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Maine gets an F for child sex trafficking laws

By Mal Leary, Capitol News Service

Posted Dec. 11, 2011, at 3:12 p.m.
Last modified Dec. 12, 2011, at 6:11 a.m.

AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine has been given an F by a national advocacy group for its laws dealing with sex trafficking of minors. One lawmaker says he will try to address some of the concerns of the group in legislation that will be considered in January.

“Each state’s laws show omissions in protective provisions for child victims and lack strong laws to prosecute the men who rent the bodies of other men’s children,” said Linda Smith, Founder and President of Shared Hope International. “Early in our research it was clear that responses to child sex trafficking must originate at the state level.”

The group released a report earlier this month that included a 39-page summary and analysis of Maine laws dealing with sex trafficking. The “Protected Innocence Initiative” criticizes the state for not having specific crimes on the books dealing with trafficking in children for sex. It also suggests the penalties that are on the law books should be strengthened.

The report found that Maine is only one of four states that does not have a specific human trafficking law and one of 10 states that does not have a specific sex trafficking law.

“Until I reviewed this I had forgot that we did not have a specific law on sex trafficking,” said Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, in an interview. He is the sponsor of an omnibus bill this session to deal with sex offenses. “I think it is time for this to be dealt with by the committee and the full legislature.”

A past co-chairman of the legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee, Diamond has successfully sponsored several bills dealing with child sex crimes including increased penalties for possession of child pornography.

“I think we can include a number of their concerns in my bill, including sex trafficking,” he said. “We have to get serious; we are talking about children being used by adults as prostitutes. We have to do more — all that we can — to fight this.”

Attorney General William Schneider said he had not seen the analysis of Maine’s sex trafficking laws, but said the state should consider whether Maine should make trafficking in child sex a separate crime with tough penalties.

“Something with the distinctive character like sex trafficking probably deserves to have its own statute under criminal law to make the specifics of that activity a crime,” he said.

Schneider said there have been sex trafficking cases in Maine and some have been prosecuted under federal law by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including a recent case based in Lisbon Falls.

“It is a terrible problem and one that has the attention of state attorneys general across the country,” he said.

Rep. Gary Plummer, R-Windham, is the co-chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee. He said the committee has dealt with many changes in sex crimes over the last several years. He said he will want comments from the District Attorney’s on their use of other statues as a substitute for a specific sex trafficking law.

“I don’t like to pass new laws unless we really need to have them,” he said. “I can’t say now whether it is needed or not and we will need to talk with prosecutors about whether they need another law.”

Plummer said increasing penalties may be warranted, but the committee will want to carefully weigh penalties in this area with other criminal penalties already in law. He said there is a cost to lengthy jail sentences, and tougher penalties will mean increased corrections cost.

“Right now Maine has several examples where they are much too lenient,” Diamond said. “I am actually an advocate for increasing our penalties to come in line with those at the federal level.”

Rep. Anne Haskell, D-Portland, is the lead democrat on the panel and a former co-chair. She said the study deserves a close look by the panel and she believes lawmakers should consider establishing a specific crime of sex trafficking.

“We took kidnapping off the sex offender registry list,” she said. “If prosecutors are using that because we do not have a sex trafficking statute, we are missing some people who should be on the sex offenders list.”

Both Plummer and Haskell said they expect the issues raised by the study will be considered by lawmakers because of Diamond’s bill and those measures carried over from the first session of the legislature.

