Hey, Can A Woman "Ask To Get Raped"?

FDLE: Man plotted rape, killings, DVD
June 13, 2014|
By Amy Pavuk and Rene Stutzman, Staff Writers

A Longwood man wanting to get his start in the child-pornography business planned to slash the throats of a mother and father so he could drug and rape their 9-year-old daughter, videotape their sex acts and then kill her, too, state law-enforcement agents said Friday.

Shawn Ryan Thomas, 29, was arrested Thursday night on charges of premeditated attempted homicide, attempted sexual assault of a child and 10 counts of possession of child pornography.

He told a police informant that the 9-year-old would be the first victim but that he planned to do the same thing over and over again and sell a DVD for $1,000, according to his arrest report.

During a brief court hearing Friday in Sanford, Seminole County Judge Jim DeKleva ordered Thomas held without bail.

Thomas said little during the proceeding, except that he had "not yet" hired an attorney. As the judge read each of the charges against him, Thomas shook his head as if to say no.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Daniel Warren said agents received tips in March that a man — later determined to be Thomas — was downloading child pornography.

But it wasn't until this week that agents learned Thomas allegedly tried to lure a 9-year-old girl and her parents to a vacant house in Longwood on June 7 — a case initially reported to Longwood police.

Thomas told the family he was a film student, was making an independent movie and wanted their daughter to appear in it, his arrest report said.

Thomas planned to kill the father first, using a knife to slash his throat, according to his arrest report, then do the same thing to the mother. Warren said that was so they wouldn't file a missing-child report about their daughter.

Once he had finished raping their daughter and video-recording it, Thomas indicated he would also then kill the girl, according to FDLE.

On June 7, Thomas met with his first intended target in Longwood, agents said, but instead of a father, mother and child, it was father, grandfather and child.

The arrest report said Thomas lured them to a vacant house on East Orange Avenue in Longwood, but the grandfather grew suspicious.

Earlier that day, the grandfather drove by the house and saw a "for sale" sign in the yard. Once they went inside the house, they discovered there was no furniture. In one room, there was plastic sheeting on the floor. In another room, there was a tripod.

Thomas was not arrested at that time.

His roommate, Anthony DeRosa, told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday that he recalls Thomas acted oddly June 7.

That day, Thomas showered, shaved, got dressed up, then left the house on foot with a bag, even though it was raining, DeRosa said.

The vacant house is less than a mile away.

When Thomas returned, "he was really quiet," DeRosa said.

Thomas stayed in his room the rest of the day. Throughout this week, DeRosa said, Thomas behaved the same way and didn't go to work.

Thomas had worked at an aquaponics business. He didn't have a car, and DeRosa said he was tech-savvy.

According to Thomas' Facebook page, he attended Edgewater High School and Lockhart Middle School.

He is a fan of politician Rand Paul, according to his Facebook page, as well as Samuel Adams beer and "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer.

A check of Thomas' Florida criminal record shows only traffic violations.

Despite telling people he was working on a student film for Full Sail University, the school said it has no record of Thomas ever attending a class there and that he has no connection to the college.

DeRosa, who has been friends with Thomas for about nine years, said Thomas moved into his home about three weeks ago, saying he'd gotten into a fight with his father and needed to move out of his parents' Orlando-area home.

There was no indication, DeRosa said, that he was violent.

"This scares the crap out of me," he said.

When FDLE and Longwood police arrested Thomas, agents said, he had a knife, plastic sheets, zip ties, a camera and tripod and a sex toy.

Agents who searched his home on Lormann Circle found more plastic sheeting, a receipt for the sex toy and 10 pieces of child pornography, according to his arrest report.

The images showed children ages 4 and 5, and one showed a child of age 1 or 2, the report alleged.

Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Diane Checchio told reporters in Orlando on Friday that agents had gathered "a plethora" of evidence against Thomas. She intends to file additional charges against Thomas, and noted he faces potentially hundreds of years in prison.

Meanwhile, FDLE agents are continuing to investigate Thomas.

He tried to recruit girls using talent agencies and Craigslist, Warren said.

Thomas told a police informant that he had been plotting the abduction, rape and murders "for so long" and that once he had carried it out, he would do it again and again and would "not be able to stop."

