4/16/14: Today’s Round-up of Child Sex Abuse in the News

LOCAL

Santa Cruz, CA – Santa Cruz surf instructor to be arraigned on sex abuse charges Wednesday
A well-known Santa Cruz surf instructor accused of molesting underage girls and secretly recording videos of girls getting undressed is scheduled for arraignment Wednesday.  Dylan David Greiner was arrested last year and police said they found more than half a million pornographic videos and photographs on his computers. He’s also charged with molesting two girls under the age of 14.  Greiner was the owner of the Santa Cruz Surf School and also taught basic board techniques through the Santa Cruz Boys and Girls Club.  Read more here:

Riverside, CA – 64 Highlanders participate in UCSA’s annual conference
Over 400 UC students, including 64 Highlanders, attended the 12th Annual Student Lobby Conference from April 4-6 to advocate on and raise awareness about issues of higher education, such as reforming sexual assault policies and instituting affirmative action in a university’s admissions process.  Read more here:

NATIONAL

Tumwater, WA – Married teacher’s aide pleads guilty to having sex with student, 16, whom she’d met in detention and plied with Vicodin
A former teacher’s aide from Washington state pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of sexual misconduct with a 16-year-old boy she had met while supervising detention.  The Thurston County prosecutor is recommending a sex offender sentencing alternative for 29-year-old Courtney Keller. She can avoid a five-year prison sentence if she completes sex offender treatment. Read more here:

Kennewick, WA – Alleged sex abuse victims file $25M in claims against Kennewick School District
Five men who say a retired Kennewick High School teacher molested them as students filed $25 million in claims Monday against the Kennewick School District.  All five say William Pickerel groomed them when he was a teacher and wrestling coach, sexually assaulting and molesting them at school, at his home or on out-of-town sports trips.  Each former student is seeking $5 million, according to legal documents delivered to the district.  Read more here:

Federal Way, WA – Charge: Balcony flasher admits to child molestation
A Covington man accused of masturbating on his apartment balcony while waving to a neighbor is alleged to have admitted to worse following his arrest.  Now charged with felony indecent exposure, Ngaira Muhanji was arrested April 7 after a Federal Way woman called 911 to report Muhanji was wagging his genitals at her from a neighboring apartment. Muhanji, 31, was previously convicted of the same charge in a Seattle incident three years ago.  More troubling, though, are purported admissions made by the mentally ill man following his arrest. According to King County prosecutors, Muhanji admitted to seeking sex from a 12-year-old girl and molesting another child.  Read more here:

Boise, ID – Two women sue Boise State over sex assault response
Two former Boise State University students are suing the school because they say athletic officials ignored their reports of sexual assault and harassment by a star athlete, the AP reports; the women are represented by nationally known attorney Gloria Allred, who has handled similar lawsuits in several other states. They contend that multiple Boise State University athletic officials knew the athlete who abused them had a record of serially harassing and assaulting fellow students, and that the school’s failure to take action spurred the athlete to continue the behavior.  Read more here:

Valle, AZ- Valle man arrested on child molestation charges
A 44-year-old Valle, Ariz. man has been arrested on charges of molesting a 7-year-old child.  A Sheriff’s sergeant was dispatched to a school in an unincorporated community within Coconino County last Wednesday to speak to a school official regarding an allegation of child molestation. The sergeant spoke with the victim’s mother upon his arrival. She told him her 7-year-old daughter had disclosed to her that she was molested by a man who was living with them at their residence in Valle. The victim’s mother described the man as her “common-law husband.”  Read more here:

Forsyth, MO – Former Forsyth teacher charged with statutory rape
A former Forsyth teacher has been charged with three counts of statutory rape and other sexual misconduct charges in Taney County, according to online court records.  Caleb Moon, 27, of Ozark, no longer works for the Forsyth School District, according to the district.  A probable cause statement filed in the case says Moon and a 16-year-old student had sex on more than one occasion in November. Forsyth police say they received information from witnesses, from the alleged victim and obtained DNA from Moon’s truck of both Moon and the 16-year-old student.  Read more here:

Charlottesville, VA – Sexual Assault Leadership Council launches Take Back the Night week
Monday marked the beginning of Take Back the Night Week, sponsored and lead by the Sexual Assault Leadership Council.  Take Back the Night is a national organization and event advocating sexual violence prevention which began with rallies and marches in the 1970s. The event has been held at the University for 14 years. Read more here:

Philadelphia, PA – Magic show owner charged in Towamencin molestation
“It’s not what you think it is,” Joseph Grasso told his wife when she walked into their Towamencin living room March 29 to find him with his hand down a 13-year-old girl’s top, police said.  After she interrupted him, Grasso grabbed a steak knife, held it to his throat and threatened to kill himself if she called police, according to court records.  But no amount of his convincing could stop her from going to police.  Read more here:

Ambler, PA – Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signs 4 more child-abuse prevention bills
Four more bills spurred by the Jerry Sandusky and Roman Catholic clergy child sexual abuse scandals are now law in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Corbett signed the bills Tuesday during a visit to the Ambler Area YMCA in Montgomery County. The Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance, which trains people to recognize and report suspected child abuse, said the bills contain provisions that are critical to improving how abuse is reported to authorities. The bills expand the list of people who are required to tell authorities about their suspicion of abuse and increase the penalties for failing to report it.  Read more here:

INTERNATIONAL

Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada – Sex assault trial hears woman testifies to memory loss, feeling of paralysis
The last thing the 29-year-old woman says she can remember before her memory suddenly blacks out is the red strobe lights at the club in Saint John, N.B. “I was having fun dancing and laughing,” she testified Tuesday. “I did not feel dizzy . . . I did not feel unsteady.” She woke up early the next morning in her date’s bed unable to move, she testified. The question is whether her memory loss and feeling of being paralyzed was caused by drugs slipped to her by the young doctor she was on a first date with, or by the rapid consumption of alcohol. The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, is testifying as part of a similar fact application by the Crown in the judge-alone trial of two doctors accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a medical student together in a downtown Toronto hotel room.  Read more here:

Wentworth Falls, Australia – After Being Convicted For Molesting Student, Former Teacher Seeks $20,000 In Legal Fees From Student
Former geography teacher Neville Gilbert Betteridge was convicted of molesting one of his students in the 1970s. Now, Betteridge is reportedly seeking nearly $20,000 in legal fees from the very same student he formerly abused.  Betteridge worked at the Blue Mountains Grammar School in the early 1970s as a house master and geography teacher. Mark Wurth, one of Betteridge’s students, recalls the sexual abuse he was subjected to.  Read more here:

Kampala, Uganda – Uganda parliament opens athletics sex abuse probe
Uganda’s parliament has opened a probe into the alleged sex abuse of elite female runners from the national team by a top coach, calling the affair a “national shame”.  The east African nation, an emerging distance running power that has been trying to take on regional rivals Kenya and Ethiopia, has been gripped by the scandal for nearly a month.  According to officials and local media reports, female runners were subjected to sexual harassment and abuse while participating in a training camp to prepare for last month’s Africa Cross-country Championships. “This is a national shame that a coach can harass these young girls and he goes scot-free,” Betty Amongi, an MP and chair of Uganda parliamentary women’s association, told reporters. Read more here: