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The district attorney said law enforcement officers have already collected an abundant amount of evidence in the case.
Asked if the not guilty pleas were expected, Gore said, "Anything other than that would be unexpected."
No other court sessions are scheduled until the trial.
"The question is whether the defense attorneys can have adequate time to get ready [by September]," Gore said.
Defense attorneys might file motions before the trial.
Maness, from Burlington, is being represented by court-appointed attorneys Ramos as the lead counsel, and Rick Miller and Kevin Peters from the capital defender's office in Wilmington.
"This is the first time a capital defender's office has come to Brunswick County for a case," Gore said.
Maness, shackled and wearing an orange and white-striped prison uniform, was led into the courtroom Wednesday. After he stopped at the defense team's table, one of the capital defender's office attorneys rubbed and patted Maness on the back, while Prince's family and friends looked on.
The defendant did not say anything to the court.
Maness, 19, was brought to Brunswick County from Polk Youth Institution for inmates ages 18-21 in Butner, where at the request of Brunswick officials, he was transferred the day after Officer Prince was killed.
Prince, 36, was gunned down during a routine traffic stop on Jan. 18. At 1:08 a.m., the officer called in to say he was stopping a 1992 Honda for swerving in the road.
The 911 dispatcher alerted Prince that Maness was wanted for parole violation on a drug conviction.
The two men scuffled.
"Maness was able to take Officer Mitch Prince's duty sidearm and shoot him several times," Brunswick County Sheriff Ronald Hewett said.
Prince was shot three times, in the head and shoulder, and died at the scene. He was the first law-enforcement officer in the county to die in the line of duty in 91 years.
After a chase in which three other officers were fired upon, Maness hid under a trailer. The Brunswick County SWAT team threw tear gas under the trailer and captured Maness at 3:22 a.m., a little more than two hours after the fatal shooting.
Nine of the county's 17-member SWAT team rushed to the scene on a moment's notice and participated in the capture.
The Brunswick County Grand Jury, meeting for the first time in 2005, also moved quickly and, by mid-afternoon on the day of the murder, 11 felony indictments were issued against Maness.
Gore pledged then to seek the death penalty.
Asked Wednesday if it is still a capital case, Gore said, "Yes. Oh, yes."
Maness' father, Darrell E. Maness, is serving a life sentence for killing an off-duty officer in Burlington in the mid-1980s.
The Brunswick County sheriff said on Jan. 18 that it was the first time he had heard of a second-generation cop killer.

Copyright © 2005. The Brunswick Beacon®

Published: Apr 22, 2005
Modified: Apr 22, 2005 3:25 AM
Defendant questions girls in sex case
Ex-newsman acts as own attorney
The Associated Press
FAYETTEVILLE -- A man accused of sexually molesting three girls with their mother's permission is representing himself in court, allowing him to question the girls while they're on the stand.
Ethan Hess, a former radio newsman, is accused of having sex with the girls when they were 8 years old to 12 years old and taking photos of two of them when they were nude. They are now 13, 15 and 17.
In testimony Wednesday, the 17-year-old said Hess first had sex with her on her birthday in January 2001. Through the prior year, he took photographs and touched her sexually, she said. The last time he had sex with her was Jan. 23, 2002, she said.
According to testimony, the girls didn't talk to police about Hess until February 2002, after the 15-year-old was caught passing a note in school that talked about the sexual activity. The school's principal called their mother and the authorities.
"Why did you wait so long to go to the police with this?" Hess asked the 17-year-old.
"I was scared. I was just scared to tell," she said.
"You're saying that this abuse started in January of 2000 and continued until January 23 of 2002, over two years, and you told no one?"
"My mom knew," the girl said.
The 17-year-old had previously testified that her mother knew of the activity from the start and was present when Hess first took nude photos of her in his home. Hess paid the girl, who gave the money to her mother, she said.
The girls testified that Hess had guns and that he threatened to hurt the girls and their family if they failed to cooperate with him or told anyone.
A 22-year-old sister testified that she discovered two nude photos of the 17-year-old in early 2000. She wasn't certain where she found them, but it was either at her house or in Hess' desk, she said.
Hess is not accused of sexually molesting the 22-year-old.
She testified that she told her mother about the photos. The next morning, she said, she discovered that the photos had been taken from her purse. Her mother, she said, told her she threw them away.
The four sisters said they never told their father about what happened until this past summer. They said they were embarrassed or didn't feel comfortable talking about it with him.
The 22-year-old said she didn't question her sisters about their mother's involvement until July, when she became suspicious. The mother's lack of emotion about the allegations and things she said during the girls' therapy led her to ask the girls about what her mother knew.
She said she then told their father.
The mother had to leave the family home, her sisters testified, and now lives in Kentucky. The mother was charged in March with three counts of felony child abuse by sex act, three counts of obstruction of justice and two counts of intimidating a witness.
She was released on an unsecured bail.
In other testimony, the 15-year-old had trouble answering many of Hess' questions about what she told the police in 2002, frequently answering, "I don't remember."
She testified that Hess first had sex with her in May 2000 in his car, she said. She was going with him to buy candy.
Hess asked the girl whether, in her initial report to police, she told authorities that he touched her inappropriately but did not mention sexual intercourse.
"I don't remember," the girl said.
The case is scheduled to resume today in Cumberland County Superior Court.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.

