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Sexual abuse

Police & Fire
Ex-Olympian Gets 11 Years In Prison For Abusing Boys At Western Mass Camp Ex-Olympian Gets 11 Years In Prison For Abusing Boys At Western Mass Camp
Ex-Olympian Gets 11 Years In Prison For Abusing Boys At Western Mass Camp A former Olympian who was accused of sexually abusing more than 50 boys beginning in the 1970s admitted to the crimes in court on Thursday, Feb. 8, and was sentenced to more than a decade behind bars, authorities said.  Conrad Avondale Mainwaring, a 1976 Summer Olympic hurdler who was a coach and counselor at Camp Greylock for Boys, a summer camp in Beckett, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault and battery of boys, some younger than 14 years old, the Berkshire County District Attorney announced.  He was sentenced to serve 10 to 11 years in prison.  Berkshire Count…

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by Josh Lanier
Police & Fire
Ex-Olympian To Plead Guilty To Molesting Boys At Western Mass Summer Camp: DA Ex-Olympian To Plead Guilty To Molesting Boys At Western Mass Summer Camp: DA
Ex-Olympian To Plead Guilty To Molesting Boys At Western Mass Summer Camp: DA A 72-year-old former Olympic hurdler will plead guilty to molesting multiple boys while serving as a Massachusetts summer camp counselor and coach in the 1970s.  Conrad Avondale Mainwaring is expected to enter a guilty plea on Feb. 8 to charges of indecent assault and battery on boys 14 or younger, the Berkshire County District Attorney said. He was facing 12 counts, but it is unclear how many he will admit to.  Related: Former Olympian Facing New Charges For Assault On Child In Western Mass Mainwaring worked as a camp counselor at Camp Greylock for Boys, which taught sports…

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by Josh Lanier
News
Trump Defamation Case: E. Jean Carroll Awarded $83.3M In Damages Trump Defamation Case: E. Jean Carroll Awarded $83.3M In Damages
Trump Defamation Case: E. Jean Carroll Awarded $83.3M In Damages For the second time in less than a year, a Manhattan federal jury has ordered former President Donald Trump to pay columnist E. Jean Carroll, a longtime Hudson Valley resident, millions of dollars in damages for repeatedly defaming her. The seven men and two women – including Hudson Valley residents from Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland counties – awarded Carroll a combined $83.3 million after deliberating for three hours on Friday, Jan. 26. The other jurors were from New York County (Manhattan) and the Bronx. Specifically, jurors decided that Trump should pay Carroll $11 million to fund a…

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by Michael Mashburn
Police & Fire
Western Mass Man, Ex-Head Of 'Recount' News Site Had 'Large' Amount Of Child Porn: Police Western Mass Man, Ex-Head Of 'Recount' News Site Had 'Large' Amount Of Child Porn: Police
Western Mass Man, Ex-Head Of 'Recount' News Site Had 'Large' Amount Of Child Porn: Police A 44-year-old Berkshire County man and former editor-in-chief of a popular news site faces multiple felonies after he allegedly amassed a trove of child sexual abuse material featuring children as young as 3, authorities said. He also took is accused of taking part in discussions on how to abduct and rape children.  Slade Sohmer, of Otis, was arrested on Monday, Nov. 13, following a lengthy investigation and charged with two counts of having child porn and two counts of dissemination of child pornography, the Berkshire County District Attorney's Office said. More charges are expect…

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by Josh Lanier
Police & Fire
Shrewsbury High Robotics Mentor Busted With Child Porn; Took Secret Pics Of Students: Feds Shrewsbury High Robotics Mentor Busted With Child Porn; Took Secret Pics Of Students: Feds
Shrewsbury High Robotics Mentor Busted With Child Porn; Took Secret Pics Of Students: Feds A 60-year-old Shrewsbury man who mentors teens with the Shrewsbury High School Robotics Team was caught with images and video of child sexual abuse material, authorities said. He also took clothed photos of underage girls while working at the school, officials said.  Brian Lingard is now facing a charge of transportation and possession of child pornography, the US Attorney for Massachusetts said. Police arrested him on Monday, Oct. 30. Investigators said Lingard was returning from Paris on Oct. 19 when customs agents at Boston Logan International Airport found an SD car…

