Arrest of mayor stuns Conn. city

WATERBURY, Conn. - In this corruption-weary city, the indictment of a mayor on criminal charges has become almost a political ritual, an unremarkable turn of the wheels of power. But yesterday, the arrest of three-term Mayor Philip Giordano on federal charges of enticing a minor to have sex stunned even the most numbed of city residents.

Giordano, a 38-year-old Republican who ran unsuccessfully against US Senator Joseph Lieberman in the fall, is being held without bail.

In a surprise hearing in US District Court in Bridgeport, Giordano was charged with ''using an interstate facility'' to lure a minor under the age of 16 into sex, according to Connecticut's US attorney.

Although authorities declined to give many details, FBI Special Agent Michael Wolf said there was more than one alleged victim under 16, but yesterday's charges involved just one child.

Friday July 27, 2001 1:22 PM ET

Conn. Governor Calls on Accused Mayor to Resign

HARTFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - Connecticut's Republican governor called on Friday for the resignation of Philip Giordano, the mayor of financially strapped Waterbury who faces sex charges involving a minor.

``Due to the serious nature of the charges filed against Phil Giordano, I ask that he resign as mayor immediately,'' Gov. John G. Rowland said in a statement. ``Stepping down is the right thing to do for the city and his family.''

Giordano, a Republican who is married with children, was arrested on Thursday and accused of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity and conspiracy to commit that offense, said the U.S. Attorney's office in New Haven, Connecticut.

He has been detained without bail pending a hearing next week. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.

Giordano ran as the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate last year but was handily defeated by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news - bio - voting record), who also ran for vice president on the ticket with Al Gore (news - web sites).

More recently, he has been under fire for the state of Waterbury's finances. The city faces a shortfall estimated at $60 million and a likely takeover by the state.

Rowland, who has criticized Giordano for neglecting the troubled city to focus on his Senate campaign, said Waterbury could not afford the distraction of the case against Giordano and asserted that it would have no effect on the state's review of the city's finances.

``The state financial review board will continue its work and will not be deterred from its mission to restore the city's fiscal health,'' Rowland's statement said.

Giordano has said he will not seek a fourth two-year term.

Giordano's detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Alan Nevas in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His hometown of Waterbury is the fifth-largest city in Connecticut.

There are new details in the case involving a former Carmel High School soccer coach, accused of performing sex acts with a 15-year-old boy. Carmel police detectives are continuing the investigation and are going to request a subpoena for Rick Doucette's past work history.

Doucette, 54, worked at Brebuef Jesuit Preparatory School for 28 years and also at St. Richards. Now, investigators want to know why he left Brebuef.

Doucette appeared in video court in front of a Hamilton County judge Tuesday.

Doucette is facing charges of sexual misconduct with a minor and child seduction.

Police say they found Doucette in car in a strip mall parking lot performing sex acts on 15-year-old boy.

In court, Doucette was informed that a protective order has been filed to keep him away from the boy.

"We do it every time in a case like this. We want to make sure that since there is what appears to be a sexual relationship between an adult and a child, we want to make sure that child is protected. That's our utmost concern," Hamilton County Deputy Prosecutor Jeffery Wehmueller said.

Police detectives subpoenaed Doucette's work history to find out if there were any other cases of sexual misconduct in his past.

The prosecutor said that he hopes Doucette is following the case of another Carmel coach accused of sexual misconduct. Don Renihan was put back in jail after allegedly leaving chalk markings to contact the teenage girl that he was allegedly involved with.

"I'm hoping that he will take that example to heart," Wehmueller said.

The prosecutor's office said that right now they are only investigating the one situation involving one victim. They haven't heard of any other victims so far, but of course they said if there are other victims out there, they would be interested in hearing their story.

Search for Indiana principal, female student moves south

May 4, 2001
Web posted at: 5:12 p.m. EDT (2112 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The search for an Indiana school principal wanted by federal agents for interstate travel with one of his female sixth-grade students is moving into the South, FBI officials said Friday.

Authorities are looking for William "Andy" Beith, 28, principal of Liberty Baptist Academy in Lake Station, Indiana. Both Beith and 11-year-old Gabrielle Grace Marshall disappeared Tuesday.

Marshall was reported missing after a Wal-Mart store employee told police the girl was crying and seen running in the store parking lot, according to The Associated Press. Her parents believed she may have telephoned Beith.