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Anonymous

This is not a question of whether we need specific human trafficking legislation. If any in the Maine legislature are asking themselves that question they need to begin educating themselves on the issue immediately. I know we have Representatives like Margaret R. Rotundo, who thoroughly understand the threat. It may seem unrelated, but think on this; if Maine has problems attracting businesses now, wait until you complicitly add “and trafficking” to that Open for Business sign at our border. The criminal flow associated with all aspects of trafficking, not just sex, which are already present will not only continue to grow, the oranized crime behind it will begin to migrate where the penalties are lightest. Since concern is expressed over the cost of incarcerating traffickers with long sentences, I suggest considering the cost of lost revenues if companies refuse to come to a state unwilling to legislatively address human trafficking. On January 1st, California law demands companies over a certain level of income to show that their supply chain is free of human trafficking or disclose it. Do we want to be labeled as so backward that we’re not only in the last 4 in the country, but still wondering if it warrants action?
Anonymous

On January 1st, California law demands companies over a certain level of
income to show that their supply chain is free of human trafficking or
disclose it. Do we want to be labeled as so backward that we’re not
only in the last 4 in the country, but still wondering if it warrants
action?

Why not, instead, extend an invitation to California companies “over a certain level of income” to move to a state without this particular ‘feel-good’, impossible to comply with, law? I don’t imagine there’s any problem in Maine right now with prosecuting whatever human trafficking occurs. I may be wrong, of course; but can you name a case where human trafficking in children in Maine wasn’t prosecuted for lack of a Maine law?
Anonymous

And charge them with what? That’s what this is about, we don’t have any specific laws or penalty’s on the books, that’s why we got the rating.

So you are suggesting that we use our lack of a human trafficking law to attract California based businesses?

If the governor had thought of that notion, he would label it his first and only job creation bill.
Anonymous

The California law does not force a company to change/resource their supply chain, just disclose it. It’s up to the individual business how or whether they change it. The customers who aren’t concerned will certainly continue to do business with them. The information is for those who wish to know what they’re buying.

“I don’t imagine there’s any problem in Maine right now with prosecuting whatever human trafficking occurs.”
I suggest you speak to a State Attorney about this one, or perhaps the Auburn Chief of Police who recently sponsored a large conference on human trafficking for law enforcement, medical personnel and the general public. Also helpful to your scope of imagination would be a conversation with any pertinent FBI, ICE or HS agent, Canadian Border Patrol, etc.
Anonymous

Their is all kinds of so called perverted sex going on, with more on the way Does anyone not wonder what has gone wrong with our society? Think about this. God gave Woman to man as a companion, but weak men have giving her over to Satan, who has giving her back, as a companion to men. There is a vast difference between the two. Mankind is destroying itself.
Peace.
Anonymous

We already have laws about minors, do we need to control what adults do???
Anonymous

I find it very hard to believe that human trafficking and sex trafficking have always been legal in Maine. Didn’t sex trafficking used to be called prostitution and didn’t human trafficking used to be called slavery? I guess if you change the language you have to change the laws to match, but I don;’t think these businesses have been legal in Maine for a long time.
Anonymous

Ask the hacks who are guarding us from the guardians
another example of the inmates running the asylum
see link for full story
http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/562899/When-Cops-Go-Bad–Behavior-Linked-To-Power–Greed.html?nav=515
When Cops Go Bad: Behavior Linked To Power, Greed

December 11, 2011

WHEELING – While there is no definitive explanation as to why
some police officers end up on the wrong side of the law, there are
clues as to what causes it.
The arrest earlier this month of
Wheeling police officer Matthew Kotson on four sexual assault charges is
one of several involving rogue law enforcement officers in the Ohio
Valley over the past few years. Before him, two Belmont County chiefs of
police, two Ohio County sheriff deputies and a federal Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent made headlines for wrongdoing.
Charges against those men included sex crimes against children,
obstruction of justice, burglary, theft, dereliction of duty and
conspiracy.
Kotson is accused of sexually assaulting two women, the last on Thanksgiving Day.
OldWench

There NEEDS to be special laws. Here is just one reason why:
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2001-02-12/news/18174132_1_young-teens-prostitution-ring-south-bronx

And this:
http://www.wickedlocal.com/northandover/local_news/x428359761#axzz1gIgAiXIV
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KJEUWEYRHIPWV3PTTWWNUZ2CTQ mcmaineacjam

