McDonough man convicted in county’s first post-pandemic trial

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HENRY CO (CBS46)—Henry County court officials reported jury trials have returned since a pause across the state due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first jury trial to take place in Henry County involved Shawn R. Clark, 25.

Clark, according to a spokesperson with the Henry County district attorney’s office, was convicted of child molestation and public indecency. He was convicted for exposing himself in front of a toddler who was visiting him while he was incarcerated at the Henry County jail.

The jury returned the guilty verdict after deliberating less than 30 minutes, according to Megan L. Matteucci, the attorney who prosecuted the case.

Clark was sentenced to 20 years with the first 10 years to be served in prison. Also, he must register as a sex offender and have no contact with children.

This was Henry County’s first jury trial following the Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Emergency Order halting jury trials in March 2020.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold D. Melton lifted the statewide jury trial suspension in March.

“We are pleased to be able to be back to doing in-person jury trials in a courtroom environment that meets the safety standards recommended by the Department of Health,” District Attorney Darius Pattillo said.

According to Matteucci, Clark’s trial relied heavily on technology to allow jurors to be socially distanced and evidence to be shared digitally on several monitors placed throughout the courtroom.

Henry County implemented the following new jury trial procedures to lessen the spread COVID-19:

  • Social distancing
  • Mask mandates
  • Plexiglass dividers in the courtroom
  • Air filters

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Source: https://www.cbs46.com/news/mcdonough-man-convicted-in-county-s-first-post-pandemic-trial/article_ac54fe60-ae54-11eb-8ea0-135d805e6d39.html

Sex offender back on the streets after multiple arrests for groping others

sex-offender-back-on-the-streets-after-multiple-arrests-for-groping-others

DECATUR, Ga. (CBS46) — Stalking and chasing women, indecent exposure, taking indecent liberties with children — the list goes on and on, and Robert McKenzie just keeps on offending.

“I think it’s just a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt,” said Kate Sandhaus who’s lived in Decatur for more than 12 years.

“My understanding is the police pick him up, he goes to court, is in jail for some short stint, then gets right back out,” said Sandhaus, who reported being harassed by sex offender McKenzie back in 2017. 

Social media is awash with claims of harassment from McKenzie, including pictures of incidents that have taken place.

A violent sex offender is continually allowed back into an Atlanta community after multiple arrests. We ask authorities why this keeps happening. Details @cbs46 #atlanta #crime pic.twitter.com/yHoZxOxqyd

— Jamie S Kennedy (@Jamie_S_Kennedy) January 23, 2020

Homeowners in Decatur and DeKalb County say McKenzie frequently rides a bike around the streets intoxicated and causing trouble.

“My question is why can’t he be held? There is certainly enough menacing and threatening and violent stories where you wouldn’t expect him to be put right back out onto the streets,” said Sandhaus.

His latest arrest happened Jan. 21. McKenzie was released the next day.

CBS46 reporter Jamie Kennedy asked the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office why McKenzie is continually allowed back into the community.

In a statement, a spokeswoman said:

“We appreciate your inquiry. This case remains under investigation by law enforcement. Once the matter is forwarded to our Office, we will review the facts, circumstances, and evidence to make a determination regarding the appropriate course of action.”

Homeowners warn that while this man is allowed to roam the streets, no one is safe.

“Honestly, as a parent, having your child ride through a park with a known sex offender who is also known to be violent and dangerous and really unstable is very concerning,” said Sandhaus.

In at least two of McKenzie’s arrests in the city of Atlanta, officers stated they confiscated knives from him. In one police report, the officer said McKenzie told him, “When I get out I will f— you in the a–.”

Georgia’s sex offender website states that McKenzie is a ‘sexually dangerous predator’ stemming from a 2004 case in Virginia in which McKenzie was convicted of indecent liberties with a minor.

