The Daily Blog

Melvin L. Jackson Arrested For Allegedly Sexually Assaulting Unconscious Woman On Sidewalk.

There’s just no excuse for sexual , least of all necrophilia.

Tell that to Kansas City resident Melvin L. Jackson, who was arrested Wednesday for allegedly sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in broad daylight — then telling police, “I thought that lady was dead.”

The Kansas City Star reports that the victim told police she felt dizzy and lost consciousness. When she awoke a witness was yelling for help, and for Jackson to get off of her.

The victim said she had no memory of the assault but noted that her underwear had been removed.

According to Fox 4, witnesses flagged down a patrol car and said they saw the woman curled up in the fetal position with Jackson on top of her with his pants and underwear around his ankles, having sex with her.

When police tried to interview Jackson, 49, he allegedly blurted, “Did that lady say I did something to her?”

He later stated, “I have the right to remain silent,” according to court records, The Pitch reports

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Sex-Crime Case: Accuser Reportedly Lived In Apartment For HIV/AIDS Patients.

The New York Post reports that the woman accusing IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault lived in an apartment exclusively for patients with HIV and AIDS.

From the Post:

The hotel maid, a West African immigrant, has occupied the fourth-floor High Bridge pad with her 15-year-old daughter since January — and before that, lived in another Bronx apartment set aside by Harlem Community AIDS United strictly for adults with the virus and their families.

UPDATE: The woman’s lawyer denies that his client has HIV or AIDS. On the Today Show, Jeffrey Shapiro called claims that the accuser has AIDS or HIV “outrageous.”

“She lived in a sublet apartment in the Bronx,” Shapiro said.The Post was unable to confirm if the accuser has HIV or AIDS because of medical confidentiality laws, but the paper allegedly confirmed that the agency rents apartments only for adults with the disease. A Harlem United employee said at least one adult in the apartment must be HIV-positive or have AIDS to qualify to live in one of the residences. Sources told the Post that only the alleged victim and her child lived in the apartment.

Strauss-Kahn is accused of forcing the woman to perform oral sex on him.

She told police that after the forced act, she spit his semen onto the floor. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control: “It is possible for either partner to become infected with HIV through performing or receiving oral sex.”

Strauss-Kahn is on suicide watch at Rikers Island jail.

Calls intensified for Strauss-Kahn to step down as head of the International Monetary Fund, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying Strauss-Kahn “is obviously not in a position to run” the agency.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director Of IMF, Arrested For Alleged Sexual Assault.

The New York Times and The New York Post are currently reporting that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund has been arrested.

The New York Times tweeted “Head of I.M.F. Arrested in New York and Accused of Sexual Attack.”

The New York Post reports:

The French political bigshot who heads the International Monetary Fund was arrested for allegedly sodomizing a Manhattan hotel maid today — getting hauled off an Air France flight just moments before takeoff from Kennedy Airport, police sources told The Post.

Three Port Authority detectives pulled Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the plane’s first-class cabin just two minutes before it was due to depart for Paris, the sources said.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, was turned over to NYPD officers from the Midtown South precinct, and the case is being investigated by the Special Victims Unit.

According to The New York Post, a housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn’s New York City hotel room at noon on Saturday. Sources claim that Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom and grabbed the housekeeper, forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

This story is still developing. Check back in for more updates.

Police: Serial Rape Suspect Tried to Hang Self.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The man suspected of terrorizing women with sexual assaults from Virginia to Rhode Island over 12 years tried to hang himself in his cell Saturday, but survived and was treated at a hospital, police said.

Aaron Thomas, 39, was returned to jail after a brief hospital stay, New Haven police Officer Joe Avery said Saturday night. Thomas is scheduled to appear Monday in New Haven Superior Court.

Police said Saturday that DNA confirmed that the unemployed truck driver is the East Coast Rapist, suspected in attacks on at least 17 women.Thomas could not be reached for comment; it was not clear whether he had legal representation.

