Restitution for Child Pornography Victims – what the government must do

Thanks to Professor Paul Cassell for this post on The Volokh Conspiracy involving one of my cases: Yesterday U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz of the District of Minnesota issued an interesting order regarding a restitution application in a child pornography case. In his order, found here, Judge Schiltz chastises the government for failing to pursue restitution for child pornography cases in his district, even though Congress has made restitution mandatory in such cases. Judge Schiltz wrote: This Court has recently handled a number of other child-pornography cases in which the United States Probation Office has identified victims who are ...

Masha Allen – staggering malefaction at every level

"A vast conspiracy of silence" allowed abuses to go on for years in "the most extraordinary abuse of power without regard for . . . the kids." This recent editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer referring to the judicial corruption scandal in Luzerne County could also apply to the case involving Masha Allen, another Pennsylvania judicial casualty. Unlike the situation in Luzerne County, however, countless individuals from Pittsburgh to Georgia knew about Masha's plight and failed to respond over and over again. This lack of imagination was more than just the "human error and system lapses" which allow terrorists to continue to board airplanes, but ...

Masha Allen Abandonned Again

Earlier today, this document was filed in New Jersey federal district court in Masha Allen's lawsuit against the agencies responsible for placing her with pedophile Matthew Mancuso. According to the motion: On or about August 18, 2009, Faith Allen freely and voluntarily executed a consent to adoption with respect to Masha, pursuant to 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 2711. Because Faith Allen did not revoke this consent to adoption within the statutorily allowed 30-day revocation period, it became irrevocable subject to narrow exceptions. The Orphan's Court with jurisdiction over the matter has now terminated Faith Allen's legal rights as a parent to Masha Allen. M...

ASFA Failure – Only 71 Interstate Adoptions Last Year

This just in from blogger Jeff Katz of the Huffington Post: The simple fact is that it is virtually impossible to adopt a foster child across state lines in the United States. In the most recent year for which we have data, states reported that only 71 children in the entire country were adopted from foster care across state lines by non-relatives. Why is interstate adoption so rare? The primary reason is that we do not have a national adoption system. Instead, we have 50 different child welfare systems, each with its own process for adoption eligibility, recruitment, approval, and training. Even worse, our current system has created profound ...

Birdman Adoptive Father Stephen Melinger Back in the News

Look who's back! Was it adoption for love? Child trafficking via surrogacy? Or something else? The bizarre case of birdman Stephen Melinger is back in the news, this time in a New York Times article on the perils and pitfalls of surrogacy. Do check out this story in the Times, but just remember from Melinger to womb outsourcing, snowflake adoptions and sperm donor introductions for lesbians, this blog gave you the scoop first.

“Wrongly Accused” 100 Year Old Pedophile Leaves Prison

For those of you who believe in the power of rehabilitation, or that age conquers the irresistible impulse to exploit and abuse children, or for the liberal horde who expressed indignant outrage at the prospect of the death penalty for child sex abusers, this one's for you: According to the Huffington Post, Theodore Sypnier, a 100-year-old child molester who will soon be released from prison, has an "unrepentant heart" and continues to deny that he ever harmed any children. New York's oldest registered sex offender is scheduled to move by week's end out of a Buffalo halfway house for released inmates and into a place of his own, after completing his ...

PA’s Lax Judicial Oversight in the Masha Allen Case

During the past four years numerous questions have been raised about how and why then-Allegheny County Judge Cheryl Lynn Allen was allowed to preside over the adoption of Masha Allen by her namesake and former roommate Faith Allen. For a long time I wondered the same thing. Almost three years ago, I filed this complaint with the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board. After supplying additional information at the request of JCB's chief counsel, Joseph A. Massa Jr., the JCB presumably spent a year investigating my allegations. Right after Judge Allen won her hotly contested election to the Pennsylvania court of appeals in late 2007 (she recently ran for ...

S
1
…
32
33
34
…
57
s