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Source: https://www.cbs46.com/news/sex-offender-back-on-the-streets-after-multiple-arrests-for-groping-others/article_acf90358-3d89-11ea-a1f4-37766aa1e5ef.html

Sex offender arrested for child pornography

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PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. (CBS46) — Paulding County Juvenile Investigations Detectives arrested Richard Wayne Biester for possession of child pornography. 

Detectives followed up on a CyberTip that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

Search warrants were given for Biester and his property.

As a result, Detectives found child pornography and corroborating evidence from the original CyberTip and Biester was arrested.

Biester, who was already a registered Sex Offender for child molestation in 1997, is being held at the Paulding County Jail without bond. 

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Source: https://www.cbs46.com/news/sex-offender-arrested-for-child-pornography/article_331891de-1dc7-11ea-8ac1-9b89f84ec604.html

Former youth softball umpire pleads guilty in child sexual exploitation case

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DACULA, Ga. (CBS46) A former youth softball umpire from Dacula has entered a guilty plea following his arrest on child sexual exploitation charges.

According to the FBI, 50 year-old James Hughes Morriss communicated via computer in hopes of setting up a meeting with who he thought was a 14 year-old girl. 

The girl ended up being an undercover agent.

Morriss also requested photos and traveled to Athens to meet her for sexual purposes. He was arrested on July 27.

The arrest was a result of “Operation End Game” a multi-agency effort targeting sex offenders.

“Operation End Game did exactly what it was tasked to do: Put an end to criminal attempts of predators to irreversibly harm young children,” said Debbie Garner, GBI Special Agent in Charge and Commander of the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force in a press release. “The GBI and the Georgia ICAC Task Force will work tirelessly with our partners to protect our children against those who seek to harm them.”

Morriss is currently in federal custody and faces a maximum five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and at least three years supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for February 12, 2020.

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Source: https://www.cbs46.com/news/former-youth-softball-umpire-pleads-guilty-in-child-sexual-exploitation-case/article_2d1f90fa-0c7b-11ea-a4b1-2b5a9d39377d.html

Judge rules sheriff can’t put signs in sex offenders’ yards warning trick-or-treaters

(CNN) — A federal judge has ruled in favor of the three sex offenders who sued a Georgia sheriff after his deputies put signs in the men’s yards last year warning trick-or-treaters not to visit on Halloween.

The three men sued on behalf of all registered sex offenders in Butts County after finding out the sheriff’s office was planning on putting the same signs this year, according to the ruling.

“The question the Court must answer is not whether (Butts County Sheriff Gary Long’s) plan is wise or moral, or whether it makes penological sense. Rather, the question is whether Sheriff Long’s plan runs afoul of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. It does,” the ruling says.

Georgia displays all registered sex offenders’ names, photos and addresses in a public online directory. But the statute “does not require or authorize sheriffs to post signs in front of sex offenders’ homes,” the ruling states.

Judge Marc Treadwell granted a preliminary injunction for the plaintiffs and ruled that sheriff Long and his employees can’t place the signs during this year’s Halloween season on the three men’s yards — but didn’t broaden the injunction to all sex offenders in the county.

He did however warn the sheriff in continuing this kind of policy.

“(Sheriff Long) should be aware that the authority for (his) blanket sign posting is dubious at best and even more dubious if posted over the objection of registrants,” the judge wrote.

The sheriff’s office began planting the signs in 2018 after the county’s chamber of commerce canceled an annual trick-or-treating event, Long said in a previous social media post. Deputies suspected that the cancellation would drive more kids to go door-to-door for candy.

In the lawsuit filed last month, registered sex offenders Christopher Reed, Reginald Holden and Corey McClendon claim the sheriff’s office employees trespassed onto their private property when they put the signs and “had no legal authority” to place the signs, causing the men anxiety and humiliation.

All three of the plaintiffs have “paid their debts to society” and now live “productive, law-abiding lives,” the ruling said.

The court’s ruling, the judge said, “in no way limits Sheriff Long’s discretion to act on specific information suggesting a risk to public safety.”

