MY FRIEND, THE SERIAL KILLER

COUSHATTA, La. — Years ago, Vicki Woods felt comfortable leaving her young son and daughter with Robert Charles Browne. He baby-sat for them, taught them to fish and held festive parties. Then he suddenly vanished.


More than two decades later, Woods finally learned what became of him: Already serving a life sentence in Colorado for killing a teenager, Browne claims he killed an additional 48 people across the country, including three in Coushatta. "I am so confused. I have no idea what’s going on, except that I feel like I have lost a friend," Woods said.


Woods and others in this close-knit farming village in northern Louisiana where Browne grew up were stunned to learn of his confessions. If true, he would be one of the most prolific killers in U.S. history.


Browne said he shot some of his victims and strangled others, in one case with a pair of leather shoelaces. He knocked out one woman with ether, then used an ice pick on her. He put a rag soaked in ant killer over another victim’s face and stabbed her nearly 30 times with a screwdriver.


Colorado authorities said Browne, 53, claimed to have committed the killings between 1970 and his arrest in 1995. Investigators so far have been able to corroborate Browne’s claims in six slayings — three in Louisiana, two in Texas and one in Arkansas. Court papers paint a picture of a predator who loathed women and thought he was justified in killing them because they were cheating on their husbands and boyfriends — in many cases, with him.


Browne, who has been married six times, said he has been disappointed with women his whole life. "Women are unfaithful, they screw around a lot, they cheat and they are not of the highest moral value," he told investigators. Browne apparently had at least one close female friend in Woods, now 50. Woods said she never saw a violent side in Browne, who lived around the corner from her in the 1980s.


Woods said she remembered Browne as funny and caring, but with one strange habit: without warning, he would look deep into her eyes, and declare, "You’re my friend." "He always said it that way. It was so weird," Woods said.

DOES GLAMOUR MAGAZINE CARE ABOUT WOMEN?

I was at the gym this morning and was perusing through Glamour magazine. There was a little bit about the accuser of the Duke Rape case. They left it with the following quotes below and never made a rebuttal about blaming the victiml instead all that was said was "they are putting down the accuser..." That is a pretty lame and generic statement. I am very disappointed and I won't be reading Glamour anymore. If you are going to stand up for something, then STAND UP! Don't be wishy-washy!!!

Email these jackass men and tell them how you feel!!!

Glamour, July 2006


They called her WHAT?!


When a stripper accused members of the Duke University Lacrosse team of raping her, some TV pundits focused not on digging up the fracts but on putting down the accuser. He's what they called the woman we'd call "an alleged rape victim".

"A ho."--Radio Host Rush Limbaugh
rush@eibnet.com (A hypocrite drug user)




"A crypto-hooker"--Tucker Carlson, MSNBC:
Tucker@msnbc.com (Tie wearing DORK)

WOMEN ARE NOT SAFE ANYWHERE

TEEN HELPING FRIEND WITH TOWED CAR
MURDERED BY DRIFTER

(AP) - NEW YORK--A suburban teenager who disappeared after a night of clubbing was found dead in a New Jersey trash bin on Thursday and police later arrested a drifter accused of strangling her in a nearby motel, authorities said.


New York police think Jennifer Moore was lured or forced into a taxi along a major roadway along Manhattan's west side where the 18-year-old was last seen walking alone early Tuesday. Moore had accompanied a friend to retrieve their car from the city tow pound when Moore's friend passed out and had to be taken by ambulance to a hospital. Moore stayed behind. She called her boyfriend around 5 a.m. to say she was lost and he told her to call a cab, The New York Post reported. When he called back there was no answer, the newspaper said.


About 48 hours after she vanished, Moore's body was found in West New York, N.J., police said. Her killer had taken her to a motel in nearby Weehawken, N.J., and strangled the teen, said a law enforcement official, who talked to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. Moore died of blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation, the Hudson County medical examiner said.



Draymond Coleman, who has an extensive arrest record and no permanent address, was charged with the slaying. He was arrested at dive hotel in Manhattan. Hudson County prosecutors and New Jersey state police didn't return messages left after hours Thursday seeking details about what evidence led investigators to Coleman.


Coleman, 35, has done time on a drug charge, and police said he has prior arrests for robbery and assault. It was not known whether he had a lawyer. The teen's father, Hugh Moore, spoke outside their home in Harrington Park, N.J. "She was someone who was smart and bright and funny," he said. "Wrong place, wrong time. It could happen to anybody."

VIAGRA USED NOT JUST BY OLD MEN LIKE BOB DOLE AND HUGH HEFNER

Sen. Coleman's dad cited for lewd conduct

The 81-year-old father of U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman was cited for lewd conduct and indecent exposure Tuesday for allegedly having sex in a vehicle with a 38-year-old woman, according to a police report.


Police responded to a call early Tuesday evening and arrested Norman Bertram Coleman Sr. and the woman, Patrizia Marie Schrag of St. Paul, outside a pizza restaurant on the eastern edge of downtown St. Paul.


Sen. Coleman, R-Minn., issued a statement Wednesday that said: "I love my father dearly. I do not condone his actions or behavior, and I am deeply disturbed by what I have learned. He clearly has some issues that need to be dealt with, and I will encourage him to seek the necessary help."


Calls to Norm Coleman Sr.'s home in St. Paul were not returned Wednesday. The elder Coleman was a familiar figure during his son's terms as mayor of St. Paul, and was a campaign fixture four years ago when Coleman won a hard-fought race for the U.S. Senate, defeating former Vice President Walter Mondale after Sen. Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash. Sen. Coleman has often referred to his father, a veteran of the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge and a former businessman, as one of his personal heroes.

(source)

MARY JANE GUMBALLS?

GUMBALLS THAT WILL MELLOW YOU OUT, MAN...

Marijuana gumballs found at Maryland school

Federal drug agents aren't laughing about marijuana packaged in yellow, smiley-faced gumballs. The "Greenades" gumballs were found in January at Howard High School in Ellicott City. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency recently released an intelligence bulletin about them. "It's a new idea and it's new to the DEA," Gregory Lee, a retired supervisory special agent of the Drug Enforcement Agency, told The Baltimore Examiner. "When it comes to drug dealing, you're only limited by your imagination."


Police charged three 17-year-old students after a teacher alerted a school resource officer. She told the officer that she saw a student give a plastic bag that the teacher believed contained drugs to another student. The officer seized the bag, which contained two "candy balls" wrapped in foil, police said. Instructions on the foil told users to chew for 30 minutes to 1 hour before they wanted to be high and to "chew for as long as possible, then swallow." Officers charged two students with distribution of drugs on school property and a third with possession of marijuana.


