncommon”. Calling a missing child a runaway has always been law enforcement’s fallback position. It allows them to defer responsibility and puts the onus of recovery on the shoulders of the family, because runaways are considered a family issue. This action also reflects an exaggerated and distorted sense of what is happening to America’s children.

A child who seemingly disappears off the face of the earth deserves our attention, not our indifference. Like Ashley Pond, Miranda Gaddis, and Lindsey Baum before her Hailey stepped out of her front door and vanished. She was headed, first to her dad’s house across the street from where she lived with her mom, and then to a girlfriends home to spend the night. She never arrived.

In McCleary, Washington ten-year-old Lindsey Baum was walking home from her girlfriend’s house on June 26, 2009 and is still missing. In 2002, on January 9, Oregon City, Oregon resident, twelve-year-old Ashley Pond disappeared after leaving for school. Her friend and schoolmate thirteen-year-old Miranda Gaddis vanished from the same location two months later, on May 8. Neighbor Ward Weaver was arrested on August 13. Ashley’s body was found buried under a concrete slab in Weaver’s back yard. Miranda was found in a box in his tool shed. Like his father before him, Ward Weaver sits on death row awaiting an execution that will never occur.

Hailey Dunn’s family, friends, school, teachers and other kids parents are the only thing that given this case traction. They took a stand and said, “Not in our community.” A temporary search center was established at the Colorado City Middle School cafeteria for volunteers wanting to help. They have saturated the community with thousands of flyers. An estimated 750 people, out of a population of about 4,000 turned out for a prayer vigil on the evening of Jan. 2. An anonymous reward that began at $1,000 for Hailey’s safe return has now been raised to $25,000. Members of the community created a Facebook page for Hailey, and many others, including me, have put photos of Hailey in their profile pictures.

The Police Chief said that all of the evidence points to Hailey being a runaway. However, there is no evidence, and his declaration is based solely upon statistics. She didn’t tell any of her friends that she was going to run away. She hadn’t threatened her parents that she was going to run away. Nobody saw her run away. She didn’t take anything with her. She had never before runaway. Thirteen-year-old Hailey Dunn was classified as a runaway due to a total lack of evidence, not the preponderance of evidence.

According to the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Throwaway Children (NISMART-2), considered to be the definitive publication on missing child statistics, “The total number of children who were missing from their caretakers in 1999, including children who were reported missing is estimated to be 797,500”. Of these 357,600 (45%) were runaway/throwaway situations. Therefore, if you conclude that a missing child has runaway you will be right about half the time. But, that does not mean that you turn your back on those children. Given what we know about violence in America and the challenges that our kids face, it is our duty as responsible adults to recover and help kids who have run away or thrown out of their homes.

The National Runaway Switchboard estimates that between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth runaway in a year. Half of all runaways are girls. Within 48 hours of hitting the streets, one third of these children are lured or recruited into the underground world of prostitution or pornography. The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12-14. For boys, the entry age is 11-13. Approximately 55% of street girls engage in formal prostitution. Of the girls engaged in formal prostitution, 75% work for a pimp. Per international definition children under the age of 18 who are exploited for sex are not criminals, they are victims and all victims deserve our attention and our assistance.

So, where is Hailey Dunn? We do not know, but we do care. We will seek her until she is returned to her family. Numerous law enforcement agencies including the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Department, the Mitchell County District Attorney, the Texas Rangers, and the Texas Department of Public Safety are involved in the search. We are Americans and Americans, whether we are Police Chiefs or common citizens, do not turn their backs on children in need.

Home for the Holidays

2011-04-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

During our whirlwind tour of Spain I took pains to avoid the news, preferring instead to live in the moment and focus on Spain’s rich heritage. Although Violet occasionally read the news online or watched BBC, the see no evil, hear no evil approach enabled us to take advantage of adventure, planned excursions, tasty food and complex wine.

