Ex-teacher gets 100-year sentence in sexual misconduct case

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D87ASGNG0.html

A retired teacher offered a five-year plea bargain in a sexual misconduct case instead received a 100-year prison sentence after a new district attorney frowned on the deal and asked a jury for the maximum penalty.

Scott received 20 years each on three counts of inducing a child under 18 to engage in sexual conduct, 10 years on each of three counts of producing or promoting a videotape involving sexual conduct, and 10 years on each of three counts of possession of child pornography.

Scott, who taught in Texas, Missouri and Alaska before retiring, must serve at least one-fourth of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole. That would mean he would be at least 92 before he could be free again.

Defense attorney John Houston Nix argued in pretrial motions that Scott's health had deteriorated and he was too ill to stand trial.
During during jury selection Monday, Scott toppled out of his wheelchair and injured his head. Prosecutors claimed it was all a ruse designed to garner the jury's sympathy.

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. producing or promotiong a videotape involving sexual conduct?

if it werent with kids wouldent that violate his freedom of speach?

[tx_dem41]

2. Ummm....but the point is...

that is was with kids.

[7th_Sephiroth]

4. i know, but that kind of disturbs me

its all disturbing, really

[noamnety]

3. The films were of kids

without their knowledge or consent; they were filmed in his shower. this article doesn't make that clear.

[bemildred]

5. So this is about films of naked children?

The article does not say.

[noamnety]

6. I know the article doesn't say

I googled the guy's name and found that part out. He had teens doing yard work at his house, then had them shower off and secretly filmed them.

[rainbow4321]

8. Another article.."videotaping teenage boys in the nude"

http://www.theparisnews.com/story.lasso?wcd=17738

A retired teacher who moved into Lamar County in 2003 from Arizona was sentenced Wednesday to 100 years in prison and $90,000 in fines for videotaping teenage boys in the nude at his residence from August 2003 to mid-March 2004.

The jury recommended the maximum sentence that Lamar County and District Attorney Gary Young asked them to deliver:
20 years in prison on each of three counts of inducing a child under 18 to engage in sexual conduct, 10 years on each of three counts of producing or promoting a videotape involving sexual conduct, and 10 years on each of three counts of possession of child pornography.

By law, the charges of possession of pornography must be served concurrently. All the rest, Lovett ordered to run consecutively.

Scott got around fine in some of the videotapes that jurors were shown from his homemade pornography collection, but during the trial he sat hunched over in a wheelchair, keeping his head bowed most of the time and seldom following the proceedings








Since Scott had no prior convictions, he was eligible for probation. The jury did not recommend it, and Lovett did not grant it. The prosecution attempted to show Scott’s obsession with child pornography was nothing new, that he had been involved in it for 20 years or more.

Rather than show more videotape from the thousands of videotape and disks seized from Scott’s home after his arrest in March 2003, the prosecution and defense agreed on a single page with five or six nude photographs of several boys who appeared to be 10 or 12 years old.

[bemildred]

9. Thanks.

I find this a bit excessive.
This fellow clearly has "issues", but this seems a bit over the top.

[George_S]

12. Excessive? It's Draconian...

He evidently did not film all those but maybe downloaded them. Still a crime, but much different. Also, how can 5 years be justice, evidently with the approval of the victims, and then it is not but 100 years is?

What does "inducing a child under 18 to engage in sexual conduct" mean? It probably means just barely under 18, 16 or above. And does inducing imply getting them to consent or trying to? Does it mean having sex or inducing sex? So there were 3 counts of that, 3 counts filming them and possession of child porn.

No one cares that one DA made a deal and the next reneged on it? Texas politics at its best.

US Heading into a Fascist State?

Further to the entry yesterday, some pretty scary reading here from Dr Lawrence Britt via this site, who claims that as of January 2004, the United States fulfills all fourteen points of fascism. Also read the comment on my previous entry re the latest transgression by the federal government.. this rolling boulder seems to be gathering momentum.

The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
by Dr. Lawrence Britt

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14-defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights -
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military -
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism -
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media -
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security -
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected -
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed -
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment -
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption -
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections -
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

http://demon.twinflame.org/002887.php

[bemildred]

14. I was trying to avoid cognitive disconnect among the unenlightened, Sir.

This is, or course, a ridiculous way to deal with this problem, unless
you are an ambitious and unscrupulous DA, and then it is great.

