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From LA Times

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Seattle police kill suspect in slayings of four officers, spokesman says

The sheriff's employee says county authorities provided possible hiding spots for Maurice Clemmons.

From Times Staff and Wire Reports

4:15 AM PST, December 1, 2009

SEATTLE

Seattle police early today fatally shot the man suspected of gunning down four police officers, Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

Troyer told the Associated Press that Seattle police found Clemmons after Pierce County authorities supplied addresses of possible hiding spots.

At the scene, a couple of dozen police officers milled around, shaking hands and patting each other on the back.

The hunt for Clemmons, a 37-year-old landscaper, had expanded across western Washington on Monday, with investigators combing through hundreds of tips after an 11-hour siege of a Seattle house turned up empty.

"Right now, they're just following every lead they can, whether it's up in King County or down here in Pierce County," sheriff's spokeswoman Sheri Badger said Monday.

Clemmons -- a multiple felon charged with gunning down the four officers Sunday morning in a Parkland, Wash., coffee shop -- was shot in the torso during the altercation and was probably in need of medical attention, authorities said.

Convinced that Clemmons' friends and family were helping him evade arrest, police late Monday began an orchestrated campaign to detain anyone they believed could be involved.

"We're going after relatives and anybody who . . . we believe assisted him," Pierce County Det. Ed Troyer said. "We take everybody out of the equation that's helping him, that way, he'll have nobody left, he'll have to fend for himself."

A house in Renton was surrounded by police Monday night, and neighbors reported the sound of explosions and a SWAT team moving in. However, police left, apparently without making any arrest.

Clemmons had been released on $15,000 bond a week before Sunday's shooting. He was facing charges of rape involving a 12-year-old and assault on a police officer.

Students and staff at the University of Washington received a mass text message Monday warning them to be careful after one tipster saw a man resembling Clemmons near the university's medical center. A bus near downtown Seattle was vacated and impounded after someone else said they saw Clemmons aboard. Officers were looking for traces of blood.

"I don't want to put a number on it, but we've had a plethora of tips of people calling in, saying they see somebody that looks like the suspect. We respond, and it's not him," said Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel.

Officials said they had evidence that Clemmons indeed had been in or near a house in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood Sunday night. They cordoned off surrounding streets, brought in a helicopter and surrounded the house with a large number of officers, deploying percussion grenades and chemical irritants. But when a robot entered the house Monday morning, followed by a SWAT team, Clemmons was nowhere to be seen.

The reward for information leading to the suspect's arrest and conviction was raised to $125,000.

Authorities said they also were looking for Clemmons' wife, Nicole Smith, with whom he recently operated a home-based landscaping and pressure-washing business in Tacoma, about two miles from the scene of the shooting.

The bodies of the slain officers -- all veterans of the Lakewood Police Department in Washington -- were removed from the coffee shop Sunday night. A parade of police vehicles with flashing lights paid tribute to the fallen officers as the motorcade escorting their bodies passed through an arch formed by two firetruck ladders suspending a giant American flag.

"One of the questions I got throughout the day yesterday is, 'How is everybody doing?' . . . They're here, they're doing their jobs, they're working hard. They're dealing with their loss, but they're here to take care of the citizens. . . . We will get through this," Police Chief Bret Farrar, his voice shaking, said at a press conference Monday in Lakewood, south of Tacoma.

The slain officers were identified as Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37; Tina Griswold, 40; and Greg Richards, 42. All had been members of the force since it started five years ago.

Clemmons has a history of violent crimes in Arkansas and Washington dating back to his teenage years.

He would have been serving a 108-year prison term in Arkansas, but his sentence was commuted by former Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2000 after Clemmons argued that he had committed his crimes -- including burglary, aggravated robbery and illegal possession of a firearm -- as a youth and had changed.

In his petition to Huckabee, Clemmons said that he came "from a very good Christian family" and "was raised much better than my actions speak."