For instance, we were unaware that our president had broken a core campaign promise by capitulating on tax relief for the wealthy or that our new Speaker of the House and his Senate counterpart were prone to tearful crying jags in contemplation of their own circumstances, not those of the public that they served. My free Holiday advice to Barak, John and Mitch is simple: Man up gentlemen, it’s a long and tough road ahead and America needs real leadership, not schoolyard shenanigans! Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Of course we knew about and toasted the recovery of kidnap victim Jean Marie Berlinghoff over plates of sumptuous paella, but with our minds still dwelling on the Iberian Peninsula and Christmas and New Years looming, we were ill prepared for immediate immersion into missing child cases.

The first one reached us the day after we returned, on December 15. A thirteen year old girl with medical issues did not return home from middle school the day before. It had been two days, her family was frantic and the local Sheriff was unresponsive, saying that it seemed a runaway. This has always proved a good excuse for law enforcement indifference as the sheer numbers of runaway children invites indifference. During a couple of consultations with the girl’s grandmother we decided to do the following things: blanket the already created missing child flyer throughout the community, including areas that a local runaway might frequent; focus upon the neighborhood where her best girlfriend and co-conspirator was thought to live, stakeout the neighborhood to see if anybody was removing the flyers and then follow that person home; and finally, continue to press the case through Facebook and other social media sites.

The next day was problematic. She was still missing, the Sheriff couldn’t be bothered and the family was concerned about a worsening medical condition and possible gang involvement. This time it was decided that media needed to be notified in hopes of embarrassing the Sheriff into action. By December 17, she had been located and returned home.

Also on Thursday the plight of a two year old boy was brought to my attention via Facebook. His non-custodial father had not returned him to his mother. The father was in jail and most of the activity surrounding efforts to recover the child were being conducted via social networking. I told the family that they should re-format the photo essay into a missing flyer, contact local law enforcement to establish that a report had been made, and contact NCMEC to get a flyer posted on their website. The child was recovered by early Friday morning.

KlaasKids did not play a big part in any of these cases. However, we did consult the families, make pertinent suggestions, help with strategies, offer moral support and make ourselves otherwise available. Being involved in three successful recoveries in a row is kind of like the kidnap equivalent of a hat trick. It isn’t even important how the children were recovered because all were recovered alive and returned home in time for the holidays. Maybe there is a Santa Claus after all.

The House of Horrors!

2011-04-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

The plan, although hastily conceived, was ready and it seemed like a good one. The shades were drawn making the house dark, because darkness was the preferred atmosphere. Latex gloves and a disposable plastic poncho were worn because it was a messy job. Goggles were secured to protect against flying bits. Two heavy duty trash bags were folded in the corner, on the other side of the toilet. The lid was down on the toilet to help contain the splatter. The gas chamber was topped off and the chainsaw was brought in from the tool shed. Once the job site was secured the bathroom door was closed, and although the house was otherwise empty, the hook lock was secured. After several attempts the saw roared to life. It was time to get busy.

She had been rented to the two men in exchange for a moderate amount of money. After all, times are tough, children aren’t cheap, and money is hard to come by. The men drank cheap whiskey and repeatedly raped the ten-year-old. When they were finally finished one of them, the leader, smacked her repeatedly on the head to stop the incessant sniveling. She stopped crying as she stopped moving. He wiped the sweat off of his brow with the tank top that he had been wearing for the past week and headed toward the living room. The other man, his brother, took the urine and bloodstained mattress outside and leaned it against the side of the house. A phone call was made and she was eventually removed from the premises.

The dark child was now the dead child. Ten-year-old Zahra Baker's body was dismembered and her remains concealed in a bed comforter and car cover, then discarded in a dumpster behind a grocery store. Her prosthetic leg was wrapped in a white trash bag and thrown in a dumpster at the Fox Ridge Apartments, and the prosthetic liner was discarded off the side of Christie Road, a few miles from where Elisa used to live. Zahra’s father Adam and step-mother Elisa dumped her mattress and box spring at a trash dump in Granite Falls. The little girl who had trouble walking fifteen yards had been scattered over a fifteen mile radius from her home in Hickory, NC.