He planned to sell a DVD showing a number of child rapes for $300 per chapter or $1,000 overall, according to the arrest report.

After his unsuccessful attempt June 7, Thomas complained to a friend that if he'd had an accomplice or a gun with a silencer, he could have pulled off his plan that day, according to his arrest report.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2014-06-13/news/os-child-rape-murder-plan-20140613_1_vacant-house-fdle-june-7

Baton Rouge man booked in LSU area kidnappings, rapes
Daniel Bethencourt
[email protected]
June 14, 2014

Police on Friday arrested a Baton Rouge man in the kidnapping of two intoxicated victims in separate incidents near Tigerland before they were raped in remote locations.

Baton Rouge police and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office booked Isai Efrain Garcia-Vasquez, 22, 450 Cloud Drive, into Parish Prison on two counts of rape and two counts of second-degree kidnapping.

Police stopped Garcia-Vasquez near LSU early Friday and connected his vehicle to details of a rape in 2013, said Cpl. Don Coppola, a spokesman with the Baton Rouge Police Department.

It was unclear Friday whether or not the victims were LSU students.

DNA results from the State Police Crime Lab matched Garcia-Vasquez to a June 8 rape as well as a rape outside Baton Rouge in July 2013, according to the arrest warrant’s affidavit of probable cause.

The first rape involved a woman who on July 8 went to Reggie’s Bar in Tigerland and blacked out. Sometime later, she got into a car with three men for a ride home, the affidavit says. She realized something was wrong when the driver refused to turn toward her sister’s house while crossing Bluebonnet Boulevard. The victim got in touch with her sister and father while she was in the car, and one of the men even spoke with the victim’s sister on the victim’s phone while they were driving. Police on Friday did not have information on the other suspects.

Eventually one of the men then stopped the car near the Mississippi River levee, the affidavit says. A backseat passenger then dragged her from the car, and she was raped on a grassy area off the road.

She was found on the morning of July 9 when a passerby eventually noticed her near the roadway, Coppola said.

Almost one year later, on June 8, Garcia-Vasquez gave a woman a ride from East Boyd Drive near Tigerland and raped her on River Road, police say.

On Friday around 2 a.m., police arrested Garcia-Vasquez when a Baton Rouge police detective who investigated the 2013 rape happened to be working extra hours and noticed a dark two-door car similar to a Chevrolet Cavalier passing twice on East Boyd Drive — the street where the June 8 victim said she was picked up, and also very similar to the car seen near Reggie’s Bar in the 2013 rape case. The vehicle’s tail light also was not working, and during a traffic stop, the detective was able to connect more details. Police also found condoms like the ones found from the June 8 rape.

Police later connected his DNA to the two rape investigations. Garcia-Vasquez admitted to the June 8 rape but denied the 2013 rape, Coppola said.

Police have not yet connected Garcia-Vasquez to any other rapes, Coppola said.
http://theadvocate.com/news/9452060-123/br-man-booked-in-lsu

Sounds like hundred of years in sentences for haveing the wrong fantasies to me. I have a camera, tri-pod, sex toys, zip ties blah blah blah in my house to, you probably do too....does this mean that you intend to commit a crime?

Mother's suit claims son was raped in Robertson Co. school
Nicole Young, Gannett Tennessee and Brian Haas
May 22, 2014

The mother of a 5-year-old boy has filed a federal lawsuit against Robertson County Schools claiming her child was enticed with toys and money and then raped multiple times by two older students in a Cheatham Park Elementary School bathroom last month during an after-school program.

The lawsuit accuses the district of violating the boy's civil rights by failing to train its employees to keep its students safe. It also says school officials ignored warning signs that the boy may have been victimized.

While such cases represent a parent's worst nightmare and surface occasionally across the country, the scope of the problem isn't known. But national sex abuse prevention experts say the consequences of such incidents are severe, both for the victim and his parents and for the school district, which can be held liable under federal education laws. The experts say training, education and candid talk can help protect children.

The school system on Wednesday declined to answer questions about the case, including whether any of the children involved had returned to school. The lawsuit identified one of the older boys as 9 years old but did not give the age of the other, and none of the children were named.