A year later, Clemmons was back in prison on a parole violation, a robbery charge. He was paroled in 2004. "Said when he left the first time he was not ready," a parole reviewer wrote in his notes on the case. "Doesn't want to die in prison . . . will try to do right thing."

Clemmons moved to Washington state after his release but, family members told police, he began acting erratically and appeared to have lost some of his mental abilities.

Austin Raihl, whose family lived near the shooting suspect, said his mother was driving down the street last spring when Clemmons inexplicably picked up a landscape brick and hurled it through the window of her car.

She called her brother-in-law, and Clemmons and another man who was with him threw bricks and rocks and broke two of his windows, Raihl said.

"The cops finally showed up and hauled 'em off to jail, and they got bailed out like two weeks after that," Raihl said. "They said he was on drugs, and it took four police officers to take him down."

According to police reports, Clemmons punched one of the arresting sheriff's deputies in the face.

In May, Clemmons was charged with second-degree rape after a bizarre night during which he is accused of forcing his wife and her daughter to undress. He told them repeatedly to trust him, "that he was Jesus," police said in a court affidavit.

Clemmons' sister, Latanya Clemmons, told officers investigating the case that her brother had undergone a change. "Latanya," the sheriff's department report said, "stated that Maurice is not in his right mind."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-naw-police-shot2-2009dec02,0,4001394,print.story

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Mike Huckabee defends freeing convict wanted in Washington police shootings

His commutation of Maurice Clemmons may hurt the former Arkansas governor's political aspirations.

By Mark Z. Barabak and Nicholas Riccardi

December 1, 2009

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee broke his silence Monday and defended his decision to support freedom for a convict now wanted in the ambush slayings of four Seattle-area police officers. "If I could have known nine years ago that this guy was capable of something of this magnitude, obviously I would never have granted the commutation," Huckabee said.

But even those sympathetic to the former governor suggested that the case of Maurice Clemmons would most likely hurt Huckabee's candidacy should he seek the White House again in 2012.

"That's somebody he probably shouldn't have" freed, said Dick Dresner, who helped steer Huckabee's 2008 presidential bid, noting that Clemmons was not the first convict to "go off the deep end" after being released during Huckabee's 10-year term.

The ex-governor issued an unusually high number of paroles and commutations during his time in office, a practice that became an issue in the 2008 race when critics seized on the case of Wayne DuMond , a convicted rapist who murdered and raped again after being freed in 1999. The attacks did not keep Huckabee from winning the Iowa caucuses and finishing second in the GOP nominating fight.

But Huckabee could face much more serious political problems if Clemmons -- who remained at large Monday, the subject of a sprawling manhunt -- is implicated in Sunday's police shooting. In 2000, Huckabee commuted a sentence of 108 years given to Clemmons for a crime spree.

"People might be able to understand one instance," said Don Sipple, a GOP strategist who stayed neutral in the presidential primaries. "But now you have two different episodes where he's shown poor judgment."

Huckabee posted a statement on his website Sunday, saying that if Clemmons was found responsible for the police killings "it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington state."

He elaborated somewhat during a brief appearance on Fox News. Under the sympathetic questioning of commentator Bill O'Reilly, Huckabee said he granted Clemmons' clemency request -- one of 1,200 that crossed his desk annually -- because of Clemmons' young age at the time of his conviction and the severity of his sentence. He said prosecutors never contacted him, though they did lodge a protest with the state parole board.

Huckabee joined O'Reilly in criticizing two judges who freed Clemmons, 37, after he posted $15,000 bond just a few days before the slayings. He had been jailed on charges of second-degree rape in a case involving his wife's daughter.

"By this point this guy's a career criminal with an escalating sense of violence and psychotic behavior," Huckabee said. "There's no explanation for why he was out on the streets."

Clemmons was convicted in Arkansas of aggravated robbery, burglary and possession of a firearm for a crime spree he embarked upon at age 16; at his sentencing, he threw a padlock from his holding cell that missed a bailiff and hit his mother. In 1999, Clemmons applied for clemency and asked for a lower sentence, making him eligible for parole.

