CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

trafficking

By

Father’s Day

Originally posted on June 17, 2012

In celebration of Father’s Day, I would like to tell you a short story about my father’s day 2008.  It was the first time I attended my current Church, The Fellowship at Cinco Ranch.  My wife and I dropped off our 10 month old baby girl in the nursery for the first time.  I was nervous and throughout the entire service, I was worried they would call one of our cell phones to tell us that she needed to be picked up from childcare!  To be honest, I don’t remember the content of the service (apologies to our family pastor who typically preaches on Mother’s and Father’s Day – Robert Jackman), I wish now I had.

When we went to pick up our daughter, I was overjoyed at how happy she was when we picked her up.  And then my “heart strings” were tugged!  The attendants in the nursery handed me a father’s day gift.  I looked at it and read it, and was so grateful for this gift that I made a decision that this was going to be the church for my family.  The nursery attendants took the time to place my daughter’s hand in paint and place her tiny hand print on a poem and frame the paper they used (see the photo to the side).  WOW!  My wife and I now work in the nursery with the infants and sometimes we can get overwhelmed with children, but the fact that these selfless people took time out of their stressed-out baby duty to do this for all the fathers was fantastic!

At the time, I did not realize that us visiting that father’s day and the poem were a “God Thing.”  As I look back at the last 4 years, I can obviously see that it definitely was.  It was less than a year later that I entered recovery for my sexual addiction and it was this church (more importantly the body of Christ – the members) that supported me in my recovery.  To be honest, up until I entered recovery, I was not involved in the church. I was one of those husbands, fathers, men that would come sit on Sunday mornings and let it go in one ear and out the other.  My biggest question after church was “what’s for lunch?”  I just was not invested in the church.

And then my life fell apart, and who was there to help me put things back together?  The body of Christ!  I began getting involved in church activities such as a couple of men’s Bible studies including one on Joseph, a Man of Integrity and Forgiveness (Swindoll).  It was during the study of Joseph where I confessed to having a sexual addiction.  I believe most of the men in the room were shocked and silent.  During the study on lesson 2, resisting temptation, I admitted my past sexual sin.  The funny thing is, after the study a couple of guys came up to me and also told me they struggled with about the same issues as I did.

From there, I took a Men’s Fraternity course, the Quest for Authentic Manhood that addressed a lot of my wounds growing up as well as showing me how the Bible defines manhood.  I continued on to various Christian studies and then in June 2010 I started the Castimonia Men’s Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group, meeting for the first time on Saturday, June 12, 2010.

Had it not been for the experience at the nursery on father’s day of 2008, I don’t think I would be where I am today.  I pray all fathers in recovery have had similar experiences and that they can reflect on how God used the love of their children to draw them closer to Him.  And for fathers that are still living in sexual sin and need a reason to get out, I would like for you to look into the eyes of your children and understand that if you remain in that secret sexual sin, then there is a high probability your children too will inherit that sin or marry someone who has their own sexual sin.  Had I stayed in my addiction and kept it secret, I am certain that my daughters would have grown up to marry someone who carried the same character defects and same sexual secrets as I did.  Furthermore, if I had sons, it would be much worse for them as they would end up with some sort of intimacy disorder, such as sex addiction, if I had kept up my isolation and secrets.  So please seek help and step into the light, the path of recovery is not easy, but it is so much better than a life of sexual impurity.  It is a much better life for you, your wife, and especially your children!

Happy Father’s Day!

Take what you like and leave the rest.

By

Sioux Falls Man Gets 30 Years for Sex Trafficking

Teen testifies in court ‘I am not your victim; I am a survivor’

Jul. 16, 2013

bildeA Sioux Falls man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday after being found guilty earlier this year of forcing a teenage girl into prostitution.

Emmanuel Nyuon, 34, was facing a possible life sentence after being convicted in April of sex trafficking involving a minor and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier said that Nyuon’s case didn’t warrant the maximum sentence because his offenses and the number of victims were not equal to two previous sex trafficking cases in which she sentenced the defendants to life in prison.

But Schreier said that even though Nyuon professes that he only was helping the women, his behavior was not the kind of help they needed in their vulnerable situations.

“These women did not need help in the sex-trade business, this kind of work does not help women,” Schreier said.

The defendant’s case began last year, when administrators from the online classified website backpage.com flagged a page offering escort services with what appeared to be an underage girl.

Undercover detectives, posing as johns, set up a date with the girl at the Hampton Inn in Sioux Falls. Nyuon was caught on video dropping off the girl, who was 14 years old.

That victim testified during Nyuon’s three-day trial that he had sex with her when she was too ill to fight back and had beaten her because of suspicions that she was pregnant. She said she had also been threatened with a Taser and an air pistol she thought to be a handgun.

