|
Entrapment
online may be coming to Canada | Dr
Leonard Kelly | OPP in
Kenora | James LeCraw
suicide | Reckless disregard
for the truth: Manhattan judge | Gillespie
witchhunt tactics exposed as memo he made about Toronto Police
Board Chair blow up in his face | For discussions on the criminalization
of non-criminal behavior and the witch hunts which ensue: Inquisition
21st Century | Website devolted to Project
Ore in UK
Porn police
This is a witch-hunt
and make-work project.
The tone is hysterical,
the numbers staggering. Unbelievable in fact. We know that some
of the folks being swept up in this witch hunt are innocent.
We just don't know how many. If the cops have their way, the
judges and juries won't know, either
.
. . . They say that the
images show children being victimized; they are crimes in progress.
Reproducing the pictures revictimizes the children. Therefore
there is a problem with providing disclosure of the images to
defence counsel. When we seize heroin from a drug dealer, we
don't give it back to the lawyer, that is, the accused. Giving
copies of the pictures to defence counsel would be revictimizing
the children. . . . These were the comments that Gillespie and
Smollett were spurting in soundbites all over CBC and other radio
stations, using that "You'll just have to trust us"
tone of voice. Sounds like they really enjoy their work.
They are preparing the public
for the notion that people who visited the websites they refer
to should be prosecuted with no evidence except of the fact they
have visited. We understand a good bit of their project is entrapping
people. So, if we believe the Reedy couple were for real, and
not part of a trap, we are supposed to accept that anyone who
went anywhere near their websites should be thrown in jail and
the key thrown away?
Read the press coverage.
There is no investigative reporting, no skepticism and a willingness
to accept preposterous numbers. As crime in general is going
down, the cops have to make work for themselves. Crown prosecutors
certainly enjoy the diversion. And defence lawyers are just plain
greedy and spineless. Few and far between are the lawyers who
will demand full disclosure, get the charges dropped -- or at
least in line with the supposed offence.
As more money goes to building
jails and hiring cops and less money goes to feeding children,
we can only expect treatment of children to get worse. Sermonette
from February 1,
Internet child
porn sweep targets Saskatoon residents
Shannon Boklaschuk The StarPhoenix;
with Canadian Press and CanWest files,
Friday, January 17,
2003
An unknown number of people
in Saskatoon are under investigation in connection with a major
child pornography probe under way in Canada and abroad.
Acting Insp. Keith Atkinson
said the Saskatoon Police Service is "not saying" how
many individuals in the city are under investigation.
"We've had a few referrals
to us, and we're investigating those," Atkinson said, adding
no charges have been laid.
"I know we've got files
sent to us, and whether or not those files involve the same person
or persons, I don't know. I couldn't comment at all."
Atkinson said the "referrals"
came from other police services in Canada.
Neither the RCMP nor Regina
city police would confirm participating in the investigation,
but said they investigate child pornography on an ongoing basis.
On Thursday, two of Canada's
biggest police forces slammed the federal government, saying
the government's failure to fight child pornography on the Internet
is leaving thousands of Canadians free to trade and make "evil"
images of children being sexually abused.
Investigators from the Toronto
and Ontario Provincial Police forces told reporters that U.S.
authorities handed Canada a list of more than 2,200 Canadians
who had subscribed to a Texas-based child porn Web site.
More than two years later,
only between 50 and 100 have been arrested in what has become
Canada's largest child porn investigation, they said.
Federally co-ordinated investigations
in the U.S. and Britain, relying on names gleaned from the same
seized database, have resulted in large numbers of arrests. In
Britain, more than 1,300 people, including 50 police officers,
face charges as part of the probe that recently ensnared rock
star Pete Townshend.
"Unlike the United Kingdom
and the United States, we in Canada do not have a national operational
strategy to deal with large-scale Internet child pornography
investigations," said Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie of the Toronto
police sex crimes unit.
In Canada, the probe is called
Operation Snowball -- so named because busting one offender leads
to many more.
Ontario is home to 946 of the
people named by the FBI.