"Where once stood a young . . . misguided fool who's [sic] own life he was unable to rule . . . now stands a 27-year-old man who has learned through the 'school of hard knocks' to appreciate and respect the rights of others," Clemmons wrote.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Marion Humphrey supported the clemency application. Humphrey said Monday that Clemmons had a good demeanor and seemed a promising candidate for rehabilitation. In 2000, Huckabee cut Clemmons' sentence in half, making him immediately eligible for parole.

"It's not unreasonable to give him a second chance," Humphrey said. "I believe that's the spirit in which then-Gov. Huckabee acted."

Not long after his release, Clemmons was convicted of robbery and returned to prison. He was supposed to serve until 2015. However, in 2004 the state parole board unanimously granted Clemmons parole, after his then-fiancee told them that "when he left the first time he was not ready." There is no record of Huckabee interceding.

According to a study by the Associated Press, Huckabee issued more than twice as many pardons and commutations in his 10 years in office than his three predecessors did in the previous 17 years. The most notorious case, up until Sunday, involved DuMond, who was convicted in 1985 of raping a 17-year-old high school cheerleader. The victim was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton and some conservative activists claimed DuMond was framed by the former Arkansas governor.

After his election in 1996, Huckabee said he wanted to grant clemency to DuMond, who claimed he was born again in prison. Huckabee never formally pardoned the convicted rapist, but met privately with the parole board. Shortly afterward, the board voted to free DuMond, 25 years before his sentence was to expire.

DuMond moved to Missouri and, two years after his release, was convicted of raping and murdering a 39-year-old woman. He died in prison as prosecutors were preparing to charge him with the rape and murder of another woman as well.

A name that came up frequently Monday was that of Willie Horton, a convicted killer who raped a woman and assaulted her fiance while on weekend furlough in Massachusetts. The program was backed by then-Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and used to devastating effect by Republicans to undermine his 1988 presidential bid.

Larry Jegley, the prosecuting attorney for Pulaski County in Arkansas, offered a taste of what Huckabee might expect if he were to run in 2012.

"None of this would have been on the radar screen had Mike Huckabee kept his pen in his pocket," Jegley, a Democrat, said Monday.

Huckabee "let a lot of scary people out," Jegley added, "and they're out there right now."

Joe Carter, a staffer on Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign, offered a more sympathetic view, suggesting the former governor may simply be too forgiving.

"Ironically, what makes Huckabee such an appealing presidential candidate -- his empathy for all people and genuine belief in the individual -- is also the trait that will prevent him from ever reaching the White House," Carter wrote in a blog post Monday.

Carter added: "The unfortunate reality is that for politicians, unlike pastors, there are limits to compassion."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-huckabee1-2009dec01,0,4471620,print.story

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Times series: Tracking child abuse through generations

Reporters from The Times have spent this year examining flaws in the way Los Angeles County deals with children in danger of abuse and neglect. The latest installment takes an in-depth look at one high-profile case.

The beating death of 6-year-old Dae'von Bailey generated public outrage because there had been earlier reports of possible abuse. Times reporter Hector Becerra spent three months understanding the boy's family and found a legacy of abuse through two generations. Check out his story and the entire series . Above, Becerra talks about the story.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Three Calabasas middle school students arrested in 'ginger attacks'

Three boys have been arrested in connection with the so-called "ginger attacks," instigated by a Facebook message, in which at least seven red-haired children were beaten up at a Calabasas middle school, a sheriff's spokesman said this morning.

Two 12-year-old students at A.E. Wright Middle School were arrested on suspicion of battery on school property, and a 13-year-old boy was accused of threatening to inflict injury "by means of electronic communication."

"The charge against the 13-year-old male is commonly referred to as cyber-bullying, something that is occurring way too much," said Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

The children were booked Wednesday before being released to the custody of their parents. No court date has been set for their initial appearance at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.

Sheriff's detectives are continuing to investigate the assaults and have identified eight boys at the school as subjects of the investigation. Authorities believe the attacks were spurred by a Facebook message about “Kick a Ginger Day," inspired by the television show "South Park."