Officials Friday distributed photos of the pair, and said the two were believed to have been in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Thursday, a day after they were spotted in Troy, Ohio. There was no new information on their whereabouts Friday, but authorities believed they were continuing to travel south.

Beith was charged Thursday night by federal authorities with coercing and enticing a minor, and transporting a minor to engage in sexual activity. Both charges carry penalties of up to 15 years in prison.

Officials said Beith had had "contact with the girl outside the school setting," but declined to provide the details contained in a still-secret criminal complaint.

Beith is described as a white male, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 160 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Gabrielle is described as 4 feet 11 inches tall, 105 pounds, with a dark complexion, long brown hair and brown eyes.

Beith is driving a white 2000 Dodge Durango with Indiana license plate 245627L, the FBI says.

The FBI asks that anyone with information on the whereabouts of the two to call the FBI's Indianapolis office at (317) 639-3301.

According to The Associated Press, Beith was arrested in 1990, while still a teen-ager, and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor for exposing himself to a 15-year-old girl.

The news agency said Beith became principal of Liberty Baptist Academy in Lake Station, Indiana, in 1998 when his father, William S. Beith, resigned after being arrested for soliciting a male undercover police officer for oral sex.

Charges against both men were dismissed after they received counseling under a deferred prosecution program, Diane Poulton, a spokeswoman for the Lake County prosecutor, told The Associated Press.

Vote Will Fire Teacher Accused of Assault

A local school district has voted to start actions to fire an elementary school teacher accused of sexually assaulting seven schoolgirls.

Steven Dollaway, gym teacher at Commerce Elementary School in the Walled Lake Consolidated School District, was charged with seven counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. The school district's attorney said that the school's actions are based on the same allegations as Dollaway's criminal case.

Dollaway has been suspended with pay since April.

Monday July 23, 2001  10:22 PM EDT

Officer Arrested For Alleged Sexual Assault

A Houston police officer was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a young woman.

According to reports, the suspected officer drove up to a popular parking spot near the Bush Intercontinental Airport where people often watch the planes take off and land.

The Houston Police Department airport officer rapped on one of the car windows and caught two teenagers making out, reports said. Airport officers direct traffic and handle all calls for help in and around IAH.

The 15-year veteran asked the male driver for identification, but the teenager put the car into gear and sped away, sources told News2Houston.

The car ended up in a hotel parking lot, but the teenage driver had escaped. However, the 16-year-old girl remained in the vehicle.

Sources told KPRC that the officer then turned his attention to the young woman and began questioning her before offering to take her home.

Somewhere between the parking lot and the young woman's home, the girl claims that the officer forced her into a sex act while still in uniform.

Sources said that fellow officers also arrested the officer while in uniform.

"The officer denies any wrongdoing. His family stands behind him. They are all anxious for the truth to be told in court," the officer's attorney Brett Ligon said in a press release.

The officer has been released from jail on $20,000 bond.

He has been relieved of his badge pending the trial and is due in court next month.

R.I. man faces child sex charges

WALTHAM - His cyber-name was ''Meat,'' said prosecutors, the handle they said he used as a dangerous sex predator who prowled the Internet for girls.

But the lawyer for Edward Sadowski, 58, of Coventry, R.I., said at his client's arraignment yesterday in Waltham District Court that ''Meat'' was just a computer screen name and that his client was a loving and harmless church deacon.

Sadowski was charged yesterday with statutory rape, attempting to rape, pose nude, and disseminate sexual materials to someone he thought was a  14-year-old girl he chatted with on the Internet.   Sadowski was arrested at the Super 8 Motel in Watertown after planning to meet her, but was met instead by an undercover State Police trooper, said Julie Ross, a prosecutor with Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's high-tech and computer crimes division.

Ross said that on July 12, Sadowski visited a chat room called ''Little Girl Sex Chat'' and contacted the undercover officer, who was posing as the girl. He contacted the trooper several times over the following two weeks, Ross said.

''They talked about meeting and they talked about sex,'' said Ross. ''The nature of the chat and e-mails indicated that he wanted to have a sexual encounter with the person.''   ''During that time, the defendant indicated that he wanted to come to the Boston area for the purpose of having sex with the 14-year-old girl,'' Ross said. She said Sadowski also e-mailed nude photographs of himself and pornographic pictures to the trooper.