Last updated: April 22. 2005 7:53AM
Parents can stop online predators
By Sherry Jones
Staff Writer
sherry.jones@starnewsonline.com
With three daughters of his own, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper said he knows all too well how easy it is for kids to fall prey to online predators.
“They are smart enough to navigate the Internet but maybe not wise enough to make good decisions when they get there,” he said about his youngest children. “And the number of kids at risk is rising.”
Mr. Cooper was in Wilmington on Thursday to tout a new initiative aimed at educating parents about how to protect their children while surfing the Internet.
Through local PTAs and other organizations, the Attorney General’s Office in partnership with law enforcement agencies and child safety experts is making available a video and printed guide.
More information also is available online at www.ncdoj.com.
A survey of North Carolina parents conducted by the N.C. Department of Justice found that 80 percent are concerned about their children being exposed to explicit material online, and 75 percent want to learn more about helping their children surf the Net safely.
Mr. Cooper said he doesn’t want to make the same mistakes with his two youngest daughters that he made with his oldest daughter, who is now 20.
“She had a computer in her room,” he said. “She did whatever she wanted. … And I didn’t know.”
Today, he has a system that sends him an e-mail when his younger daughters go online, and it says what Web sites they visited.
In addition to the Internet guidelines, Mr. Cooper is pushing for tougher laws to punish online predators. He wants the legislature to make it a felony for a predator to solicit anyone online he or she believes is a child, even if the person turns out to be an undercover officer posing as a child.
The State Bureau of Investigation, a part of the N.C. Department of Justice, already houses the N.C. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. These agents are asked by local law enforcement agencies to investigate dozens of cases each year. To help track predators, Mr. Cooper wants more agents who can retrieve information from computers to help find lost children and put criminals behind bars.
“We’ve made progress,” Mr. Cooper said. “But the concern is that we want to prevent this from happening in the first place. … It starts at home.”
The video, Internet Safety: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt Your Child, dramatizes the dangers children can face online, including solicitations by predators and exposure to explicit material. It also explains how parents can get help. The resource guide offers parents additional information about online risks and useful tips such as how to set rules about Internet use.
Steve Bilzi, a member of the New Hanover County Board of Education who attended Thursday’s announcement, said he also thinks the schools should play a role in teaching children how to avoid the dangers of the Internet.
“It needs to be talked about in schools,” he said. “I’ve seen my own family do foolish things.”
Sherry Jones: 343-2378
sherry.jones@starnewsonline.com

Seven NAMBLA Members Busted in Sex Sting
Tuesday, February 15, 2005

LOS ANGELES — Seven members of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (search), including two teachers, were arrested in Southern California and charged with allegedly planning to travel to Mexico to have sex with boys, authorities said.
An eighth man was charged with distributing child pornography, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
Four men were arrested in Los Angeles and three in San Diego Saturday.
They were charged Monday, following a sting operation in which each man allegedly paid hundreds of dollars to an undercover agent to arrange the sex, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (search) said during a news conference Monday.
During the investigation, the FBI set up a fake travel company that offered a trip to Mexico to meet boys for sex, Eimiller said.
The men had allegedly traveled from their homes to Southern California with the expectation of boarding a boat to Ensenada (search), where they were told sex with the boys was awaiting them at a bed-and-breakfast, Eimiller said.
Through the undercover agent, she said, they requested that the boys be as young as 8 years old.
"This investigation exemplifies the FBI's commitment nationwide, and the commitment of our local, state and federal task force partners, to finding child predators within the United States and beyond our borders," Richard Garcia, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, said in a statement.
Jeff Devore, 53, of Fullerton was arrested Saturday and charged with distributing child pornography as a result of the sting, Eimiller said. Devore, a minister at the Brea Congregational Church (search), in Orange County, was not accused of planning to go on the Mexico trip.
Devore, who is also a chiropractor, first met an undercover FBI agent at a North American Man/Boy Love Association meeting.
The association, which was formed in 1978 and advocates relationships with men and boys, was not charged in the case.
Devore was allowed to post bail but it was immediately unknown whether he had done so. A phone call to the church and a message left on Devore's answering machine seeking comment were not immediately returned.
The seven arrested included: Sam Lindblad, 56, of Albuquerque, N.M.; Gregory Mark Nusca, 43, of Dania Beach, Fla., also known as David R. Busby or Steven West; Steven K. Irvin, 46, of Pittsburgh, a special education teacher at Carrick High School (search); Richard Stutsman, 59, of Seneca, S.C., a substitute teacher for a school district in Oconee County; Phillip Todd Calvin, 43, of Dallas; David Cory Mayer, 49, of Chicago, a flight attendant; and Paul Ernest Zipszer, 39, of Deltona, Fla.

Last updated: April 20. 2005 12:00AM
Armed robbers enter apartment
Couple loses cash, other items
By Majsan Boström
Staff Writer
Wilmington police are looking for three men who robbed a young couple at 4405 Patrick Ave. late Monday night.
Tess Aronica, 21, was visiting her boyfriend, Chris Mastin, 23, who lives in Mill Creek Apartments, when they heard someone knock on the door.
"He (Mr. Mastin) was expecting his friends to come over so we said, ‘Come in,’ but they didn’t, so he went to the door and thought it was his friend," Miss Aronica said. "Then they kicked open the door, and started beating him up."
Miss Aronica ran toward Mr. Mastin but was tackled by one of the robbers and forced to lie on the kitchen floor with a handgun to her head, she said.
"It was real scary," she said. "One of them had a mask like the one in the movie Scream and he was huge."
The robbers forced Mr. Mastin and Miss Aronica into a bedroom closet and told them not to come out or they would be killed, according to the report.
In all, the robbers got away with more than $1,500 in cash, two cell phones, a wristwatch, a necklace, a wallet and several credit cards, according to the report.
When Mr. Mastin and Miss Aronica heard the robbers run down the stairs they sought help from a neighbor, who let them use the phone to call 911, according to the report.
Police officers had no additional information as of Tuesday night.