But the sheriff can’t put signs in the plaintiffs’ yards just because their names are on the registry, the ruling says.

The suit named Long, a deputy and three unnamed sheriff’s office employees who helped put up the signs, a complaint said. The sheriff’s office didn’t provide anyone for comment when reached.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Long said he “respectfully and strongly” disagreed with the ruling and that deputies will keep a “very strong presence in the neighborhoods where we know sex offenders are likely to be.”

“Deputies will have candy in their patrol vehicles and will interact with the children until the neighborhood is clear of trick-or-treaters to ensure the safety of our children on Halloween night,” he said.

He was told he’d be arrested if he removed the sign

After putting up the signs in the men’s yards before Halloween 2018, deputies also handed out leaflets which said the signs “shall not be removed by anyone other than the Butts County Sheriff Office,” court documents say.

Holden, one of the plaintiffs, said when he called a deputy after he saw the sign, he was told he’d be arrested if he removed it, according to the ruling.

Other deputies told McClendon that if he took the sign out of his yard “it would be criminal action,”the ruling said.

While the state’s code sayssheriffs should inform the public of the sex offenders in each community, it “does not require or authorize sheriffs to post signs in front of sex offenders’ homes, nor does it require sex offenders themselves to allow such signs,” court documents say.

Georgia is not among the states that have instituted “no-candy laws,” which prohibit sex offenders on parole and probation from handing out candy on the holiday and require them to display signs revealing their status in their yards.

Some states, including New York and California, stop short of “no-candy laws” but require sex offenders to remain in their homes without interaction on Halloween and leave monitoring up to state departments of corrections.

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Source: https://www.cbs46.com/judge-rules-sheriff-cant-put-signs-in-sex-offenders-yards-warning-trick-or-treaters/article_d49a7420-5e78-5850-bedb-9845340c8347.html

Sex offenders win battle against sheriff’s office over trick-or-treat sign

sex-offenders-win-battle-against-sheriff’s-office-over-trick-or-treat-sign

BUTTS COUNTY, Ga. (CBS46) — “My promise to the citizens of Butts County is to protect the public, especially the children. This means making families aware if a registered sex offender is living close to them,” said Sheriff Gary Long after a judge ruled against “no trick or treat” signs placed near homes of registered sex offenders.

The signs, which were previously placed on homes ahead of Halloween 2018, were intended to warn parents not to take their children to specific homes where a sex offender resides.

Corey McClendon, Reginald Holden and Christopher Reed filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office to prevent the signs from going up this year.

Reed’s father told CBS46 under no circumstances can anyone place a sign, or do anything for that matter, to his property.

“I paid for the land, I paid for the taxes. So who are they to come and put signs on my property,” he asked. “I think it’s wrong. I think it’s humiliating,” he added.

“The judge in this matter has ruled that I can not put signs on the right-of-way of the three offender that filed the lawsuit,” said Long. “While I respectfully and strongly disagree with the judge’s ruling, I must abide by the ruling,” added Long.

Long also stated he sought legal advice prior to posting the controversial signs out, insuring they were in compliance with Georgia Law O.C.G.A. 42-1-12 (i)(5), which states:

“The Sheriff’s Office in each county shall: Inform the public of the presence of sexual offenders in each community.”

Though the signs are a no-go, Long says he and his deputies will be out in full force to protect trick-or-treaters.

“For this Halloween, our deputies will keep a very strong presence in the neighborhoods where we know sex offenders are likely to be. Deputies will have candy in their patrol vehicles and will interact with the children until the neighborhood is clear of trick-or-treaters to ensure the safety of our children on Halloween night.”

Long also urged the public to not take matters into their own hands. Adding, “we understand frustration with the judge’s ruling, but we all must abide by it unless it is overturned on appeal.”

To view the sex offender registry map, click here.

