Blog Medium

The number of school employees arrested for sex crimes jumped 30 percent last year, even as overall arrests were dropping.  According to new statistics obtained by The Post, 1,340 school workers — 344 teachers, 198 janitors, 149 teaching assistants, 114 school aides, 43 bus drivers and even 25 school safety staffers — were arrested for a range of crimes in 2001.  That’s down 8 percent from the 1,450 arrests in 2001.  Arrests for sexual abuse jumped from 30 in 2001 to 39 last year, an increase of 30 percent.

Lawyers for the Boston Archdiocese, which offered to pay for counseling for people who say they were abused by priests, have begun issuing subpoenas to the therapists to get details about the sessions.  The subpoenas require therapists to answer questions under oath about the counseling, a move that has outraged alleged victims and their lawyers.

(Boston, Massachusetts)

Queens detectives continued their hunt yesterday for a man who tried to force a 35 year old woman and a 16 year old girl into a black van at gunpoint Thursday.  He drove the van onto a sidewalk in front a the woman at 35th Ave. and Linden Place in Flushing, pointed a revolver at her and ordered her into the van at 2:55 p.m.  The woman ran south on the boulevard and the man drove off.  About 45 minutes later, the man stopped the van in front of the

Police say they have uncovered a ring that kidnapped girls and women and forced them to work as prostitutes in Michigan and possibly other states.  Two men, Henry Davis, a 32 year old from Chicago and a 17 year old from Detroit, were arrested after a teenage girl led officers to a home in Detroit where seven women and girls, one only 13, were being held against their will.  Davis was charged yesterday with nine felony counts.  He is charged with four counts involving a 17 year old girl who

An enraged mob killed Marcel Quinonez, a 26 year old suspected child rapist, in Ecuador, dragging him from a rural jail and twice dousing him with gasoline, setting him on fire.  The grisly attack by about 1,000 residents of Cayambe was broadcast on television news programs.  The angry mob broke down the metal door of the Cayambe jail and overpowered four police officers to reach him.  They dragged him into the street, beat and kicked him, then doused him with gasoline and set him on fire.  After using tear gas

Beatriz Vargas, a 25 year old female basketball coach, was charged with third-degree statutory rape for allegedly having sex with a 15 year old student in Van Cortlandt Park.  In November 2002, Vargas was a coach at IS 80 and met the student while he was participating in the basketball program.  She was arrested after she was discovered allegedly having sex with the student in a parked car at the park.  She was also charged with sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child.

(New York)