Miami ICE Chief Busted With Kiddie Porn

When you aggressively make a name for yourself campaigning against child pornography, it might not be a good idea to be downloading such images yourself. Not the best career move, especially when you were about to retire.

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for South Florida has been placed on paid administrative leave, as federal agents investigate four images of child pornography he allegedly received on his home computer via an AOL e-mail account, according to sources familiar with the probe.

Broward Sheriff’s Office and FBI investigators seized Anthony V. Mangione’s computer from his Parkland residence Saturday after obtaining a search warrant based on an alert from AOL, Mangione’s Internet service provider. Sources said Mangione, 50, who has headed the ICE regional office since 2007, was not believed to have received the pictures in connection with any ICE investigation.

The Justice Department probe could take a while to complete as investigators determine whether Mangione sent, received or distributed illegal digital images of children. “It’s going to take some time forensically to examine the computer,” a federal law enforcement official said.

AOL, which monitors the distribution of child pornography by its users, alerted a national nonprofit resource center about the images allegedly sent to Mangione’s computer in recent weeks, sources said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children then forwarded the information to a multi-agency task force that investigates child-porn distribution over the Internet.

Investigators issued a subpoena to AOL to find out the identity and computer address of the account user who allegedly received the four images, sources said. The information provided the legal basis for the FBI to obtain the search warrant to enter Mangione’s home and seize his computer. Authorities also have seized his computer from ICE’s office in west Miami-Dade.

No Punishment Is Fitting

Okay, here is the headline that got my attention.

GA woman admits taping sex with 8 year old.

My first thought was it was another teacher gone wild, but the real story is far more insidious. She was taping her boyfriend attempting to or actually having sex with an 8-year old girl.

Federal prosecutors say 53-year-old Laura Culver who lives in Gray, Ga., is facing up to 20 years in prison after her guilty plea Thursday.

Court documents dating back to 2001 show that Culver allegedly worked with 52-year-old Edgardo Sensi to videotape him having sex with an 8-year-old girl.

This, of course led me to go look into the boyfriend, at which time I found this.

The indictment alleges that, from approximately 2001 to 2004, while living in Connecticut, SENSI conspired with another individual (“Jane Doe”) to coerce a minor victim girl (“M.V.#1”), who was eight-years-old at the time the conspiracy began, to engage in sexually explicit conduct. The Indictment alleges that SENSI encouraged M.V.#1 to be filmed while SENSI and Doe engaged her in sexually explicit conduct, engaged in a lengthy grooming process that involved trickery and desensitizing M.V.#1 to accept the sexual abuse that MV#1 was subjected to, and enticed M.V.#1 to engage in sado-masochistic sex acts.

Jane Doe is the aforementioned Laura Culver and "M.V.#1 is the child.

But what really caught my eye was this.

This matter is being investigated by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) in New Haven, with the assistance of ICE in Atlanta and Fort Pierce (FL), the Martin County (FL) Sheriff’s Office, the Jones County (GA) Sheriff’s Office, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Now why is ICE involved? There doesn't seem to be any immigration issues involved but there is this.

In January 2004, the indictment alleges that Sensi traveled to a rural town outside Managua, Nicaragua, where he befriended a 23-year-old woman, working as a maid, who was the mother of the 4-year-old girl.

In all there are 76 tapes that were seized when Sensi was arrested. Parachuting him into the Swat region of Pakistan right now with a Bible and a Star of David necklace seems to be about the best punishment.

Supremes Uphold Child Porn Law: ACLU, NAMBLA Hardest Hit

Just imagine how the New York Times would report a Supreme Court decision that struck down a ruling in favor of the Bush administration. It would, of course, be hailed as a crushing defeat, or a harsh blow to the forces of evil.

Yet here you have an item noting today's 7-2 ruling upholding a federal law against child pornography, and the two biggest proponents of it aren't even mentioned.

How convenient.

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a 2003 federal law aimed at child pornography, concluding in a 7-to-2 opinion that a federal appeals court was wrong to find the law unconstitutionally vague.