Copyright 2019 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

Source: https://www.cbs46.com/news/sex-offenders-win-battle-against-sheriffs-office-over-trick-or-treat-sign/article_b0a66ada-fab4-11e9-9c6d-c38d9a17175b.html

Indictment: Gwinnett Co. judge hired sex offender to hack into county’s computer system

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GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. (CBS46) — A Gwinnett County superior court judge has been indicted along with three others, including a registered sex offender, accused of computer trespassing.

Kathryn Schrader was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail on Wednesday and was released on bond later that day.

According to investigators, the judge believed Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter was monitoring her emails, so she hired private investigators T.J. Ward and Frank Karic. Ward gained national fame when he investigated the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalie Holloway who went missing while on a high school graduation trip in Aruba.

Authorities say Ward hired the co-founder of DragonCon, Ed Kramer, to do the actual hacking of Gwinnett’s computer system to see if someone was spying on the judge. Kramer was placed on Georgia’s sex offender registry after a 2013 plea bargain involving the alleged molestation of three boys.

Investigators found about the hacking when they got a warrant to search Kramer’s computer following his February arrest for allegedly taking pictures of a seven-year-old boy in a Lawerenceville doctor’s office.

Porter, the district attorney, has recused himself from the case. He denies hacking into Judge Schrader’s computer.

Schrader has been removed from overseeing criminal cases, but she is still handling civil cases.

On September 18, Schrader, Ward, Kramer and Karic were indicted for computer trespass.

So get this: A judge, a well-known private investigator, and the co-founder of #DragonCon (who’s a registered sex offender) have all been indicted. They’re accused of hacking into Gwinnett County’s computer system. Join us now for details on @cbs46. https://t.co/34Om9rcWpO

— Rebekka Schramm (@SchrammCBS46) September 19, 2019

Copyright 2019 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

Copyright 2019 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

Source: https://www.cbs46.com/news/indictment-gwinnett-co-judge-hired-sex-offender-to-hack-into-county-s-computer-system/article_a515d932-da64-11e9-ae23-672d4e878138.html

She recorded her rapist’s confession. Now, the Supreme Court could hear it.

she-recorded-her-rapist’s-confession-now,-the-supreme-court-could-hear-it.

(CNN) — “I am sorry. I have been sorry. I will always be sorry for raping you.”

In a 20-minute long phone call in 2013, Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Briggs confessed to raping SSgt. “DK” in 2005. After receiving a call from the victim, Briggs detailed how he went to her room after a long night of drinking, pushed himself on her and continued to have sex with her despite pleas for him to stop.

A recording of that call would be played in a military court in 2014. Briggs would be tried by a judge, found guilty and sentenced to five months in prison. He would be dismissed from the Air Force and registered as a sex offender.

It was understood, based on military law and reinforced through legal precedent, that there was no statute of limitations for rape in the military. Though the assault occurred in 2005, and Briggs was not accused for eight years, defense counsel did not even raise the issue of statute of limitations at trial.

But last year, the top military appeals court came to a different understanding. When presented with a separate rape charge brought years after an alleged incident, it found that a five-year statute of limitations existed before 2006. The decision eventually led to Briggs’ rape conviction — and the convictions of at least three other service members – being vacated.

This one decision has reverberated through the entire military court system. It has not only vacated convictions. It has prevented at least 10 new cases from being heard, the Justice Department says. This comes as #MeToo trickles through the armed forces.

The military is plagued by a 38% increase in sexual assault, reported by the Pentagon this spring, and grapples openly with how to prevent it. “It is a cancer within an organization, and we got to crush it,” now-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said recently.

The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to review and reverse what it describes firmly as a “misunderstanding of the law.” Allowing it to stand would “subvert the military’s concerted effort to eradicate sexual assault, erode confidence in the military-justice system, and fuel the impression that ‘nothing will happen to the perpetrator.'”

It’s using the taped confession to get there.

The rape

In her first ever media interview, DK shared her account of the rape. CNN has agreed to not share DK’s name in order to protect her privacy.

She remembers the night in flashes.