Police in Ariz. Seek Monkey for SWAT TeamApr 18, 10:12 PM (ET)MESA, Ariz. (AP) - The Mesa Police Department is looking to add some primal instinct to its SWAT team. And to do that, it's looking to a monkey.
"Everybody laughs about it until they really start thinking about it," said Mesa Officer Sean Truelove, who builds and operates tactical robots for the suburban Phoenix SWAT team. "It would change the way we do business."
Truelove is spearheading the department's request to purchase and train a capuchin monkey, considered the second smartest primate to the chimpanzee. The department is seeking about $100,000 in federal grant money to put the idea to use in Mesa SWAT operations.
The monkey, which costs $15,000, is what Truelove envisions as the ultimate SWAT reconnaissance tool.
Since 1979, capuchin monkeys have been trained to be companions for people who are quadriplegics by performing daily tasks, such as serving food, opening and closing doors, turning lights on and off, retrieving objects and brushing hair.
Truelove hopes the same training could prepare a monkey for special-ops intelligence.
Weighing only 3 to 8 pounds with tiny humanlike hands and puzzle-solving skills, Truelove said it could unlock doors, search buildings and find suicide victims on command. Dressed in a Kevlar vest, video camera and two-way radio, the small monkey would be able to get into places no officer or robot could go.
It has been a little over a year since Truelove filed a grant proposal with the U.S. Department of Defense under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and he is still waiting for word.
If the grant goes through, Truelove plans on learning how to train the monkey himself and keeping the sociable monkey at home, just like a K-9 officer would. He projects that $85,000 in grant money would outfit the monkey with gear and pay for veterinarian care, food and habitat for three years.
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Published: Apr 20, 2005
Modified: Apr 20, 2005 6:20 PM
N.C. Senate lottery opponents worry about expanding video poker
By GARY D. ROBERTSON, Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A Senate committee Wednesday began scrutinizing the lottery bill passed by the House earlier this month, with several members on the panel worried it could open the door for slot and video gambling machines and online games.
"It's got an awful lot of problems," Sen. Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, said after an hourlong hearing on the measure in the Senate Select Committee on the Lottery Bill. "It does seem to open the door to video gambling of all types."
The measure, which passed the House on April 6 by a vote of 61-59, with lobbying from Gov. Mike Easley, would allow the proposed state lottery commission to promote "online games" and "games played on computer terminals or other devices."
Clodfelter said the bill could allow for slot machines that dispense a ticket redeemable for cash instead of actual coins or currency.
Even the panel's chairman, lottery supporter Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, acknowledged that the language gave him pause. The Senate has passed bans on video-poker machines three times this decade, though the House has yet to take up any of those bills.
"I want to know, is that just another name for video poker," Rand said. "They say not, but the question they asked made it sound awfully close."
Bill supporters have said the language is meant to be broad so that whoever operates a North Carolina lottery is free to offer a range of electronic games.
House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, has said any change by the Senate to the lottery bill passed in his chamber could break the fragile coalition that got it through. Many undecided lawmakers voted yes because of specific language in the bill.
Rand doesn't expect passage of an unchanged bill.
"It's not likely that it will be approved in the form that it's in now," he said. The committee plans to meet again next week, Rand said, adding that he doesn't expect a vote on lottery legislation until early May.
At least five of the 29 Democrats in the 50-member Senate have expressed opposition to the lottery bill as it now stands. If all 21 Republicans voted no on the bill, that could put passage of the measure in doubt.
Rand said he didn't know whether the lottery bill would be bundled with the Senate version of the state budget - a maneuver that could make it harder for Democratic opponents to vote no.
Rand was confident in the final outcome: "Sure we have the votes for a lottery bill, (but) which one?"
The measure approved by the House would set aside half of net lottery profits to local school construction. Another 25 percent would go to need-based scholarships, with the rest placed in an "Education Enhancement Fund" controlled by the General Assembly.
Bill supporters and Easley believe the lottery could generate annual net revenues of $400 million to $500 million.
As the only state on the East Coast and one of nine nationwide currently without a lottery, North Carolina needs to recoup the money its citizens now spend in other states buying lottery tickets, gas and food, a co-sponsor of the House bill said.
"I think a lot of us agree the state shouldn't be in the gambling business," said Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasqoutank. "Unfortunately, what's worse than us being in the gambling business is allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to flow out of our state to educate other kids."
Senate committee members asked largely technical questions about the bill. Panelists asked a committee staff member whether the bill would allow the state to join multistate lotto games like Powerball. That's unlikely, due to the bill's restrictions on lottery advertising, the staffer said.
Lottery opponents argue a state-run numbers game would prey on the poor, promote gambling among young people and be an inefficient source of revenue.
Bob Rosser, an anti-lottery organizer, said he hoped Wednesday's hearing would make both Senate and House members think twice about their support for a lottery.
"The more light that's shed on the subject, the better," he said.