Officials at the school are expected to announce the findings of their own inquiry later today.

Students returning to campus from Thanksgiving break will be attending a “special assembly” this morning on “decision making, the power of words, the importance of kindness, and social responsibility,” the school's principal wrote Sunday in a message to parents posted on the school's website.

The most serious assault left a 12-year-old boy with cuts and bruises. Other children were pushed, shoved and intimidated, authorities said. Many of the victims came forward after the bizarre attacks received media coverage.

In a satirical 2005 episode of “South Park,” one of the characters claimed that people with red hair, light skin and freckles have no souls and suffer from a disease called "Gingervitis."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/ginger-arrests.html#more

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EDITORIAL

Crazy about guns

Tragic shootings like those in Washington show the deadly side of our love affair with firepower.

December 1, 2009

News that an armed fugitive who shot and killed four police officers near Seattle on Sunday was still at large prompted fear, anger, sorrow and something else: The desire to grab a gun. "I can tell you that most people have probably got their weapons loaded right now," a retired computer worker from Parkland, Wash., told The Times. "I think people should carry their guns and be ready," a local taxi driver told National Public Radio.

It's a typical American response to an all-too-typical American incident of gun violence. It is also a striking example of the disconnect between our desire to feel safe and our insistence on loose gun laws that make us less so. The murdered officers were armed, well trained in the use of their weapons and wearing bulletproof vests. It didn't save them.

Americans seem hard-wired to love guns; our frontier history and our bloody split from the British crown have made gun ownership both a cultural imperative and a constitutionally enshrined right. That's not going to change any time soon, and polls show that's OK with increasing numbers of Americans. But we pay a steep price for our fascination with firepower.

Had Sunday's victims been, say, Mounties, it wouldn't necessarily have sent Canadians scrambling for the gun racks. But then, such killings are far less common in Canada. According to the FBI, the U.S. homicide rate in 2008 was 5.4 for every 100,000 people; 67% of those killings were committed with guns. In Canada, the homicide rate was 1.8 per 100,000, with 33% of the killings committed with guns. Notice a pattern? Canada has stricter guns laws than the United States, requiring owners to pass a safety course and get a license before buying a gun, rather like drivers must do here. The need for a driver's license seems obvious to most Americans -- after all, a car with an untrained driver behind the wheel can be deadly.

Time will tell how the suspected shooter in Parkland got his weapon. If he stole it or acquired it from an accomplice, there are few gun laws that could have prevented the tragedy short of a blanket ban on handguns, and the Supreme Court last year ruled that Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban was unconstitutional. Yet regardless of the circumstances in Parkland, it is simple for criminals and the mentally unstable to acquire guns in this country. In most states (though not, thankfully, California) they need only go to a gun show and buy from a reseller, because dealers in second-hand firearms usually aren't required to perform a federal background check.

That "gun-show loophole" should have been closed years ago because it would protect the public while doing nothing to restrict law-abiding citizens' right to bear arms, but the gun lobby has successfully resisted every attempt at reform. Americans could stand to be less gun-crazy and more willing to stop crazy people from getting guns.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cops1-2009dec01,0,5177596,print.story

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From the Daily News

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Local high school launches 'Hug a Ginger Day'

To counter the mean-spirited message of "Kick a Ginger Day," a senior at New Community Jewish High School in Agoura Hills is using Facebook to promote a Dec. 8 hug-a-thon targeting red-heads.

By Monday afternoon, Andrew Cohen of Agoura Hills had 675 responses to his proposed "Hug a Ginger Day," which he hopes will promote diversity and demonstrate an intolerance for hate.

The 17-year-old issued "Hug" invitations to all 500 of his Facebook friends, many of whom passed along the idea to members of their own contact lists. Now, he's awaiting responses from more than 3,410 other Facebook members promising to join in "Hug a Ginger Day."

"I thought it would be a little thing," Cohen said. "But it blew up."