Judge Gregory Flynn ordered Sadowski held on $10,000 bail, denying the defense's request that he be released on personal recognizance because he had no prior convictions.

''The nature of the charge is significant,'' Flynn wrote in court documents. ''The defendant does have close ties to his community in Rhode Island but no ties in Massachusetts.''

Flynn did note that Sadowski's reputation in his Rhode Island community was considered ''good'' and that he had family ties.  Sadowski's attorney, Richard O'Reilly, said, ''All the indications that I have [show] ... he's an upstanding citizen in his community.''

The Diocese of Providence released a statement saying that, ''in keeping with diocese policy, [Sadowski] will not be functioning as a deacon pending the outcome of the investigation. We pray for Edward and his family.''   State authorities told the court they consider Sadowski a flight risk because when he was arrested, he had already made plans for a trip to visit Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  

A computer seized from the home of a suspended Indianapolis police officer contained more than 1,000 images depicting young boys in sex acts, the Marion County prosecutor said Wednesday.

That discovery led to 21 new charges against Scott Cooper, who already was charged with child exploitation and related counts.

"What we have here is the most rank kind of child pornography collected by a person who knew what he was collecting," said Prosecutor Scott Newman.

A court-ordered search of Cooper's 6-gigabyte computer hard drive turned up more than 1,000 pornographic images of young males in various states of nudity, arousal and engaging in sex acts, prosecutors said. Prosecutors are charging Cooper with 20 new counts of misdemeanor possession of child pornography.

"They're beautiful kids who should be out on a soccer field, not performing sex acts on each other and on adults," said Deputy Prosecutor Kristina Korobov, one of the investigators who viewed the images.

Cooper's attorney, James Voyles, could not be reached for comment.

Newman also charged Cooper with a felony count of child exploitation after police identified a 16-year-old boy who investigators say was secretly videotaped while masturbating in Cooper's Speedway home over the weekend of Sept. 29, 2000.

Cooper, an undercover narcotics officer, was already charged with possession of steroids, child exploitation, possession of child pornography and three counts of dissemination of matter harmful to minors. If convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum of 201/2 years in prison, Newman said.

Cooper was suspended from the force in November, shortly after the first set of charges were filed.

In all, prosecutors have identified five boys they say Cooper victimized. According to court documents supporting previous charges, Cooper secretly videotaped a 13-year-old boy masturbating and allowed two other boys to view pornographic material. Police also say Cooper exposed himself in front of a 14-year-old boy.

Maryland Teacher Pleads Guilty to Sex Charges

A high school substitute teacher from Carroll County pleaded guilty Thursday to felony sexual child abuse involving students.

Kimberly L. Merson, 24, of Union Bridge, admitted having sexual contact with nine male students at Francis Scott Key High School. She also acknowledged serving alcohol to the underage boys.

Prosecutor Tracy A. Gilmore told Circuit Court Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. that Merson had sexual contact with the boys at school, in cars, at her home and at the home of twin brothers.

Merson pleaded guilty to child abuse involving four boys, then ages 15 and 16, and to a sex offense with one 15-year-old. Charges involving students who were older than 16 were dropped, although she admitted to them by agreeing in essence to a statement of facts read by prosecutors.

Merson was one of two Francis Scott Key teachers arrested within a week in May on sex charges. Charges against the second, Tracie Mokry, were dropped last month. A third Carroll teacher, ! Ha! rold W. Fair, was indicted by a grand jury in June on charges of abusing elementary school students.

According to court documents, Merson told investigators after her arrest that she had served the boys alcohol and invited them to her home, where she stripped, danced and engaged in sexual activity with them.

She also told investigators after her arrest that she was attracted to teen boys because she considered herself ugly at that age.

"When I was a teen-ager, I had braces, glasses and permed hair," she said, according to the documents. "Those kind of boys were not interested in me. Now, I can be attractive to them."

Merson apologized in a written statement.

"I would like to first and foremost deeply apologize to the boys and their families for the pain that I have caused in their lives," she wrote." I sincerely wish them every happiness in the future. I take full responsibility for what happened and feel great remorse for my actions."

Merson said she is receivin! g ! "intensive professional counseling and evaluation in dealing with personal issues, which prompted those actions."

Merson is due to be sentenced in September. State guidelines suggest penalties ranging from probation to six years. The maximum is 15 years.