Published: Apr 20, 2005
Modified: Apr 20, 2005 5:57 AM
Wake school board adopts gang policy
Principals get more latitude to discipline suspected gang members
By T. KEUNG HUI, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- Gangs should soon find it harder to operate in Wake County schools, under a new policy adopted by the school board.
But school leaders are trying to assure residents that the policy won't unfairly target black students.
The policy, approved Tuesday, gives principals more authority to suspend students who wear gang clothing or engage in other gang-related activity.
"This clearly shows where we stand," said school board Chairwoman Susan Parry. "It shows gangs will not be tolerated in schools."
Examples of prohibited behavior include wearing clothing, jewelry or tattoos associated with gangs; using gestures associated with gangs; and spraying graffiti or encouraging people to join gangs. Principals have the discretion to give students a warning on the first offense instead of suspending them.
The policy has received praise from a number of groups, but some -- including the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African-American Children -- raised concerns that black students might be disproportionately suspended. They say that some typical clothing worn by black students could be misconstrued by principals as being gang attire.
School administrators shared guidelines last week with coalition leaders. Roosevelt Farmer, president of the group, said members came away from the meeting feeling more positive about how the policy would be enforced.
The guidelines include:
* Presentations for parents, students and the community to discuss appropriate attire versus gang-related attire.
* Creation of a pamphlet with gang-related information.
* Creation of a gang prevention hotline.
* Establishing schools as "Gang Free Zones."
* Information for parents and students in back-to-school materials, on the school's district Web site and on its TV show.
"It's clear to all of us that any policy, as carefully thought out as they may be, works only as well as parents and students understand them and buy into them," Parry said.
School officials say that gangs aren't a major problem yet, but they are popping up in middle and high schools throughout Wake. They say seven identified gangs are operating in county schools.
A survey by the Governor's Crime Commission found that Wake has 1,753 gang members, the most of any county in the state. In 1999, the county reported just 39 gang members.
Police blame gangs for vandalism, a double homicide and a drive-by shooting in Raleigh this year.
It was amid such concerns that a school system task force recommended that the board adopt a gang policy,
Already, principals can discipline suspected gang members using the district's dress code policy. It prohibits "any symbols, styles or attire frequently associated with intimidation, violence or violent groups about which students at a particular school have been notified."
But principals wanted a specific policy for dealing with suspected gang members.
Staff writer T. Keung Hui can be reached at 829-4534 or khui@newsobserver.com.Burglary Suspect Attacks Fulton Courtroom Deputy
Woman's Response Praised
POSTED: 12:40 p.m. EDT April 21, 2005
UPDATED: 12:40 p.m. EDT April 21, 2005
Story by wsbtv.com
ATLANTA -- A man facing burglary charges attacked a female Fulton County deputy sheriff Wednesday in the same courthouse where suspect Brian Nichols is accused of overpowering a guard and starting a shooting spree that ended with four people dead.
The sheriff's department said Deputy M. Mosley was trying to calm down the man after he lashed out at a courtroom employee, but the man would not comply.
When Mosley walked behind Russell Hall to physically subdue him, Hall tried to punch her, sheriff's spokeswoman Sgt. Nikita Adams-Hightower said.
Mosley, 40, ducked to avoid being hit, then was able to push the man against a courtroom wall, Adams-Hightower said.
The 18-year department veteran didn't have an opportunity to radio for help but a witness to the scuffle ran out of the courtroom and alerted other deputies, officials said.
"She did a great job," said Adams-Hightower, pointing out that the man, at 6 feet, 2 inches, stood a foot taller than the deputy. "She did exactly what she was trained to do."
Hall, who was awaiting a hearing in the burglary case, now faces additional charges of assaulting an officer, Adams-Hightower said.
In a March 11 attack, Nichols was accused of overpowering 51-year-old deputy Cynthia Hall, taking her gun and killing a judge and his court reporter inside the courtroom.
Police say he then killed a deputy outside the courthouse and, later in the day, shot and killed a U.S. Customs agent who was working on a house he was preparing to move into.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Families Let Sex Offenders Into Homes
Deaths of Three Young Girls Lead to Calls for Change
By DEAN SCHABNER