"We cannot comment on pending litigation on the advice of counsel," said schools spokesman Jim Bellis.

Springfield Police Chief David Thompson said his department, the Tennessee Department of Children's Services and prosecutors investigated the allegations, but no charges were filed.

"All of the suspects and victims were juveniles and I think a major part of the reason that no one decided to prosecute was because they are so young," he said.

Found by a teacher

The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Nashville, seeks unspecified monetary damages and does not identify the boy or his mother.

Early last month, the mother went to pick up her son at the school and was told to talk to a specific teacher regarding "an incident" that had happened. The lawsuit said a teacher had found the boy inside a bathroom stall engaging in sex acts with an older male student, the suit said. The boy told his mother that the student had raped him before, using money and toys to entice him into a bathroom stall, the suit said. He said a second student had also raped him, the suit said.

The mother's attorney, Melissa Blackburn, said the boy is still enrolled in a Robertson County school, but has been pulled out of the after-school program and is undergoing counseling.

"We have represented children who have experienced sexual traumas for many years," she added. "They all have anger issues. They all have behavioral issues. They don't want to go to school. They act out. They all seem to exhibit the same behaviors and this child is exhibiting all these behaviors."

Instances rare among children so young

Monika Johnson, executive director of the Washington, D.C.,-based National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said rape allegations involving two students so young are rare and impossible to quantify, particularly because reporting is spotty. In Tennessee in 2013, there were only 12 cases reported to police involving children under 10 being sexually abused by other young children at a school or daycare, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Those whose job is to take care of kids have to understand the dynamics of this, to look for warning signs.

Monika Johnson executive director, National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
"In terms of students, it's usually the older, 14, 15 year olds," Johnson said. "Definitely not as common in terms of small children. In most cases smaller students have (higher) student-to-teacher ratios, so there is more guidance in terms of supervision."

But Blackburn has two other pending lawsuits with similar accusations: a second Robertson County case involving students at East Robertson Elementary School, and a case in Cheatham County involving a foster child repeatedly abused sexually on a county school bus by another student.

Schools that fail to protect children from such dangers could be violating federal laws. The Allentown (Pa.) School District was sued in 2006 by several parents of students who alleged repeated sexual abuse. The families settled out of court and a federal judge ordered ongoing oversight of the school district to ensure students are protected.

Training needed

Part of that oversight requires the district to have serious training to protect students — a critical step for any school district, Johnson said. She said teachers are often the first line of defense in discovering that something is wrong in a student's life.

"Those whose job is to take care of kids have to understand the dynamics of this, to look for warning signs," she said.

According to the latest lawsuit, Robertson County schools had zero training on how employees should deal with potential sex abuse and, when served with the East Robertson Elementary School lawsuit, simply implemented a single video as their training.

"It's not adequate or appropriate in my opinion," said Johnson, who added that meaningful training would include multiple sessions and discussion.

Even more important, Johnson said, parents should talk to their children early and often about the issue and keep tabs on their behavior.

"It's daily conversation. Clearly if your child's behavior changes, that's something you need to talk about," she said. "Is something happening? Just asking probing questions can help make sure your child's safe."
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/robertson/2014/05/22/mothers-suit-claims-son-raped-robertson-co-school/9427993/

The mother of a 5-year-old boy has filed a federal lawsuit against Robertson County Schools claiming her child was enticed with toys and money and then raped multiple times by two older students in a Cheatham Park Elementary School bathroom last month during an after-school program.

Monika Johnson, executive director of the Washington, D.C.,-based National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said rape allegations involving two students so young are rare and impossible to quantify, particularly because reporting is spotty. In Tennessee in 2013, there were only 12 cases reported to police involving children under 10 being sexually abused by other young children at a school or daycare, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Another arrest for rape shows why maintaining DNA databases is important...Intoxicated women are not "asking to be raped"

I know propaganda when I see it. I also know enough to know that it should be ignored. I want to get my news from people who want to tell the truth, not from people who are trying to sell me their political agenda.

So you think the mother of the 5 year old sexual assault victim is trying to sell a "political agenda"? Rolling Eyes A teacher witnessed the abuse taking place. That sounds like this mother has a valid complaint.

You are willfully ignorant.

