Child Molestation

A federal judge on Monday approved the central aspect of Megan's Law, saying that warning communities about a released sex offender in their midst does not violate the ex-convict's rights. The decision by U.S. District Judge John W. Bissell will lift a temporary ban he imposed on community notification and reverses a series of adverse rulings by other judges.

Following dramatic testimony, a state Senate committee Tuesday passed a controversial proposal that would mandate chemical castration as a condition of parole for twice-convicted child molesters, boosting the measure's chances of approval by the full Senate. The vote came after a Los Angeles victim of convicted sex offender Reginald Muldrew, the "Pillowcase Rapist," pleaded for the passage of the measure, authored by Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena).

For a year, the calls have come in almost daily to California's Child Molester Identification Line. One caller was an employee at a water amusement park, where nearly 1,000 children visited daily. The worker was nervous that an adult--who arrived alone but frequently talked to children at the park--purchased an all-summer pass. As it turned out, the subject had been convicted in 1986 for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14.

Two-thirds of sex offenders in state prisons attacked children, and a third of these victims were offspring or stepchildren of their attackers, the Justice Department said Sunday. The report, based on the largest survey ever of state prison inmates, said children younger than 18 bear the brunt of sex offenses and that child molesting remains a crime most often committed by relatives and acquaintances rather than strangers.

Two sisters who alleged that for 18 years they had repressed memories of their father's sexual abuse were awarded $1.15 million by an Orange County jury, attorneys said Friday. The jury reached the decision Thursday night against the father, John R. Phillips, 60, of Rancho Santa Fe, after deliberating less than three days in a trial that took about eight weeks. R.

A San Juan Capistrano man was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and four counts of child molestation involving a 7-year-old girl. Jesus Reyes Mercado, 25, faces a possible life sentence for the July 1995 sexual assault of a girl near horse stables in the 31000 block of Avenida de la Vista, according to Orange County sheriff's officials. Mercado was arrested after a group of residents heard the girl's screams and ran to her aid, detaining Mercado until police arrived, authorities said.

A monthlong search for a man accused of sexually assaulting two girls ended Monday when he walked silently into Long Beach Police headquarters, escorted by his pastor. Darnell Rucker Jr., 22, was immediately arrested and charged with five counts of child molestation, police said. Bail was set at $375,000. According to police, two girls, ages 12 and 13, identified Rucker in a photo lineup and accused him of luring them into his Long Beach apartment Feb. 24.

Recent allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against the staff of an agency that operates group homes for gay teenagers highlights the quicksand zone treaded by those who work with troubled teenagers. Confused and often highly sexualized, the youngsters placed in group homes are vulnerable to exploitation by the adults who work with them--just as the adults are open to groundless charges of misdeeds by manipulative teens.

Police suspect that the four child molestation incidents in December 1995 may be the work of the same individual that they believe attacked as many as 32 children in 1993. At least half of the earlier attachs involved students on their way to school. Here are the locations of some of the attacks.

Standing in court just a few feet from the man who molested her on an international airplane flight last spring, a teenage girl spoke Thursday of the shame, anger and loneliness that followed the incident. "I was abused by the man sitting to the right of me," the 16-year-old Australian said during a sentencing hearing for Yehudah Friedlander in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. "He violated me in the very deepest possible way."