Author Archive

Raymond Pannell, 70, was sentenced to prison for one year for sexually abusing five youths he treated in the 1970’s and 1980’s when he was a doctor.  The prison term completed the fall from community pillar to disgraced outcast.  He lost his medical license, his reputation, his position as lay reader in church and the good will built up by a lifetime of service.

Pannell faced four charges of sexual abuse.  He pleaded guilty to spare the victims the pain of having to testify at a trial.  Two others came

On Friday, Republican presidential candidate John McCain told a town meeting at the Greenville Public Library that libraries and schools that offer unlimited Internet access to children should not receive federal money.  He suggests libraries use web filtering devices to limit access to sexually explicit material.  When a mother or father drops their child off at the library they are entrusting the welfare of their child with the librarian, he said.  McCain disagreed with the American Library Association assertion that unlimited Internet access was free speech.

(Greenville, South Carolina)

Mark James LaPietra, a Dr. Phillips High School drama teacher who is also one of the schools wrestling coaches has been charged with performing lewd acts in front of children, after he allegedly exposed himself and masturbated in front of several girls and a woman on the grounds of his West Orlando apartment complex.  He was spotted by a 19-year-old woman with his pants pulled down enough to see his genitals by the community pool.  He was allegedly spotted in other areas but is not accused of flashing any of

Amber Bauer, 13-months-old, was allegedly fed a bottle of juice poisoned with windshield washer fluid and sexually assaulted by her 14-year-old uncle, Braxton Bowers.  The teen is accused of allegedly mixing windshield washer fluid with juice in a bottle and giving it to her after baby-sitting for several hours and the baby scratched him while he was changing her diaper.  Juvenile Court Judge Steven Nash cited Bowers’ history of arson and the fundamentally brutal, vicious crimes he is charged with in the December 6th, 1999 death of Amber.  Defense attorney

Police from Michigan, New Jersey, and South Carolina along with agents from the FDA raided the home of and arrested Jeffrey Suggs, 33 and Kenneth Suggs, 29 for allegedly peddling date-rape drug kits on their web site.  The kits were disguised as computer-cleaning solvents.  More than 100 pounds of drugs used to make gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), a notorious date-rape drug were seized.  Also seized by police were a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and a pair of shotguns.  The Suggs are awaiting extradition to New Jersey where they face charges of conspiring

APBnews.com/Randy Dotinga

Aran Modesto Chilingar, 18, a resident of Pacific Palisades, faces two sexual assault counts andone burglary count. He could get life in prison if he is convicted of raping a 12 year old girlduring a home burglary this week. The girl was home alone in an apartment on Sunset Boulevard whena burglar broke in just before 6 a.m. Wednesday and raped the child at knifepoint.