National Roundup

Connecticut
Review details sex abuse claims against Boys and Girls Clubs
NORWALK, Conn. (AP) — At least 250 people have said they were sexually abused as children by employees, volunteers and others at Boys and Girls Clubs of America affiliates, according to an investigation by Hearst Connecticut Media.

The review of criminal convictions and civil lawsuits dating to the 1970s turned up 95 abuse cases in 30 states involving people associated with the nonprofit youth development organization, which serves more than 4.5 million young people a year at its 4,600 local centers. Some of the cases involve more than one accuser.

The cases include allegations that leadership at clubs knew about abuse and did not report it to law enforcement, among other examples of local clubs failing to adhere to national protocols, and that, in some instances, background checks apparently failed to keep adults with violent convictions from working with children.

John Miller, senior vice president of field services for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, declined to share the number of sexual abuse allegations local clubs have reported to the leadership since 2014, when affiliates became required to share such information with the national organization. He said the number of sexual abuse cases that result in arrests has been probably in the single digits each year since 2014.

“Any single incident is too many. Our goal is to get to zero,” Miller told Hearst Connecticut.

Miller said the entire organization is dedicated to keeping children safe, and there is no one office that keeps a list of offenders.

Attorneys representing victims say that since the organization serves children, it should release more information to the public about offenders.

“The national organization has a moral obligation to release the names of perpetrators within its ranks and crimes found, so victims can try to heal,” said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented some of the accusers. “It speaks volumes that they don’t.”

In a case in Connecticut, three adults employed by the Greenwich Boys’ Club knew multiple boys were molested and raped by a counselor in the 1970s and 1980s, and none reported the abuse to police, according to a civil lawsuit. Attorneys representing the club have denied wrongdoing by the organization.

Since 2005, Boys & Girls Clubs of America has required all who have contact with children to undergo criminal background checks annually, Miller said. But there have been instances in recent years when local clubs’ procedures apparently failed to screen out people with criminal records.

In 2015, Christopher Sims was hired at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Wayne County in Goldsboro, North Carolina, despite previous convictions for communicating threats, resisting a police officer and disorderly conduct.
Sims was convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old and an 11-year-old at the club in 2016.

Alabama
DA: ’Bama fan who poisoned trees not making repayment
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — A prosecutor wants to know why a University of Alabama fan who pleaded guilty to poisoning landmark oak trees at Auburn University isn’t making court-ordered restitution payments.

Lee County District Attorney Brandon Hughes tells WRBL-TV that Harvey Updyke is being ordered to appear in court Oct. 30 to explain himself.

Updyke served more than 70 days in jail in 2013 and was ordered to pay about $800,000 in restitution after admitting to poisoning trees at Toomer’s Corner in Auburn. Fans traditionally rolled the trees with toilet paper after a win.

Hughes says Updyke has paid less than $5,000 and often misses payments.

Updyke is a 70-year-old former Texas trooper who now lives in Louisiana. He posted a Facebook video recently saying his monthly rent was going up almost $200.

North Carolina
Trump nominates law professor for judicial vacancy
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump has nominated a law professor who previously worked as a prosecutor, defense attorney and journalist to fill the nation’s longest federal judiciary vacancy.

Trump nominated Richard E. Myers on Wednesday to be a federal judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Raleigh lawyer Thomas Farr had been nominated four times — twice by President George W. Bush and twice by Trump — but was blocked in the Senate over his legal work that critics say disenfranchised black voters. President Barack Obama nominated two black women for the judgeship vacant since January 2006; Republicans blocked both.

Myers was born in Jamaica.

Illinois
Chicago-area man sentenced to 25 years in child porn case
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge in Chicago has sentenced a 32-year-old suburban man to 25 years in prison for distributing sexually explicit images and videos of children.

The U.S. attorney’s office says the judge on Tuesday also told Ronald Feder he’ll be under supervision for another 25 years after his release.

Authorities arrested the Skokie man at a cafe in 2017 as part of a sting. An undercover agent offered Feder access to two children for some 8,000 images of child pornography Feder handed over on a flash drive.
The sentence encompasses a 2016 indictment for possession of explicit images of a minor under 12.

A defense lawyer says Feder acknowledges he has “deviant” sexual interests and has sought help. But prosecutors called Feder “a child exploitation enthusiast” who showed little shame.

Minnesota
High court rules against forced body cavity search
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court has overturned a man’s drug conviction after concluding that a forced body cavity search violated his constitutional rights to dignity, personal privacy and bodily integrity.

The court ruled Wednesday the search of Guntallwon Brown’s rectum while he was strapped down and sedated violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. While the court ordered a retrial, the 2.9 grams of cocaine found in a plastic bag in the Minneapolis man’s body can’t be used as evidence.

The Star Tribune reports the high court, in overruling two lower courts, relied on a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision governing invasive body searches.

In a dissent, Justice Anne McKeig called the search reasonable, saying Brown was offered less invasive options when he was taken to the hospital.