(source)

"I have no idea what's going on..."--Towelie

ANOTHER BAD RULING--SHAME ON WISCONSIN JUDGE

I know Wisconsin is a very liberal state, but this is ridiculous. This was thought out and done with malice. Add some time on to his sentence...out of respect for this psycho's poor mother.

Man Who Kept Mom in Freezer Avoids Prison

(AP) - MADISON, Wis.-A man convicted of keeping his dead mother in a freezer for years so he could keep collecting her Social Security checks avoided federal prison during his sentencing Wednesday.


A judge ordered Philip Schuth, 53, to serve four months simultaneously with the state prison sentence he is already serving and to repay about $35,000 he stole from the federal government. Schuth pleaded guilty in April to a federal count of misusing a Social Security number. He is serving a seven-year sentence as the result of a standoff with police last year at his home on French Island, just outside La Crosse. It was during the standoff that officers found the frozen body.


Smuth told investigators she died of natural causes in 2000, but he hid the body because he didn't want to be blamed for her death and wanted to keep collecting her Social Security. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb on Wednesday also ordered Schuth to spend four months in a halfway house after his release from prison. Schuth's attorney, Mike Lieberman, said most of the money has been repaid after police found about $10,000 in his client's house and $24,000 in his bank account.

ARE SEX OFFENDERS BEING PAMPERED?

Oh, you poor sex offenders. You have nowhere to live. You are being displaced from society. Would you consider sex offender reservations? That is what our country did to the American Indians...basically banished from society. The sex offenders can have their own caged in cities, with their own houses, stores, churches, etc. If they choose not to live there, then LEAVE the U.S. Follow the lead of director Roman Polanski. He left the U.S. and moved to France to escape rape charges in the 1970's. Hmm...I believe Michael Jackson would fit into this category as well?!

Judge drops order blocking Georgia sex offender law

(AP) - ATLANTA-A federal judge refused to extend an order blocking enforcement of a new Georgia law that bars sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of school bus stops. U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper conceded that his order would result in more confusion over the law - other parts of which have already taken effect - and said he was "deeply troubled" by the law's potential for displacing thousands of offenders.


However, he said blocking the bus stop law from taking effect would be premature. The law says each bus stop must be officially designated by the local school board and so far none have been authorized. Each of the state's 181 school districts must now decide whether to formally designate each bus stop, a move that would essentially prod local police to enforce the law.





Cooper did not rule on the measure's constitutionality, which has been challenged by the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights. The center complained that the measure would make entire counties off-limits to the state's 11,000 sex offenders. It is the only law in the nation that bans offenders from living and working near school bus stops, the center's lawyers said.


Sarah Geraghty, an attorney for the organization, said the law would cause a "mass forced exodus." The rest of the law took effect July 1. It prohibits offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of just about anywhere children gather - including schools, churches, parks, gyms and swimming pools. (And WHY should they be hanging around those places?! Do they deserve that right? Their right was taken away when they committed their despicable crime.)


Gov. Sonny Perdue, who signed the bill into law in April, said he appreciated the judge's ruling. "The state's foremost obligation is to keep the people of Georgia safe. This includes doing everything within our power to keep sexual predators away from children," he said.

RYAN KATCHER FOUND 5 YEARS AFTER DISAPPEARANCE

Authorities: College student's body found after five years

OAKWOOD, Ill. (AP) — The body of a college student who vanished more than five years ago was found inside his pickup truck, which was pulled this week from a state park pond, authorities said.


The pickup was discovered in about 50 feet of water by emergency workers who were experimenting with new rescue equipment in the pond, Vermilion County Sheriff Pat Hartshorn said late Tuesday. Ryan Katcher's body still was inside the truck, Hartshorn said. Authorities planned an autopsy this week to determine how he died.


Katcher was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Illinois in November 2000 when he disappeared during a weekend trip home to rural Oakwood, about 25 miles from campus and a short drive from the pond. Authorities conducted an extensive search, including in the Kickapoo State Park area where the truck was found.

POSSIBLE SERIAL KILLER ALREADY IN PRISON?

Click to Enlarge

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Investigators are trying to find about 50 women who were photographed decades ago by a man now on death row for murdering two aspiring models in the early 1980s, authorities said Tuesday.


Detectives are investigating whether the women were raped or killed between 1975 and 1984 by William Richard Bradford, said Los Angeles County sheriff's officials. They posted photos of the women on a department Web site in the hope that the public could help account for them.


One, No. 28 on the display, was identified as Donnalee Campbell Duhamel, whose decapitated body was found in a Malibu canyon in the 1980s a few days after she met Bradford at a bar, said sheriff's Capt. Ray Peavy."Some of these women we ... identified," Peavy said. "Several of them were his wives, ex-wives. But for the most part the majority of these folks we do not know who they are, who they were."Many of them could have likely been homicide victims themselves. Many of them may have just been women that he met in bars and took home and took photographs of."


In the penalty phase of his trial, Bradford asked the jury to sentence him to death, saying, "Think of how many you don't even know about." In the 1970s and '80s, Bradford, now 60, posed as a freelance photographer in the West Los Angeles area. He took photos of women he met at bars and "car race events," according to information on the department Web site, which showed photos of women striking poses.


The photos and film were seized from Bradford's home when he was arrested in 1984, Peavy said. They went into a case file and remained largely untouched until now."I have a number of detectives that I have hired back to look at old cases for DNA evidence and stuff like that," he said. "One of those detectives came forward with these photographs and said, 'You know, this is something that I think we should take a look at.' And obviously we all agreed that it should have been looked at -- probably looked at before now." The case has generated leads in Michigan and Florida, where Bradford once lived or traveled, Lt. Debra Lenhart said.


Bradford was convicted in 1987 of first-degree murder in the stranglings of Shari Miller, 21, whom he met in a bar, and Tracey Campbell, 15, a neighbor. Prosecutors said he lured them into accompanying him with promises to help their modeling careers. Miller's body was found in a West Los Angeles parking lot in July 1984, while Campbell's decomposed body was found in August 1984 at a campsite in the high desert north of Los Angeles.


It was unclear whether Bradford had an attorney. A message left with an attorney who represented him in the past, Robert R. Bryan, was not immediately returned.T he unaccounted-for women were believed to have lived in West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver City, Inglewood and other beach cities.


Shortly after his arrest in the two killings in 1984, Bradford pleaded no contest to an unrelated charge of rape and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

AN UNDETECTED SOCIOPATHIC MURDERER

Indiana has the death penalty...why did the prosecutor not utilize the death penalty? The evidence and the callousness of the murders warrant this punishment. This man doesn't deserve to live after what he did to his family...just to get his own way. Sounds like the Menedez brothers.