Cohen was spurred to action after hearing of a "South Park"-inspired "Kick a Ginger Day" at A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas, where seven red-haired students were bullied. In his Facebook message, Cohen said the incidents are more than just a prank.

"I use the example of the Holocaust, and how it started as small acts of discrimination and then it escalated to a much larger problem," Cohen said. "We can't take these things lightly. This is a hate crime."

For information on Cohen's event, go to: www.facebook.com

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13896606

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Council committee to hear proposal about new gang department

A proposal to create a new department that would focus on Los Angeles' gang problem will be heard by a City Council committee Monday morning.

Currently, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Gang Reduction and Youth Development Office oversees gang prevention and intervention programs. The City Council's Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development has objected to that arrangement, warning about a lack of transparency.

The ad hoc committee was disbanded in August, but its final report will be presented Monday to the City Council's Public Safety committee.

"Currently, the City Council cannot instruct or audit the Mayor's Office; rather, the City Council, as the legislative body, can only request information or permission to audit GRYD's financial and/or programmatic decisions," the report states. "Thus it is difficult for the City Council and the community to acquire pertinent information in a timely and efficient manner."

Councilman Tony Cardenas, who chaired the ad hoc committee, said last week that "transparency is key."

Cardenas credited Villaraigosa with doing "a really good job" in implementing gang reduction and intervention programs, but added that "there will be another mayor someday with different priorities."

Villaraigosa's deputy chief of staff, Matt Szabo, criticized the proposal to create a new department.

"The graduate students who wrote the report deserve an 'A' for effort, especially since it marks the end of the committee's 5-year-long discussion...," Szabo said last week. "But at a time when we need to deliver services more efficiently, creating a new government bureaucracy subject to political meddling is driving the wrong way on a one-way street."

According to Cardenas, creating a new department would not cost much more than the $26 million currently budgeted for the Gang Reduction and Youth Development Office.

Over the past two summers, the gang office spearheaded the Summer Night Lights program, which was credited with an 86 percent reduction in gang-related homicides in 2008. The program provided sports and other activities for youths at parks in gang-ridden areas to keep them out of trouble while school was out.

The ad hoc committee hailed the program, but said the city's strategy for reducing gang violence should also include dealing with economic issues and partnering with community organizations and government agencies.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13891978

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Panel seeks more data on anti-gang plan

Calling it a life-or-death situation for Los Angeles' youth, a City Council panel on Monday reviewed a proposal to create a department that would oversee all anti-gang programs, but wanted more information on how much the plan would cost.

"Even though gang crime is down, it is more violent than ever," said Councilman Tony Cardenas, a proponent of the plan. "Years ago, you could be at a bus stop and someone would ask you where are you from and they would shout insults at you. Today, they shoot at you."

The council's Public Safety Committee held its first review of the recommendations from Cardenas' ad hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development, which has studied the issue for four years.

The panel asked staff for more detailed budget information on the proposed Department of Youth Development, as well as the recommendations from the office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich.

Anti-gang programs have been overseen by the Mayor's Office for more than a year. Villaraigosa has been credited with helping develop a number of successful programs and creating Gang Reduction Youth Development zones in the city's most violent neighborhoods.

Officials estimate there are 39,000 gang members in Los Angeles, and that 10 percent of them are responsible for 80 percent of the gang crime.

The Los Angeles Police Department says gang crime has plummeted 33.5percent since 2002, with the biggest drop coming in gang shootings, which are down more than 63 percent in those years.

Villaraigosa wants to maintain control of the anti-gang programs, and an aide said last week there is concern that Cardenas' plan would result in "political meddling."

"At a time when we need to deliver services more efficiently, creating a new government bureaucracy is driving the wrong way on a one-way street," Deputy Mayor Matt Szabo said.

Also, the Mayor's Office has been working to consolidate the number of city agencies because of the financial problems the city faces.

Cardenas, however, said the new department would be cost neutral, estimating that roughly $25 million would be needed for its operation.

The Mayor's Office was given control of the programs following a critical report from former Controller Laura Chick, who said a centralized operation would be more effective.