She remembers going out to drink with a girlfriend. Drinking too much. She remembers a knock at her door after returning to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. Telling him no, pleading with him to stop. She remembers rolling her body away from him and struggling to get away. Michael Briggs pulling her back. She remembers the pain … the moment she gave up and passed out beneath the weight of him.

She also remembers the blood.

The following is from a transcript of their call.

“I bled for days afterwards,” she said. “I couldn’t sit down. I was so bruised and swollen. What—”

“Oh, my God,” he says.

“What did you do to me?”

Briggs shared that he met up with DK and her friend that evening. After a night of drinking together, he went back to his room and waited.

DK had been helped to her room, by the friend, when he knocked on her door.

“I was pretty drunk,” Briggs tells DK, though he acknowledges several times that he was in better shape than she.

Then, he raped her.

“I’m so sorry for pushing myself on you,” he says on the call. “For not respecting you as a person and listening to you and stopping.”

Maybe he raped her because of “you, know, off-duty stress in my life or whatever,” he suggests. Not that that’s an excuse, he adds.

Maybe it was his age and maturity at the time. “I was young and immature and, um, younger— um, younger and immature and, um, had a— didn’t have an appreciation for, uh, everyone as human beings…”

Maybe he did it because he liked her. “You’re like a little sister,” he tells her. “I was really fond of you; really into you. I think that was obvious.”

Maybe he raped her because of their prior interactions. “Uh maybe I used your—you know, your—how you reacted to me when we were, you know, sober when we were at work, when we were not drunk, um, as like what you really, really wanted instead of listening to you when I needed to,” he says.

“I told you it hurt,” DK says. “I tried to get away from you. I told you to stop. Why didn’t you listen to me?”

“Um-“

DK presses him.

“You raped me. You destroyed me. For eight years, I have had to live with this by myself. I can’t talk about it; I can’t tell anybody. You took everything from me. Why?” she asks.

“I didn’t know the repercussions and even if I did I wasn’t — I was selfish. I was —”

“I need to hear you say you are sorry for raping me,” she tells him.

“I am sorry. I have been sorry. I will always be sorry for raping you,” Briggs says.

The conversation was approximately 20 minutes long.

“All those years of repressing, it really was as bad as I thought it was,” DK told CNN.

Unbeknownst to Briggs at the time, DK was sitting in a government vehicle on an Air Force installation with two agents from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) and a special victims counselor holding a phone that AFOSI had rigged with a recording device.

“I was sitting in the driver’s seat just staring out the window,” she said. “As soon as he hung up, I started telling them he’d apologized … I’m telling them he confessed.”

As they listened to the recording, DK says her whole body shook. Her account had been validated.

“It was that moment of I didn’t lie, I told the complete truth,” she told CNN. “He’s even backing it all up.”

After the call ended, Briggs searched the statute of limitations for rape, a Justice Department filing says. Documents from Briggs’ appeals show the evidence was obtained from his government issued computer.

Briggs pleaded not guilty and was tried by military judge on Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, where he was stationed at the time.

On August 7, 2014, Briggs was found guilty and sentenced to five months confinement. He was dismissed from the Air Force and issued a letter of reprimand.

The rape conviction provided DK with some sense of closure. The five-month sentence, less so. The prosecution had asked for eight years.

“Hearing the verdict be read, I cried a little bit on my husband’s shoulder. It was like finally everybody knows the truth. He did this; he can’t run from this anymore,” she said. “He took so much of who I was that night and now finally everyone will know why.”

For once, it seemed, the system had worked.

“I do have to say this on the record — the Air Force took amazing care of me,” DK told CNN. “There was never a point in any of it that I felt anything but cared for by the military, by the Air Force. The entire process. Everyone I talked to was on my side and honest and upfront and it was- it was- I did not have the experience that a lot of victims have.”

DK says she was medically discharged from the Air Force in 2015 following the trial.

The appeal

This March, years after the five-month sentence had been served, DK says she received a call at work.