Jury convicts man of killing family 17 years ago so he could attend prom

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A jury convicted a man Friday of killing his father, stepmother and two stepsisters 17 years ago inside their church parsonage home so he could attend some high school prom events. The St. Joseph County jury found Jeffrey Pelley, now 34, guilty on four counts of murder after deliberating more than 25 hours since Wednesday. Pelley faces up to 260 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 15.


Prosecutors accused Pelley, a high school senior at the time, of using a shotgun to kill his father, the Rev. Robert Pelley; stepmother, Dawn; and stepsisters, Janel, 8, and Jolene, 6, in April 1989 at their home next to the Olive Branch Church of the United Brethren in Lakeville, about 10 miles south of South Bend.


Investigators said Pelley was angry because his father had grounded him for stealing and would allow him to attend only the prom dance, causing him to miss a prom dinner, a bowling alley party and an outing the next day at an amusement park outside Chicago. Pelley was not charged in the deaths until August 2002, when authorities reinterpreted evidence. Pelley was living in Dade City, Fla., when he was arrested.


Prosecutors alleged Pelley shot his family members on the evening of the prom, disposed of the shotgun and shells, took a shower, put his clothes in the washer and left for the prom. Pelley's defense attorneys argued there wasn't enough time for him to have done all that and still make it to the LaVille High School prom. They also said no one could commit such a gruesome attack and still act "normal" during the prom events, as his friends testified during the trial.


The defense also questioned the decision by investigators not to look for fingerprints at the crime scene. Police officers testified during the trial that they didn't think they would find any usable prints and they thought it would be a waste of time because Pelley was their main suspect. The shotgun used in the killings was never found.

NAVAL ACADEMY JURY ACQUITS DATE RAPIST

WASHINGTON - The former quarterback of the U.S. Naval Academy football team said Friday that he hopes to salvage his military career despite a felony conviction stemming from a sexual relationship he had with a fellow midshipman.


"I still want to be a Naval officer," Midshipman Lamar S. Owens Jr., told the five Naval officers on the jury panel that acquitted him Thursday of a rape charge lodged by the young woman. Owens said the ordeal that began within days of the Jan. 29 encounter that resulted in his court-martial will make him a better officer capable of dealing with adversity. "You always have to be on your guard because every decision you make could be an important decision," Owens told the court.


Since early February, Owens has been in limbo. While he completed his studies with a 2.7 grade point average over four years, he has not been awarded his economics degree. He also did receive his ensign's commission with other 2006 graduates. Instead of beginning training as a surface warfare officer, Owens is spending a fifth summer at the school that trains future Naval and Marine Corps officers. Whether he gets a fleet commission could hinge on a decision made by Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt, the academy's superintendent who referred the Owens case for court-martial.


The jury's decision sends the case back to Annapolis, where Rempt will have the options of dismissing the midshipman from the academy, or allowing him to graduate, and perhaps pursue his dream. "Preventing and deterring sexual harassment, misconduct and assault is a critically important issue," Rempt said in written statement released by the academy. The statement offered no information on how Owens' status will be resolved, but did indicate that the Academy respects the findings of the court.


Still, Owens' actions last winter violated several academy regulations, including those prohibiting sexual contact on campus and fraternization between members of the same company. There is also the Feb. 15 violation of a written military protective order which required Owens to stay out of the vicinity of his accuser and her room, one floor below his in Bancroft Hall.


According to Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Roper, the academy's legal adviser, such administrative violations have been considered on a case-by-case basis, even when they have involved midshipman from the academy's leadership cadre. "There have been some separated, and some retained," said Roper, who was called as a witness by the defense during the mitigation phase of the sentencing hearing. She told the court that some midshipmen facing administrative penalties do graduate and are commissioned.


Since 2001, there have been 56 rape accusations at the Naval Academy resulting in two convictions, including one in a civilian court. Others accused in those cases were disciplined within the academy's conduct system and allowed to resign. Some experts believe that stepped up investigations and prosecutions of such cases indicate a commitment by the service academies to confront the problem.

Entire article here

Read Comments About Case


(Very interesting, yet sad to see so many individuals still play the blame the victim game.)

CASE BACKGROUND:

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Naval Academy quarterback Lamar Owens Jr. and a female student who says he raped her agree on some basic facts — Owens was in the woman's dorm room early one January morning, and the two had sex.


But it will be up to a military jury to decide whether it was a consensual encounter or whether the star football player sexually assaulted the woman. The woman testified for six hours as Owens' court-martial on rape and other charges began at the Washington Navy Yard.


She said she awoke to find Owens standing next to her bunk, trying to kiss her. The next thing she knew, he was on top of her. But a lawyer for Owens said in opening statements that the woman beckoned Owens to her dorm room with an instant message, and that she gave her consent for the sex. Reid Weingarten said Owens showed poor judgment by going to the woman's room, but cut off the encounter when he realized the drunk woman had blacked out in bed. "There is no way in the world this young man committed rape," Weingarten told the jury of five Navy personnel.


Owens, 22, of Savannah, Ga., is charged with rape, conduct unbecoming an officer, and violating a protective order. If convicted, he would be eligible for a maximum term of life in prison.


Owens led Navy's football team to an 8-4 record that included victories over military academy rivals Air Force and Army and a victory in the Poinsettia Bowl over Colorado State. He was the team's most valuable player, but did not graduate along with his class in the spring because of the criminal investigation.


Much of the case rests on the spotty memory of the woman, a 20-year-old who was a third year student at the time of the Jan. 29 incident. She said she had eight drinks that night, including several shots of liquor, at an Annapolis restaurant and later at a bar near the academy. She couldn't remember portions of the night, including a brief period during the alleged rape.


While she said she did not explicitly tell Owens to stop, she said she didn't give her consent to sex and tried to show it by refusing his kisses and trying to wriggle away when he got on top of her. The woman said she told Owens she had a boyfriend. She said Owens had been flirtatious with her throughout the year in instant messages and other contacts between them. She said she didn't have any contact with Owens the night of the alleged rape, but Weingarten said she sent an instant message to Owens telling him to come to her room. The woman said she did not remember doing that.


Weingarten spent much of his lengthy cross-examination attacking the woman's credibility, saying she concocted the story of rape to cover her own infractions, calling her a "serial violator" of academy rules. (Blaming the Victim!) In return for her testimony, she was given immunity from punishment for academy violations such as underage drinking.