She could have been saved, but not even the authorities seemed to care until it was too late. Elisa Baker did not disguise the fact that she loathed the ten-year-old one legged, deaf cancer survivor. Elisa Baker was no stranger to the North Carolina Department of Social Services. Numerous reports were made to the Department of Social Services and numerous investigations were conducted regarding the abuse of Elisa’s biological children from as far back as 1999. In July 2010 a report was made to the Caldwell County Department of Social Services that Alisa Baker had physically abused Zahra Baker, resulting in a black eye. Friends and neighbors saw the abuse as instance after instance has been documented on various television and newspaper accounts. Zahra was able to survive two bouts of cancer, but not the malignancy of her home life.

There are some crimes that are so cruel, so evil that words cannot describe them. Zahra Baker’s tragedy rises to that threshold. The house of horrors that Zahra Baker lived in was not a home, but was instead a torture chamber. That her sweet smile even existed seems a miracle when one considers the amount of abuse that she suffered at the hands of cruel caregivers.

Amber Alert Absurdity

2011-04-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

How many children do we have to lose before California and the rest of the nation admit that the Amber Alert is broken? On November 10, 2010, 44-year old Charles Berlinghoff disappeared with his 15-year old niece Jean Marie Berlinghoff without her parents’ permission. They have not been seen since. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) has steadfastly refused to issue an Amber Alert. They say that the case does not fit the criteria.

A convicted sex offender who hid his past from his family, Uncle Charlie suddenly reappeared after a decade long absence. In 2005, he exploited family ties and slithered his way back into younger brother Jake’s life. A bassist for metal bands in Los Angeles, Charlie would stay with Jacob and his teen-aged daughters during occasional visits to Northern California.

During his most recent visit Jacob intercepted a text message in which Uncle Charlie called 15-year old Jean Marie “baby”. When confronted Uncle Charlie became defensive. The brothers nearly came to blows before Charlie agreed that he would return to Los Angeles that day. Jake did not know that he would take Jean Marie with him.

Uncle Charlie left his open, half packed suitcase on the bed and drove off in his gray 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass with California plate 2DNX546. Many hours later, when Uncle Charlie had not returned and Jean Marie could not be located, Jake called Charlie’s cell phone. It had been turned off. The chase was on.

Charlie Berlinghoff is a dangerous predator who was convicted of indecent exposure in Shasta County in 1993. In 1998, he was charged with four counts of misdemeanor child molestation and one felony count of indecent exposure in Tehama County. On November 16, 2010 a $100,000 felony arrest warrant was issued for Uncle Charlie. He is wanted for detainment or concealment of a child from her father.

Despite repeated requests from the Shasta County Sheriff the CHP has refused to issue an Amber Alert. CHP spokesperson Fran Clader said that the disappearance, "Did not meet all the required criteria, which include the belief that the child is in imminent danger of serious injury or death".

Jean Marie is not out for a ride with her "cool" Uncle Charlie: He is a known sexual predator The popular teenager, who always keeps in close contact with family and friends took nothing with her when she left. "Baby" has been held against her will for more than two weeks now and has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. If this doesn't rise to the level of imminent threat, tha what case does?

Unfortunately, like Uncle Ernie in the rock opera Tommy, evil can manifest itself inside the family unit as easily as outside. Family abductions can be predatory. Adults who are not familiar relatives have sexual motivation associated with murdering children. In 1999, Edward Milka kidnapped and murdered his 11-year old niece Brittany Martinez. Uncle Karl Brewer sits on death row for the 1999 kidnapped and murdered 12-year old Andi Brewer. Jessie Dotson murdered his brother’s entire family in Nashville in 2008.

Among its many other faults the Amber Alert is illogical, arbitrary and broken. Two weeks prior to Jean Berlinghoff’s disappearance, the CHP activated an Amber Alert for a 13-year-old missing girl investigators believed was lured away from her home by an adult she had been communicating with on the internet. On August 20, 2010, a regional Amber Alert was activated in the Bay Area for the Oakland Police Department for a 2 year old female kidnapped by her father.