The law in question arose from a sensible, constitutionally acceptable approach by Congress to correct faults that the high court found in an earlier child-pornography law, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court.

“Child pornography harms and debases the most defenseless of our citizens,” Justice Scalia wrote. “Both the state and federal governments have sought to suppress it for many years, only to find it proliferating through the new medium of the Internet.”

The ruling scathingly rejected contentions that the 2003 legislation was so broadly written that it could make it a crime to share or even describe depictions of children in explicit sexual situations, even if the depictions are inaccurate, the children do not really exist and the intention is innocent.

Invalidation of a law because it is thought to be too broad is “strong medicine” that is not to be “casually employed,” Justice Scalia wrote, citing earlier Supreme Court rulings and declaring that the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit had employed the strong medicine too casually in the case at hand.

Monday’s decision in United States v. Williams reinstated the conviction of Michael Williams of Florida, who was caught in a federal undercover operation in April 2004 and found guilty later of “pandering” child pornography, a charge defined in part as promoting or distributing real or “purported” material in a way that reflects the belief — or is intended to persuade another — that the material is indeed child pornography.

Oh, and if you thought elections don't mean anything, check out how the justices voted.

Joining the opinion were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices John Paul Stevens, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Stephen G. Breyer and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, with Justice Souter writing that promoting images that are not real children engaging in pornography still could be prosecuted under the law at issue.

Meanwhile, the ACLU is looking for new (ahem) leadership.

There's Research; Then There's Research

SF radio personality indicted on child porn charges
Bernie Ward, a popular liberal San Francisco radio talk show host and former Catholic priest, has been indicted on federal child pornography charges, authorities said today.

Ward, 56, surrendered to federal authorities earlier today but the specifics of the allegations against him are under seal, officials said.

Ward hosts a nightly news talk program on KGO 810 AM as well as GodTalk on Sundays. He had been a priest with the Society of the Precious Blood order.

The radio station's Web site said that he was indicted on two counts of child pornography using the Internet.

Ward's attorney said today that the charges are based on incidents that occurred more than four years ago and were part of research for a book.

"As everybody knows, Bernie, for over 20 years, has been a progressive, opposed to insensitive authority - he has been a champion of charities, nonprofits for the homeless," said Doron Weinberg, who appeared in federal court today as Ward's lawyer.

Well, he sure can't complain about insensitive authority on this one.

"More than three years ago, Bernie was doing research for a book he was doing on hypocrisy in America," Weinberg said.

As part of the research, Ward downloaded "a few images" of child pornography, and, Weinberg said, "it came to the attention of the government in late 2004."

"They investigated and they never found any involvement in child pornography other than this period that he accessed these images," Weinberg said. "The government knows that Bernie was doing this for an investigation he was doing for a book. But the government believes he violated the letter of the law and they have gone ahead and prosecuted him."

The schmuck lieyer must be confused. Shouldn't it be that his client is being persecuted? Or, does that cat come out of the bag a bit further down the road?

Weinberg stressed that "the fact that these events happened three years ago and they are just being prosecuted shows the fact that nobody believes that he is a child predator."

"He is just being prosecuted for a mistake he made (more than) three years ago," the lawyer said.

Federal authorities seized Ward's computer in early 2005 and there was no evidence of child pornography or any other impropriety, Weinberg added.

"We have been trying to convince the government that his is not something they should proceed with. They said, 'He violated the law, sorry.' "

A statement from KGO's operations director said, "Ward has been a valued, long-time employee of KGO Radio. We were just recently made aware of these serious charges and are surprised and concerned by their nature.

"As the matter is currently pending in federal court, we will have no additional comment at this time."

Via SF Gate.com

Also at The Radio Equalizer & IMAO


Interview with Ward's criminal defense attorney by KGO news staff

UPDATE I: Ward's agent blames Bush

UPDATE II: They're all over it at PuffHo

UPDATE III: Attorney says Ward downloaded photos and exchanged them “with adults who do the same thing.”