Livermore police: Child porn suspect killed by train

2-19-2014 California:

LIVERMORE -- A man suspected of using his Twitter account to possess and distribute child pornography died Tuesday when an Altamont Corridor Express train struck him on the tracks, authorities said.

Livermore resident Eric Hogue, 42, had been expected to surrender to police sometime Wednesday after police turned over their investigation to the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, Officer Steve Goard said. Police made contact with Hogue's attorney Tuesday and were advised that Hogue would turn himself in, Goard said.

Hogue's identity was confirmed by the Alameda County Coroner's Office.

Investigators served a warrant Jan. 30 on Hogue's residence in the 600 block of N. Livermore Avenue. Police said Hogue admitted to using a Twitter account to possess and distribute child pornography. A forensic exam of his computer and cell phone over the next 2¿1/2 weeks corroborated Hogue's admission, police said.

Hogue was expected to be charged with two counts each of possessing and distributing child porn.

He was pronounced dead on the Union Pacific tracks after the collision, which happened around 5:40 p.m., according to authorities. Thomas Reeves, a spokesman for ACE, said a person walked in front of the train, and Mark Davis, a spokesman for Union Pacific, said the collision did not happen at a crossing.

Livermore police are continuing the investigation and hope to speak with the conductor of the train to hear his version of events, Goard said.

No one else was injured in the collision. ..Source.. by Rick Hurd

Soldier turned rapist found dead in prison: Officials suspect suicide

2-18-2014 Kentucky:

Steven Dale Green, an Army private convicted of gang-raping an Iraqi 14-year-old girl and killing her family, died in an Arizona prison in what officials suspect was a suicide.

A former soldier, sentenced to life for raping and killing a teenage Iraqi girl and using a shotgun to gun down her family, died in an Arizona prison over the weekend in what officials suspect was a suicide.

Steven Dale Green was the first American soldier charged and convicted under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act — a law signed in 2000 that gives the federal government jurisdiction to pursue criminal cases against American citizens and soldiers for acts committed in foreign lands.

The federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman John Stahley said staff members at the federal penitentiary in Tucson, Ariz., found the 28-year-old Green, of Midland, Texas, unresponsive in his cell on Saturday. Stahley said Green's death is being investigated as a suicide.

Third sex offender death in Oregon state prison probed

February 2014:

Oregon State Police are investigating the third death of a sex offender in as many months inside the state prison in Umatilla.

The Oregon Department of Corrections said a 31-year-old inmate at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution was found shortly before midnight Tuesday night and pronounced dead just after noon Wednesday at an area hospital.

No other information was released.

Damion Banks, 31, was serving a sentence for four counts of rape, two counts of sex abuse and one count of child sex for cases in Clackamas and Washington counties. His sentence began in June 2010 and his earliest possible release date was March 2015.

"As with all unanticipated deaths of state prison inmates, the Oregon State Police Criminal Investigation Division is conducting an investigation," said a news release from the Department of Corrections.

The prison houses 1,800 medium and minimum security male inmates. It opened in 2000.

Last month, a 39-year-old inmate was found unconscious in his Umatilla prison cell.

Shane Morris was pronounced dead at a hospital almost an hour after he was found.

Morris was serving time for sex abuse and sodomy convictions and had been in prison since July 2005.

In early December, a 67-year-old man serving time on marijuana and sodomy convictions died after he was found unconscious in his cell.

Prison staff found Larry Hurst alone in his cell at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution about 10 p.m. He had been in state custody since April 2010.

DOC officials did not release a cause of death in any of the cases. ..Source.. by Tri-City Herald

Sex Offender Laws Require Rethink

January 2014:

Sex Offender laws are gratuitously cruel and assume that all ex-offenders are dangerous psychopaths. However the vast majority can be rehabilitated and lead normal productive lives. Most sex offenders deserve compassion. Current laws make it harder for registered sex offenders to reform. by Ryan Hope (Pen name of a Colorado Therapist)(henrymakow.com)

I have chosen to take on this unpopular issue because I have something that needs to be said.

Contrary to popular belief that once a sex offender, he will always be a sex offender, recidivism rates are quite low for offenders that get counseling. At about 6%, they are much lower than many other types of criminal recidivism. That means 94% don't re-offend. This is compared to only 30% in the case of other offenses.

Yes, a minority of sex offenders are sociopaths or psychopaths. They are violent re-offender types, serial rapists and those that get sadistic pleasure torturing or killing. These people should never be trusted to reenter into society.

But the majority of sex offenders can be reformed, but the law won't let them or anybody else forget. Some of my colleagues work with ex-offenders and they report a high degree of depression, homelessness and suicide.

When they return home from prison, they may not be allowed to move into their own homes because it is too close to a school or park. However, 98% of molestations happen with somebody they know and not because of the proximity of schools or parks.

Supportive relatives prefer not to allow ex-offenders to live in their homes because their address is posted on sites like Megan's Law. Families can be ripped apart; the very people the ex-offender needs for healing are placed out of reach.

Sex offender found dead after missed sentencing

2-12-2014 New York:

PLATTSBURGH — Police say a Beekmantown man killed himself near Plattsburgh Boat Basin after he failed to appear in court Monday for sentencing on felony sex charges.

Leonard Cormier, 74, would have spent eight years in state prison for two counts of second-degree criminal sex act after admitting to having sexual contact with a young woman with Down syndrome.

Cormier hanged himself off his boat, which was stored at the Plattsburgh marina, said Plattsburgh City Police Lt. Patrick Rascoe.

An autopsy was conducted Tuesday afternoon at CVPH Medical Center in Plattsburgh by Dr. Jolie Rodriguez.

After Cormier did not show up for his sentencing in Clinton County Integrated Domestic Violence Court Monday afternoon, a bench warrant was issued by Judge Timothy Lawliss, prompting State Police to begin searching for him, the Clinton County District Attorney’s Office confirmed.

After speaking with friends of the victim who went looking for him earlier that day, State Police went to the marina and found Cormier’s body at 7:46 p.m., Rascoe said.

Cormier had faced eight felony charges, among them rape but had accepted a plea agreement that covered the lesser crimes.

The sentence would also have included 10 years of post-release supervision after he served the eight years, the DA’s Office said. And he would have been required to register as a sex offender.

While he would have also been sentenced to one year in County Jail on the misdemeanor charge of second-degree sexual-abuse, that wouldn’t have added more time on the state prison sentence.

The case was prosecuted by Clinton County Assistant District Attorneys Domenica Padula and Jaime Douthat. ..Source.. by FELICIA KRIEG