The specifics of the sexual abuse would be contained in the federal lawsuit, there's no need for such details in that article

Then you should understand why so many of your ideas and conclusions are generally ignored,

How much older? A day? three weeks? And what did they do?

Child-on-child sexual abuse is a form of child sexual abuse in which a prepubescent child is sexually abused by one or more other children or adolescent youths, and in which no adult is directly involved. The term has been defined as sexual activity between children that occurs "without consent, without equality, or as a result of coercion". This includes when one of the children uses physical force, threats, trickery or emotional manipulation to elicit cooperation. Child-on-child sexual abuse is further differentiated from normative sexual play or anatomical curiosity and exploration (i.e. "playing doctor") because child-on-child sexual abuse is an overt and deliberate action directed at sexual stimulation, including orgasm. In many instances, the initiator exploits the other child's naïveté, and the victim is unaware of the nature of what is happening to them

In the etiology of child-on-child sexual abuse, young children who have not matured sexually are incapable of knowing about specific sex acts without an external source. Consequently, children who initiate or solicit overtly sexual acts with other children most often have been sexually victimized by an adult beforehand, or by another child who was in turn abused by an adult. More than half have been victimized by two or more perpetrators. In some instances, the perpetrating child was exposed to pornography or repeatedly witnessed sexual activity of adults at a very young age, and this can also be considered a form of child sexual abuse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child-on-child_sexual_abuse

Are you really stupid enough to believe that some children are not capable of criminally sexually assaulting other children?

There you go again with your argument that we all must agree that it is wrong because the state says so.

Hell. NO.

That you don't agree that such sexual abuse is wrong, is really irrelevant. Who cares whether you agree?

We have a long way to go, but progress is being made.

Part of the reason you are making no progress is because you focus on your usual bogeymen "feminists"--and see a paranoid conspiracy operating-- while ignoring the fact that the majority of lawmakers and elected officials are clearly committed to cracking down on crimes of sexual assault, in the community, as well as on college campuses and in the military, more firmly than ever before. It's a societal issue of crime, not a feminist issue, and the overwhelming majority of people in our society do not view these crimes through the same amoral lens that you do. You are a quite marginalized deviant, and you can't recognize that fact. There is less tolerance for crimes of sexual assault/sexual abuse than has ever been the case.

the last authorization of the VAWA took almost a year longer than it was supposed to because of unexpected demand to debate where the feminists are taking American sex crime law...

By Editorial Board April 23, 2012

THE FIRST TIME Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), in 2000, it expanded the reach of the law, better meeting the needs of older victims and disabled individuals. The second renewal brought programs for teen victims of domestic and sexual abuse. This year, 61 senators have co-sponsored a reauthorization that would further improve the law’s effectiveness and meet the changing needs of victims.

Let’s hope that bipartisan support — a fixture in the law’s history — does not fall prey to presidential politics and the increasing stridency concerning which party best represents women’s issues.

Enacted in 1994, VAWA has twice been reauthorized by Congress with unanimous Senate support. This year Senate Republicans opposed the bill in the Judiciary Committee because of provisions that extend protections to gays, lesbians, transgendered people, Native Americans and battered immigrant women. They essentially accused Democrats of using the cloak of battered women to force approval on what they see as controversial social issues. “Maybe then they could accuse you of not being supportive of fighting violence against women?” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) told the New York Times. Mr. Sessions and other Republicans on the committee voted for an alternative version that they characterized as a clean reauthorization without unnecessarily political provisions.

A comprehensive committee report convincingly details gaps in current programs as identified by law enforcement officers, victim-service providers, judges and health-care professions. No one — gay or straight, man or woman, legal or undocumented — should be denied protections against domestic abuse or sexual violence. The proposed changes are by no means radical. They include a provision that would bar a shelter from turning away a lesbian who has been beaten by her female partner and adjustments in funding formulas to better address the needs of male victims of domestic and sexual violence.

Some changes, such as increasing the number of temporary visas for battered immigrant women, are supported by law enforcement. And the need to do more to protect Native American women is supported by a regional survey by University of Oklahoma researchers that showed that three out of five Native American women had been assaulted by their spouses or partners and a nationwide survey that found that one-third of all Native American women will be raped in their lifetime.

