Six months after the initial search of Keith Romig's house, the Unit is still cataloguing the massive amount of seized evidence. Every video and photograph must be thoroughly examined by a team of two detectives. They usually spend long hours watching the all videos seized and reviewing every image, digital or hard copy. Up until this point, the photos of Levene with children can only be described as "indecent" because only kissing is involved. Now a new set of photos surface, this time clearly showing Levene raping a young girl. The victim, Jane Denton, provides a statement for the Unit. Her father, now dead, was essentially her pimp. Along with abusing her himself, he also forced her perform in child pornography. He was the one who introduced her to Julian. This provides the Unit enough evidence to formally charge Levene for rape of a child. Because Romig helped hide the incriminating photographs of Levene, he is also charged for conspiracy to commit child rape. …show more content…
The continuing cataloguing of evidence also reveals a new person of interest, this time shown in videos.
Initially, Levene and Romig were only shown in photos of them posing with underwear-clad children. This new subject, on the other hand, is clearly shown raping a girl. It doesn't take much effort for the Unit to identify the man as Leslie Baldwin, who has a long record of drug dealing and weapon possession. His house is searched and easily confirmed as the location of the videotaped rapes. Operation Doorknock now has identified three men involved in a pedophile ring. However, the detectives soon uncover evidence that this ring is much larger than three
individuals. Starting with another series of photographs, evidence of a larger criminal ring begins to reveal itself. In these images, another unknown man is featured alongside naked children. A sign reading "Hazelcot" is in the background of the photos, which tells the detectives that this might be a way of identifying at least where the pictures were taken. They send out copies of the photo to other precincts in an effort to identify the suspect. The Unit luckily receives a promising lead and can now locate "Hazelcot" as a small bungalow owned by 80-year-old Trevor Mellis. Neighbors tell detectives that the house was named after British child star Hazel Ascot, for whom a fan club has been made, of which Mellis is a member. This information becomes a massive break for the detectives. Trevor Mellis was revealed as the creator of the fan club, formally named the Hazel Ascot Appreciation Society. Among its members included Julian Levene, with Keith Romig as their "official photographer". It seems that Levene contributed to the Society by creating a guide for the predators on how to engage in pedophilia, referred to as "The Hobby" in the text. Since Baldwin's photographs were found amongst Romig's stash, the detectives can connect him to the ring as well. The Unit wraps up Operation Doorknock, now a two-year investigation, by identifying Levene's niece, Sara, as an additional victim. Sara is now 31-years-old, and alleges that Levene had abused her when she was 4 years old, until she was 8 years old. She recalls her earliest experience of the abuse as fondling by her uncle. This eventually escalated into digital penetration. Sara's statement gives the Unit enough to charge Levene with indecent assault of a child, along with the previous charges of making, distributing, and possessing indecent photos of children, conspiracy to take and distribute indecent photos, 5 initial counts of indecent assault on a child, and rape. Keith Romig is charged with taking, making, and possessing indecent photographs, conspiracy to take and distribute, and 5 counts of indecent assault on a child. Trevor Mellis is charged with taking indecent photographs, conspiracy to take and distribute, and 4 counts of indecent assault. Finally, Leslie Baldwin is charged with taking and possessing indecent photographs, conspiracy to take and distribute, and four counts of indecent assault.
Instead of searching for potential suspects among surrounding towns, authorities questioned locals, especially Dan Rassier, the owner of the driveway where Jacob Wetterling was abducted. Since Dan Rassier has been a person of interest for many years, authorities refuse to clear his name, despite all the evidence gathered proving his innocence. Rassier has been willing to help out as much as he can by agreeing to undergo lie detection tests, DNA tests and hypnosis (Rassier). Not only have authorities targeted him for twenty years and still ongoing, during one interview with a BCA agent, Rassier explained the agent’s plea: “He was basically saying, ‘we don’t have anything on you but would you admit…we could end this and you admit that you did this,’” (qtd. in Murphy). Not only have law enforcement pressured Rassier to take responsibility of the crime, in June of 2010, authorities approached him with several search warrants and heavy digging equipment (Murphy; St. Cloud Times Staff; “Wetterling Investigators”). Although it was unable to be specified which items were taken back to forensic labs for testing, several truckloads of dirt were seen taken away from the farm property. (“Wetterling
The tactics used by the police while investigating the murder and rape of Michelle Bosko were coercive; the men claim they were interrogated for hours, threatened with the death penalty, and lied to in order to obtain the confessions. One of the men, Derek Tice, claims that while being questioned by the police he asked to speak to a lawyer only to have his request ignored a clear violation of his rights. Original suspect, Danial Williams, describes being questioned for eight hours by Detective Evans only to have Detective Ford brought in when Evans attempts to obtain a confession fail. With the use of such interrogating tactics each of the men confesses to the crime. When inaccuracies in their statements were found, such was the case in Danial Williams’ original confession when he claims that he beat Ms. Bosko with a shoe, the police interrogate him again nudging him towards a more possible explanation and
The Casey Anthony case was one that captured the heart of thousands and made it to the headline of national TV talk shows, newspapers, radio stations and social media networks for months. The root of the case was due to a clash between the parental responsibilities, the expectations that went with being a parent, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have. The case was in respect to the discovering the cause of Casey’s two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony’s, death; however the emphasis was placed on Casey and her futile lies, which resulted in a public outcry. The purpose of this essay is to delve into the public atmosphere and inquire about why the media and social media collectively attacked the case by uncovering the content of the case, the charges that were laid, and later dismissed, the “performers” of the trial and the publics reaction. It will further discuss how it defies universal ideologies and how the media represents this. The discussion of the complexities of the case and its connotations will incorporate Stuart Hall’s Representation and the Media, Robert Hariman’s Performing the Laws, What is Ideology by Terry Eagleton, The Body of the Condemned by Michael Foucault, and a number of news articles, which will reveal disparate ideas of representation in the media, and the role of the performers of the law and their effect on the understanding of the case.