Briggs had won an appeal. The rape conviction would be set aside, his record would be wiped clean and he could be eligible to receive back pay and benefits from the Air Force.

“I was so inconsolable. Pacing and crying and sobbing and shaking,” she told CNN.

Before Briggs’ appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces had heard another rape case that highlighted a conflict between military law and a 1977 ruling by the US Supreme Court.

There is a distinction between military and civilian law. Enacted by Congress, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is enforced by the military with its own trials, judges and appeals courts. There are crimes and punishments unique to the military. For instance, it is illegal for an officer to say bad things about the President. In civilian law, this would violate free speech.

Historically, under military law, crimes must be charged within five years.

However, in 1986, Congress exempted any crime that was punishable by the death sentence from the five-year statute of limitations. Rape was among those offenses.

In 2006, Congress revised the UCMJ again, making clear that rape could be prosecuted “at any time without limitation.”

The top military appeals court revisited the issue last year, when presented with US v Mangahas. Lt. Col. Edzel Mangahas had been accused of rape 18 years after an alleged 1997 assault at the US Coast Guard Academy.

The appeals court referred to a 1977 Supreme Court decision in a non-military case. In Coker v Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that imposing the death sentence for rape was “cruel and unusual” punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. In US v Mangahas, the appeals court determined that because death would never actually be imposed for the crime, rape did not qualify for the 1986 exemption and should fall under the five-year statute of limitations.

The charge and specification of rape against Mangahas were dismissed.

A gray area emerged for prosecuting rapes that occurred in the military between 1986 and 2006.

Over the last 18 months, Briggs and at least three other service members have had their rape convictions set aside citing Mangahas.

The Justice Department filing shows at least 10 more cases have been dismissed.

“Lt. Col. Briggs has consistently maintained his innocence in this case,” said his appeals lawyer Steve Vladeck. “But the question the government is asking the Supreme Court to decide is not what actually happened between him and DK, but the more technical legal question whether the military has the power to court-martial servicemembers for offenses that allegedly took place well over a decade ago, and in which, according to the highest court in the military, the statute of limitations had already expired.”

(Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, is a CNN contributor.)

Retired Col. Don Christensen was the chief prosecutor for the Air Force between 2010 and 2014. He also served as trial counsel, defense counsel or military judge for 23 years. He is now the president of Protect our Defenders, an organization devoted to ending rape and sexual assault in the military.

“Prior to [the Mangahas] decision coming out, everybody knew that there was not a statute of limitations for rape in the military. Everyone. It was accepted,” Christensen said. “Look at what the intent of Congress was. And it’s clear that Congress in ’86 changed the statute of limitations, in 2006 changed the statute of limitations. They did not want a statute of limitations. Period.”

Rep. Brian Mast, a combat veteran, is leading a bipartisan effort in Congress to condemn the appeals court’s ruling.

“This wasn’t intended by the military. This wasn’t intended by the Congress or anybody else. Those that have committed these crimes are not going to be set free on the technicality of a falsely created statute of limitations by a court that was not meant to create law,” the Florida Republican said in a recent interview.

“Misunderstanding of the law”

Late last month, the US Justice Department petitioned the Supreme Court to review and reverse the appeals court’s decision.

“Recognizing that sexual assault within the military is devastating to the morale, discipline, and effectiveness of our Armed Forces, but also difficult to uncover, Congress long made rape a capital offense and has enabled rape to be prosecuted whenever it is discovered,” wrote US Solicitor General Noel Francisco.

The government’s weapon is Briggs and his taped confession.

In addition to excerpts from the recording, Francisco points to the vacated rape convictions and 10 known cases that have been dismissed outright without being heard. These are cases, he wrote, that the military would have pursued had it not been for this “misunderstanding.”

Sexual assault, the military agrees, is a problem.

The Pentagon released a report in May that said sexual assaults across the US military increased by a rate of nearly 38% from 2016 to 2018.

Last year, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis repeatedly called sexual assault a “cancer” in the ranks.