The count for the other provinces
is: 52 in Saskatchewan; 436 in Quebec; 406 in British Columbia;
232 in Alberta; 82 in Manitoba; 61 in Nova Scotia; 35 in New
Brunswick; 20 in the former Northwest Territories; eight in Newfoundland;
six in Prince Edward Island and four in the Yukon.
Sgt. Al Stickney, of the Saskatoon
Police Service's technological crime unit, said Saskatoon is
not immune to child pornography since the Internet connects people
across the globe.
"Anything you can do on
the Internet, you can do here and you connect to people all over
the world, and that's why we get referrals from all over the
place," he said.
Stickney said since the investigation
involves a credit card database, police have to interview suspects
and hunt down credit cards and account information. He added
that suspects may or may not "have the stuff that they purchased
or downloaded.
"It's something that they
may have kept, or it's something that they may not have kept.
That's where sort of the teeth of the investigation is -- do
these people still have this and what have they done with it?"
According to Stickney, there's
"a fair amount of people possessing child pornography"
in Saskatoon, and the police service has seen an increase in
those types of investigations. He attributed the increase to
an "awareness that it's out there" and to the availability
of it on the Internet.
"The general public's
disgust with the notion of it is what prompts people to call
us, I think," he said.
Suzanne Thebarge, spokesperson
for federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, rejects police criticisms
about the government's pace in fighting child pornography and
says Ottawa is indeed working with the provinces to strengthen
Canada's ability battle the issue.
She cited Bill C-15A, which
made Canada's child-porn laws the toughest in the world when
it was passed by Parliament last year.
It created new offences "to
target criminals who use the Internet to lure and exploit children
for sexual purposes and to transmit, make available, export and
intentionally access child pornography."
Last year in Saskatoon, numerous
individuals headed to court as a result of child porn charges.
Police experts found that Kevin
Hudec, for example, had downloaded hundreds of images over several
months -- as many as 176 pictures in a single day. One of the
photos showed a man urinating into the mouth of a girl, between
five and seven years of age.
The 32-year-old's porn collection
cost him two jobs, and got him a one-year conditional sentence
that he can serve from home, followed by one year of probation.
In another case, former Saskatonian
Joseph Paul Vanderauwera, 46, is set to stand trial this year
on three charges of possession of child pornography, including
digital photographs and text files.
Saskatoon police laid the charges
nearly two years ago, after searching his home as a result of
a tip from a local computer shop. Vanderauwera was released on
bail soon after the charges were laid, on strict conditions that
he have no contact with children under 18 and not possess or
use computers or access the Internet.
Police arrested him last year,
charging him with breaching those conditions by using a computer
in his home to chat on-line with an undercover police officer
posing as a man who shared Vanderauwera's alleged fetish for
wearing diapers.
Stickney said police can seize
an individual's computer if a complaint is received. He said
if a charge is laid, part of the conditions of that charge could
be that an individual has no access to the Internet or a computer.
Stickney stressed that people
who have computers in their homes should be aware of who is using
them and what those people are doing on the Internet.
QUICK NUMBERS
A breakdown by province and
territory of the more than 2,000 Canadian residents suspected
of accessing child-porn Web sites but not yet arrested or charged:
- Ontario: 946
- Quebec: 436
- British Columbia: 406
- Alberta: 232
- Manitoba: 82
- Nova Scotia: 61
- Saskatchewan: 52
- New Brunswick: 35
- Northwest Territories: 20
- Newfoundland: 8
- Prince Edward Island: 6
- Yukon Territory: 4
© Copyright 2003 The
StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
Ontario, Toronto
cops slam Ottawa for failing to develop child porn strategy
JAMES MCCARTEN Canadian
Press, January 16, 2003
TORONTO (CP) - The frustrated
head of Canada's largest police sex crimes unit excoriated the
federal government Thursday for its ham-fisted approach to the
growing scourge of computer-based kiddie porn.