I agree with your general point, but find the blather about Fascism
a bit over the top. Fascism is more than militarism, corruption, and
decadence.

One must admit that all the blather about "values" is almost as funny
and hearing Falwell talk about money-changers and the Pope begging God
not the abandon the human species. I would say to all of them: "clean
up your own act, and then we can talk."

[melnjones]

7. applause to the district attorney.

Too bad more people like him aren't locked up that long.

Here's another link
http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/breaking_news/10539774.htm

[msmcghee]

10. What he did was bad . .

. but I agree that the sentence is excessive.

Anything associated with children and sex induces a mass hysteria reflex in the public and in jurors. Just a few years ago there was a rash of heavy sentences for child care workers who were convicted by hysterical juries of doing all kinds of weird things with kids including rape and sodomy using a variety of objects and animal sacrifice - that all turned out to be untrue fabrications of zealous prosecutors and child protective services.

It seems that nowhere here was any child forced or induced to commit any act other than have their photos taken without their knowledge. Getting your picture taken is a passive act that has no effect on a person if they don't know about it. Force was not used - although deceit was.

It was definitely a despicable thing this guy did and it deserves a serious penalty - as well as psychiatric intervention. I'd even approve of continuing detention after he's served his sentence until psychiatrists can guarantee that he won't offend again.

But, how many years have any of the dozens of child-raping Catholic priests served? These guys actually raped and sodomized young boys who trusted them as authority figures for the church. These acts are on a whole different level than passive photography.

Their association with God seems to protect them from public hysteria and even any seious penalties for their crimes. I guess it pays to work for the king.

Correction: I see he did admit to engaging in sexual conduct with a person under 18. But I'd have to see how young they were and what exactly the sexual acts were. Apparently the evidence was just photos that he took of some younger kids.

[melnjones]

11. I understand what you're saying,

but still feel the large amounts of evidence (all the videos/photos that weren't even used in the hearing) would show that this isn't just a case of mass hysteria. I agree too that it's a shame Catholic priests and others in high positions don't get a higher penalty, but my point was relief that someone DID get such a penalty for once. Plus, were he not in prison right now, I honestly believe he would continue doing the same things he did before. Maybe now even more victims will come forward.

[Princess Turandot]

13. Why would their age matter to you if the ages of the children..

molested by priests do not? I had the impression that many of the children with claims of molestation by priests were teenagers, not 5 year olds. A teacher is an authority figure, is he not? Perhaps not the same level of moral authority as a priest, but certainly a figure with control over his students.

I also wonder whether his change in states had anything to do with his school districts receiving complaints and asking him to move on.
Missouri to Alaska seems like a bit of an extreme change.

[msmcghee]

24. Good questions. n/t

[rainbow4321]

25. So is this like the "under 12" menu rule??

Or under 17 no admittance without a parent? HELLO! We are talking having sex w/ a child! How exactly would you break the news to a parent that their kid was "too old" to be considered being traumatized or affected? A blow job would be OK but anal sex is borderline, sorry the "wrong" crime was done to you child... This ain't a buffet dinner where you get to pick and choose which act will be acceptable and what won't be. Sex + child + adult = throw jail key into the deep end of the local lake.
I hope the law people here have questioned the people/kids in the other states where this guy lived. Maybe there is more evidence in his video collection that they can find.

[bunkerbuster1]

32. American sentencing is ridiculous

and we have idiotic red-state judges and legislatures to blame.

Obviously this guy committed a crime. But to give him the same kind of sentence you'd expect for a murder conviction is absurd.

[AnnInLa]

15. Personal experience

Some of you don't realize what the long-term effects on the teens are. My son experienced almost exactly the same situation from an assistant DA here in my parish (county)eleven years ago. It has affected the lives of all of the male teens he filmed and molested. These types of predators find teens that are experiencing high vulnerability and are very unsure of themselves socially. They pick carefully. I don't want to go into details of the effects, but even with extensive counseling, this is a thing that has stayed with them all of their lives, and has affected all future relationships. For some of the boys, the experience ruined their lives, but for all of them, it had horrible effects. I think 1,000 years is too few years.

[bemildred]

16. What horseshit.

This fellow should certainly be dealt with, but I know many people with
these sorts of experiences, and I've had a few of my own, and they had
no effect whatsoever. Putting people away is expensive and destructive,
and it should be reserved for serious cases where other measures have
failed. The cure should not be worse than the disease.