Mar. 22, 2005 - The Florida woman whose ex-boyfriend allegedly strangled her 13-year-old daughter didn't know anything about the man's history as a sex offender, other than what he told her. And she wasn't the only one.
Many people in the rural community of Ruskin do not have Internet connections, and thus do not have easy access to the state's sex offender registry. So they may have been unaware of David Onstott's history.
Kelly May Lunde had previously dated Onstott. In his confession, he said he had gone to her trailer home looking for her and ended up killing her daughter, Sarah, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office. "So she knew he had a criminal history, she knew it was involving what he had described to her as date rape, and beyond that, I don't think she had a lot of information," Sheriff David Gee said, referring to Lunde.
Sarah's slaying, coming weeks after another Florida girl, 9-year-old Jennifer Lunsford, and a 10-year-old Iowa girl, Jetseta Gage, were allegedly abducted and killed by sex offenders, has raised the call for reform of the sex offender registries.
In each case, critics have pointed to what they say are problems with the registries or how the laws on tracking registered sex offenders are enforced. Onstott, for example, had been arrested for failing to register just weeks earlier, but then had been released.
All 50 states have some form of sex offender registry, in line with guidelines established by Congress under the 1994 Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexual Violent Offender Registration Program. In 1996, Megan's Law, named for a New Jersey girl who was sexually abused and murdered by a convicted sex offender, amended the act to set up guidelines for disclosure of the information on the registries to the public.
What information can be disclosed and to whom has been a controversial issue ever since, and states have chosen -- or been forced by the courts -- to deal with the issue in a variety of ways.
Information about the sex offender registry in your state can be obtained by calling the Parents for Megan's Law hot line at 888-ASK-PSML (888-275-7365). The group received a grant from the federal government to set up the hot line.
Information about the registries and about how to keep children safe from sexual predators can also be found at the Web site of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
There is also a national list, the National Sex Offenders Registry, coordinated and maintained by the FBI's Crimes Against Children Unit, which is based on information supplied by the states.
Most states provide statewide Internet access to lists, including names, addresses, photographs and criminal records of at least the so-called Level III, or high-risk, convicted sex offenders.
In some states, such as Washington and Oregon, local law enforcement is directed to alert the community when a Level III offender moves into the neighborhood. Police there put out news releases and meet with neighborhood watch groups and school officials when a Level III offender moves into a community.
In others, though, lists can only be accessed at police stations, and in some counties the registries are only available as postings on bulletin boards in police or sheriff's departments or at post offices.
"Megan's Law, in spirit, guarantees that if a sex offender moves into your neighborhood, you're going to get notification, but it's not playing out that way," said Laura Ahearn, the director of Parents for Megan's Law.
The deaths of Sarah, Jessica and Jetseta have sparked more calls from the public and legislators around the country to try to make changes to the registries and to strengthen the penalties for sex offenders who fail to register than at any time since Megan's Law was passed, said Charles Onley, a research associate with the Center for Sex Offender Management, a program of the U.S. Justice Department.Trying to Change the Laws
For example, in Florida, the legislature is considering a proposal that would require a person who is convicted of sexually molesting a child younger than 12 to be sentenced to life in prison or to be kept under electronic surveillance if they are ever released.
In Iowa, where Jetseta was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by convicted sex offender and family friend Roger Bentley last month, the House has already passed a bill that would require DNA samples to be taken from all convicted sex offenders and would eliminate early release for sex offenders who refuse treatment.
Jetseta's 7-year-old brother actually saw Bentley driving off with her, but didn't do anything or tell anyone because "he thought that she had permission" because the family had "known him for so long," the girl's mother, Trena Gage, told ABC News affiliate KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids.
But Iowa's registry law does not require that information be shared from county to county, so it is not clear whether adding DNA samples would help.
In Norfolk County, Mass., the sheriff reportedly plans to start an e-mail alert program, to inform people when registered sex offenders move in or out of their community. Sheriff Michael Bellotti told The Patriot Ledger of Quincy that people could sign up for the e-mails, which would only provide information on Level III offenders, the most serious category.
A loophole in Massachusetts law, however, allows some sex offenders to be released from prison without being listed on the registry, at least for a period of time, because there is no legal requirement for how quickly the state Sex Offender Registry Board classifies offenders when they are set free.
"We cannot give out information on these unclassified individuals, even if the crime they are convicted of may make them Level III offenders," Dracut interim police Chief Kevin Richardson told The Lowell Sun.
On the national level, Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced a bill that would establish a national sex offender database the public could access over the Internet.
The bill is called Dru's Law, in memory of Dru Sjodin, the young North Dakota woman who was abducted from a Grand Forks shopping mall parking lot in November 2003 and found dead six months later in a ditch.
The man arrested for that crime, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., had served a 23-year prison term as a violent sexual offender in Minnesota and had been released from prison even though he was rated at "high risk" for re-offending. Because he lived across the Minnesota border from Grand Forks, he was not listed on the North Dakota registry.
"Sex offenders don't stop at state lines. Neither should sex offender registries," Dorgan said. "We need to close a dangerous loophole that currently leaves our communities and our children at risk."
Another proposal, the Jessica Lunsford Act, has been put forward in the U.S. House, co-sponsored by Republicans Ginny Brown-Waite, Katherine Harris and Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz, all of Florida, along with Ted Poe, R-Texas.
"Jessica Lunsford's murder is a horrifying example of the need for stricter laws in regulating sex offenders," Brown-Waite said at a news conference with the girl's father and grandfather. "We should not allow them to roam from state to state without anyone knowing,"
According to the proposed bill, states that fail to properly implement sex offender registries and programs would lose 10 percent of the money they get from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, which are given by the federal government to support law enforcement.
The bill would require states to mail address verification forms to sex offenders twice a year at random intervals and include stiff penalties for those who do not return the forms, including using global positioning system devices to track them.
Passing such measures without providing the states with the funding needed to implement them will not do much good, though, Onley said.Too Close for Comfort
For some of those who live in Ruskin, they found out they had been a lot closer to a sex offender than they imagined.
"He's always been around my kids and he never really done nothing with them. He was like an uncle to my kids," Ruskin resident Vie Fulkinson told ABC News affiliate WFTS-TV in Tampa.
"I thought he was nice, you know. I talked to him and he talked to me. He was just a nice friend," Vie's daughter Amanda said. "I was shocked, I started crying because I thought it could have been me, you know?"
Had they looked on the state's sex offender registry, they could have learned that in 1995, Onstott was convicted of sexual battery for assaulting a female acquaintance inside her home, and he served nearly six years in prison and two years on probation.
They would have learned that in 2003, Onstott violated his probation and was also charged with DUI, and that in March, Onstott failed to register as a sex offender.
Mark Lunsford, whose daughter, Jessica, was allegedly abducted and killed by convicted sex offender John Couey, who like Onstott had moved and failed to register, came to Ruskin to offer support to Sarah's family, and to press his call for tougher punishment for offenders who fail to register their whereabouts.
"Couey and Onstott could have went to prison for one to five years and just maybe both of these children would still be alive today, and I'm telling you it's making me sick," he said. "It's sad that it takes something like this to bring a community together. America needs to wake up. The next child could be yours."
Sheriff Gee echoed Lunsford.
"I don't want to blame any particular judge or attorney, it's just a symptom of what's a broken system," he said Sunday when he announced the charges against Onstott. "I think we all know that and obviously I think there are a lot of efforts to reform the system and I think everyone acknowledges that and let's just hope our legislative bodies and the government steps up to the plate and let's take these people off the street."
Though a few states already had registries before the Wetterling Act, most of the lists were created during a period when state budgets were relatively healthy. The financial problems state and local governments now face have taken a toll on enforcement.
Onley said that seven years ago, a lot of cities had units assigned to keep track of registered sex offenders, but over the years most of those programs were slashed or eliminated. Even if the money was there, the problem of finding people when they aren't where they are supposed to be remains, he said.
"Most jurisdictions have thousands and thousands of warrants," he said. "A lot of jurisdictions at the beginning had retake units to go pick them up. The problem, as with all warrants, is that it's not that simple -- you don't know where he is."
And Onley said he gets a surprising amount of questions from women who know that their boyfriend is a sex offender, and are looking for information about how to make life easier for him and even let him spend time with their children.
"Some things don't make sense," he said. "Just because someone knows, doesn't mean they would take appropriate action."Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

Updated: April 21st, 2005 04:18 PM EDT San Antonio Officer on Toilet Accidentally Fires Gun ASSOCIATED PRESSSAN ANTONIO (AP) --This is one story they'll be telling around the San Antonio Police Department for a long time. An off-duty officer was at a San Antonio auto auction house yesterday when nature called, a police spokesman said.
Officer Craig Clancy strolled to the appropriate facility and was lowering his trousers when his pistol fell from his waistband. When Clancy fumbled for the falling firearm, it went off, twice.
One of the bullets nicked a bit of floor tile into the leg of a man who was washing his hands nearby. That man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Police internal affairs is investigating.