Police forces across Canada
need a national strategy and more resources to make a meaningful
dent in the rampant spread of child pornography, Toronto police
Det.-Sgt. Paul Gillespie told a news conference. "International
co-operation is a dream; national co-operation is a nightmare,"
Gillespie said as he detailed less-than-stellar results from
Project Snowball, the largest child-porn probe in Canadian history.
"It is time for those
responsible on a federal level to live up to their responsibilities.
We need help."
Police have arrested only about
five per cent of the 2,329 Canadian names on a U.S. Postal Investigative
Service list of people suspected of accessing child pornography,
Gillespie said.
Provincial police in Ontario
have arrested 32 people and laid 42 charges from a list of 267
suspects, while Toronto police have arrested 10 out of 241 names.
Another 438 names are in Ontario alone, but outside the jurisdiction
of Toronto and provincial police.
Every other province and territory
is home to someone on the list. The vast majority - 946, all
told - were in Ontario, followed by Quebec with 436 names, B.C.
at 406 and 232 in Alberta.
Many of the names are in cities,
towns or communities where they fall under the jurisdiction of
police forces that don't have the resources or the expertise
to properly investigate them, Gillespie said.
"They have no idea how
to deal with these complex Internet issues."
In a statement, Canadian Alliance
justice critic Vic Toews assailed the federal Liberals for failing
to get their priorities straight.
"For years front-line
officers have pleaded for federal support to combat child exploitation,"
he said. "The only response from the Liberals was to slash
police resources and enact complex legislation that will do nothing
to protect children."
Suzanne Thebarge, spokeswoman
for federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, said Ottawa is indeed
working with the provinces to strengthen Canada's ability to
battle child pornography.
"The federal, provincial
and territorial governments are taking this matter very seriously
and that's why we are continuing to work toward the safeguards
in the well-being of Canadian children," Thebarge said.
She denied that the federal
government is failing in its efforts.
"I think we are living
(up) to our responsibilities," she said. "It's an ongoing
process. Children are a priority for this government."
She cited Bill C-15A, which
made Canada's child-porn laws the toughest in the world when
it was passed by Parliament last year.
It created new offences "to
target criminals who use the Internet to lure and exploit children
for sexual purposes and to transmit, make available, export and
intentionally access child pornography."
Ontario Premier Ernie Eves,
whose own government was lauded at the news conference Thursday
for funding an expansion of police resources, agreed the time
has come for a co-ordinated effort between Ottawa and the provinces.
"I think it would be a
good thing for both the federal and provincial governments to
sit down .?.?.?to discuss how we can take a much firmer position
than we have to date."
Despite the new laws, it's
not easy in Canada to investigate, charge and convict someone
on child-porn charges, said Ontario police Det.-Insp. Robert
Matthews.
Cases often involve months
of background investigation and detailed search warrants, while
in other countries police can engage in searches and seizures
with little more than a one-page affidavit, he said.
"We could certainly use
a huge increase in resources to help us fight this very serious
problem in our society," Matthews said.
"This is a very daunting
task when we go to investigate these crimes; they're not the
sort of thing that you spend a couple of days on and then go
and make an arrest.
"The resources that it
takes to get these cases before the courts and through the courts
is staggering."
In Montreal, reports Thursday
that police are having difficulty tracking down suspects even
though there are more than 400 suspects in Quebec.
Montreal police began investigating
about 140 suspects in 2001 but the investigation eventually became
public through the media, thwarting arrests, said police spokeswoman
Nathalie Valois.
"They stopped using their
personal computer because they didn't want to be identified."
Project Snowball was the only
significant Canadian offshoot of Project Avalanche, a U.S. investigation
that resulted in the arrest of Texas kiddie-porn magnates Thomas
and Janice Reedy.
Their business, Landslide Productions
Inc., often grossed $1.4 million US per month from subscribers
paying as little as $14.95 US to access Web sites with names
like Cyber Lolita and Child Rape.
"That would allow them
30 days access to some of the most evil images of child abuse
you can imagine," Gillespie said.
Another name on the global
list was that of legendary British rocker Pete Townshend, who
claimed he paid to access the Web sites as part of ongoing research
into his own suspected abuse as a child.
Townshend was arrested Monday
but later released. He has not been charged.
Thomas Reedy, on the other
hand, was sentenced in August 2001 to 1,335 years in prison -
the first-ever life sentence for distributing child porn, Matthews
said.
By contrast, one of the names
on the list - Joseph Downey, 27, of Elora, Ont. - was sentenced
in October to just 14 months of house arrest after police found
more than 500 pieces of child porn on his computer.
Sentences like Downey's are
"a joke," Matthews spat.
Child-porn enthusiasts appear
to come from all walks of life, Gillespie added - police officers,
doctors and schoolteachers are all among those arrested in Canada
to date.
He said future investigations
are likely to uncover some "very high-profile people."
Investigating kiddie porn is
taxing on investigators, who are often forced to look at thousands
of images, some depicting infants so young they still have their
umbilical clamps attached.
A breakdown by province and
territory of the more than 2,000 Canadian residents suspected
of accessing child-porn Web sites but not yet arrested or charged:
- Ontario: 946
- Quebec: 436
- British Columbia: 406
- Alberta: 232
- Manitoba: 82
- Nova Scotia: 61
- Saskatchewan: 52
- New Brunswick: 35
- Northwest Territories: 20
- Newfoundland: 8
- Prince Edward Island: 6
- Yukon Territory: 4
©The Canadian Press
Grim images haunt porn
police
By GRAEME SMITH, Globe and
Mail, January 17, 2003
Police officers leading Canada's
largest-ever investigation into child pornography visit psychologists
every three months to talk about the abuse they witness, sometimes
against babies so young that they're still wearing hospital ID
bracelets.
But the detectives chose an
audience of reporters Thursday to hear about another troublesome
aspect of their work: Among the 2,329 suspects uncovered during
more than two years of investigation, fewer than 100 have been
arrested.
"We need help," said
Detective-Sergeant Paul Gillespie, head of Toronto's sex crimes
unit.
The investigators summarized,
for the first time, Canada's role in the major child-pornography
sweep that has uncovered thousands of suspected pedophiles around
the world, including the recent arrest of British rock musician
Pete Townshend.
The message has to get out
that viewing child pornography is not only reprehensible but
a recipe for prosecution
"If you watch a six-month-old
baby being raped, you'll never feel the same again. And that's
what we deal with on a daily basis," Det.-Sgt. Gillespie
said.
The officers also used the
investigation to illustrate how Canada's enforcement of child-porn
laws is slow, incomplete, starved for money, and "fractured"
into separate efforts by various forces.
What's needed is a national
strategy by the RCMP for tracking down child-porn collectors,
they said, like the systems in Britain, the United States, Ireland,
Germany, and Belgium.
"We're not putting in
nearly as much effort as other countries," said Ontario
Provincial Police Detective Inspector Bob Matthews.
Solicitor-General Wayne Easter
disagreed, saying that Criminal Intelligence Service Canada already
co-ordinates investigations at the federal level.
"Their point of view on
this is basically wrong," Mr. Easter told reporters in Truro,
N.S.
"I think we are doing
a reasonable job," he added. "We're improving our technology,
we're doing better at co-operating nationally and internationally,
and so we're making progress and we'll have to continue to make
progress in order to impact on that criminal element."
But on a practical level, Toronto
and Ontario police said, Canada's approach to child porn depends
on the unequal abilities of local police. Rather than sending
RCMP officers to investigate when Canadian credit-card numbers
showed up on a porn distributor's computer in Texas four years
ago, Det.-Insp. Matthews said, officers from the Ontario squad
were sent instead.
An RCMP spokesman confirmed
that although CISC does act as a conduit to help Canadian police
share information on topics such as child pornography, it can't
lead investigations.
Suzanne Théberge, spokeswoman
for federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, noted that at a
recent meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers,
the politicians agreed that stronger measures to protect children
from sexual exploitation are needed: "It's an ongoing process,"
she said.
Ontario Premier Ernie Eves
suggested that his government would be willing to spend more
money to combat child pornography and endorsed the idea of national
collaboration on the problem.
"I think it would be a
good thing for a co-operative effort for both the federal and
provincial governments to sit down," Mr. Eves said.
Across the country, regional
police disagreed about whether Canada's approach to child pornography
is adequate.
"The Calgary Police Service
doesn't feel that there's an overarching problem, though resources
are scarce," said spokesman Brad Swidzinski.
But further north in the same
province, a spokesman for the Edmonton police force expressed
the opposite view: "The problem of child pornography is
far beyond the scope of what a municipal police force can manage,"
said Wes Bellmore.
The massive investigation began
after Thomas Reedy of Fort Worth, Tex., was arrested in September,
1999. He was sentenced to 1,335 years in prison for operating
Landslide Productions Inc., which served as an Internet gateway
to child pornography from Russia, Indonesia and the United States.
Hundreds of thousands of credit-card
records turned up during the bust, leading police to suspects
in 60 countries. The list of suspects includes 946 in Ontario,
436 in Quebec, 406 in British Columbia, 232 in Alberta, 82 in
Manitoba, 61 in Nova Scotia, 52 in Saskatchewan, 35 in New Brunswick,
20 in the Northwest Territories, eight in Newfoundland, six in
PEI, and four in Yukon.
The Canadian branch of the
investigation, dubbed Project Snowball, claimed its first arrest
in December, 2001, when police apprehended a 41-year-old member
of a nudist resort in Winnipeg. Other arrests have included a
doctor, a teacher, and a police officer from Brampton, Ont.
With reports from Richard
Mackie and Kevin Cox
Copyright © 2002 Bell
Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
An Avalanche of Child
Porn Investigators Use Subscription List to Track Down Pedophiles
By TechTV Staff, November
14, 2001
Nov. 14 - It began on September
8, 1999, when federal agents raided the Fort Worth, Texas, home
and offices of Thomas and Janice Reedy.
The Reedys had been operating
a business called Landslide Productions, which the FBI suspected
sold subscriptions to websites offering child pornography. Investigators
called the business the largest commercial child pornography
enterprise ever uncovered, grossing as much as $1.4 million in
just one month.
In addition to finding more
than 70 images of child pornography on Thomas Reedy's computer,
investigators found something else while searching the premises.
They found Landslide's subscriber list, a database detailing
the names and whereabouts of thousands of Landslide customers
around the world.
"Now some of those are
multiple hits, OK, and some of them are foreign. But the majority
of them were in this country," former assistant US Attorney
Terri Moore, who helped prosecute the Reedys, told "CyberCrime."
In the end, there turned out
to be more than 35,000 individual subscribers in the United States.
"So, the subscriber list to me was kind of like the Holy
Grail, to get ahold of those people and then start tracking them
down and holding them accountable," Moore said.
That's exactly what prosecutors
did. After shutting down the Landslide website and securing an
89-count federal indictment against Thomas Reedy, an 87-count
indictment against Janice Reedy, and indictments against several
foreign webmasters in Indonesia and Russia, federal investigators
went after Landslide's individual subscribers. They called it
Operation Avalanche.
Investigators formed a task
force comprising officers from the US Postal Inspection Service,
the Department of Justice, the Dallas Police Department, and
30 of the nation's federally funded Internet Crimes Against Children
task forces. Then, the group began targeting the Reedys' customers.
The sting
Members of the task force continued
to operate the Landslide website, sending email to subscribers
and offering them the opportunity to purchase child pornography.
Those Landslide customers who responded received controlled deliveries
of child pornography made by investigators. Search warrants were
executed on the residences of those customers immediately after
the deliveries were made. The investigation resulted in 144 searches
being conducted in 37 states.
Cutting
off the demand
"Putting Landslide out
of business was not enough. Those who created the demand for
this child pornography, the consumers, were still out there,"
Chief Postal Inspector Kenneth Weaver said in an August press
conference announcing the arrests. "The consumer or user
of child pornography is no less responsible for the sexual exploitation
of children than is the producer or distributor."