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by Josh Lanier
News
Liable Again: Trump Defamed E. Jean Carroll Second Time By Denying Sexual Abuse, Judge Rules Liable Again: Trump Defamed E. Jean Carroll Second Time By Denying Sexual Abuse, Judge Rules
Liable Again: Trump Defamed E. Jean Carroll Second Time By Denying Sexual Abuse, Judge Rules Months after a jury concluded that former President Donald Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll decades ago and then defamed her by calling her a liar, a federal judge in New York has found Trump liable in Carroll’s second defamation lawsuit. In his ruling issued Wednesday, Sept. 6, in US District Court in Manhattan, Judge Lewis Kaplan said Carroll has already proven that Trump defamed her, and the upcoming trial will only decide how much the former president must pay her in damages. Wednesday’s ruling comes after a federal jury in the first lawsuit awarded Carroll, now age 79 and l…

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by Michael Mashburn
News
Church Elder Gets 15 Years For Sexually Assaulting Teen In Springfield: DA Church Elder Gets 15 Years For Sexually Assaulting Teen In Springfield: DA
Church Elder Gets 15 Years For Sexually Assaulting Teen In Springfield: DA Hampden County authorities said a level-3 registered sex offender who served as a church elder in the Springfield Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses was sentenced to 15 years behind bars for sexually abusing a then 13-year-old child.  Jay Aaron Smith was convicted of four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 by a jury, the Hampden County District Attorney's Office said. The judge also sentenced Smith to five years of probation when he's released from prison.  Investigators believe Smith sexually abused a 13-year-old girl for months in late 2020 through …

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by Josh Lanier
News
E. Jean Carroll Wants New Damages From Trump After His Comments At CNN Town Hall, Report Says E. Jean Carroll Wants New Damages From Trump After His Comments At CNN Town Hall, Report Says
E. Jean Carroll Wants New Damages From Trump After His Comments At CNN Town Hall, Report Says Former President Donald Trump’s words at a televised town hall may come back to bite him if writer E. Jean Carroll gets her way. On Monday, May 22, Carroll asked a Manhattan federal court to award her a “very substantial” additional amount of damages in her civil sexual abuse and defamation case against Trump, CNN reports. According to the outlet, the move is in direct response to Trump’s appearance at a CNN town hall on May 10, in which he continued to deny Carroll’s claims that he sexually abused her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s, calling the allegation “fake”…

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by Michael Mashburn
News
'Donald Trump Raped Me,' NY Accuser Testifies As Trial Starts 'Donald Trump Raped Me,' NY Accuser Testifies As Trial Starts
'Donald Trump Raped Me,' NY Accuser Testifies As Trial Starts E. Jean Carroll testified that she hasn’t had a romantic or sexual relationship since the 1990s, “because Donald Trump raped me,” The Washington Post reports. The New York columnist's remarks came on the first day of testimony in her civil battery and defamation trial against the former president, which continued in Manhattan on Wednesday, April 26. Earlier Report: Trump's 'Past Words, Actions' Cited In Judge's Ruling For Anonymous Jurors In Sex Assault Trial Carroll, now age 79 and living in the Hudson Valley, in Orange County, made headlines in June 2019 when she claimed in a cover stor…

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by Michael Mashburn
News
Pre-Teen Girl's Testament Sends Mass Stepfather To Jail For Molestation: DA Pre-Teen Girl's Testament Sends Mass Stepfather To Jail For Molestation: DA
Pre-Teen Girl's Testament Sends Mass Stepfather To Jail For Molestation: DA A pre-teen girl who shared her experiences of repeatedly being molested by her 50-year-old stepfather helped him get the maximum allowable sentence, according to officials.  Gerson Pascual-Santana, of New Bedford, was convicted on three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14 on Wednesday, March 8, the Bristol County District Attorney's Office reports.  Pascual-Santana will serve three-and-a-half years in jail followed by eight years of probation. He also must register as a sex offender, have no contact with the victim and undergo sex offender treatme…