Published: Apr 21, 2005
Modified: Apr 22, 2005 12:47 AM
Lawsuit claims AOL monitor seduced girl
By ALEX VEIGA, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LOS ANGELES (AP) - America Online markets itself as a safe place for children, with parent-friendly features and a force of employees who monitor kids' chat rooms and watch out for adults prowling for youngsters.
But is AOL doing enough to monitor the monitors?
That question is central to a lawsuit filed by a California teenager who claims a chat-room monitor tried to seduce her online.
The employee allegedly used his position to proposition the girl over two years, during which they exchanged graphic images, e-mails and phone calls - exactly the kind of scenario the man was hired to prevent.
AOL fired the man, listed in the lawsuit as a resident of Oklahoma, and referred the case to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, none of which pursued criminal charges.
The girl's lawsuit, filed April 1, is the first such claim made against an employee at AOL or any other major Internet service provider, according to online child safety organizations and law enforcement agencies. It alleges negligence and false advertising and seeks at least $25,000 from the chat room monitor, AOL and its parent, Time Warner Inc.
AOL says it closely screens its chat-room monitors and acted quickly in this case.
Still, the company is being forced to defend itself over a service it pioneered in the mid-1990s and which remains a selling point to keep its millions of subscribers from jumping to other Internet service providers.
"This case isn't so much are they properly monitoring chat rooms for kids; this is more a question of what are they doing to monitor the qualities and qualifications of the people they're hiring," said Parry Aftab, an Internet lawyer in New Jersey who runs online safety workshops for parents and children.
Claims of online abuse by an employee are rare, said Aftab, who has heard of no more than a dozen against chat-room monitors or moderators.
Chat-room monitors are cyberspace's lifeguards. They typically watch over the messages that participants post, and warn users when they cross the line with offensive or otherwise prohibited remarks. They can delete offending remarks, kick violators out of the chat room, even ban them from returning.
AOL is a rarity - a major service provider that offers its own chat service, as well as one of the few online companies that have paid, full-time employees monitoring some chat rooms. The company markets its KOL, or Kids Online, chat area as a safer online experience.
It was inside one kids-only chat room where the AOL employee, then 23, first contacted the then-15-year-old girl, who was living in Kern County, according to the lawsuit. She is now 19 and living in Los Angeles.
They grew close, according to the lawsuit, the girl gradually confiding in him about her parents' divorce and her troubles making friends. She and the chat monitor were preparing to meet on her 17th birthday and have sex, the lawsuit said, when one of the his co-workers became suspicious and blew the whistle.
AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said monitors undergo rigorous screening, including drug testing and background checks, and receive specialized training for the area and age group they will be monitoring.
"That monitoring is itself actively monitored and scrutinized by internal compliance and investigation teams with close, long-standing working relationships with both law enforcement and children's safety advocacy groups," Graham said. "The bottom line is, AOL's self-policing and self-monitoring efforts worked."
Graham would not say how many full-time chat-room monitors AOL has, or whether the company has tightened its procedures because of the case.
But if AOL's oversight was effective, the monitor would have been caught well before he arranged to meet the girl, said her attorney, Olivier Taillieu.
"You can't let something like this go on for two years or a year and a half," Taillieu said. "You can't have the lifeguard jump in the pool and drown one of the kids."Wilmington) - Internet predators, a product of the 'age of information.' According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in five kids between 10 and 17 have received unwanted sexual advances online. They often lurk in chat rooms, gaining information about a child...luring kids in to meeting face to face. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is pushing a new statewide initiative to educate parents. Thursday, he came to Wilmington to talk with local law enforcement and educators. Cooper said, "Many parents just don't know the dangers out there. We're letting them know about the dangers and giving them some tools so they can do something about it."
Cooper also wants tougher laws. Under current state law, the charge for a predator soliciting an officer posing as a child is a misdemeanor. A bill passed by the state senate but yet to reach the house for a vote would make that a felony. District Attorney Ben David agrees stiffer penalties are needed. David said, "This is even more invasive into someone's home, into the sanctity of people's homes than the typical playground incident because people are coming into your child's bedroom at two and three in the morning."
Cooper will utilize local PTA's, scout groups and other organizations to get the message out. New Hanover County Board of Education member Steve Bilzi says he'll work to get the information to parents. He said, "The kids who have computers in their rooms have predators in their bedrooms like never before."
The attorney general's educational program also tells parents how to make sure their children stay away from sexually explicit materials on the web.
You can view the written educational material as well as streaming video on the subject at www.ncdoj.com
By Jack Madison

Woman Sentenced For Forcing Girls To Perform Sex On TapePOSTED: 8:46 am EDT April 21, 2005
UPDATED: 12:41 pm EDT April 21, 2005HARTFORD, Conn. -- A woman who forced young girls to perform sex acts for videotapes that ended up for sale on the Internet has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Paula Diaz, 40, was sentenced Wednesday in Hartford Superior Court has part of a plea bargain on charges of promoting a minor in an obscene performance, tampering with a witness and other related charges.
"I want to say forgive me to the police for what happened. I'm sorry I did not cooperate with them in the beginning," Diaz said in court before she was sentenced.
Diaz was involved in a scheme to force young girls to perform sex acts, later discovered on a videotape found in Japan and traced to Connecticut.
The case against Diaz was uncovered back in October 2003 when the Naval Criminal Investigative Service found the video, which had arrived in Japan via the Internet.
Law enforcement officials were led to Hartford after analysts heard a city music station playing in the background and saw a poster featuring former Mayor Michael P. Peters.
Diaz recruited girls, aged 10 and younger, to have sex with men while she videotaped them, police found. Diaz also forced two teenage girls into street prostitution and made them have sex with up to eight men a day.