“In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit….” This short monologue is the opening for Dick Wolf’s fictional television show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. This show follows the detectives of the Sixteenth Precinct in Manhattan, New York City through their lives and the cases they work day after day. In this unit, it is Detective Olivia Benson who has inspired me with her dedication and strength to her job and the real life connections that have been created from this character.
Even more striking is the effect on the actual victims of the crimes, like Levene's niece. Despite the time that passed, she could not help but cry when questioned about Levene's abuse. Child sexual abuse victims can expect a lifetime of problems arising from the trauma they faced. It can affect their personal relationships, sense of trust and self-worth, and even their mental health in a variety of ways. What good is it for them if their abusers serve such a small fraction of time for the acts that had such long-lasting
The time is the sixth century, the place is Rome and the person is Lucretia, a woman who contributed to one of the biggest parts of Roman history: the creation of the Roman republic. The rape of the virtuous Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of Tarquinius Superbus' (an Etruscan king) was the final straw for the Roman people and pushed them to want to change from a monarchy to a republic. From the accounts of the rape of Lucretia from ancient historians like Livy, Cicero and Dionysius, it is clear that Lucretias rape not only spurred the roman people to want to get rid of the Etruscan King and his family, but also revealed the important role of virtue in women in roman society.
investigators try to link the past and the present. All the while a killer is on the loose,
Hundreds across the nation watch forensic shows every day. From fictional shows similar to Criminal Minds and CSI, to nonfictional shows such as The First 48 and Forensic Files. However, these shows have something in common. Criminological programs continuously show how the crime happened, what it takes to crack the case, how investigators accumulate evidence, a...
In today’s time, modern Crime Scene Investigation has increased rapidly. From throughout the late 1900’s and in the early 2000’s (Taylor 1). For all of the evidence that they find, a solid foundation has formed over the thousands of years of Crime Scene
After the investigations of policemen and students it was declared an inside job. The students at PRMS were working very hard learning about DNA, Blood Typing and Analyzing Finger Prints, also more suspects have been eliminated throughout the whole week. The remaining suspects to this day are Ms Ternan, Mr Scott, Ms Ching, Mr Driedger, Mr Bradley, and Mrs Burdett, we only interviewed a certain amount of suspects but none had proof for an alibi. Only verbal alibi's that weren't confirmed. Ms. Ternan isn't visually guilty because she had the same story all the way through and answered all asked questions. Mr. Scott seems supsicious because he was nervous, tried hiding his face with sunglasses, and denying his past actions. Also the recent death upon his class pet Marshmallow has caused him pain. We also think his alibi is false because we claimed to be at SPCA volunteering than driving back to feed the homeless, the time doesn't add up. I did not have a chance to interview Mr. Bradley, but other sources have said he claimed to be innocent while slamming the conference
While searching for the location of the identified suspect, APLE workers witnesses the individual leading four young boys into a forest. However, by the time police arrived on scene, the suspect had disappeared into the trees. The four boys were subsequently taken to the police station for questioning, upon which three boys admitted to experiencing sexual abuse at the hands of the suspect. With testimony from the three boys, an arrest of the Montreal man was ordered.
I grew up in a Christian Family. My faith for Christ has always been there, but it never became real and important to me until the summer after my 8th grade. I grew up going to a country school where there was only a few of us in the whole school. The school closed down after my 6th grade year and I had to find a new school. The school I went to for my 7th and 8th grade year had a lot of kids in the class that were not very accepting of new kids in the class. So to fit in with them, I did things that I should have never done in order to fit in. Towards the end of my 8th grade year, I had been in trouble many times and the friendships I was trying to gain had went down the drain. I had turned many people away trying
Osterburg, J. W., & Ward, R. H. (2014). Criminal investigation: A method for reconstructing the past.
In the case of Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing, the primary evidence used to convict him of the crime was not the residue found on the barrels, as that evidence was brought into question (147). Some people were concerned that the chemical traces found on the perpetrator's clothing might have come from sources unrelated to explosives (147). However, persecutors were still able to convict McVeigh through the axle of a rental truck, found in the debris, which a subsequent search linked to McVeigh, after a motel owner told police a man with his description driving a similar van had stayed at his establishment (147). Trains of investigation such as this one demonstrate the similarity of investigating explosives cases with investigations of more mundane crimes. In cases involving explosions, standard methods of investigation often prove just as valuable as advanced chemical analysis of explosive
Is anyone truly a stranger to nightmares? Has anyone not woken up in a feverish sweat with a racing pulse or pounding heart? Whose eyes have never wildly searched their room for the phantoms of a dream? Now, what if the familiar consolation of learning it was all in your head never came? How do you wake up from a nightmare that is, in fact, a reality? I think I’m getting ahead of myself. What I mean to say is, I was raped, and rape is a nightmare.