The postal inspector's press
conference came just two days after the Reedys' sentencing hearing,
which followed a jury conviction. A federal judge sentenced Janice
Reedy to 14 years in prison and Thomas Reedy to 15 years for
each of the 89 counts with which he was charged. His final sentence
totaled 1,335 years in prison.
Following the conviction of
the Reedys, Operation Avalanche yielded the arrests of 100 Landslide
subscribers around the country. And Weaver insists these arrests
are just "the tip of the iceberg."
"The operation will continue
to grow. There were literally thousands of subscribers to the
websites," he said. "There will be many more arrests
in this operation."
Chilling
effect?
Moore said she hopes the arrests
continue and that the threat they offer deters would-be pedophiles
from committing more crimes.
"What I hope it did was
scare them into not trying to seek out child pornography,"
she said. "I hope it scared them into trying to go get some
kind of help for a problem that they have. I hope it prevented
a child from being molested. I hope that it sent a message that
you will be treated with extreme harshness because you are sick,
and we'll lock you up where there aren't any kids."
This article is based on
original reporting by "CyberCrime" co-host and senior
segment producer Jennifer London.
Copyright 2001 TechTV, Inc.
All rights reserved. -----------
- U.S. Department of Justice
- United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas
1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl Telephone (214)659-8600
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699 Fax (214) 767-2898
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DALLAS, TEXAS CONTACT:
214/659-8707 AUGUST 6, 2001
Thomas Reedy Sentenced
to Life Imprisonment in Child Porn Case
United States Attorney Richard
H. Stephens announced that Thomas Reedy, age 37, of Fort Worth,
Texas was sentenced today to 1335 years imprisonment (180 months
on each of 89 counts to run consecutively), by the Honorable
United States District Judge Terry R. Means following his December
2000 conviction by a federal jury on all 89 counts of an indictment
that charged him with Sexual Exploitation of Minors, Distribution
of Child Pornography, and related charges. Thomas Reedy's wife,
Janice Reedy, age 32, was convicted on 87 of these 89 counts
during the same trial and was sentenced today to 14 years imprisonment
by Judge Means. The Reedy's company, Landslide, Inc. was also
convicted in December on 89 counts of the indictment and was
sentenced today to pay a $6,950,970.28 fine by Judge Means. Thomas
Reedy has been in custody since his conviction; Janice Reedy
was taken into custody following her sentencing today.
Along with the Reedys, foreign
webmasters, R.W. Kusuma and Hanny Ingganata of Indonesia and
Boris Greenberg of Russia, were charged with Sexual Exploitation
of Minors and Distribution of Child Pornography in the April
2000 indictment. Warrants have been issued for their arrest and
the United States will seek extradition. These webmasters designed,
launched and maintained websites that offered pictures and movies
of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
According to evidence presented
at trial, the Reedy's company, Landslide, Inc., provided a credit
card verification service that acted as an electronic gateway
to the pictures and movies of minors engaging in sexually explicit
conduct at Kusuma, Greenberg and Ingganata's web sites. Internet
customers were required to provide a credit card number as well
as a charge authorization in order to gain access, by a user
name and password provided by Landslide, to the pornographic
productions on the web sites. Landslide charged each customer
approximately $29.95 per month per site for access to these pornographic
images of minors and was the only gateway to these child pornography
websites.
The Reedy's and co-conspirator
webmasters, Kusuma, Ingganata and Greenberg agreed to share the
money collected for the sale of user names, passwords and access
to the child pornography. Testimony at trial revealed that between
1997 and 1998, Landslide netted more than $1 million and the
Reedy's paid Kusuma, Ingganata and Greenberg approximately two-thirds
of the money they collected.
Thomas and Janice Reedy ran
the Landslide business from their home in Fort Worth, Texas and
from an office in northeast Fort Worth. Thomas Reedy ran the
business as its President; Janice Reedy was the bookkeeper and
made the payments to the foreign webmasters, Kusuma, Ingganata
and Greenberg. According to testimony at trial, when investigators
searched Landslide's northeast Fort Worth office in 1999, they
found a well-organized operation with over a dozen employees
including a computer programmer, customer service representative
and a receptionist. An investigator testified at trial that Thomas
Reedy told him that Landslide provided customers access to approximately
5700 websites that offered a variety of pornography and that
between 30 and 40 percent of Landslide's business came from providing
access to websites containing child pornography.