“It’s just shocking to me,” said 15-year-old Dashawn Golding, who said his mother is Thomas’ girlfriend. “She’s crying a lot,” he said of his mother.

A woman who answered the phone where neighbors said Thomas lived with his girlfriend said she was devastated.

“I almost died,” the woman told The Associated Press before she hung up without giving her name. “I’m scared to walk out my door. I’m just as innocent as the next person.”The woman, who said she met Thomas outside a hospital where she works, said Thomas’ 5-year-old son was crying when he learned of the charges. There was a heavy police presence Saturday as investigators searched the house, a yellow colonial with blue shutters and a security sign on the front lawn.

Lt. Julie Johnson said DNA was collected and subsequently matched by the state police forensic lab confirming Thomas was the East Coast Rapist. Investigators reportedly got Thomas’ DNA off a discarded cigarette.

Police have a warrant charging Thomas with first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor and he was being held on $1 million bond, Johnson said. Authorities in Prince William County, Va., are charging him with being a fugitive as well as rape and abduction charges and use of a firearm while committing a felony.

The East Coast Rapist is wanted for 17 rapes and other attacks in Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island and Virginia that began in 1997. The cases were linked by DNA.

Authorities recently put up electronic billboards in the states where the attacks occurred and neighboring states. U.S. Marshal Joe Faughnan said a tip from Prince William County directed them to Thomas.

“Although the information and investigation of Thomas developed quickly over the last week or so, we should point out that investigators worked tirelessly for years pursuing this case,” Johnson said. “This was truly a joint collaboration on all levels. We are proud of our investigation and hope the arrest of Aaron Thomas brings some closure to our victims and our communities.”

Johnson did not take questions during the brief news conference.

A neighbor said Thomas was living with a woman in the house in a desirable neighborhood not far from where the mayor lives. The woman, who refused to give her name, said Saturday that Thomas is a truck driver and parked his tractor-trailer in the residential neighborhood, but he seemed to be unemployed and would offer to paint or rake leaves for neighbors.

The woman said Thomas once punched her husband in the face after they got in an argument over his truck.

Another neighbor said Thomas would ride his bicycle as far as Hartford and jogged many miles.

“He liked working out,” said the neighbor, who would only give his first name as Jason. “He could run all day long and never stop.”

Thomas was not entirely unknown to law enforcement: He had been arrested in September in Woodbridge, Conn., on a larceny charge and was released on $1,000 bond, according to public records.

He had lived previously at addresses in Maryland and Virginia, according to public records.The assailant eluded police even though the crimes were often committed outdoors, law enforcement officials say.

In some instances, the attacker wore a mask or hooded sweat shirt to conceal his face. He typically approached women outdoors on foot and threatened them with a knife, screwdriver or a handgun, investigators say.

The only attack in New Haven came on Jan. 10, 2007. Police said the suspect entered a 27-year-old woman’s bedroom through an open window and threatened to kill her sleeping infant son before assaulting her.

The last known attack occurred on Halloween night in 2009, when two teenagers on their way home from trick-or-treating in Woodbridge, Va., were raped, authorities say.

Police Say DNA Confirms Suspect Is ‘East Coast Rapist’.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - DNA confirmed that a man arrested Friday in Connecticut is the East Coast Rapist suspected of terrorizing women with sexual assaults from Virginia to Rhode Island over 12 years, police said Saturday.

Lt. Julie Johnson said DNA was collected and subsequently matched by the state police forensic lab confirming 39-year-old Aaron Thomas was the East Coast Rapist.Lt. Julie Johnson said DNA was collected and subsequently matched by the state police forensic lab confirming 39-year-old Aaron Thomas was the East Coast Rapist.

New Haven police have a warrant charging Thomas with first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor and he was being held on $1 million bond, Johnson said. Authorities in Prince William County, Virginia, are charging him with being a fugitive as well as rape and abduction charges and use of a firearm while committing a felony.

The East Coast Rapist is wanted for 17 rapes and other attacks in Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island and Virginia that began in 1997. The cases were linked by DNA.

Authorities recently put up electronic billboards in the states where the attacks occurred and neighboring states. U.S. Marshal Joe Faughnan said a tip from Prince William County, Virginia, directed them to Thomas.

“Although the information and investigation of Thomas developed quickly over the last week or so, we should point out that investigators worked tirelessly for years pursuing this case,” Johnson said. “This was truly a joint collaboration on all levels. We are proud of our investigation and hope the arrest of Aaron Thomas brings some closure to our victims and our communities.”

Thomas could not be reached for comment; it was not known if he had legal representation. Thomas is scheduled to appear Monday in New Haven Superior Court.

Johnson did not take questions during the brief news conference.

A neighbor said Thomas was dating a woman in a yellow colonial house in one of New Haven’s finest neighborhoods. The woman, who refused to give her name, said Saturday that Thomas is a truck driver and parked his tractor trailer in the residential neighborhood, but he seemed to be unemployed and would offer to paint or rake leaves for neighbors.

Thomas was known to ride his bicycle around the neighborhood, the neighbor said. She said there were children at his girlfriend’s house.

Police would not allow a reporter to knock on the door.

At a two-family house listed as Thomas’ address, a police officer in uniform answered the door Friday night and said nobody wanted to make a statement. The house, in a densely populated New Haven neighborhood, has a large porch and a white picket fence with a sign warning the premises are protected by a security company.

A neighbor, 39-year-old Tom Chambers, said he often saw Thomas coming and going but he did not know him well.

“He was just normal,” Chambers said.

Thomas was not entirely unknown to law enforcement: He had been arrested in September in Woodbridge, Conn., on a larceny charge and was released on $1,000 bond, according to public records.He had lived previously at addresses in Maryland and Virginia, according to public records.

The assailant eluded police even though the crimes were often committed outdoors, law enforcement officials say.

In some instances, the attacker wore a mask or hooded sweat shirt to conceal his face. He typically approached women outdoors on foot and threatened them with a knife, screwdriver or a handgun, investigators say.

The only attack in New Haven came on Jan. 10, 2007. Police said the suspect entered a 27-year-old woman’s bedroom through an open window and threatened to kill her sleeping infant son before assaulting her.

The last known attack occurred on Halloween night in 2009, when two teenagers on their way home from trick-or-treating in Woodbridge, Va., were raped, authorities say.

CBS News’ Lara Logan Assaulted During Egypt Protests.

On Friday, Feb. 11, the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a “60 Minutes” story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently home recovering.

Update: Logan left the hospital on Wed. Feb. 16, to recover in her Washington, D.C. home. She received a call from President Obama expressing his concern.

17 Victims Sue Pentagon Over ‘Plague’ of Sexual Violence.

WASHINGTON — It may become a landmark case to force the military to take rape and sexual assault seriously. Or it could be yet another failed attempt in a decades-long battle by women to be accepted in the armed forces.

Seventeen veterans and active-duty service members today took the first step to determining that, suing the Pentagon on charges of violating their constitutional rights to serve their country.

They accused two secretaries of defense of condoning, ignoring and implicitly encouraging sexual abuse in the ranks in a 42-page complaint filed in federal district court in Alexandria, Va., which contains phrases like “f—-ing whore,” “bitch” and “troublemaker.”The plaintiffs, who include two men, come from every military branch. They charge they were victimized twice — once by their assailants and again by the institution they served.

“The system is driven by rape myths,” said Myla Haider, a former Army criminal investigator who was raped by a co-worker. The co-worker was later court-martialed in another case as a “serial sex offender.”
“There is a pervasive attitude within DOD that any man might commit these types of offenses and therefore when these things do come up it is seen as something that is commited by a peer or just another soldier” and not taken seriously, said Haider, a plaintiff in the suit.