What I want to know is who decided that local law enforcement was not qualified to activate a local Amber Alert? A local activation would be based upon firsthand knowledge of the case, the family and the community. It would further save critical hours; the one issue that everybody acknowledges is the most important factor in the quick and successful recovery of children who have been kidnapped by sexual predators. After all, we trust local authorities with guns, why not the ability to activate an Amber Alert?

48 Hours Mystery...or Travesty?

2011-04-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

Many were looking forward to the 48 Hours Mystery episode that featured the family of Amber Dubois. We knew and trusted the producer, having worked closely with her over the course of nearly two-years. Good things had resulted from the brutal kidnap and murder of 14-year old Amber at the hands of the sexually sadistic psychopath John Gardner. Friendships had been forged, legislation written and passed, and new understandings about the nature of evil and the shortcomings of California’s criminal justice system had been exposed. Why then, did 48 Hours focus on false accusations, bogus aspects of the investigation, and providing a bully pulpit to a self proclaimed monster?

Amber Dubois disappeared without a trace on her way to Escondido High School on the morning of February 13, 2009. Within 2 weeks the KlaasKids Foundation and Laura Recovery Center sent representatives to the San Diego suburb to organize a volunteer search and rescue effort. We worked for and with Amber’s family for more than a year, until her remains were recovered. KlaasKids S&R Director Brad Dennis facilitated Amber’s funeral and I hosted her memorial service.

48 Hours Mystery focused much attention on Amber’s step-father Dave Cave as a possible suspect. As Dave said during the program they did it because, “That is where the statistics lead.” He withstood multiple interrogations and polygraphs, yet he was always there for Amber. When Amber’s mother Carrie moved out of his house he held his head high and covered her back. When friends and family suspected that he was involved he “manned-up” and worked to bring her home. 48 Hours took a tabloid approach to Dave’s travails and chose to portray him in a less than flattering light, but unlike 48-Hours, who grovels on the floor looking for kernels of tragedy that they can exploit for personal gain, Dave Cave stands tall in my eyes.

KlaasKids and the Laura Recovery Center search and rescue teams have worked together numerous times to successfully recover missing children. Neither organization charges for that service, nor do we fundraise once we have arrived at ground zero. Our complete focus is upon working with law enforcement and in this case helping Amber’s family to recover their missing child. Therefore, I was shocked that 48 Hours chose to ignore our contribution and instead focus upon a live-scent mercenary K-9 team that supposedly followed Amber’s 8-month old scent 50-miles along a Southern California freeway. Anybody with any S&R experience knows full well that even under optimal conditions scent eventually dies. Therefore it is ludicrous to think that a paid K-9 team followed Amber’s scent along a road used by hundreds of thousands of vehicles per day after week after month. The television show notes that the dogs hit upon a spot a mile away from Amber’s still undiscovered remains. They forgot to mention that in terms of search and rescue a mile might as well be 10,000 miles and that the route the dogs followed was entirely different that the one Amber and her killer traveled on the day that he raped and murdered her.

Finally, 48 Hours provided a national, primetime television audience to the monster who killed Amber Dubois and Chelsea King. Both families thought that they were done with him, that he would be forgotten and die in prison. Instead they watched him opine about his potential victimization behind bars. They saw his face and heard his voice. The producer said that the interview did a “Great job illustrating that these predators live among us and they don’t look like Charles Manson. They look like average Joe’s.” Really, that’s the best you can come up with? The Dubois and King families were re-victimized by a tabloid television program devoid of human decency.

