Grits for Breakfast reports that Oklahoma authorities have "charged a western Oklahoma sheriff with coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail." The Sheriff resigned just as state prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him. Grits mentions an earlier post involving the use of inmate labor "after two Texas Sheriffs departments were found to be using trusty labor for private businesses."
Feminist Law Professors reports on an Australian news story where "ten men stood over the girl masturbating while each of them raped her in turn.” This act was apparently inspired by a genre of pornography called “bukake."
EvidenceProf reports that prosecutors in Pennsylvania have withdrawn all charges against Penn State running back Austin Scott, who was charged with raping a fellow student. The Commonwealth stated that, "[i]n light of the likely admission of evidence we believe is irrelevant, as officers of the court, it is our position that there is no reasonable likelihood the commonwealth can meet its burden of proof." EvidenceProf has more coverage here.
Evidence Prof also reports that Dominic Jones, a former University of Minnesota football player, who is accused of sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman, has been found guilty of unwanted sexual contact with a physically helpless woman, but not guilty of rape. EvidenceProf has previously written about the trial.
Grits for Breakfast is reporting that prank calls from a Colorado woman may be linked to the raid of the Texas polygamist compound. Some argue that the custody proceedings for the 400+ kids who have been removed from the compound are "presently descending into farce." Grits calls for the judge in the case to "[i]dentify any individual cases that can be actually proven and send the rest of the group and their lawyers home with the thanks and apologies of the court."
A helpful reader lets us know that a proposed Massachusetts law which would block high-risk sex offenders from voting at polling sites in schools and libraries, has been endorsed by lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Election Laws. The bill would force many sex offenders to vote by absentee ballot or not at all. The ACLU has argued that the law would be unconstitutional. The article mentions that the impetus of the proposal was "not prompted by any instance where a sex offender attacked a child at a polling place."
RE: Oklahoma Sheriff
There's a nice picture of him at this site, which has quite a bit about bad cops/prosecutors etc.: http://www.badcopnews.com/2008/04/17/custer-county-oklahoma-sheriff-mike-burgess-quits-charged-with-running-sex-slave-operation-from-his-jail-faces-467-years-in-prison/
Posted by: jjoe | April 24, 2008 at 05:37 PM