Owens is one of two Navy football players to face court-martial for sexual assault at the Washington Navy Yard this month. Kenny Ray Morrison, of Kingwood, Texas, entered a not-guilty plea Friday to charges of indecent assault and conduct unbecoming an officer for a Feb. 4 incident. An academy instructor also has a special court-martial set for August for allegedly making sexually crude remarks to a female midshipman. The academy has been under close scrutiny following the release of a Pentagon report last summer criticizing it for not doing enough to stop abuse and following allegations of sexual abuse at the nation's other military academies.

WORDS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES--EVEN HIS OWN ADMISSION DIDN'T MATTER!

July 14, 2006 WASHINGTON (AP) -Jurors at the military trial of a former Naval Academy quarterback listened Friday to a tape of a phone call in which the player apologized to a female midshipman he is accused of raping in her dorm room.


On the tape, Lamar Owens Jr. spoke in a soft voice and apparently wept at times. He said he considered committing suicide after the encounter and told the woman he "didn't do it for long" and that "you weren't awake." Owens never used the word "rape" in the conversation, nor did he respond when the woman asked, "Why don't you call my dad, tell him you raped his daughter?"


The defense wanted to prevent the jury from hearing the tape, arguing that the call had been scripted by investigators. They said Owens only agreed to take the call because he believed the woman had reported the incident to authorities and was afraid of antagonizing her. But Navy Cmdr. John Maksym ruled that Navy investigators had followed proper procedures. "There's no way I can imagine how it made you feel," Owens said on the tape. Later, he apologized to the accuser, saying "When I woke up the next day and I called you, I really wanted to kill myself, and I still feel that way." The tape was made Feb. 8; the alleged rape took place Jan. 29.

DESTINY FOUND 1/2 BLOCK FROM HER HOME

On Nancy Grace last night, she mentioned that there were approximately 250+ registered sex offenders within a three mile radius of Destiny's home! The family is upset with the law enforcement...do you think the law enforcement should take the slack?




(KUTV) SALT LAKE CITY The body of 5-year-old Destiny Norton was discovered in the basement of a house half a block from her home. Police have arrested 20-year-old Craig Roger Gregerson, the lone inhabitant of a home at 518 East Elwood Place in Salt Lake City, on charges of criminal homicide.


The news was delivered by Salt Lake City Chief of Police Chris Burbank in a late night press conference. Chief Burbank expressed concern for the family on behalf of the city.“The thoughts and prayers of our entire community go out to the family,” said Chief Burbank.


According to police this evening at approximately 8:30 p.m. investigators discovered Destiny’s body after an exhaustive 8 day search. Chief Burbank credited the unrelenting work of the Salt Lake City police department in conjunction with the FBI for finding Destiny. This information follows on the heels of what seemed to be optimistic news with an alleged sighting of Destiny reported in Farmington Sunday night. That sighting spurred a short-lived Amber Alert.



Police say they followed leads provided by a gas station attendant who believed he saw the girl. The Alert was canceled after the truck investigators sought was located but the search, based on information from that sighting, continued. Monday afternoon police released a sketch of a man who was allegedly seen with Destiny at the gas station. They never called that man in the sketch a suspect, only a person of interest.


Several hours after the sketch was released, on Monday evening, witnesses saw police crime lab trucks arrive at the Gregerson house just blocks from the Norton home. The discovery was made official later that night. In emotional moments after the news broke some family members condemned police and the FBI.


Jeannie Hill, a spokesperson for the family, demanded to know why police weren’t able to find the girl sooner. “They were not there for us. They told us they checked those places so many times,” said Hill, gesturing toward the house where the child’s body was found. “We knew we were going to find her close to home,” said Destiny’s Uncle Peter Brooks, “We just prayed she would be alive.”


Brooks says the family was told by police that the entire area had been checked repeatedly. “Police are great,” said Brooks. “But they had no right to lie to this family. And I feel betrayed, I feel so betrayed by law enforcement agencies right now.” Brooks says he himself searched around the house where Destiny was found but never saw signs of anyone living there.


“I never once thought of kicking in the door, and I guess I should have,” Brooks told 2 News. Destiny walked away from her home on Sunday, July 16 around 8:30 p.m. and was not seen again. Hundreds of searchers turned out over the course of the week and canvassed the streets in near record heat, searching for the missing girl.


Others who had lost children joined in the crusade to find the missing girl. Eraldo Soares, father of Lori Hacking who was murdered by her husband, helped organize volunteers while Ed Smart, Elizabeth Smart’s father, expressed his support of the Norton family on CNN. Fliers with Destiny’s picture circulated throughout Salt Lake City and the neighboring communities. They were taped to the doors of businesses and passed out to motorists in a mass attempt to make the public familiar enough to recognize her at a glance.


After the press conference Police Chief Burbank visited the family home in an effort to diffuse some anger directed at investigators. The meeting began in a heated manner with the friends and family of the Norton's firing angry questions at Chief Burbank. Surrounded by officers, the Chief fielded the questions frequently denying a response for fear of jeopordizing the investigation.


Chief Burbank did say officers had interviewed Gregerson earlier in the week and may have even entered the house where Destiny was discovered. Destiny’s parents Ricky and Rachel Norton have not made a public comment on the terrible news.

NORTH DAKOTA AMBER ALERT--REACHELLE MARIE SMITH

(Click to enlarge)

SEX OFFENDERS NOWHERE TO LIVE--BOO HOO

Iowa Residency Laws Pushing Sex Offenders to Live at Campgrounds

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Iowa's laws restricting where sex offenders can live are causing some of them to reside at campgrounds around the state. Some sex offenders are listing campgrounds in county and state parks as their home addresses because they are out of money, are struggling to find and keep a job and are facing state laws and town ordinances that keep them from living in many places.






"It's not uncommon," Linn County Sheriff Don Zeller said. "We've had them in all of the county parks and some of the state parks." Information about sex offenders at campgrounds has been forwarded to the Iowa State Association of Counties for consideration as a legislative priority.


State law bars sex offenders with crimes against children from living within 2,000 feet of a school or certified day-care center. Certain cities have even gone farther, banning offenders from living within 2,000 feet of swimming pools, libraries, parks or trails. Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston said a more specific sex-offender classification system would help them re-enter society. She said that a clearer system would distinguish between "true pedophiles" and young men who made a mistake with a younger girlfriend.


"We have to be prudent and protect people's safety," she said. "But we also have to recognize that people have to live somewhere. You stress their lives so much that they're going to make more bad choices." Langston said strangers rarely molest children they don't know. She says that 77 percent of sex offenses take place inside the home, so fear of the "crazy man down the street," or a few spaces down at the campground, is rarely justified.