United States Attorney Stephens
said, "I'm delighted with this sentence. The Reedy's lived
a life of luxury on the backs of the poor children they exploited.
Their conduct mandated the tough sentences they received. "
United States Postal Inspector
in Charge Al Holmes stated, "Today's sentence reflects the
serious intention of the United States Postal Inspection Service
as well as the Postal Service to stop individuals and companies
from trafficking in child pornography. We will continue our efforts
to identify and bring cases such as these to the attention of
the United States Attorney's Office for prosecution."
United States Customs Service
Resident Agent in Charge Wayne Frandsen said, "Individuals
who traffic in child pornography are a plague on our society.
The Customs Service will continue to do all that it can to bring
these individuals to justice to answer for their crimes."
"Any time the sexual exploitation
of children is involved, the FBI will be there," said Danny
Defenbaugh, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
United States Attorney Stephens
praised the exceptional investigative work of the United States
Postal Inspection Service, as well as that of the United States
Customs Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
Dallas Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children Task
Force. The Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section provided invaluable legal assistance in the investigation
and indictment of this case.
The case was prosecuted by
Assistant United States Attorneys Terri M. Moore and Ronald C.H.
Eddins.
Area homes
searched for child pornography
By John Higgins Beacon Journal
staff writer, Oct. 22, 2002
U.S. Customs Service agents
searched the homes of a pediatrician and a city council president
today for child pornography, executing search warrants in Akron,
Cuyahoga Falls, Hudson and Northfield.
Agents executed search warrants
on 12 homes and one business in Northeast Ohio and the Columbus
area. Officials have made no arrests and are not naming the suspects
or saying where the pediatrician and city council president live.
The suspects allegedly were
involved in the manufacture, possession and distribution of child
pornography over the Internet.
``Part of this investigation
has been going on for six months,'' said special agent Tony Macisco
of U.S. Customs in Cleveland. ``There was a common thread to
all of these people.''
More than 50 federal, state
and local law enforcement officers conducted the searches early
this morning, which included homes in Columbus, Boardman, Ontario,
Loudonville, Fremont, Canal Winchester, Scio and Vincent.
Agents seized computers, discs,
videotapes and books. The suspects all allegedly received the
materials through the Internet by subscribing to various child
pornography Web sites.
The warrants stem from previous
a previous investigation in New Zealand and ``Operation Avalanche''
in Texas, which in 1999 uncovered the largest chid porn enterprise
in the United States, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Operation Avalanche identified a company known as Landslide Productions
of Fort Worth, Texas, which had a 250,000-customer base and grossed
as much as $1.4 million a month from selling child pornography
on the Internet.
Thomas and Janice Reedy owned
and operated Landslide. The company started with the sale of
adult Web sites, but expanded to child porn, which accounted
for most of the company's profits. Federal search warrants executed
on the Reedy's business and home on Sept. 8, 1999, ended the
enterprise.
The Reedys and Landslide Productions
were convicted on 89 counts in a federal trial on Dec. 1, 2000.
On Aug. 6, 2001, Thomas Reedy was sentenced to life in prison,
and Janice Reedy was sentenced to 14 years.
John Higgins can be reached
at 330-996-3792 or 1-800-777-7232 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com
| http://www.ohio.com
Saskatchewan Police have
shown some restraint in regards to fanning the flames about the
52 Saskatchewan people who allegedly used their credit cards
to access the Reedy website. Is it possible they have learned
something after Martensville
and Foster
Parent case? | The witch hunts from the 1980s and 90s continue
. . . The role
of Colin Clay and other False Memory syndrome promoters |
Wenatchee
| Fells
Acre | Kelly
Michaels | hysteria over Irish bombers led to the Guildford
Four and the Birmingham
6 | |
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