Cardenas praised the Mayor's Office for its anti-gang work, but said a long-range view is needed.

"This mayor has made it a priority, but we don't know what the next mayor will do with it," Cardenas said. "We need to make sure that the same level of support continues for the future.

"We get a lot of information from the Mayor's Office, but they cannot be required to give it to us. We need 100percent transparency."

Even if his proposal were put on the fast track, Cardenas acknowledged it would be at least 18 months before a new department could be created.

"We need a transition period in which everyone feels comfortable with what is being done," Cardenas said.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13897166

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Earl Ofari Hutchinson: LAPD's greatest challenge is catching `Grim Sleeper' killer

THE LAPD faces one of the most daunting, nerve-wracking and deadly challenges that any police force has faced. The challenge is to catch the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer.

Former LAPD chief William Bratton dealt with the challenge by setting up a special unit to nab the killer or killers. This didn't result in any arrests. Chief Charlie Beck now faces the same challenge. The Los Angeles Police Department recently re-released a composite sketch (at right), touted the half-million dollar reward the city has put up for information leading to the capture of the killer, and announced that it will put even more police personnel into the hunt.

The Grim Sleeper has been a terror for South L.A. and an embarrassment for the department since the first body was discovered in 1985 in a back alley in South L.A. In the years since, the body count has jumped to at least a dozen.

The victims have several things in common. They are mostly young. There are allegations that some of them engaged in prostitution and drug use. They are all poor or of marginal income. They are all black women. Despite the intense hunt for the killer, the LAPD has repeatedly hit a stone wall in the case.

The failure to crack the case has stirred apprehension and rage in South L.A. Some victim's families and community groups have charged that homicide investigators aren't doing enough. They say the victims are not the type of women who reflexively ignite police and public outrage. Citizens groups in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Atlanta and East St. Louis have made the same charge that police were lax and indifferent in their investigations following a rash of serial killings in those cities.

The frustration, anger and complaints are understandable. But the LAPD has never shoved into the killings into cold case files and forgotten them. They've taken the murders and the hunt for the killer or killers very seriously. This is more than simple professionalism for them. It's also due to the very compelling need to stop further carnage and allay public concerns over personal safety.

They have put countless personnel hours into tracking down leads, tips and DNA samples. LAPD lab workers matched DNA from 2002 and 2003 killings with the evidence from the 1980s killings, swabbed every inmate in California prisons and matched fingerprints at the scene with 100 million fingerprints on file nationwide. They have established hotlines and a Web site that provides updated information on the progress of the investigation. In February, CNN even got into the hunt. It established its own Web site with names, dates and details of the LAPD investigation.

Crime experts and law enforcement officials admit that serial killings are the toughest cases to crack. There are almost never any eyewitnesses, and there's little to link the victims. Then there are the internal problems in the probes such as inadequate management of information, lack of coordination between law enforcement agencies, inadequate resources, and the long time lags between the killings. More than a decade passed between the time the first series of killings in South L.A. in the 1980s and the next series of killings in early 2000.

The re-release of a sketch of the suspected killer Tuesday and the widespread media attention it's gotten again has refocused public attention on the killings. Forums and community meetings have been held in South L.A. recently to keep pressure on the LAPD to intensify the investigation and to urge anyone with any information on the case to contact the police. For the LAPD, the Grim Sleeper's capture will close the book on the greatest challenge that it has faced.

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_13886009

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From the Justice Department

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Mack Gordon Harris Sr., 67, of Social Circle, Ga., pleaded guilty today to transporting a minor for illegal sexual activity.

Harris was indicted by a federal grand jury in Richmond, Va., on July 21, 2009. According to court documents, in June 2005, Harris began communicating with a Maryland girl, then 15, through a Christian online chat room. As they continued chatting during the next few months, Harris admitted that at times he suggested they engage in sexual intercourse; exposed himself on a computer webcam; urged her to send naked pictures; and engaged in "phone sex." Harris eventually visited the girl around the time that she turned 16, which is the age of consent in Maryland. Harris admitted that several times during his visit and after the girl's sixteenth birthday, the two engaged in sexual intercourse.