SEX OFFENDER MURDERS ONE MONTH AFTER RELEASE

LOS ANGELES — Aspiring actress Kristine Johnson was supposed to be auditioning for the role of a lifetime: A shot at being a Bond girl in a new "007" movie. The tall, blond, 21-year-old college student modeled her outfit — a miniskirt, nylons, high heels and collared blouse — for her roommate. She told friends she had an appointment in Beverly Hills to meet a photographer with Hollywood connections. But there was no audition. Johnson never came home.


Her strangled and bruised body was found 16 days later, on March 3, 2003, in a ravine in the Hollywood Hills. A hibiscus tattoo on her back positively identified her. More than three years later, a six-time convicted felon named Victor Paleologus, the man who is accused of luring Johnson with the promise of stardom, will stand trial for her brutal murder.


Jury selection is currently under way in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, where the former restaurant co-owner has pleaded not guilty to seven counts, including murder, unlawful use of personal identity, burglary, and grand theft auto. Under California's 1994 Three Strikes Law, Paleologus faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.Prosecutors are asking for the death penalty, and allege a special circumstance of lying in wait.


Paleologus' defense attorney says there is no evidence — no DNA, blood or hair — linking Paleologus to Johnson's killing. And while prosecutors admit they lack direct evidence, the circumstantial evidence is powerful. Eight women with similar near-miss stories are expected to testify against Paleologus. He allegedly used the same ploy, unsuccessfully, on at least three women in the days before he allegedly lured Johnson.


They are expected to testify that he promised them film roles, and requested that they wear audition clothing similar to what Johnson wore. Prosecutors say Paleologus is a predator who has never worked in the entertainment industry. His defense attorney, Andrew Flier, has told reporters that Paleologus is absolutely innocent and took plea bargains in the past for convictions that now haunt him. Flier says his client will likely testify in his own defense and tell jurors that while he may have made mistakes, he is not a murderer.


Kristi Johnson, a churchgoing Michigan native, moved to California after graduating from high school to pursue her dream of a career in the entertainment industry. Her murder was a horrific wake-up call to young Hollywood hopefuls who struggle to get their names and faces in front of star-makers — casting directors, agents, and other insiders who hold the dubious allure of being able to make or break film careers.


Her father has told reporters that Johnson had talent, but was still trying to get experience, and she may have been too trusting. "She always gave people the benefit of the doubt, and that scared me," Kirk Johnson told People magazine. It was a Saturday afternoon in 2003, the day after Valentine's Day, when Johnson modeled her audition clothes for a roommate.


According to authorities, she told friends she was meeting a photographer who recently approached her at the Century City Shopping Center about a role in the next James Bond film. He said they were looking for fresh faces, that she was a shoo-in for the part. He told her what to wear. Johnson put her regular clothes back on, packed up her audition clothes, and drove her white Mazda Miata toward the winding, sycamore-shaded hills of Laurel Canyon. She got lost along the way, and stopped near Wonderland Avenue to ask a man for directions. And then she disappeared.


Johnson's family flew to Los Angeles to join the intensive search effort. Strangers gathered at candlelight vigils in her honor. Her face was plastered on posters, and her name was on the lips of news reporters across the country. On Feb. 27, Johnson's 22nd birthday came and went. The only sign of her was her white sports car, discovered in the parking lot of the St. Regis Hotel in Century City on Feb. 24. A valet had parked it on Feb. 16.


On March 3, almost three weeks after Johnson vanished, hikers discovered her body in a ravine in the Hollywood Hills. Her ankles and wrists were bound with shoelaces. She was covered by a sleeping bag. Her autopsy revealed that she suffered sexual assault, blunt-force trauma and had died of strangulation, according to a report in the Santa Monica Daily Press.


Police already had their number-one suspect in custody. Paleologus was arrested on Feb. 17, 2003 — two days after Johnson's disappearance — for allegedly stealing a BMW from a Beverly Hills dealership. His arrest triggered a parole violation: He had recently been released from state prison after pleading guilty on a 1998 assault to commit rape charge.


Prosecutors expect to present evidence to jurors about two of the defendant's six felony convictions, but will not comment on the details. The details, according to reports in the Los Angeles Times, point to a history of violence toward women. In 1989, Paleologus told a 21-year-old model that he worked for Columbia Records and invited her to a party at L.A.'s Bonaventure hotel, dangling the promise of meeting celebrities. Instead of a party, she was allegedly tied to the bed and attacked. The woman escaped, and Paleologus was charged with attempted rape, assault and false imprisonment. When the jury deadlocked in 1991, he pleaded guilty to false imprisonment by violence and received three years' probation.


In 1995, he was charged with breaking into the home of a woman he knew and holding her against her will. He pleaded guilty to burglary and received five years' probation. Then, in 1998, he was charged with the attempted rape of a 24-year-old woman who claimed he lured her with the promise of a role in a James Bond movie. He took another plea bargain: guilty to assault to commit rape and was sentenced to state prison.

He served three and a half years, and was paroled on Jan. 20, 2003.
Johnson disappeared a month later.

Paleologus is being held without bail and has been in custody since his Feb. 17 arrest for the alleged BMW theft. Opening statements in his capital murder trial may begin as early as Thursday. Prosecutors expect the trial to last about four weeks.

IF YOU CAN'T TRUST A WORLD RENOWNED SCIENTIST, WHO CAN YOU TRUST?

Jury finds geneticist guilty of molestating colleague's daughter

LOS ANGELES (AP) — World-renowned geneticist William French Anderson was once a runner-up for Time magazine's Man of the Year for his role in developing gene therapy, a promising yet controversial treatment that involves injecting healthy genes into sick patients.


Now Anderson, convicted Wednesday of molesting the young daughter of a colleague, must undergo a psychiatric evaluation before his sentencing in November. Though Anderson's lawyer argued the scientist should stay free to continue his important work, Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor ordered Anderson jailed.


The scientist, who faces a maximum of 22 years in prison, had been free on bond during the trial. "While Dr. Anderson is statutorily eligible for probation, he is clearly facing possible decades in prison," Pastor said. Although the judge said he was impressed with Anderson's demeanor during the trial, he said he was not comfortable allowing the scientist to remain free.


Among other things, he cited an e-mail Anderson wrote to the victim suggesting he might commit suicide if the allegations became public and saying he had bought a gun and ammunition. "He has had two and half years to blow his brains out and he didn't," said Anderson's lawyer, Barry Tarlow. He said the e-mail was evidence that Anderson did not have great social skills: "Nothing about having a 176 IQ means you have good judgment," Tarlow said.