The impact of this landmark law, as Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said last week in urging its passage, has been “remarkable,” with the annual incidence of domestic violence decreasing by more than 50 percent since its passage. In addition to addressing unmet needs, the bill consolidates programs and cuts the authorization level by more than $135 million a year, to $695 million. Democrats and the White House are right to push for approval.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reauthorize-the-violence-against-women-act/2012/04/23/gIQAxekWcT_story.html

Stop Teaching Students That Sexual Assault Is a Potential Consequence of Drinking
by Leah Berkenwald.
07/16/2013

Approximately one half of sexual assaults involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, victim, or both. In higher ed, alcohol educators often assume that students will drink more responsibly if they know alcohol increases their risk of rape. But what if this assumption is wrong? And what if teaching students about sexual assault in the context of alcohol education is doing more harm than good?

The standard alcohol education message is: "Be smart. Be responsible. Don't do something stupid because there are often consequences." Unfortunately, this focus on personal responsibility is completely incompatible with sexual assault prevention. When it comes to sexual assault and alcohol, students interpret the risk reduction message as "don't drink or you'll get raped," or infer that getting raped was your own fault because you were drinking. It's not only college students who think this way. Just recently, tennis pro Serena Williams told Rolling Stone that the 16-year-old rape survivor in the infamous Steubenville case "put herself in that position" because she was drinking.

Blaming the victim is a pervasive problem with sexual assault. For much too long, prevention education focused on individual risk reduction advice like "don't walk alone at night" or consisted of self-defense training workshops. We now understand that stranger rape -- the dark figure lurking in the bushes kind of rape -- is pretty rare. When 85 percent of rapes on college campuses are committed by an acquaintance, teaching women to protect themselves from stranger rape not only misses the point, but implies that rape is the result of a woman's poor decision making or her failure to protect herself. It also provides a false sense of security by suggesting that if a woman follows a set of rules or adheres to a certain dress code, she won't get raped.

Today, college educators still use the risk reduction approach but instead of focusing on stranger danger, they focus on alcohol-related sexual assault. Telling students to watch their drinking so they don't become a target makes sense when the goal is to reduce college drinking; it makes a lot less sense when the goal is to reduce the incidence of sexual assault or improve support services for survivors on campus.

It is critical to cultivate a campus culture where students feel safe and comfortable reporting an assault. When a student reports, that student can be connected to support services. When many students report, their reports help administrators better address the issue, as well as potentially identify and remove sexual predators from campus. However, a therapeutic campus culture is impossible to create when students are led to believe that they were responsible for their own rape because they chose to drink, or that their assault "doesn't count" because they were drunk. It is even worse when a student is afraid to come forward to report an assault because they fear being chastised, shamed, or blamed for their poor judgment by school administrators.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that each year an estimated 97,000 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 are survivors of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape and that 100,000 college students report being too intoxicated to know if they consented to sexual activity. To be certain, alcohol-related sexual assault on college campuses is rampant and must be addressed. Students need help and guidance navigating issues of consent when alcohol or other drugs are involved. I propose that these challenges, however, be approached in the context of sexual assault prevention rather than part of an alcohol education curriculum.

True primary prevention means changing the sexual culture on campus. Rape myths ("She was asking for it," etc.) are still pervasive among students, faculty, and staff. Too many believe that college girls drink because they are "down for sex" or that sexual assault accusations are fabricated because women regret having had drunk sex. Each campus must dispels those myths in order to achieve a community-wide understanding of sexual assault as it actually happens.

Practically, this could mean implementing campaigns like "Consent is Sexy" that promote consent as an integral part of healthy sexuality, not just something to worry about if you've been drinking. The American College Health Association also recommends incorporating bystander intervention skills training (teaching students to look out for their peers and intervene when safe to do so) in order to create a culture in which sexual violence is not tolerated. Instead of warning students not to drink too much lest they get raped, these approaches recognize and reinforce the fact that ending rape culture is everyone's responsibility.

Until a campus community collectively understands the difference between risk reduction and primary prevention, and until it consciously chooses to blame perpetrators rather than survivors, alcohol-related risk reduction messages may cause more problems than they solve.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-berkenwald/stop-teaching-students_b_3604345.html