This is such a negative smokescreen. Maybe the reason there are no laws on the books is there has not been in issue. I am not againsst putting such laws in place at all, just the way this group puts out its message. I have lived in places where your kids could not play unsupervised in your own front yard, regardless of what laws are in place. There are ways to advocate for new laws without painting a negative incorrect view of an area.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RX23W5V7A2J6BYTBB3MZJE5ZKA Jeff D

“Each state’s laws show omissions in protective provisions for child victims and lack strong laws to prosecute the men who rent the bodies of other men’s children,” said Linda Smith, Founder and President of Shared Hope International.
Leave it to a female to say something like this quoted statement from the article. I am tired of hearing how ALL MALES are the bane of society when researching the topic shows perhaps a majority of ringleaders are female. I REALLY can’t believe that the BDN can publish such an article without contrasting views informing us of the most recent cases of sex trafficking in Maine which I do remember being led by some females. Yuck!!! They’re all the same. Especially Linda Smith who I believe has an interest in this because she wants some of the business for herself. She should be watched.
Anonymous

Ah, the cop hater returns!
And of course your anti law enforcement diatribe has absolutely nothing to do with the article.
http://twitter.com/NorthernRants Bill Buck

FYI. The current year is 2011. Just making sure you are in right century.
Anonymous

Ask the ‘purple’ Martin from the county how he feels about this? Good time to get rid of him and his illicit activities that no one dares do anything about. Lisbon Falls, it is not the first time a sex trafficking case has been there. Right under the Chief of Police’s nose there was an asian massage parlor where everyone got a happy ending in their fortune cookie. It took outside investigators to break the case not the Lisbon Police Department.
Anonymous

And charge them with what? That’s what this is about, we don’t
have any specific laws or penalty’s on the books, that’s why we got the
rating.

Oh, gosh. Child sex abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, statutory rape, prostitution, chattel slavery….
http://twitter.com/Binky_Gurl Della

So they do not like to pass laws that we don’t need…Seriously what in god’s name was that man thinking when he made that statement? We need to keep our children and citizens of Maine safe from sexual predators! Right now Maine has some of the most laid back laws regarding sex crimes than any other state and all this man is concerned with is making laws we don’t need! Instead of going to the prosecution about this why not go to the people, the ones who pay your salary that up to this point, in my opinion, you have not earned! Or speak to one of the victims of a sex crime and ask their opinion! In that state there are police officers, lawyers, school teachers etc. that have been arrested and/or convicted of a sex crime. Who are the people suppose to trust? Certainly not the law makers because they are too concerned with passing laws we don’t need! I just think maybe it is time to completely overhaul Maine’s Political System and start with fresh new people who know what it is like to be the victim/survivor of a sex crime!
Anonymous

Yo Reggie the cave dweller. How are things out there on the thin Blue Line?
The trillion dollar taxpayer funded crime business has had a banner year.
The problem is the people funding the Inmates running the asylum have no say in how they get to spend their tax dime.
Reggie likes to call a smart consumer cop haters I like to think it is telling my community
we need to run our criminal justice system,eh?

The History Channel made a 9 part series about the Assassination of President Kennedy.
The last show in the series was called THE GUILTY MEN.
It details the evidence for President Kennedy being assassinated by the FBI.
After becoming the most popular show in the series the History Channel pulled it off the air and refuse to sell it.
Google the guilty men jfk youtube
and watch the 45 minute version or click here to watch it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgNfQYpS1gQ

In 1999 the Martin Luther King family sued one of the assassins of Martin Luther King in civil court. They did this because the department of justice would not reopen the investigation after the Martin Luther King family uncovered evidence that the FBI, CIA, and Memphis police had assassinated Dr King. The King family also wanted to enter their evidence into a public record so it could be accessed.The jury returned a verdict in favor of the King family and juror members held a press conference saying it was a clear cut case of the FBI assassinating Dr King. There was a media blackout of the trial. Details of the trial can be viewed here or by reading the book called ACT OF STATE THE EXECUTION OF Martin Luther King
written by the trial attorney William Pepper.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/mlk-conspiracy-exposed.html
Anonymous

the inmates are running the asylum.
Lets see if we can do a better job based on restorative justice.

see link for full story
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/27/siu.fbi.internal.documents/index.html
CNN exclusive: FBI misconduct reveals sex, lies and videotape

By Scott Zamost and Kyra Phillips, CNN Special Investigations Unit
January 27, 2011

Washington (CNN) — An FBI employee shared confidential information with his girlfriend, who was a news reporter, then later threatened to release a sex tape the two had made.

