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Kentucky Sting Nets Alleged Predators
by Michael Martinez
Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo on Tuesday announced that an online sting operation he led this month resulted in the arrests of seven alleged sexual predators.
The sting operation was orchestrated by a team of law enforcers from Kentucky and Indiana, along with volunteers from the watchdog group Perverted Justice, which has been featured prominently in the ongoing NBC "Dateline" series "To Catch a Predator."
The arrests came after undercover agents posing as children engaged in online conversations for several days. The suspects were taken into custody when they arrived at a home for planned sexual encounters with the supposed children. Each of the suspects has been charged with using an electronic device to entice a minor into a sexual act, and all but one of them has been charged with an attempted unlawful transaction with a minor.
According to police, several of the suspects sent explicit photographs and videos of themselves to undercover agents during their chat sessions. Selections from the chat logs have been posted at Stumbo's Web site.
Volunteers at Perverted Justice said that all of the chat sessions were initiated by those who eventually were arrested and that the suspects were told at the beginning of the conversations that they were interacting with children.
"We hope to make children aware that the 'nice' older stranger they chat with sees them only as prey," Stumbo said. "He is ready and willing to leave them with emotional and possibly physical scars for life ... or worse, kidnap or kill them. Working together, we must increase public awareness of this very real threat to our children.
"Online predators will use e-mail, instant messages, bulletin boards and chat rooms to gain a child's confidence and arrange a meeting. Unfortunately, the ploy often works."
In New Hampshire, The Concord Monitor and The Union Leader report that Democratic Gov. John Lynch this week pledged to introduce legislation to protect children from online sexual predators if he is elected to a second term. He is running against GOP state Rep. Jim Coburn.
In a campaign speech, Lynch said his state needs to expand a law he signed earlier this year to enhance penalties against those who use the Internet to prey on children. Such a strategy would include measures to make it easier for law enforcement officials to pursue and prosecute cases against sexual predators, he said.
He said he plans to ask the legislature to add a position to the state attorney general's office for a prosecutor who specializes in Internet sex crimes. But he did not estimate how much his child-protection plan would cost the state.
Lynch also said he is not trying to score political points by advancing a proposal on an issue that has been thrown into the spotlight by the resignation of U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who has been accused of having sexually explicit online conversations with teenage House pages.
"No law enforcement agency can combat online offenders working alone," Lynch said. "In order to stop online predators, we must combine resources and coordinate law enforcement efforts."
Alabama Election Official Threatened By Court
A federal judge last week ordered Alabama Secretary of State Nancy Worley to respond to documents filed in court by Republican Gov. Bob Riley that accuse her of failing to cooperate in his efforts to complete a voter-registration database required by federal law.
AP reports that U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins said he will consider whether Worley, a Democrat, should be held in contempt of court after he receives her response to Riley's filing.
Watkins appointed Riley to be "special master" of the state's election system earlier this summer after the Justice Department sued the state for failing to complete its database by a deadline outlined in a 2002 federal law. Riley, who is up for re-election this year, has effectively become the state's top election official. As part of his duties as special master, Riley is required to file monthly reports on his progress.
In an interim report filed in court last week, Riley said Worley initially refused to work with a committee he established to oversee the completion of the database project. He also said she has failed to provide that panel with documents related to the database and the state's efforts to comply with the federal law.
"In making her responses to the court, defendant Worley is advised not to parse the words of the orders of this court nor to test the court's willingness to utilize its contempt powers," Watkins said in the order.
Worley told AP that she has fully cooperated with Riley's requests. "We have sent every document we have found to them," she said.
Texas Governor Signs Order On E-Health Records
Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday issued an executive order calling for a public-private partnership that will speed his state's adoption of electronic health records.
The order establishes the Texas Health Care System Integrity Authority, which will be comprised of consumers, employers, providers, payers and government agency representatives. The authority will develop a network for the electronic exchange of medical records.
In a statement, Perry said the state would save billions of dollars in overall healthcare costs by migrating away from a paper records system. He added that an electronic system would help ensure the privacy of medical records.
"Ultimately, our goal is to improve patient safety and provide consumers with better care at a price more Texas families and small businesses can afford," Perry said.
In addition to its work in building an e-records system, the authority will be responsible for submitting recommendations to the state on how to make health insurance more accessible to small employers, and how to provide consumers with more information from providers and insurers about the cost and quality of care.
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