A federal grand jury in Nashville, Tennessee, has returned a 60-count indictment charging nine members of La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) with a racketeering conspiracy spanning more than seven years. Those charged in the second superseding indictment are Carlos Ochoa-Martinez, 31, aka “El Serio;” Jason Sandoval, 35, aka “Bin Laden;” Jorge Flores, 29, aka “Peluche;” Kevin […]
A Missouri man was sentenced in federal court for enticing a 15-year-old victim through social media to engage in illicit sexual activity. Clinton Anthony Yeats, 29, of Joplin, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 14 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Yeats to 15 years of supervised […]
Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox reports no one was arrested after officers responded to a call of an alleged domestic violence in progress the night of July 22, in which a male was reportedly pointing a handgun at a victim. The Highway Patrol and a Chillicothe Police officer also responded to a home in the north […]
Governor Mike Parson announced $4 million in new grant opportunities to combat crimes against children and to provide additional funding to agencies that provide services to crime victims. “The last two years have created hardships and strained resources across the nation, but the reported rise in crimes affecting children and the difficulties experienced by agencies […]
A Missouri, man pleaded guilty in federal court to the sexual exploitation of a 14-year-old victim. Damion Spillman, 28, of Carl Junction, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to the sexual exploitation of a child. By pleading guilty, Spillman admitted to enticing a 14-year-old victim to give him a pornographic video […]
A Missouri man pleaded guilty in federal court today to sexually assaulting two young children to produce child pornography and to receiving and distributing child pornography after his wife pleaded guilty to the same charges last month. Mark John Millman, 37, of Merriam Village, a citizen of Great Britain and a legal alien resident, pleaded […]
A Kansas man was sentenced in federal court for engaging in two separate fraud schemes related to millions of dollars in false payday loan debt and for tax evasion totaling more than $8 million. “After raking in millions of dollars from the victims of his fraud scheme, the defendant lied repeatedly and used every trick […]
Grundy County Sheriff Rodney Herring is asking for the public’s help in providing any information regarding the whereabouts of a man described as a fugitive from Florida who reportedly was seen Thursday morning in Laredo. According to Grundy County authorities, Dale Edward Green is wanted in Florida for crimes of an original offense of sexual […]
A September sentencing date has been set for a man from mid-Missouri’s Tipton, who’s been convicted of child sex crimes. 42-year-old Shawn Martin of Tipton has been convicted of five child sex crimes, including statutory rape and sodomy. While Martin is from Tipton, east of Sedalia, prosecutors say the crimes happened more than […]
A Missouri woman pleaded guilty in federal court to sexually assaulting two children to produce child pornography and to receiving and distributing child pornography. Tara Sau Millman, 41, Merriam Village, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to one count of the sexual exploitation of minors and one count of receiving and distributing […]
A Macon man pleaded not guilty in Linn County on June 23 to 118 felony counts, including multiple counts of child molestation, statutory sodomy, and statutory rape. The court denied a bond request for 54-year-old Kenneth Harper. A bond hearing is scheduled for July 1st. The alleged incidents happened from 1996 to 2010. The court […]
A Texas man was sentenced in the Western District of Texas to 40 years in prison for multiple obscenity crimes involving children. Thomas Alan Arthur, 65, of Terlingua, was convicted by a federal jury on Jan. 21, 2021, of three counts of trafficking in obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of a child, five […]
A Macon man has been charged in Linn County with 118 felony counts related to child sex crimes. Fifty-four-year-old Kenneth Harper’s charges include multiple counts of child molestation, statutory sodomy, and statutory rape, stemming from 1996 to 2010. An arraignment is scheduled for June 23rd. The court ordered that the probable cause statement be kept […]
If Gov. Mike Parson does not make changes to the Missouri Public Defender System’s next budget, the office is on track to get its largest staffing increase since about 1989. Director Mary Fox tells Missourinet 53 new public defenders would be hired statewide. “This is going to make a huge difference in terms […]
Each year, an estimated 5 million older adults are abused, neglected, bullied, or exploited. World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) was launched in 2006 by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations, to unite communities around the world to raise awareness about elder abuse. […]
(Missouri Independent) – For years after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, activists and community leaders have pushed to “re-envision public safety.” Inspired in part by the Ferguson Commission, which recommended that cities focus more resources on the root causes of crime, organizers across the state echoed these calls. But they largely fell on deaf ears. […]
Four defendants pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting and conspiracy charges for their roles in an interstate dogfighting network across the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey. The Honorable John A. Gibney Jr., U.S. District Judge in Richmond, Virginia, accepted the following pleas: On June 1, Odell S. Anderson Sr., 52, of the District […]
U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) introduced bipartisan legislation to require states to report data on all child abuse-related deaths and develop recommendations to prevent child abuse deaths from occurring in the first place. The senators’ bill would provide policymakers and public health officials with a clearer picture of the number of […]
A Missouri, man who was scheduled to begin his criminal jury trial instead pleaded in federal court to receiving child pornography over the internet. Scott James Wells, 55, of Springfield, withdrew his plea of not guilty before U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool in order to enter a nolo contendre, or “no contest,” plea, neither […]
(Missouri Independent) – Missouri lawmakers must finish work on the fiscal 2022 budget by Friday. And while the biggest spending issue of the session, Medicaid expansion, is off the table, there are other big issues to resolve in the state-run health care program. One of the largest is whether to provide a cushion for hospitals that […]
