Category Archive for : ‘CRIME FIGHTING INITIATIVES’

People gathered at a mural and memorial honoring Army Specialist Vanessa Guillén at Taqueria del Sol on July 5, 2020. Photo by Briana Vargas/The Texas Tribune

Dec. 29 (UPI) — Commanders will no longer be involved in military sexual harassment or sexual assault investigations under a new federal law named for a murdered Fort Hood soldier that goes into effect Saturday.

Provisions of the I Am Vanessa Guillén Act were included in the $770 billion National Defense Authorization Act that was signed by President Biden on Monday.

Under the new law, the decision

Newport News police officers will be teaching high school students signs to help them avoid and prevent human trafficking.

Hampton Roads was one of two sites across the country selected to pilot the federal program, which is being called TraffickSTOP.

The program has two parts: Training law enforcement officers to teach the program to students, and educating teenagers on the dangers of human trafficking and how to avoid it, according to a news release from Virginia’s Attorney General’s Office. Newport News school resource officers will lead the program in partnership with the

May 27, 2021
Justice

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Clinton, Missouri, man who was identified and arrested on the same day he shared live video and images of his sexual assault of a toddler with an undercover officer was sentenced in federal court today for producing child pornography.
Gino Alexander Maiorano, 26, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 25 years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Maiorano to spend the rest of his life on supervised release following incarceration.
On June 23, 2020, Maiorano pleaded guilty to one

May 21, 2021
Justice.gov

Miami, Florida – A Boca Raton man convicted of producing, distributing, and possessing sexual abuse material of children, including a toddler, was sentenced yesterday by a West Palm Beach federal district judge to 50 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. He also was ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution to his victims.
Robert Solove, 29, used social networking applications on his cellular telephone to communicate with children and to solicit and distribute child sexual abuse material. Solove created illegal photos and videos

May 11, 2021
Justice.gov

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Brian Pickett, age 40, of Troy, New York, was arrested last week on a child pornography charge. The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Thomas Relford, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The criminal complaint against Pickett, who is a registered sex offender, alleges that Pickett possessed multiple videos of child pornography on his electronic devices. The charge in the criminal complaint is merely an accusation.

May 13, 2021
Missy Ryan
Washington Post

Congressional measures targeting sexual assault in the military gained momentum Thursday as lawmakers voiced growing support for overhauling how decisions about prosecuting sex crimes are made.

Proposals in both chambers would strip military commanders of the authority to decide which alleged incidents of sexual assault are tried in military courts and which result in lesser punishments or are dismissed, reflecting lawmakers’ frustration with the failure of earlier attempts to end the scourge of harassment and assault in the ranks.

The measures, championed by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) in