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by David Cifarelli
Politics
Trump Rape Accuser From NY To File Lawsuit Under New 'Survivors' Law Trump Rape Accuser From NY To File Lawsuit Under New 'Survivors' Law
Trump Rape Accuser From NY To File Lawsuit Under New 'Survivors' Law A well-known writer and advice columnist from New York who claims that former President Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s plans to file a sexual battery lawsuit under the state’s new Adult Survivors Act, CBS News reports. In a court filing as part of her ongoing defamation lawsuit against Trump, E. Jean Carroll, now age 78 and living in Orange County, says she intends to sue the former president on Thursday, Nov. 24, when the new law takes effect. The Adult Survivors Act provides a one-year window for adult victims of sexual abuse to file a claim, even if it occurred decades ago. Relate…

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by Michael Mashburn
News
New Details Emerge Into Allegations Of Unreported Abuse At School In Region New Details Emerge Into Allegations Of Unreported Abuse At School In Region
New Details Emerge Into Allegations Of Unreported Abuse At School In Region The arrest report for a Connecticut teacher accused of sexually abusing young female students reveals that as many as 13 victims had reported the teacher's alleged actions to the principal or other authorities for several years. News of the Litchfield County teacher's actions became public on Tuesday, Aug. 23, with the arrest of three employees and a former administrator, for failing to report abuse by a former Plymouth Center School teacher, James Eschert, a Hartford County resident. Those arrested were: Chrystal Collins, age 59, of Bristol Rebecca Holleran, age 47, of Bristol Sherri Tur…

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by Kathy Reakes
Police & Fire
Decomposed Body Found In Connecticut Home ID'd As Ponzi Swindler, Jeffrey Epstein Mentor Decomposed Body Found In Connecticut Home ID'd As Ponzi Swindler, Jeffrey Epstein Mentor
Decomposed Body Found In Connecticut Home ID'd As Ponzi Swindler, Jeffrey Epstein Mentor A body found in a Connecticut home during a welfare check has positively been identified as Steven Hoffenberg, a longtime mentor of Jeffrey Epstein. Hoffenberg, the one-time owner of the New York Post and businessman who spent 18 years in prison for a $460 million Ponzi scheme, was found in the New Haven County home around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 23, in the city of Derby. According to the Derby Police, the medical examiner's office confirmed on Friday, Aug. 26, that the badly decomposed body was that of Hoffenberg.  An initial autopsy did not find signs of trauma on the body, the…

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by Kathy Reakes
News
Former Boston Educator Sentenced For Sexually Abusing Child With Disabilities Former Boston Educator Sentenced For Sexually Abusing Child With Disabilities
Former Boston Educator Sentenced For Sexually Abusing Child With Disabilities A former Boston Public Schools employee was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a child with developmental disabilities, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said. Jose Melendez, age 55, was previously convicted four counts of aggravated rape of a child and one count of aggravated assault and battery on a child on May 31, the office reports. The counts stem from his time as a paraprofessional at Mario Umana Academy in East Boston, during which he abused a male student from 2015 to 2016. "Before, [he] would want to go out, but after he stopped and never w…

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by David Cifarelli
News
Man From Region Sentenced For Attempting To Engage in Sex With Minor Man From Region Sentenced For Attempting To Engage in Sex With Minor
Man From Region Sentenced For Attempting To Engage in Sex With Minor A Connecticut man will spend more than a decade in prison after he was caught trying to pay to sexually abuse a child. Hartford County resident Robert Sellers, age 62, of Bristol, was sentenced in federal court in Hartford on Friday, May 20, to 13 years behind bars. It came three months after he pleaded guilty to one count of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, and one count of distribution of child pornography, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Connecticut. The FBI began targeting Sellers on the social media app Kik in November 2020 after getting tipped off that he was sh…

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by Michael Mashburn
News
Camp Director In Mass Mishandled Teen's Sex Assault Case, Lawsuit Says Camp Director In Mass Mishandled Teen's Sex Assault Case, Lawsuit Says
Camp Director In Mass Mishandled Teen's Sex Assault Case, Lawsuit Says The director of a popular Jewish sleep-away camp in Western Massachusetts has been removed from the position after a scathing lawsuit accused him of trying to cover up a sex abuse claim made by a teen girl. Ethan Linden, who worked at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, is accused of telling the 15-year-old girl from New Jersey in 2018 that he wouldn't tell anyone about how she woke up to a boy putting his fingers inside of her genitals, reads the suit, filed in Manhattan federal court. The girl allegedly told her head counselor, who told camp officials, but after days without hearing back, she h…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Former Teacher In Region Charged With Sexual Assault, Police Say Former Teacher In Region Charged With Sexual Assault, Police Say
Former Teacher In Region Charged With Sexual Assault, Police Say A former elementary school teacher in Connecticut is facing charges for allegedly sexually abusing minors in his care as students, police announced. In Litchfield County, former Plymouth Center School educator James Eschert, age 51, turned himself in to police following a lengthy investigation into alleged inappropriate conduct between him and multiple minors who were his students at the time. According to investigators at the Plymouth Police Department, on Sept. 29, 2021, they received a complaint against Eschert regarding his activities which children. Police said that the investigation …