Watching Gardner on primetime television reminded me of my own similar experience. In the days prior to the sentencing of the goon who killed and murdered my Polly, I received a phone call from Geraldo Rivera. He told me that he had been offered an opportunity to interview the killer on primetime TV. He said that he would take the killer down and expose him for the piece of shit that he really was. Then he said that he would only do so with my permission. I asked him not to do the interview as the thought of that monster ever again appearing in public made me physically recoil. Geraldo honored my wish, but two days later another reporter aired the interview on Hard Copy! I correctly accused her of using Polly’s tragedy to further her own career. I told her that any person convicted of raping and murdering children deserved to be locked away and forgotten, not provided with a national television audience. I told her that she, just like 48 Hours Mystery, was nothing more than a tabloid whore!!!

I am mystified and embarrassed by third rate journalism that purports to do anything more than entertain at the expense of truth, clarity and useful information. 48 Hours cherry pick facts in order to portray real life tragedies as nothing more than twisted, grotesque fantasies that re-victimize people who have already been victimized enough.

The Shark Tank

2011-04-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

The sweet smile and angelic face of 10-year old Zahra Baker haunts my dreams. She survived bone cancer at age five, although she lost her left leg below the knee and had to use a prosthetic leg to walk. She survived lung cancer a few years later, but chemotherapy damages her high frequency hearing, causing her to rely upon hearing aids to hear. Unfortunately, it does not look like little Zahra, who managed to smile through it all, was able to survive the malignancy of abuse, neglect and homicide that she was subjected to at home. It wasn’t until October 9, when Zahra was reported missing to a 911 dispatcher and an Amber Alert was issued that her neighbors, and then the world finally saw pretty little Australian immigrant with the freckled cheeks and trusting brown eyes. Before that, law enforcement had difficulty finding anyone who had seen or spoken with Zahra in a very, very long time.

On the day Zahra was reported missing there was another, earlier 911 call. Her stepmother Elisa reported a fire in the yard. The authorities found a ransom note, addressed to the Baker’s landlord, demanding $1,000,000 for the return of his daughter. The landlord’s daughter was not missing. Several hours later Zahra was reported missing.

On October 12, as Elisa Baker sat in jail awaiting arraignment on unrelated charges, law enforcement abruptly cancelled the Amber Alert and announced, without ambiguity, that they were now investigating Zahra’s disappearance as a homicide. Cadaver dogs had scented human remains in both of the family cars. Elisa Baker admitted that she wrote the ransom note, but her lawyer insisted that she is not a child killer.

Zahra’s stepmother Elisa is a shark, destroying whatever is in her path. She is constantly moving forward, never looking back. She holds no job, and lives a semi-transient lifestyle, never staying in any one place long enough to establish roots or expose her true nature. Elisa’s bio-daughter fears for her own life when she is around her mother. Over the past summer Elisa used the Internet to bilk an Englishman out of $10,000. And now, the little girl who Elisa called the ‘dark child’ on her Goth inspired MySpace page, and to whose care she was entrusted, is missing and presumed dead.

The FBI recently had Elisa, chained in the back of a black SUV, visiting potential crime spots, many of which are in close proximity to her past residences. It is speculated that she is cooperating with the authorities. If so it is a self-serving cooperation. Elisa does not self reflect. Like all sharks she survives by always moving forward, sinking razor sharp teeth into whatever blocks her path; but unlike the shark, she chose to be a predator, it was not a right of birth.

Zahra’s father Adam sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil, but according to arrest warrants he does write bad checks, and may assault people with deadly weapons. His convoluted 911 call reporting his daughter missing was filled with misdirection, tangents, nervous laughter, and sophomoric justifications. As reports of his wife’s abuse against Zahra surfaced, Adam admitted that it was possible his wife could be involved her disappearance, and that his relationship with Elisa, which began on the Internet two years ago, just might not be everything he thought it was. The little girl he wrenched from a safe and secure home in Australia can neither defend nor deny her dad, for she is presumed dead.

Zahra was discarded. They discarded her mattress, which was found in a landfill covered in DNA. They discarded her prosthetic leg, but it was located along the side of a road, hidden in the bushes. They discarded her memory and tried to discard her history when they removed her from society. The only question that remains is where did they discard her little broken body?

The sweet smile and angelic face of 10-year old Zahra Baker haunts my dreams.