[AnnInLa]

17. I'm impressed by your resiliency

I'm so glad your experiences had no effect on you whatsoever, and so glad you consider the preying on youngsters to be non-serious. And, of course, the expense of incarceration should always be the prime consideration.

[bemildred]

18. I didn't say it was "non-serious", I do consider it "serious".

So do you feel you have a right to be cavalier with the publics money?
What exactly do you consider the proper tradeoff to be?
Are you opposed to "balanced" solutions? Are we allowed to think about
this subject in a rational way, or does that automatically make us all
perverts that need to be put away?

[melnjones]

20. Ok, let's think for a second...

Do you honestly think this man would stop what he had been doing? Given his age and the amount of time he has been involved in this sort of thing, what do you believe is the most effective way to keep him from harming more children? Counseling would be more costly than jail time if it were in amounts large enough to do any good. Rehab for sex offenders is extensive and requires high committment from the offenders themselves. The very nature of sexual abuse is to be secretive and hidden, so how is anyone going to be able to monitor this man if he is not in jail? His manipulative actions (faking getting hurt, being ill, according to the news articles) make me horribly leery of him, his intentions, and whether or not he had any remorse whatsoever. I'm glad that you have survived whatever experiences you have had and come out with no negative effects, but you are the exception, not the rule. I'm all about rehab for sex offenders who are remorseful and finding ways to safely integrate them back into society, but this guy gives me no reason to believe he would change. I think the amount of evidence found in his home and the amount of time he has spent doing this crap speaks volumes. Lock him up and spare others the cost of counseling later on.

On edit, an analogy...Some people come out of horrific auto accidents without a scratch. Others end up with awful neck injuries from what would seemingly be minor fender-benders. Would it make any sense to say, "Well I've had car accidents and they haven't affected me any," calling into question the effect that another's car accident had on them?? People are different. Situations are different. THIS is thinking rationally, unlike calling someone else's personal experience "horseshit."

[bemildred]

21. OK, let's try.

Do you honestly think this man would stop what he had been doing?

Probably not, although it does seem likely he'll be dead soon enough,
and he doesn't seem to offer much of a physical threat.

Given his age and the amount of time he has been involved in this sort of thing, what do you believe is the most effective way to keep him from harming more children?

I would favor something like publishing his activities far and wide
and otherwise ignoring him, maybe having a probation officer check
him and his computer out every so often.

Counseling would be more costly than jail time if it were in amounts
large enough to do any good. Rehab for sex offenders is extensive and
requires high committment from the offenders themselves.

Since I doubt it would do any good, I don't favor any counselling
unless he wants it. Hence my cost of counselling is zero.

The very nature of sexual abuse is to be secretive and hidden, so
how is anyone going to be able to monitor this man if he is not in
jail?

As noted, probation checks are used sometimes.

His manipulative actions (faking getting hurt, being ill, according to
the news articles) make me horribly leery of him, his intentions, and
whether or not he had any remorse whatsoever.

I don't find him sympathetic either, but you don't put people in
the slammer just because they are confused about sex or because one
finds them disgusting and so on.

[Red State Rebel]

23. Wow! I am astounded by your ignorance on this subject....

Perhaps if you look at this old DU post it cause you to rethink your theory. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2297339


I was 9 when I was molested, I first tried to commit suicide at 11, again at 16, again at 34.

Having your first sexual experience be forced on you by your Grandfather (or anyone) at age 9 can have lingering effects.

[bemildred]

28. My sympathies to you.

I could not agree more that forceful rape of minors by adults should
be punished to the full extent of the law.

Please see post #26 for more info on what actually occurred in this particular case.

[melnjones]

30. Please

reread the post you are responding to. "Sexual experience" doesn't necessarily mean rape, and that was not specified. Also, if I wasn't about done dealing with this whole thread, I would ask you if your definition of "forceful" rape differs from other kinds of rape when dealing with minors.

[bemildred]

31. I read the post quite carefully.

But it appears to me that in your passion you have failed to
understand mine.

Edit: to be perfectly clear, it was the person I was responding to
that used the word "forced" and I took it that way.

[melnjones]

19. Thank you, I agree wholeheartedly. nt

[George_S]

22. Agreed.

Except for the 1,000 years part. That's like saying they may as well kill them. In fact, murder is better somehow by this reasoning. He should do some time and should be forced into counseling during incarceration and after. It is far cheaper than incarceration though initial incarceration can be a reality check, unless the incarceration is so extreme and unfair that it leads to a more dangerous person.