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by Zak Failla
News
CNN Producer Charged With Enticing Minors Into Sexual Activity, Feds Say CNN Producer Charged With Enticing Minors Into Sexual Activity, Feds Say
CNN Producer Charged With Enticing Minors Into Sexual Activity, Feds Say A Connecticut man who was a producer at CNN headquarters in New York City has been charged with sexually abusing underage girls. The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced on Friday, Dec. 10 that Fairfield County resident John Griffin, 44, of Stamford, was arrested by the FBI after a federal grand jury in Vermont charged Griffin with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.  According to the indictment: From April to July of 2020, Griffin utilized the messaging applic…

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by Joe Lombardi
News
Man Charged With Recording Sex Abuse Of Minor In Region Man Charged With Recording Sex Abuse Of Minor In Region
Man Charged With Recording Sex Abuse Of Minor In Region A 53-year-old Connecticut man was arrested and charged with producing child porn. Hartford County resident Mark Roman, of East Windsor, was arrested on Monday, Nov. 29, and charged with production of child pornography and transportation of child pornography, according to Leonard Boyle, acting United States attorney for the District of Connecticut. A criminal complaint alleges that Yahoo! reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that images of child sexual abuse had been sent from Roman's email account, Boyle said. The US Attorney's Office said investigat…

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by Nicole Valinote
News
Former Youth Football Coach In Massachusetts Sentenced For Sexually Exploiting Children Former Youth Football Coach In Massachusetts Sentenced For Sexually Exploiting Children
Former Youth Football Coach In Massachusetts Sentenced For Sexually Exploiting Children A former youth football coach in Massachusetts who preyed on minors and took video of himself sexually abusing them has been sentenced in federal court. Derek Sheehan, age 51, a former Norwell youth football coach in Plymouth County, was sentenced to 45 years in prison and five years of supervised release after pleading guilty over the summer to three counts of sexual exploitation of children. “Mr. Sheehan abused his status as a youth football coach to prey on vulnerable children. He manipulated and sexually exploited them for months, and for that he will spend the rest of his life behind b…

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by Zak Failla
News
CT Woman Accuses Bob Dylan Of Sexual Abuse When She Was 12 CT Woman Accuses Bob Dylan Of Sexual Abuse When She Was 12
CT Woman Accuses Bob Dylan Of Sexual Abuse When She Was 12 A Connecticut woman has filed a lawsuit against singer-songwriter Bob Dylan for allegedly sexually abusing her when she was 12 years old, back in 1965. The Fairfield County woman, age 68 and living in Greenwich, claims in the lawsuit filed last week in New York County Supreme Court, that Dylan, whose real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, of providing her with “alcohol and drugs and sexually abused her multiple times," according to BBC News. The woman, who is listed in the suit only as JC, filed the lawsuit on the last day of the New York Child Victims’ Act look-back window.  The window…

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by Kathy Reakes
Police & Fire
Innkeeper With A 'Sex Dungeon' Sentenced To 29 Years In Prison Over Child Exploitation Innkeeper With A 'Sex Dungeon' Sentenced To 29 Years In Prison Over Child Exploitation
Innkeeper With A 'Sex Dungeon' Sentenced To 29 Years In Prison Over Child Exploitation A Connecticut man who had a “sex dungeon” and attempted to pay for "limitless" sex with a child has been sentenced to nearly 29 years in federal prison. Simon Hessler, 48, formerly of Ellington, has been sentenced to nearly 29 years in federal prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release over child exploration offenses. Hessler was the owner of Baymont Inn & Suites in Manchester, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was also the president of New England Hospitality Management, Inc. and an EMT driver with the Ellington Volunteer Ambulance service. From the United States Att…

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by Kristin Palpini