A supervisor watched pornographic videos in his office during work hours while “satisfying himself.”

And an employee in a “leadership position” misused a government database to check on two friends who were exotic dancers and allowed them into an FBI office after hours.

These are among confidential summaries of FBI disciplinary reports obtained by CNN, which describe misconduct by agency supervisors, agents and other employees over the last three years.

Read the FBI documents obtained by CNN
Anonymous

And again, your diatribe has NOTHING to do with this article. But then you need your soap box don’t you?
And, no doubt you believe everything you have stated in your off the wall remarks.
I expect nothing less.
Anonymous

Maine also gets an F for giving rapists lame sentences. In the last 2 months, two convicted rapists in Rockland each got off with 6 month sentences, shameful. This is not unusual.
Anonymous

Reggie, as someone tasked with enforcing Maine laws you are responsible
for enforcing the new legislation that may be generated as discussed in this article.
My points are: the largest group of sex offenders by profession in Maine are people working in law enforcement .
Do we really want police investigating and making arrests in crimes involving sex offenses?

2. I want to see every community in Maine create a volunteer civilian police review board with subpoena power to set and enforce standards for public safety in their neighborhood.
Why? because voters and taxpayers fund and own the criminal justice system.
Why? because the current system creates more disorder than the order it creates
Anonymous

Child Porn Probe Leads To FBI Headquarters
Target claims inquiry is just a “misunderstanding”
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/investigation/child-porn-probe-leads-fbi-headquarters
JANUARY 5 2011–The government’s pursuit of suspects trafficking in child pornography recently led federal agents to a familiar address–the FBI’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, where a bureau official is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The investigation by the Department of Justice’s inspector general is focusing on FBI employee Joseph Bonsuk’s receipt of nearly 80 illicit images that were e-mailed to him by an Illinois sex offender whose rap sheet includes felony convictions for bank robbery and solicitation of a minor.

Prosecutors move to dismiss charges against former Scout leader

January 3, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –Federal prosecutors have moved to dismiss charges against a retired FBI agent who was indicted on child sex charges dating back more than a decade when he was a Boy Scout leader, in response to the death of his accuser.

William Hutton, 63, of Killingworth, was arrested in February on charges he enticed a member of his Scout troop to Maine for the purpose of sexual activity in 1994 and 1995.

3rd read
http://www.headwatersproductions.com/press/article5.html
Edward Rodgers was in charge of investigating cases of Child Abuse at the FBI

THE DENVER POST – Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire
May 17, 1990
Sisters win sex lawsuit vs. dad $2.3 million given for years of abuse
By Howard Prankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer

Two daughters of former state and federal law enforcement official Edward Rodgers were awarded $2.319,400 yesterday, after a Denver judge and jury found that the women suffered years of abuse at the hands of their father.

The award to Sharon Simone, 45, and Susan Hammond, 44, followed testimony of Rodgers’ four daughters in person or through depositions, describing repeated physical abuse and sexual assaults by their father from 1944 through 1965.

Rodgers, 72, who became a child abuse expert after retiring from the FBI and joining the colorado Springs DA’s office, failed to appear for the trial. But in a deposition taken in March, Rodgers denied ever hitting or sexually abusing his children.

4th read

FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Child Abuse

Tuesday February 17, 2004 11:46 PM

By JOHN SOLOMON

Associated Press Writer
https://antipolygraph.org/cgi-bin/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1077052156
WASHINGTON (AP) – The former chief internal watchdog at the FBI has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl and has admitted he had a history of molesting other children before he joined the bureau for what became a two-decade career.