Such attitudes aren’t new. Ever since the infamous Tailhook scandal broke out in 1991 after the first Gulf War, an unending series of investigations, congressional hearings, reports, training regimens and special offices have sought to end the problem that the acronym-obsessed service now has given its very own name: MST — military sexual trauma.

Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation, who has watched for decades as women warriors fought to be accepted in the macho ranks of the military, said the challenge in civil court “is necessary because so much else has failed.”

As a Marine captain, Anuradha Bhagwati witnessed her own senior officers violate sexual harassment policies.Bhagwati is now the head of the advocacy group Service Women’s Action Network. She says she has seen those violators “shirk their responsibilities to their own troops … transfer sexual predators out of the units instead of prosecuting them, promote sexual predators during ongoing investigations and accuse highly decorated enlisted service members of lying.”

She called sexual violence “a plague upon the United States military” that “threatens our national security by undermining operational readiness, draining morale, harming retention and destroying lives.”The stories told by Haider and other plaintiffs at a news conference this morning were harrowing. Among them:

• Kori Cioca, the lead plaintiff, said she was constantly harassed by her Coast Guard supervisor. After she made a mistake during a knot-tying quiz, he called her a “stupid f—-ing female, who didn’t belong in the military” and then spit in her face. After complaining to her superior, the abuse escalated to stalking, sexual harassment and ultimately rape in December 2005. Despite an admission from her rapist, commanders told Cioca if she pressed charges she would be court-martialed for lying and later faced retaliation.
• Sarah Albertson was raped by a fellow Marine who outranked her in 2006. Because they had been drinking alcohol, both she and the man were charged with “inappropriate barracks conduct,” and she was ordered to “respect” her assailant. Commanders forced the corporal to interact with her rapist for two more years, suspending her security clearance and downgrading her work assignments because she took prescription medicine to cope with the trauma of being forced to live and work with her rapist.
• Rebekah Havrilla was an Army sergeant serving in Afghanistan in 2006 when she was sexually harassed by a supervisor and later raped by another soldier. She reported it under the military’s restricted reporting policy. When she later saw her rapist at a base in Missouri, she went into shock and sought the help of a military chaplain. She said he told her “it must have been God’s will for her to be raped” and recommended she attend church more often.

Most of the plaintiffs have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental stress problems. They charged the Pentagon with a “systemic failure to stop rape and sexual assault.”The suit names former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his successor, Robert Gates, for failing to “eradicate a well-entrenched misogynistic military culture that permits Command to scoff at rape allegations, threaten victims with courts martial and exercise unfettered discretion to decide to use ‘non-judicial punishment’ to penalize rape and sexual assault.”

The lawsuit specifically cites Rumsfeld, desperate for volunteers to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, for granting “moral waivers” to recruits arrested or convicted of domestic and sexual violence. Despite a federal law making it a felony for such offenders to possess a firearm, he provided an exception to members of the military.Sex crimes, it noted, soared 24 percent in the year before Rumsfeld’s resignation in 2006.

Gates is charged with “failing to take reasonable steps” to protect the plaintiffs from repeated abuse. It notes that he directed the head of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault and Prevention and Response Office to ignore a congressional subpoena to testify and failed to create a centralized database of sex crimes as mandated by lawmakers.

The current defense secretary’s “failures to act … led to a steady and dramatic increase” in the number of rapes and sexual assaults, rising by 25 percent in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007 and continuing to increase at double digits annually since then.

“Sexual assault is a wider societal problem, and Secretary Gates has been working with the service chiefs to make sure the U.S. military is doing all it can to prevent and respond to it,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a statement.

“That means providing more money, personnel, training and expertise, including reaching out to other large institutions such as universities to learn best practices. This is now a command priority, but we clearly still have more work to do in order to ensure all of our service members are safe from abuse.”

The lawsuit cited the Pentagon’s own statistics that reported 3,230 rapes and other sexual assaults in 2009. Because the military acknowledges that 80 percent of victims don’t report the crime, the real number may be more than 16,000.