. . . but another gets off easy
Kristopher Newton of Carolina Beach did what he could to kill his 7-week-old daughter.
He failed, despite throwing her onto the bathroom floor, elbowing her and smothering her with a pillow.
Somehow this tiny baby survived, in spite of five skull fractures, three broken ribs and brain injuries so grievous that she probably will never walk or talk. She likely will need constant care for the rest of her life.
The big man who showed a helpless baby who was boss pleaded guilty and Superior Court Judge Ernest Fullwood sentenced him to between six and eight years in prison. An assistant prosecutor said that was close to the maximum sentence. "From our perspective," she said, "we got as much as we can."
Maybe. But not enough.

Last updated: April 18. 2005 12:00AM
The wrong place for Mr. Jordan
If Trey Jordan cares about Wrightsville Beach and his colleagues on the Board of Aldermen, he will resign.
A grand jury has indicted him on three felonies – major crimes that involved extorting money from a resident and selling out the public in exchange for that money.
Mr. Jordan is yet to stand trial. He may be found not guilty. He insists he will be.
But these indictments appear to be serious. They result from a lengthy SBI investigation prompted by a former Wrightsville Beach alderman who long worked as a top prosecutor.
According to the grand jury's indictment, Mr. Jordan asked a resident for $2,500 in exchange for casting a vote that would help the resident. It says that in the same month Mr. Jordan got the $2,500, he cast that vote.
Mr. Jordan is offering few details, but in a written statement he did not deny accepting $2,500. He said only that he promised the resident nothing, and that the resident got no special treatment.
If that is true, Mr. Jordan still was guilty of remarkably bad judgment. Government officials have no business accepting money or favors from people who want something from government.
Mr. Jordan has been both a Wrightsville Beach police officer and a deputy with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office. If he stopped somebody on suspicion of DWI, he knew he wasn't supposed to borrow money from the driver.
Mr. Jordan is entitled to fight these accusations in court and clear his name. But that will take awhile. In the meantime, he should let someone else vote on the affairs of Wrightsville Beach.
If he is exonerated, voters will be more likely than ever to return an honorable man to his former place.

Last updated: April 18. 2005 7:29AM
Wave of N.C. public records bills seek more exceptions
By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer
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Newspapers and other media get antsy when any bill is filed at the General Assembly that attempts to change Chapter 132 of the North Carolina statutes.
That's the location of the Public Records Law, which guarantees the press and the public prompt access with no explanation required to documents regarding the workings and decisions of state and local government.
The law attempts to ensure that elected representatives and government agencies can't conceal most of the things they do.
So when legislators unleashed a flurry of bills in recent weeks that would cast new exceptions into what is considered public information, it's little wonder the media raised large red flags.
"I've seen more bills that chip away more pieces at the open government world, but these bills take such broad cuts at the public right's to know," said John Bussian, lobbyist for the North Carolina Press Association.
As newspaper editors and broadcasters are asked to lobby against the bills, the University of North Carolina, local governments and bill sponsors are working to persuade legislators that privacy, safety, research and charitable concerns trump public access in specific situations.
Rep. Linda Coleman, D-Wake, a former state personnel manager, has filed two bills that she said would protect state workers from violent ex-spouses or solicitors.
In one measure, an employee's exact location within state government could be kept secret if, for example, the worker is in a domestic violence situation.
"We need to respect the state employee enough to say we care for your safety," Coleman said.
Coleman said another bill would affirm that "employer-paid" benefits such as 401(k) and flexible spending accounts are part of an employee's personnel file and couldn't be open for inspection.
Bussian said the language in both bills is so broad that state agencies could withhold information about bonuses and other compensation.
Employees also could be kept hidden as long as the agency head believed it was "in the best interests of the health, safety and security of the employee or the department."
Backers of a separate measure that contains many changes sought by the UNC Board of Governors are worried about the potential unintended consequences of the current law upon patients, state employees and donors.
One measure lays out a grab-bag of changes to what UNC campuses, state agencies and local governments would be permitted to withhold.
Under the bill, preliminary research work performed at UNC would not be considered a public record until "a reasonable opportunity is provided" for the research to be published, protected by patent or released in an academic forum.
Leslie Winner, legal counsel for the UNC system, said faculty members are worried that someone may steal their data and present it as their own unless the prevention is in place.
Without the person's consent, the release of personal information about financial donors to UNC campuses, or the home and private cell-phone numbers of state employees also would be prohibited if the bill is approved.
In addition, agencies wouldn't be required to release e-mail lists if they are already publicly accessible - a proposal designed to prevent private companies from spamming university computers with solicitations.
"I don't think the taxpayers of this state want the employees of this state taking up their time" by wading through spam, Winner said.
This and another bill also would attempt to change the law after two important public records rulings in the state Court of Appeals.
One 2001 opinion involving the City of Burlington determined that public bodies must release some details about proposed land acquisitions before going into closed session to deliberate about them. One of the measures would essentially overturn the ruling.
Bussian called the bill containing most of the UNC requests and the Burlington case "a Christmas tree of government lawyer wishes."
Sen. Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, filed the bill at the request of UNC and North Carolina League of Municipalities. He described its prospects as "iffy."
Clodfelter is also the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee that will hear this and other public records bills later this month. He feels more confident in a bill filed in response to a 2004 appeals court ruling that determined the work papers of a government lawyer created for upcoming trials or legal action is considered a public record.
The case determined that Raleigh's city attorney was required to hand over work documents to the owners of a quarry who had been ordered by a zoning inspector to stop removing dirt from a tract.
The bill would ensure that government lawyers don't have to reveal all of their strategies before going to trial. It still provides public to go to court to challenge whether the records are indeed for an upcoming trial and fall under the exception.
"The purpose of the public records law is not to give an advantage to one side or another in a lawsuit," Clodfelter said.
Bussian said attorneys of public bodies, as representatives of the people, should be held to different standards.
"That's the price of openness," Bussian said. Clodfelter, he added, is "trying to make government lawyers operate the same ways private lawyers do. We would argue the public interest is not served by that."
There does seem to be some room for compromise on the subject. Clodfelter said he met with press association members late last week in Charlotte to attempt to find a middle ground.
Winner said the UNC-backed public records bills were prompted by years of potential pitfalls accumulated by university officials. A former senator herself, she knows making these kind of proposals brings opposition.
"It's so hard to adjust the public records law," Winner said. "The press is going to go after it."