Malfeasance

2011-04-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

KlaasKids will be taking Attorney General Jerry Brown to task at the Governor's debate this evening for turning a blind eye to the illegal prison release of tens of thousands of potential sexually violent predators.

In 2006, Californian’s voted to pass Proposition 83, otherwise known as Jessica’s Law. Among other things Jessica’s Law mandates that, prior to release from prison, violent sex offenders who meet certain offense criteria be evaluated in person by two expert psychiatrists or psychologists. If the experts agree that the prisoner is a violent sexual predator with a high risk of reoffending the prisoner must be referred to the District Attorney for civil commitment proceedings.

Currently, California’s Department of Mental Health (DMH) Sex Offender Commitment Program managers are simply providing a cursory ‘paper screening’ or record review of potential predators by one mental health professional in lieu of an expert panel in-person evaluation. This violation of California law has thus far dumped more than 17,000 potential sexual predators back into society.

In 2007, convicted rapist Gilton Pitri was released as a result of a ‘paper screening’ and within 4 days kidnapped, raped, and murdered 15-year old Alyssa Gomez. Petri is currently awaiting trial for Alyssa’s murder.

Are you as outraged as I am that California’s DMH is ignoring the law at the expense of public safety? If so, make your voice heard at the ballot box.

I’ll be endorsing Meg Whitman for Governor of California this evening at the candidate’s debate, as I take Attorney General Jerry Brown to task for turning a blind eye to the illegal prison release of tens of thousands of potential sexually violent predators.

Currently, California’s Department of Mental Health (DMH) Sex Offender Commitment Program managers are simply providing a cursory ‘paper screening’ or record review of potential predators by one mental health professional in lieu of an expert panel in-person evaluation. This violation of California law has thus far dumped more than 17,000 potential sexual predators back into society.

Are you as outraged as I am that California’s DMH is ignoring the law at the expense of public safety? If so, make your voice heard at the ballot box.

Recovery & Redemption

2011-04-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

It is said that losing a child is a parent's worst nightmare. From 2000 to 2006 (the last year for which verifiable data is available) 367,844 children under the age of 19 have died in the United States. The parents of these children can attest to this nightmare. The parents of deceased children spiral into confusion whether the children were victims of violent crime, accident, suicide or infant death. They oftentimes feel betrayed by God and search for reasons to continue living. The challenge is finding the path to recovery and redemption.

Following the kidnap and murder of my daughter Polly, Violet and I joined the fraternity of survivors. We are trying to recover from the sudden, unexpected death of our child, and redeem our lives in the wake of her tragedy. We testify in Congress and State legislatures. We advocate in the media, in town hall meetings and in living rooms. We pursue righteous causes, and offer encouragement, support and hope to other families who are facing life without their children. We fear not, for we have nothing left to fear. For us, rejection is a hurdle, not a brick wall. We are everywhere, because family is universal, and death does not discriminate.

Our children give meaning to their lives, but it is up to us to give meaning to their deaths. We do this by fighting back. Instead of sleepwalking through life, we extricate ourselves from the abyss of grief by communicating the lessons that we have learned in hope of preventing future tragedies. We don‘t drown our grief in the sad downward spiral of substance abuse; we choose to give new purpose to our own shattered lives by ensuring that our children did not die in vain. We reject the unsustainable heartbreak of denial and instead try to ensure that tragedies are not repeated, that we can use our experience to support others similarly afflicted, and that some level of social benefit results from our actions. This is how we ensure that our deceased children are not relegated to data points.

Polly would want our lives to have purpose and value. She would want us to love and laugh and to find a future full of hope and substance. She would encourage us to take action, effect legislation, write poetry and touch lives. The process of burying our daughter exposed our emotions like dangling nerves. But, we survived the great depression. We take time to smell the flowers, listen to the music and appreciate all of the beautiful things that life has to offer.

The following dispatches were written in the spirit of recovery and redemption. We felt no guilt, harbored no malice and are forever grateful for the experience.