Prosecutors said Anderson molested the girl from 1997 to 2001 and that the abuse began during Saturday morning tae kwon do lessons at his home in San Marino, a wealthy suburb east of Los Angeles. Tarlow had argued during the three-week trial that his client was a kindly mentor to the girl and was being smeared by her mother, whom he said wanted to assume Anderson's position at USC.


On Wednesday, a jury convicted Anderson of one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child. Tarlow vowed to appeal the verdicts "to the highest court in the land. We will not rest until justice is done." Prosecutor James Garrison said the judge can consider a wide variety of factors, including Anderson's work, in sentencing the scientist. "We all acknowledge the contributions he has made in the past. But what's important now is the damage he did to the victim," Garrison said.


Co-prosecutor Cathryn Brougham said the victim, now 19, was pleased with the jury's verdict. She declined to say what sentence would be sought until the diagnostic study was completed. "We want a sentence that reflects the damage he did to the victim," she said.


Anderson had been placed on leave from his position as director of the Gene Therapies Laboratories at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. A pioneer in his field, Anderson published hundreds of articles in scholarly journals and won numerous awards for his work. He was runner-up for Time's Man of the Year in 1995 and launched the scientific journal Human Gene Therapy.

SALT LAKE CITY--MISSING 5 YEAR OLD DESTINY

Parents Say 5-Year-Old Vanished From Porch

July 19, 2006

SALT LAKE CITY -- Police scoured the neighborhood Tuesday in search of a missing 5-year-old girl whose parents said she disappeared from her front porch after arguing with them about having to go to bed.

Destiny Norton was last seen Sunday night. Her parents, Rachael and Ricky Norton, said it was unlikely she would have wandered off.

Web Site: FindDestiny.net

The case was being investigated as a missing person, not an abduction, Detective Joe Cyr said. The family is not under suspicion, he said. The family set up a search center at a nearby park. Dozens of volunteers looked for the girl and handed out fliers. Police were focusing on the block where the girl lives and the block directly west of her home, police Detective Robin Snyder said.


Officers were searching cars, sheds and abandoned buildings, Cyr said. A $15,000 reward was offered for information leading to a resolution in the case, Snyder said.


Destiny, who is 3 1/2 feet tall and about 45 pounds, with brown eyes and blonde hair, was last seen wearing a long black-and-gray adult-sized T-shirt. Her missing child Web site said that Destiny's hair is short and blonde with green streaks in it, but that it may have been cut and/or dyed another color. Also, her bottom row of teeth are all covered in silver caps. Police have questioned about 100 registered sex offenders who live in the area.


Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Salt Lake City Police Department at (801) 799-3000. A cash reward has been offered for information leading to a resolution of the case. The tips number for that is (801) 799-INFO (801-799-4636).

THE MOLESTING LANDORD

Landlord charged with child pornography

BLOOMINGTON, Calif. (AP) — Trips to Disneyland. Movies. Gifts of dirt bikes, clothes and video games. Everything the children could want, plus a place to stay for their impoverished parents.


Investigators say these were the tools a landlord used to win the trust of parents and lure their children to his residence, where he had equipped a room with bunk beds, video cameras and movies.




Earl Venton Buchanan, 62, pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges last week in federal court in El Centro. He has not yet been charged with molestation, but police said he may be. "Most families were on the economically deprived side," said San Bernardino County Detective Steve Burgrass. "He provided lots of nice things for the kids and the families. It gave him a little authority or power over the entire family."


Buchanan's court-appointed attorney, Steve Peterson, declined to comment. Buchanan could not be reached because his phone number is unlisted. Burgrass said Buchanan typically picked up the children at their homes, took them shopping or to an amusement park, then returned with them to his house to spend the night. He was arrested July 3 after returning from Mexico in a van with a 5-year-old boy on his lap.


Border inspectors in Calexico, about 120 miles east of San Diego, seized a videotape that appeared to show Buchanan fondling a boy who looked as if he were "sleeping or heavily sedated," according to an affidavit. It was unclear whether the boy on the tape also had been in the van. Authorities who searched Buchanan's home in Bloomington, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, found a warehouse on the property that featured a bedroom and an adjoining children's room stocked with video games and DVDs of children's movies, according to the affidavit.


Investigators have identified eight to 11 children who are believed to have been molested by Buchanan, both boys and girls ranging in age from 2 to 15, said Michael Unzueta, special agent in charge of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. The children's room "had bunk beds, toys, all the kinds of things that kids would like," Unzueta said. The bedroom and children's room were wired for video coverage.


Authorities said some parents -- it was unclear how many -- had complained to child-protection officials about Buchanan. According to the affidavit, a 15-year-old boy told investigators that Buchanan molested him two to three times a month for the last three years at homes in Mexico, Arkansas and California.

Buchanan may have run a construction business from the warehouse, Burgrass said. "It was like walking into Home Depot. There was tons of stuff in there," he said. "He had a little living quarters off to the side."

JOEY BUTTHEAD HASN'T LEARNED, HAS HE?

Once a loser, always a loser.

Joey Buttafuoco sentenced to one year in jail for possessing ammunition

SAN FERNANDO, Calif. (AP) — Joey Buttafuoco, who gained notoriety in the 1990s when his teenage girlfriend shot his wife in the face in New York, was sentenced to a year in jail Tuesday after pleading no contest to possessing ammunition as a felon.


Probation officers found the ammunition during a search of his home in Chatsworth last August. Buttafuoco had been sentenced to a year in jail and five years' probation in March 2004 after pleading guilty to insurance fraud. Prosecutors said Buttafuoco, who co-owned an auto body shop in the San Fernando Valley, told undercover investigators how to file false claims and cheat insurance companies.


Buttafuoco, 50, was ordered to report to jail Nov. 1. He was running an auto body shop on New York's Long Island in 1992 when his 17-year-old lover, Amy Fisher, shot his wife as she answered the door at the couple's home. Fisher served seven years in prison. Buttafuoco pleaded guilty to statutory rape and served four months in jail. His wife, Mary Jo, recovered. The couple remained together after the Fisher affair but divorced after moving to California.

THE FIRST LADY OF OHIO IS A SICK PIG

Child sex offender helped put together state-sponsored CD of children's songs

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Officials are distancing themselves from a state-sponsored CD of children's songs recorded by prison inmates after it was revealed a child sex offender helped put it together. Among those credited on the "Wings of Hope" CD is Raymond Towler, 49, who was sentenced to 12 years to life in 1981 for the kidnapping of two children, the assault of a boy and the rape of a girl.