During Monday’s hearing, James Eirinberg, Nyuon’s lawyer, said while his client admits to driving the victim to the hotel for money, a life sentence was not warranted for aiding and abetting in the crime.

Eirinberg also asked the judge for leniency in light of Nyuon’s difficult childhood as a refugee from Sudan. Eirinberg said his client suffered from sexual assault growing up and from never having a solid father figure in his life.

Schreier said she knows Nyuon had a difficult upbringing,  but he, too, became a sex offender at a fairly young age, and had treatment and the opportunity to help himself later on in life, so his past does not excuse his trafficking actions.

Nyuon also addressed the judge during the hearing, and said he is glad that the women who testified against him are getting help, but he qualified his involvement with them as “minimal” and said the victims “are not as innocent as they act.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Clapper argued that Nyuon’s guise of trying to help the women instead of using and abusing them is why he should be incarcerated for life.

“There is no rehabilitating a man like this,” Clapper said.

The 14-year-old victim was in the courtroom during Nyuon’s sentencing, and read a statement about her ordeal with the defendant, and her subsequent recovery.

“I am not your victim,” she said in court. “I am a survivor.”

After he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, Schreier instructed the 34-year-old to pay a $5,000 fine. If he completes his sentence, Nyuon will be subject to 10 years of probation upon release.

U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson said he was “very satisfied” with the 30-year sentence. This case, he said, is a good example of how his office is aggressively prosecuting pimps and johns to target supply and demand of human sex trafficking in the state.

“Thirty years means that this individual will not be getting out anytime soon, and when he does, he’ll be an old man who won’t be able to perpetrate the same crimes that he has now,” Johnson said. “We won’t get a life sentence in every case, but a 30-year sentence — there aren’t many crimes where a 30-year sentence is the norm.”

By

Kansas City Man Charged With Sex Trafficking and Child Porn

July 17
By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

A Kansas City man sexually abused two minor girls, using both to produce child pornography and prostituting one of them, a federal grand jury alleged this week.

Michael Dye, 46, purportedly made more than $200,000 on the scheme, which included fees to watch the girls sexually perform in online webcasts and gifts of cash, vehicles, appliances and remodeling projects at Dye’s home, prosecutors alleged.And once,  Dye threatened one of his victims that he would have her and her family killed if she ever told anyone about the abuse, prosecutors alleged.The charges alleged that Dye used two children to produce child porn between June 2005 and August 2008. Dye also allegedly prostituted one of the children between June 2005 and August 2007, prosecutors said.

The grand jury returned the sealed indictment on Tuesday, and it was opened Wednesday after his initial court appearance. Prosecutors have asked that Dye be jailed without bond pending his trial because they said he is likely to flee and is a threat to his victims.

Prosecutors alleged that after an interview with authorities in late 2012, Dye began to drive past  one of his victim’s homes.

“The minor victim advised that there is no reason why Dye would be driving by their home with that frequency unless it was to keep an eye on them and see whether they were meeting any more with law enforcement,” the detention motion stated.

Officials also alleged that Dye was a danger to himself, noting that Dye attempted suicide after being extensively questioned  four years ago.

“Dye has made numerous statements to the minor victims that rather than spend a lengthy time in jail he would instead commit suicide,” the detention motion stated.

Dye is charged with two counts of producing child pornography, two counts of selling child pornography and one count each of child sex trafficking and grooming a child to participate in child pornography.

If convicted on all counts, he faces a minimum of 15 years in prison and could be sentenced up to life.

By

Federal Agents Arrest 255 Suspected Online Predators of Children

5:25 AM, Jul 16, 2013

ATLANTA — Federal agents announced Monday they arrested 255 people — three of them in the Atlanta area, and three of them elsewhere in Georgia — suspected of victimizing at least 61 children online.

The suspects were arrested in June during a nationwide crackdown against the exploitation of children on the Internet.

“There’s a tremendous amount of it out there,” said Brock Nicholson in Atlanta, one of the top investigators in charge of the operation, who said agents were “finding the worst of the worst.”

Nicholson is Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Georgia and the Carolinas. His agents joined other agents across the country in the operation, called “Operation iGuardian.”

“We rescued 61 victims of abuse, which is our main focus,” Nicholson said.

Agents who conducted the sweep said one of the ways predators lured children is through “sextortion.”

“Sextortion is one of the tools,” Nicholson said, “where basically an individual will, through the Internet, meet children at various websites, whether it be through a video game website,” or social media sites. “They’re going to where the kids are,” he said, and they befriend the kids.  “And they get the child comfortable with them… convince the child to do something they know that’s going to seem wrong, then threaten the child… then this sextortion thing comes in, ‘Hey look,’ you know, ‘I’ll tell your parents you’re looking at this unless you do A, B, C,'” and the predators ultimately make their demands, such as demanding that the children take sexually-explicit photos of themselves, or demanding that the children meet them. The children comply because they are too frightened to say no.