Moreover, the complaint charges that the Department of Defense “fails to report conviction rates from courts marital, which is critical data needed by Congress to assess whether reforms are being implemented.”Still, the plaintiffs face a high hurdle.

Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said the facts as presented in the complaint are “certainly disturbing” and merit attention from Pentagon leaders. However, he said he is “skeptical that this case, as a case, will gain any traction” in court.

From a legal point of view, he said, it is a steep climb for 17 plaintiffs to argue for systemic abuses in a military of some 2 million people.

“I don’t know that a culture of sexism and misogyny has ever been recognized as a basis” for suing for violations of equal protection, he added. “Not every sexual assault is a violation of equal protection.”

Agent: ‘No truth’ to Albert Haynesworth sexual assault allegations.

The agent for Washington Redskins DT Albert Haynesworth rejected a sexual assault allegation that was made against the player this weekend.

NBC in Washington reported that Haynesworth is the target of a police report filed by a woman in Washington, D.C., alleging inappropriate sexual contact on Sunday morning.

But agent Chad Speck, who represents Haynesworth, dismissed the possibility that his client had done wrong.

“There seems to be no truth to these allegations,” Speck told NBC Washington. “We are currently evaluating facts and considering our own legal action against those involved.”

No charges have been filed against Haynesworth in this incident. NBC Washington obtained a police report in which an a waitress at the W Hotel in Washington, D.C., said a man caressed her breast after she gave him permission to slide his credit card into her shirt. The woman said her hands were full with glasses.

NBC said the unnamed subject of the police report was Haynesworth.

The allegation comes days after Haynesworth turned himself in to face a misdemeanor assault charged on Saturday.

That allegation stemmed from a traffic incident on Feb. 2. Haynesworth has denied wrongdoing in that case through his agent.

Haynesworth was suspended for the final four games of the 2010 regular season after a year in which he feuded often with head coach Mike Shanahan.

Police Say Mom, Daughter Sexually Abused Same Boy.

PHOENIX - The daughter of a county supervisor has been arrested on suspicion of sexual misconduct with the same teenage boy that her mother is accused of sexually abusing over a three-year period, police said Thursday.

Rachel Katherine Brock, 21, was arrested Wednesday on three counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of transmitting obscene material as part of an ongoing investigation surrounding her mother, 48-year-old Susan Brock.Both women were being held without bond at the Maricopa County jail.

In Rachel Brock’s initial court appearance, acting attorney John Rock argued that the judge should free her on bond because there appeared to be no physical evidence to support any of the charges. Rock also said the teen would have been asked if he had been a victim of any other sexual abuse when Susan Brock was arrested in October.”It appears that he’s given contradictory information,” Rock said. But the judge wasn’t persuaded.

It was unclear whether Rachel Brock had a permanent attorney. Susan Brock’s attorney, Pheron Hall III, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Rachel Brock is the daughter of Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock, and Susan Brock is his wife of 28 years. The family lived together in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler but Fulton Brock filed for divorce after his wife’s arrest.

Rachel Brock is accused of committing numerous sex acts with the teenage boy between February 2007 and August 2008, and sending him nude photos and a video of herself masturbating; none of the acts involved intercourse. The boy was 14 at the time, and Rachel Brock was 18, classifying the crimes as dangerous crimes against children.

Police said that between August 2007 and October of this year, the teen met Susan Brock for sexual trysts. Susan Brock reportedly provided the boy with cell phones, and police seized text messages reportedly recording sexual exchanges between the two.

Chandler police Sgt. Joe Favazzo said it appears that Susan and Rachel Brock didn’t know about each other’s relationship with the teen.

“You have a situation where you have a mother who’s abusing a juvenile victim, seemingly unknowingly to the daughter, or vice versa, and the daughter is also abusing the same victim,” Favazzo said. “I just can’t imagine a mother and daughter having this conversation, and the investigators say they don’t have anything indicating the two of them knew about it.”