"To find out that someone who had committed a crime like that participated in this initiative in any way is a huge disappointment," said Bonnie Hedrick, director of the Ohio Resource Network for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities. "It was a huge oversight and one I regret happened." Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Lyons said criteria were established for any inmate who volunteered to perform on the CD, including that they have no history of sex offenses or crimes against children. Lyons said different criteria applied to Towler because he was not among those "presenting the message" on the CD.


Towler did not write the music or perform but only worked as a technical adviser or consultant to the songs' performers, she said. Others credited on the CD include inmates convicted of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.


The album contains lullabies for newborns, sing-along songs for toddlers and parenting tips. Many songs are childhood classics such as "This Old Man," while some were composed by the inmates. The project was a partnership between the office of Ohio first lady Hope Taft, the Resource Network and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. It cost $5,000. Taft's participation involved her voicing an idea at a meeting for a CD that would allow inmates to participate in a "positive, community-oriented activity," Hedrick said.


The prison system said last month that 15,000 copies of the disc would be distributed to prison groups and inmate families as well as to community groups, such as public libraries and social service agencies. Lyons said the plan was scaled back to include only prison-affiliated groups at the request of the Resource Network. Hedrick said she believes the CD will still have a positive impact. "From the child's perspective, if it was my father who did that, at least I could have something to be proud of him for," she said.

80 YEAR OLD SOLD CRACK FOR SEX

"What's that? You mean I'm going to prison? I just wanted to get laid!"

(Source)--An 80-year-old man who pleaded guilty to drug charges sold crack cocaine from his house and gave some of the drugs to prostitutes in exchange for sex, his lawyer said.


Felix Cocco, of Pittsburgh, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia. Police said Cocco had been dealing drugs for nearly a year when he was arrested in November.


Officers seized crack cocaine, a digital scale and packaging materials, police said. Authorities said they caught Cocco dealing again in February. "I was trying to stay alive, your honor — pay my bills," Cocco told the Allegheny County judge. Cocco's lawyer, Martha Bailor, told the court that Cocco wanted to remain sexually active after his wife died three years ago and turned to prostitutes. "He decided it's cheaper to pay for sex with crack than cash," she said. (Do 80 year old men (besides Hugh Heffner) want sex? He must have been taking massive doses of viagra.)


Prosecutors said they would not seek mandatory sentences if the defense agreed to a six-to-18-month jail term. The judge ordered an evaluation of Cocco's health after Bailor expressed concern about his vulnerability in jail. Cocco remains under house arrest while he awaits sentencing scheduled for Oct. 2.

SEX OFFENDERS DESERVE NO RIGHTS

Critics Look For Alternative to Sex Offender Civil Commitments

WASHINGTON — Learning that a child has been abducted by a predator who was just let out of prison is a state official's worst nightmare. So states have been under pressure to create laws to keep violent sexual predators off the street. No law, however, seems to be as controversial as that which allows civil commitments, a term describing the confinement of sex offenders to mental health facilities after they've completed their prison sentences.


The purpose of civil commitments is to attempt treatment on prisoners who are considered liable to commit their crimes again, and to release them after they have been deemed safe for society. For many of the country's most heinous offenders, this could mean a life sentence in lock-up. While civil commitments is a popular idea for many law-abiding citizens, critics are grappling with the implications. They say, ethically and even constitutionally, these convicts should either be let go after doing their time or given longer minimum sentences at trial.


"We think [civil commitment] is the wrong way to go," said Michael Rushford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, Calif. "Not because they shouldn’t hold on to these people, but we see it as a cumbersome way to do it." "You don't want to mix violent sexual predators with people who have severe mental disorders," said Jeff Keller, deputy director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York State. "We understand that these people are dangerous and violent and shouldn’t be walking on the street, but we don’t want them thrown in with the mentally ill," he said.


Still other opponents, like the American Civil Liberties Union, say that civil commitments could lead to unfair confinements, taking sentencing out of the hands of a judge and jury and putting it into the hands of state lawmakers. State officials appear to appreciate the concerns of these groups, but say they need to find an immediate solution to the challenge of releasing potential repeat offenders into local communities.


The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld civil commitments for sex offenders. "Are we supposed to wait and see if they go back and molest another child and then put them back into prison? I think government needs to have a reasonable response in these circumstances," said Chauncey Parker, New York State Director of Criminal Justice.


New York Gov. George Pataki has been trying to join the ranks of 16 other states and the District of Columbia in getting a civil commitments statute for sex offenders, and proposed legislation is pending in New York's Senate and General Assembly. In the meantime, Pataki has been using the state's general civil commitments statute, which allows for the confinement of persons considered a danger to themselves and others, to apply to sex offenders.


The New York State Defenders Association says the legislation on the table is not acceptable in its current form. "The proposed bills lack meaningful standards to guide judges and juries charged with applying the law, and would result in arbitrary lifetime confinement of persons with a low risk of re-offending," NYSDA said in a statement released June 6. States

Debate Civil Commitments

In Nebraska, Gov. Dave Heineman signed legislation in April that requires sex offenders to be evaluated for a mental illness or personality disorder that would suggest he or she is more likely to commit future acts of sexual violence and is unable to control his or her conduct. The law also requires notification of appropriate officials of an impending sex offender's release from prison so that a recommendation for civil commitment can be made. As it continues its seven-year-old program of civil commitments, Virginia lawmakers are looking at ways to build separate facilities to house more offenders.


However, the cost of the program is now aggravating the debate as more dangerous sex offenders finish their time. Meanwhile, Parker said Pataki wants to build separate facilities for civil commitments to accommodate the concerns of the mental health community and to reduce cost.


But with upwards of 5,000 sex offenders due for release this year, the governor will continue to commit the most dangerous of them to mental health facilities for now, said Parker. "If there is a sexually violent predator who is such a risk to others that they are going to molest or rape again, what do the people expect government to do?" he asked, noting that under the law, it takes a total of three doctors and a series of hearings to have someone committed, and the offender is allowed to have an attorney.


Treatment is continued throughout the confinement. But detractors say confining sex offenders to mental health facilities after they have done their time is a misguided drain on resources and has the potential for abuse. It also adds to the unfair stigma already attached to the mentally ill, say many mental health professionals who argue that not all sex offenders are mentally ill nor can all sex offenders be cured.


Putting predators into state mental facilities would be expensive and dangerous to others, said Keller, at New York's mental illness alliance. Longer Jail Sentences Federal studies comparing sex offender and non-sex offender recidivism rates are rare, and a November 2003 study by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics cites data collected from 15 states only up until 1994. It finds that within three years following their release from state prisons, 5.3 percent of sex offenders — men who had committed rape or sexual assault — were rearrested for another sex crime, and 43 percent were rearrested for other general crimes.That rate is lower than non-sex offenders, of whom 68 percent were rearrested for any offense. But of those non-sex offenders, only 1.3 percent were arrested again for sex offenses.