“You have to remember, they’re going after a very young mind,” Nicholson said, and the predators “are very skilled at getting children to do things that are absolutely heinous.”

Nicholson said Homeland Security Investigators are launching “an aggressive outreach program, with schools and parents’ groups, and anyone that will listen,” an education campaign that will begin in about a month; they will take every opportunity to meet parents to underscore the urgency of keeping their children out of harm’s way online.

One way of protecting them:  monitoring their children’s Internet use constantly. A tall order, but possible, he said.

“It’s so important that parents not worry about their child feeling like [the parents are] overdoing it with checking on them. You can’t overdo it enough, you need to not only see what your child is doing on the Internet, you need to teach them what to look for, and warn them that there are very bad individuals. I have two daughters, and trust me, I have had that conversation with them ad infinitum — ‘It’s not that I don’t trust you, I don’t trust the other folks that are out on the Internet.'”

The charges against the suspects are felonies, and “some sentences even go up to life,” if convicted, Nicholson said. Investigators continue to work the cases they developed in June. “we’ll follow up with the folks that we’ve arrested and see if we can determine if there are any more victims. We’ll certainly use every bit of energy we have to see if there are other folks that the guys were working with, or exchanging with. But we do this every day,” not just during special sweeps like the one in June.

“We get a great feeling of accomplishment when we can get one of these people off the street.”

By

Former NFL Star Lawrence Taylor Gets 6 Years Probation for Sex Crime With Minor

Old news, but still relevant.  With all the addictions Lawrence has struggled with, maybe he needs to look into the possibility of having a sexual addiction.  My opinion is that LT should have been thrown in jail for a while.  Maybe then, he would have hit rock bottom and entered recovery.  The names of the victim has been removed in an effort to keep curious addicts from searching her name on the internet…

March 24, 2011
By: Holly Craw

LTWhen Lawrence Taylor was arrested in May, 2010, he was originally charged with felony 3rd degree statutory rape and 3rd degree felony patronization of an underage prostitute. These crimes would have carried a sentence of five years in prison. He pled “not guilty” at the time. When the case was brought to trial in January, 2011, Taylor changed his plea to “guilty” of the lesser crimes of sexual misconduct with a minor and patronizing a prostitute. Both crimes are Class A misdemeanors, one step down from the former charges which are Class E felonies.

The sentence handed down is six years probation and registration as a sex offender, but the sex offender status has not been determined yet.

The 16 year-old girl, ********* ******, who visited Taylor’s hotel room May 6, 2010 was there under orders from her pimp, ******* *****, who has been charged in a separate trial. ****** texted her uncle while enroute to the hotel stating that she was being forced to have sex with a man, and that ***** had already beaten her into compliance. Because of this, police were waiting for ***** when they returned home, after ****** had been paid $300 for a sexual encounter with Taylor, who was also arrested.

Lawrence Taylor, former New York Giants linebacker, has been called “the best ever to play the game (of football)” with 12 trips to the Super Bowl and MVP and Hall of Fame credits, for starters. He has also acted in movies and the TV series, The Sopranos, and had his moments of fame on Dancing with the Stars. One might say he had it all.

Known for his reckless behavior on and off the field, Taylor admits to many run-ins with the law. From cocaine abuse to hit-and-run accidents to “patronizing prostitutes” on more than one other occasion, he was no stranger to a darker side of life. He even hired call-girls to visit the opposing team’s players the night before a big game, “to tire them out”.

********* ****** claims she was a victim. In New York, the law states that a person less than 17 years of age is legally incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse or other sexual contact. These laws are typically known as statutory rape laws. Taylor throws the word “prostitute” back in her face, and excuses his justification for a paid sexual encounter with being on the road for 10 or 11 days, and that she stated she was 19.

****** is a victim in many ways. She is typical of most of the 200,000+ kids who are forced into sex slavery, starting out as runaways who have generally been abused first at home. Somehow, families are often failing their children, making them vulnerable to predators like ***** and Taylor. Somehow, families are often failing their children, giving them grounds to become sexual predators who then blame the victims for their evil deeds. Somehow, the legal system is failing, meting out a few years of probation or at best, a very few years of prison, for the raping and selling of children’s bodies. Somehow, the media is grossly failing, by presenting an unending supply of sexualized programming that makes light of people’s pain and gives permission to use sexuality as a self-gratifying weapon that destroys those in its wake.

Our country is beginning to wake up to these facts, and change is happening. Laws are becoming more strict as a means of deterrence. Victims and survivors of sex trafficking and abuse are getting more compassionate care. Hopefully, we will learn how to address the root causes of rampant child rape and not just focus on the symptoms.