US airmen caught smuggling Ecstasy tablets worth $11.6m
From Roland Watson in WashingtonTWO National Guardsmen were being held last night after admitting that they had smuggled tens of millions of dollars worth of Ecstasy into the US on military flights.
Captain Franklin Rodriguez and Sergeant John Fong were arrested as they unloaded 290,000 tablets of the drug into their car after flying a US Air Force cargo aircraft across the Atlantic from Germany.The bust was the result of a year-long surveillance operation into an international smuggling ring, according to US drug enforcement authorities. More arrests would follow, they said.
Captain Rodriguez, 35, a pilot of the giant C5A Galaxy cargo aircraft, and Sergeant Fong, 36, a cargo loader, set off from Stewart Air National Guard base in Newburgh, New York, a week ago to deliver equipment and training supplies to the Republic of Georgia, via Germany.
On their return stop-over in Germany the pair went to an hotel room where they loaded 28 plastic bags wrapped in tape into their personal luggage, according to authorities.
They were the only two men aboard on the transatlantic leg.
After they had landed in Fort Stewart on Tuesday, drug enforcement agents watched Sergeant Fong drive a silver BMW belonging to Captain Rodriguez to the door of a hangar and load bags from the cargo aircraft into the vehicle, authorities said.
When they stopped the men, agents found 15 bags of Ecstasy pills in a backpack and suitcase belonging to Sergeant Fong and 13 in Captain Rodriguez’s luggage, including two cardboard boxes that looked as if they held bottles of alcohol. Under questioning, Sergeant Fong told agents that he and Captain Rodriguez had also transported Ecstasy into the US on three previous occasions. They said that they were each paid $10,000 (£5,320) for each journey.
Captain Rodriguez told authorities that on previous occasions he had taken the drugs to his Bronx flat for distribution.
The 140lb shipment intercepted this week had a street value of up to $11.6 million.
Captain Rodriguez has been in the air National Guard for ten years, Sergeant Fong for seven.
The arrests were a severe embarrassment to the US military. “We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to drugs and they will be dealt with very seriously,” Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said.
Christopher Giovino, a special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York strike force, said that the arrests were part of an investigation that had been under way for many months.
The arrests came from “intelligence that came to our attention over the past couple of months”, he said. The arrests had deprived the ring of their transatlantic transport, he said, but American and European authorities were proceeding with their investigation.
The two men were being held without bail after prosecutors said that there was a risk that they would flee and could be dangerous to the community.
Each man has been charged with one count of conspiracy to import Ecstasy into the US and one count of conspiracy to distribute the drug. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
John Gilbride, an administration special agent, said that it was “appalling that individuals who volunteered to protect the citizens of the United States turn around and betray the public trust by smuggling poison into the very community they were entrusted to protect”.
Martin Ficke, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent in New York, said it was “a travesty to all those in uniform that these defendants felt they could allegedly use their positions of trust and authority to traffic narcotics.”


April 15, 2005
Drug flight not a first, feds report
By Oliver Mackson
Times Herald-Record
omackson@th-record.com

Stewart Airport – On international military flights like the ones Capt. Franklin Rodriguez and Sgt. John Fong flew this week, U.S. Customs agents routinely meet the crew. Sometimes, the agents are accompanied by dogs that can sniff out drugs.
Still, Rodriguez and Fong were able to bring Ecstasy pills into the Air National Guard base at Stewart International Airport on "a number of prior occasions" before they were busted at Stewart on Tuesday, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
Fong and Rodriguez both remained in federal custody yesterday, pending court appearances on May 13. They're charged with conspiracy to distribute 290,000 Ecstasy tablets in New York City.
They were arrested by members of the U.S. Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which was formed last year to target international drug cartels.
The complaint shows that the Department of Defense and members of its Criminal Investigative Service arm met with a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent at Stewart on Monday, a day before the bust.
They told the DEA agent that the Defense Department had learned of the drug running by Fong and Rodriguez, but the complaint doesn't say how they learned of it. Neither state nor local authorities would say yesterday.
"Given that this case is pending in court, it is much too premature to comment," said Kent Kisselbrack, spokesman for the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs, which administers the state's National Guard units. "We have zero tolerance for illegal behavior, and the New York National Guard will continue to cooperate with law enforcement."
He couldn't say yesterday how the arrests would affect Rodriguez and Fong's status with the National Guard.
Rodriguez is a pilot, flying the mammoth C-5A Galaxy cargo jets. Fong is a loadmaster. They fly for the 105th Military Airlift Group, which is based at Stewart.
The feds say they found the Ecstasy in Rodriguez and Fong's personal baggage. The two brought a shipment of military training supplies to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia last weekend. The trip included stops in Germany.
In Europe and former Soviet bloc countries, machines that can punch out pills are less heavily regulated than in the United States, said Erin Artigani, deputy director of policy at the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland.
"The precursor chemicals – the ingredients – could be from places like China and India," she said, "and then they could go to Europe, where the pills could be created."