In a 2003 study of 89 released sex offenders who had qualified for the Washington State's civil commitment program but were never confined, researchers found that 57 were re-arrested on new felony charges, with 40 percent of them arrested for contact crimes, including a sexual offense.


At the end of the six-year follow-up period, almost half were incarcerated "There is an ethical question there, but we do know that sex offenders are the most likely of offenders to recidivate," or repeat their crimes after release, said Joe de Raismes, vice chairman for public policy for the National Mental Health Association, which is a proponent of keeping dangerous sex offenders in a criminal setting. Rushford and others say stiffer minimum sentences, perhaps including "indeterminate" jail time, would allow states to keep offenders in prison if they felt the individuals might repeat their crimes once on the outside.


State officials say they are increasingly looking toward revising the state penal codes to allow for that option or to avoid civil commitments altogether. "We're moving in that direction," said Brian Relay, who works in the office of the ombudsman for Minnesota's Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities division.


Minnesota has been confining sex offenders to prisons since 1990, and has not yet released any of them, according to Relay. "It was for the protection of society that they needed to further incarcerate [sex offenders] and attempt to treat them," he said, adding that the state has increased minimum sentencing requirements in recent years and is also looking at separate facilities for civil confinements.

Congress Weighs In

Though courts have found the practice of civil commitments legal, critics still wonder if people who are further confined for a crime they have not yet committed is a form of "double jeopardy." The 17 state legislatures that now engage in civil commitments aren't willing to take a risk. Neither is the U.S. House, which last fall passed the Children's Safety Act. The legislation not only includes civil commitments and stiffer minimum sentences for sex offenders under federal jurisdiction, but dictates a more thorough sex offender registry program at the state level. The bill is now in the Senate Judiciary Committee.


John Walsh, creator and host of the television program America's Most Wanted and the father of Adam Walsh, who was abducted and murdered in 1981 when he was age six, told FOXNews.com he has no doubt that the states and Congress are headed in the right direction with these new provisions. "It's been tragically proven time and time again that these predators just don't stop — not even after being locked up for a long time," Walsh said. "Some people may be willing to take a chance on these offenders. I'm not."

BREAST IRONING--A COMMON PRACTICE IN CAMEROON

Millions of Cameroon girls suffer "breast ironing" 

(Source)--Worried that her daughters' budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, their mother Philomene Moungang started 'ironing' the girls' bosoms with a heated stone. "I did it to my two girls when they were eight years old. I would take the grinding stone, heat it in the fire and press it hard on the breasts," Moungang said. "They cried and said it was painful. But I explained that it was for their own good."

"Breast ironing" -- the use of hard or heated objects or other substances to try to stunt breast growth in girls -- is a traditional practice in West Africa, experts say. A new survey has revealed it is shockingly widespread in Cameroon, where one in four teenagers are subjected to the traumatic process by relatives, often hoping to lessen their sexual attractiveness.

"Breast ironing is an age-old practice in Cameroon, as well as in many other countries in West and Central Africa, including Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, just to name a few," said Flavien Ndonko, an anthropologist and local representative of German development agency GTZ, which sponsored the survey. "If society has been silent about it up to now it is because, like other harmful practices done to women such as female genital mutilation, it was thought to be good for the girl," said Ndonko. "Even the victims themselves thought it was good for them."

However, the practice has many side effects, including severe pain and abscesses, infections, breast cancer, and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts.

The survey of more than 5,000 girls and women aged between 10 and 82 from throughout Cameroon, published last month, estimated that 4 million women in the central African country have suffered the process. "You ask me why I did it?" said Moungang. "When I was growing up as a little girl my mother did it to me just as all other women in the village did it to their girl children. So I thought it was just good for me to do to my own children."

The practice is now more common in urban areas than in villages, because mothers fear their children could be more exposed to sexual abuse in towns and try to suppress outward signs of sexuality, the survey said. Its findings have prompted a nationwide campaign to educate mothers about its dangers and to try to eradicate it.

A similar campaign some years ago helped drastically to reduce rates of female genital mutilation in Cameroon. "A girl...has to be proud of her breasts because it is natural. It is a gift from God. Allow the breasts to grow naturally. Do not force them to disappear or appear," said a leaflet from the campaign.

Moungang said she stopped ironing her daughters' breasts after one girl developed blisters and abscesses. "I took her to the hospital and the doctor scolded me and advised never to do it again because it could ruin my daughter," she said.

The practice is most common in the Christian and animist South of the country, rather than in the Muslim North and Far North provinces, where only 10 percent of women are affected. "Massaging the breasts with hot objects is painful, very painful, and can completely destroy the breasts," said Bessem Ebanga, executive secretary of women's rights group RENATA, herself a former victim. "Some girls could be traumatized throughout their lives and their sexual behavior could be disturbed forever."

For Ndonko, the campaign is a battle to respect the physical integrity of young girls -- with broader implications for human rights. "If nothing was done today, tomorrow the very parents may even resolve to slice off the nose, the mouth or any other part of the girl which they think is making her attractive to men."

Information on Cameroon

TEENS DISMEMBER GIRL OUT OF JEALOUSY

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (AP) — A teenager accused of helping his ex-girlfriend kill and dismember a 16-year-old classmate last year was sentenced Monday to 45 years in prison.

Adrianne Reynolds Cory Gregory, 18, had pleaded guilty in April to murder and concealment of a homicide in the death of Adrianne Reynolds. "All I really want to do is apologize. It's all I really can do," Gregory said. "If I could give my life to bring her back I would."

   

Prosecutors agreed to the plea deal after consulting with Reynolds' family, who held vigil through a long trial and retrial in which Gregory's former girlfriend was convicted of murder. 

Rock Island County State's Attorney Jeff Terronez has said Gregory led authorities to remains that might never have been found and agreed to meet with Reynolds' family and explain his role in the slaying. 

Prosecutors say Gregory and Sarah Kolb, 18, killed Reynolds in Kolb's car at a fast-food restaurant on Jan. 21, 2005, then took the body to Kolb's grandparents' farm and burned it. The pair returned two days later with a third teen and sawed the body into pieces, dumping some remains on the farm and burying the rest in a state park, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said Kolb was angry because Reynolds, who had recently moved to the state, was taking her friends and had shown interest in Kolb's boyfriend and Gregory.