The boy, now 17, told police that Rachel Brock began abusing him in 2007 by inappropriately touching him during a trip to California, and it escalated to other sexual contact in a vehicle about a month later, according to a court document released Thursday. The boy also told police there was sexual contact with Rachel Brock at the Brocks’ home and at a property owned by the Brock family.

Susan Brock was arrested in October on two counts of child molestation and two counts of sexual contact with a minor involving the same boy.The teen told police Susan Brock would pick him up at school or home and drive him to secluded areas where they would have sexual contact in her car, although there was no intercourse, according to a court document. Authorities say Susan Brock also helped the boy meet his girlfriend and provide places where the young couple could have sex.

In a statement Thursday, Fulton Brock said “‘shocked and devastated’ are not sufficient words to describe the news this day or what has transpired over the last two months.”

“I have filed to divorce my wife. I cannot divorce my daughter,” Fulton Brock said. “She is my blood. I will always be her dad. And she needs me now more than ever.”

A third woman, Christian Hart Weems, 37, was arrested in the case Tuesday on suspicion of obstructing a criminal investigation and conspiracy to commit computer tampering. She’s accused of deleting potentially incriminating e-mails between the boy and Susan Brock. Police say Weems is a friend of Susan Brock.

Dentist traded drugs for sexual favors, police say.

Dr. Steven S. Miller worked on teeth, but authorities say the 68-year-old Wareham dentist also dispensed prescriptions for pain-killing narcotics and other drugs in exchange for sexual favors from female patients.

Miller was arrested Tuesday and arraigned in federal court after a monthlong sting run by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

On Nov. 10, he allegedly slapped a female patient on the buttocks and later asked to see her breasts, to which she complied. Miller then allegedly handed her a prescription for 36 Vicodin pills and 40 amoxicillin pills. The patient had agreed to cooperate with authorities prior to the meeting with Miller and was carrying a transmitting or recording device.

“He is such a lovely person, and it’s hard to believe that he would do any of those things,’’ said Joanne Bryon, who lives near Miller and has known him for more than 20 years. “He must have two sides, because he’s been so respectful to me as a neighbor and friend and patient.’’

An arrest affidavit lists the prescription records of nine patients Miller treated this year, calling the prescriptions “inconsistent with the usual course of professional dental practice.’’

“The amounts and dosages prescribed do not adhere to the standards of practice in dentistry,’’ the affidavit said.

The records were obtained from the state’s Board of Dentistry. On Tuesday, Miller voluntarily surrendered his license to practice dentistry.

Yesterday, dressed in a tan-colored jail uniform, Miller sat next to his lawyer, Lenore Glaser, during a hearing held to determine if there was probable cause to continue holding him. Glaser waived the hearing on her client’s behalf, and Miller was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail.

By early afternoon, Miller walked out of the courthouse into a waiting van, refusing to comment on his case. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Authorities were told by a witness last September that Miller was prescribing controlled substances without valid medical purposes, in exchange for sexual favors. One federal agent posed as the boyfriend of a cooperating witnesses to discuss obtaining a prescription. Miller, according to the affidavit, allegedly instructed the undercover agent to fill out paperwork to make it appear he had dental work done in order to receive a prescription for Vicodin pills.

Miller allegedly told one witness: “I have a very bad reputation at writing drugs. A couple of pharmacies won’t even fill any of my prescriptions.’’

Bryon said she is the state chairwoman for Reading is Fundamental, a national nonprofit early literacy organization, and that she recruited Miller to read last month at Minot Forest Elementary School. Miller, she said, read a book, passed out toothbrushes to the children, and talked to them about the importance of good hygiene.

“I never saw any indication that he was doing anything wrong,’’ she said. “He seemed like such a family man. His wife recently passed away in a motorcycle accident. He was very much in love with her and was dejected, but that didn’t appear to affect his business. He’s always been very much a gentleman. I’ve known his receptionists for quite some time, too, and they feel the same way about him.’’