In July, Gen. Mark Milley also used the word “cancer.”

Milley is now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the land.

President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as the number two military officer under Milley was accused of sexual assault by an army colonel. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations cleared him and Gen. John Hyten himself strongly denied the accusations during his confirmation hearing last month.

If the Supreme Court chooses to take on US v Briggs, it would be a first. The justices have yet to weigh in on a related #MeToo issue and on the simmering controversy over how the military addresses sexual misconduct in its ranks.

It would also mark the first high-profile sexual misconduct case since Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed last fall. During his confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault while a teenager. Both he and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He vehemently denies the claims.

The Supreme Court will likely not consider the request to hear the case until it returns for its new term in October. Briggs has until mid-August to reply to the Justice Department’s filing.

DK says she’s ready for the high court to hear the appeal.

“I was silent for eight years,” she told CNN. “I’m not going to sit by this time.”

CNN’s Joan Biskupic, Ryan Browne and Brianna Keilar contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.cbs46.com/she-recorded-her-rapists-confession-now-the-supreme-court-could-hear-it/article_2e3d24e4-3602-5409-a876-f70c2da5077a.html

Registered sex offender arrested on more charges involving minors

registered-sex-offender-arrested-on-more-charges-involving-minors

PICKENS COUNTY, Ga. (CBS46) — A registered sex offender was arrested by deputies in Pickens County following reports he had inappropriate sexual contact with minors.

Jeremy Lee Remlinger was arrested on August 5 at his business located near the intersection of Georgia Highway 53 East and Camp Road.

Remlinger is charged with: rape, statutory rape, child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, sexual battery, solicitation of sodomy, false imprisonment, and computer or electronic pornography and child exploitation.

According to deputies, Remlinger was indicted on prior charges in 2006 that required he register as a sex offender.

Click here to view sex offenders in Pickens County.

Copyright 2019 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

Source: https://www.cbs46.com/news/registered-sex-offender-arrested-on-more-charges-involving-minors/article_18f769f2-b98f-11e9-82ab-bf05024872c5.html

Community stunned by ice cream shop owner’s sex offender status

community-stunned-by-ice-cream-shop-owner’s-sex-offender-status

GAINESVILLE, Ga. (CBS46) — The people of Gainesville speak of the local ice-cream shop owner as a confident man who loved getting involved with events around town.

“He was the head of a coalition around here so he was very involved with the square,” said Jamie, a father of one and Gainesville resident.

“He seemed like a very sweet caring person, a little eccentric, a little,umm a little flamboyant maybe even,” said Ashley Brown who works in the same complex that houses the ice cream shop.

The owner of the ice cream shop Endrick Torres was arrested on June 18 by Gainesville police for violating Georgia sex offender laws.

“An alarming situation that you have a registered sex offender operating a doughnut and ice cream shop in downtown which is going to bring children in.”

Police said Torres has operated the store for roughly six months. They found he had given a false name on the lease agreement to the property owners and has also been charged with forgery.

Torres has a long history of sex offending against minors dating back to 2014 starting in New York.

Ashley Brown spoke with him regularly, and said he was quite open on the topics he would chat about.

“He didn’t seem like he would hurt anybody, like I mean he was kind of sexual. I’m starting to think now also maybe he was talking to me because I look younger than I am,” she said.

Miss Brown also said he would often host events at the ice cream store for kids.

“He would host children’s parties, for the children’s party planner that’s in there.”

Gainesville parents are still coming to terms with just who they were dealing with.

“I mean he opened an ice-cream shop, like I told you, my daughter went in there, she got an ice-cream and I’m like, it’s just shocking man,” said Jamie

Gainesville police said they know of at least three different alias Torres has used on social media and to falsify documents.

Source: https://www.cbs46.com/news/community-stunned-by-ice-cream-shop-owners-sex-offender-status/article_16c35c62-930c-11e9-9d76-5f34a1dd8efe.html