Shortly afterward, Harris and the girl decided that he would take her to live with him in Georgia. Harris admitted that he instructed the girl to pack her belongings and leave farewell notes for her family. According to court documents, Harris picked up the girl in Maryland in December 2005 and began driving her to his home in Georgia. Harris admitted he told the girl that while travelling, she was not to speak with anybody, but if asked her age, she should respond that she was 25. During the journey, they stopped overnight at a hotel in Skippers, Va., where the age of consent is 18, and engaged in sexual intercourse.

Harris faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and a lifetime of supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 24, 2010.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Barak Cohen of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth C. Wu of the Eastern District of Virginia. The case is being investigated by U.S. Postal Inspection Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/November/09-crm-1285.html

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From ICE

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Mexican couple arrested for forcing a young Mexican woman into prostitution

NEW YORK - A Mexican couple has been arrested by special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on sex trafficking charges in an investigation that also involved the Drug Enforcement Administration and New York City Police Department.

Domingo Salazar, 33 and his wife, Norma Mendez, 32, are accused of trafficking a young woman from Mexico and forcing her into prostitution. The couple was arrested on Nov. 27.

As specified in the criminal complaint, in February 2007, Salazar began a romantic relationship with the victim in Mexico. Between April 2007 and November 2009, the defendants, who are Mexican nationals, used physical violence and intimidation to force the young Mexican woman to work as a prostitute in the United States.

"Criminal organizations engaged in sex trafficking of women should know that ICE will work tirelessly with our partners to dismantle their ruthless operations," said Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement John Morton. "As alleged in the complaint, these traffickers have shown their utter disregard for human life, and ICE is committed to identifying victims and arresting the sex traffickers who prey on them."

In April 2007, after the victim became pregnant with Salazar's child, Salazar paid a smuggler to transport himself and the victim across the U.S.-Mexico border. Salazar then arranged their travel to New York.

The complaint alleges that shortly after arriving in New York, Salazar and the victim began living with Mendez. The complaint also alleges that Salazar told the victim that Mendez was his sister, when in fact she was his wife. In December 2007, about a month after the victim gave birth to her child, Salazar told the victim she would have to work as a prostitute to earn money to support their child and to repay their smuggling debt. The victim was not permitted to leave the apartment except to work as a prostitute; she was required to engage in sex acts with 8 to 15 clients in a single shift, and 20 to 25 clients during a double shift. The victim was transported to locations to work by a driver; and half the money she earned was taken by the driver and the other half by Salazar.

Beginning in late December 2007 and continuing until the defendants' arrests, Salazar and Mendez allegedly abused the victim for failing to make more money, for not paying Mendez sufficient respect, and for having a baby.

On or about Jan. 12, 2008, the victim's 3-month-old child became limp and unresponsive. Salazar allegedly refused to take the baby to a hospital, explaining to the victim that authorities would believe the mother had beaten the baby. The baby died that day. Salazar allegedly ordered the victim to assist him in concealing the baby's remains in a cement block, which was thereafter placed in a plastic bin that was still inside Salazar's apartment in Brooklyn.

As detailed in the complaint, the abuse included cutting the victim with a knife, beating her with a brick and board, punching her, and breaking her finger and nose. At the time of the defendants' arrests, the victim still bore the marks of the abuse; her broken nose remained untreated and her eye was nearly swollen shut.

"The trafficking of human beings and sex slavery are unconscionable in this day and age and will not be tolerated," said Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney. "I am grateful for the Department of the Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs and Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New York Police Department, and the Kings County District Attorney's Office for their assistance in this investigation."

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Warren and Pamela Chen.

Anyone who knows or suspects that someone is being forced to work against his or her will should contact the ICE tip line anonymously at 866-DHS-ICE. You can also view or download the video public service announcement on trafficking at www.ice.gov .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0911/091130newyorkcity.htm

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