Child Molestation

A karate instructor at a Costa Mesa self-defense studio was arrested this week on suspicion of molesting a 4-year-old girl whom he was giving a private lesson, authorities said Thursday. Jon Patrick Harrison, 61, of Anaheim is charged with one felony count of lewd acts on a child. Harrison has been a martial arts instructor at United Studios of Self Defense for 10 years, and authorities worry there could be other victims, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

A pastor was charged today with molesting a 14-year-old female parishioner, the Orange County district attorney's office said. Ricardo Avalos Maffey, 42, a pastor of the Apostolic Christian Church in San Clemente, is accused of engaging in illegal sexual contact with the alleged victim by kissing her on the mouth on multiple occasions. He also contacted the victim to meet and engage in kissing, authorities said. The district attorney's office said Maffey of Santa Ana was charged with three felony counts of lewd acts upon a child and one felony count of contacting a minor with the intent to engage in child molestation.

With the state Legislature forced to make dramatic cuts in the prison budget and a three-judge federal panel having recently ordered California lawmakers to release as many as 40,000 inmates in response to the scandalous overcrowding of the California state prison system, it seems like an especially inauspicious time for the L.A. County district attorney's office to be spending some of our few remaining tax dollars seeing if it can finally, after all...

A 68-year-old pedophile who preyed on young boys should remain in a state mental facility because he is "not curable," a prosecutor said in opening statements to an Orange County jury Thursday. Sid Landau "has no boundaries" when it comes to children and deserves to stay in state custody where he has been housed for the last seven years and continue treatment, said prosecutor Amy Pope. Landau has admitted to abusing 10 boys.

Three siblings who say they were molested as children by the same Los Angeles priest filed new allegations of abuse this week against a worldwide religious order, which is the only Roman Catholic organization involved in the 6-year-old clergy scandal that has yet to settle any civil claims. The three allege the Salesian Society, with 16,000 priests, ignored clear signs that Father Titian Miani was a dangerous pedophile.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, Sheila Marie Sikat turned to search the sea of faces in a crowded Santa Ana courtroom Friday. "I'm sorry," she whispered to a sister, locking eyes as they both wept.

Orange County prosecutors said they had warned a judge that a man who was ultimately convicted in his courtroom of child molestation was suicidal. The man jumped to his death from the ninth floor of a Santa Ana courthouse Tuesday, hours after being convicted. Carlos Eduardo Tello, 53, of Santa Ana was facing up to 20 years in prison when he leaped from a balcony at the Central Justice Center about 4 p.m.

An Orange County sheriff's deputy found dead shortly after being charged with molesting a 12-year-old boy had learned of his impending arrest by accessing an internal computer system, authorities said Friday. Gerald Stenger, 41, who was found about 2 p.m.

Texas child welfare officials said Saturday that they had removed 183 people -- including 137 children -- from an isolated polygamist compound in southwestern Texas after allegations that a 16-year-old girl there had been sexually abused.

Texas officials said Monday that they had taken more than 400 children into temporary state custody while they continued investigating allegations that girls at a remote polygamist compound were being sexually abused by men. "This is the biggest single removal in the history of this agency," Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar said Monday evening. "No one can remember anything quite like it.