John H. Conditt Jr., 53, who retired in 2001, was sentenced last week to 12 years in prison in Tarrant County court in Fort Worth, Texas, after he admitted he molested the daughter of two FBI agents after he retired. He acknowledged molesting at least two other girls before he began his law enforcement career, his lawyer said.

5th read

Monday August 8, 2005 Longtime FBI agent sentenced to prison on child porn count
http://www.fbi.gov/kansascity/press-releases/2010/kc033110.htm
also see http://www.policeone.com/news/113935-Longtime-Idaho-FBI-Agent-Sentenced-for-Possessing-Child-Porn/
By JOHN MILLER

Associated Press Writer

BOISE, Idaho (AP) A longtime FBI agent who helped arrest mountain-man Claude Dallas and was involved in a deadly 1984 siege involving white supremacists in Washington state is going to prison for 12 months after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.

William Buie, 64, of Boise, most recently worked as an investigator for the Idaho attorney general’s office.

6th read

February 22, 2007
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/022007/02232007/262383
SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. A F.B.I. analyst has been sentenced to seven years in prison for having sex with a young girl in Spotsylvania County.
Forty-four-year-old Anthony John Lesko entered an Alford plea yesterday in Spotsylvania County Circuit Court to nine counts of felony indecent liberties upon a child. An Alford plea means Lesko doesn’t admit guilt but believes there is enough evidence for a conviction.
Authorities say Lesko engaged in a sex act with her nine times, beginning when she was nine years old.
According to the plea, Lesko said he was a victim in the case. He said the girl initiated the contact.

7th read

FBI Agent Accused Of Masturbating In Public
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/12/ex-fbi_agent_sentenced_to_pris.html
May 25, 2007 09:02 PM
FBI Agent Accused Of Masturbating In Public

Posted by, Marissa Pasquet KOLD News 13 News Editor

FBI Special Agent Ryan Seese, 34, is facing sex offense charges after a cleaning woman said she found him masturbating in a women’s lavatory on campus, according to a University of Arizona police spokesman.

8th read
FBI agent arrested on child sexual assault charge

Associated Press – January 15, 2008 6:14 PM ET
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7978377
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) – An FBI agent is under arrest in Pueblo for investigation of sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust.

Authorities say 53-year-old David Allan Johnson is being held in the Pueblo County jail today on a $100,000 bail.

9th read

Former Great Falls FBI agent sentenced on child sex charges

Jan 23, 2008

A man from Great Falls who’s accused of sexually assaulting five underage girls will be spending the next 10 years behind bars.

Stanley Perkins, 64, changed his plea to guilty after police began investigating him for child molestation in August 2006.

The former educator, who also served two years as an FBI agent, was sentenced on one count of felony sexual assault.

10 th read

http://franklincoverup.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=26
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-R-Olson/1248587113 James R. Olson

Excellent journalism. BDN should hire you.
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-R-Olson/1248587113 James R. Olson

Probably, Della, because laws should not be based on ignorance and emotion, but on the experience of experts in the field. Knee jerk reactions based on appeals to emotion always, always make bad law.
Anonymous

First, you are wrong in your assessment of my “tasks”.
You are just wrong, Period.
Just who would you suggest investigate and make arrests involving sex offenses?
And your suggestion to create civilian police review boards will not happen.
But you will continue to ramble on to appease your self aggrandizement.
I add you to the list of folks no longer credible or worthy of comment.
Anonymous

Do you really think that perverted sex is a recent invention? A few thousand years ago there was surely a lot of pretty intense rapey, child sexing stuff going on, too. If I were you I’d be talking about how mankind is finally getting somewhere by establishing specific, explicit laws against exploitation of children. Unfortunately Maine is one of the places that needs to catch up. I think a better sense of perspective would really improve your outlook!

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