What bothered me was the change in justice. How can 5 years be justice and then not, depending on the politics? And how does it effect the psychology of the victim to be convinced they are ruined for life? Evidently the offenses in this case were damaging, but did the victims at one point think 5 years was fair? Did they suddenly realize their spirit was murdered and the defendant now deserved life? If so, how did that come about?

Another thing that bothers me is the justice based on generalizations in threads like this. What's more, the often argued premise is that offenders are hopeless and counseling doesn't work, which is false:

Sex offender treatment--Does it work? Is it worth it?

By Ron Kokish

This can be a controversial subject. What constitutes success? Do we look only at sexual re-offenses, or also at related (compulsive) behaviors like alcoholism, drugs, gambling, etc.? What about other crimes -- burglary, assaults, etc.? Do we look at the probationary period only, or is post-treatment considered? If post, how long? How do we get data? Self report? Crime reports? Family follow-up? How long do we follow up?How hard do we look for failure? Do we rely only on crime reports or do we do a confidential study where we annually polygraph people post treatment for ten years? How do we count drop outs in such a study? No one expects zero recidivism, so how much does a program have to reduce re-offenses to call itself successful?

Given all the difficulties, here are some things we do know. Barry Maletzky, MD and Kevin McGovern, Ph.D. of The Sexual Abuse Clinic of Portland Oregon followed about 5000 offenders treated in their clinic and similar clinics between 1973 and 1990 using behavior oriented methods. About 3700 of these were pedophiles, 770 were exhibitionists and the remainder were referred for a variety of other paraphilias.

Criteria for "success" included:

•No re-arrest •Self report of no maladaptive sexual behaviors •Reduced deviant arousal maintained post - treatment as verified on penile plethysmograph •"Significant other" ratings of patient behavior. Using these stringent measures to follow some men for as long as 17 years post treatment, success was achieved with 94.7% of heterosexual and 86.4% of homosexual pedophiles. Rapists showed 73.5% success, exhibitionists and public masturbaters about 92% , with men referred for various other paraphilias ranging from 100% for zoophiliacs to 80% for frotteurs. These data do not represent a controlled study, but the sample is large and with success criteria as stringent as they were, the data gives strong indication that treatment is effective for a great many offenders.

A June 1991 report to the State of Washington legislature also supports community treatment as a viable alternative for sex offenders. The report covers 613 probation eligible offenders sentences between January 1985 and July 1986. Three hundred thirteen of these actually received probation sentences while 300 were sent to prison. Both groups were followed. The probationers had significantly lower re-arrest rates and conviction rates in all crime categories. The study concluded that, generally speaking, probationary sentences did not place the community at undue risk and offered a cost - effective alternative to prison.

http://www.angelfire.com/mi/collateral/page13.html

This is a serious social problem, but the solution must be based on facts that lead to an effective resolution, rather than based on alarmist falsehoods than can never lead to a solution. If counseling can keep about 90% from re-offending, then it is worse than unfair to condemn those 90% because of what the other 10% might do. This is so basic to the essence of the Bill of Rights, that it seems self-evident.

[melnjones]

29. Thanks

for the good information on a tough subject.

[genieroze]

26. This bothers me

" In this trial, no sexual conduct was alleged between Scott and his teenage employees, or among the boys themselves, and no such activity was shown on any of the hours of videotape — filmed by a camera concealed inside a clock radio in Scott’s bathroom.
"
and

" Under the law, masturbation and “exhibition of the genitals” are included in the legal definition of sexual conduct or performance, and both occurred on virtually all of the video excerpts.."

and

" Defense attorney John Houston Nix of Sherman sparred with the prosecution over definitions of the word “induce.” Nix said Scott never threatened the boys or offered them money to masturbate on camera.
"

http://mobile.theparisnews.com/mobilestory.lasso?wcd=17710

The boys were the ones who masturbated, they weren't forced. Granted what the guy did was sick, but there are people who actually rape small children get less time. I think the sentence is excessive unless there was other evidence that isn't mentioned. Maybe they feel this guy is a real danger if given anything less. I wonder if there were allegations when he was a teacher that couldn't be proved. There should be something else with this kind of sentence.

[goforit]

27. And the Administration's sexual misconduct gets stamp of approval.