State officials say employees at a foster care center under a state contract to shelter children who have been trafficked for sex have been trafficking those children themselves
Officials: Texas foster care center sex-trafficked minors
ByThe Associated Press
March 10, 2022, 8:49 PM
HOUSTON — State officials told a federal judge Thursday that employees at a foster care center under a state contract to shelter children who had been trafficked for sex had been trafficking those children themselves.
The matter arose at an emergency hearing before U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack, who has been presiding over a 2011 class-action lawsuit against the state Department of Family and Protective Services that alleged that children were held in unsafe conditions, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News reported.
The allegations involved a Bastrop facility called The Refuge, which housed 11 children ages 11 to 17. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an immediate investigation of the reports by the Texas Rangers.
State officials said a staffer reported in late January that a former employee had sold nude photos of two young girls and used the money to purchase illegal drugs and alcohol for them. Further investigation revealed several staffers still employed at The Refuge were involved in the criminal activity.
There are seven alleged victims and nine alleged perpetrators, state officials said. One staff member has been arrested, and additional criminal charges are expected, officials said. The children were finally removed from the facility by Wednesday, 1 1/2 months after the first report, state officials said.
“The most appalling thing about this is the disregard of these children,” Jack said. “You had to wait to get eight calls before you took 11 female already-trafficked children out of this trafficking situation. This is a system that remains broken.”
Department Commissioner Jaime Masters said she was only made aware of the situation Wednesday.
“There is no excuse for why I didn’t know, which is why several people are losing their jobs,” Masters said.
In a statement, The Refuge said it was “fully cooperating with authorities and we hope the alleged perpetrator will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and we will assist the Sheriff and the Bastrop County District Attorney’s office in their prosecution.”
“Our hearts are broken and we are outraged by the actions of former employees whose intent was to harm, not help,” said founder and CEO Brooke Crowder.
Big Tech Censored Dozens of Doctors, More Than 800 Accounts for COVID-19 ‘Misinformation,’ Study Finds
Ailan Evans / @AilanHEvans / February 09, 2022
Twitter, Google, Google+, Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are among the platforms arrayed on the screen of an Apple iPhone. Many of them have used their largely unregulated power to censor information they don’t approve of as “misinformation.” (Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images)
Major technology companies and social media platforms have removed, suppressed or flagged the accounts of more than 800 prominent individuals and organizations, including medical doctors, for COVID-19 “misinformation,” according to a new study from the Media Research Center.
The study focused on acts of censorship on major social media platforms and online services, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Ads, and TikTok.
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Instances of censorship included Facebook’s decision to flag the British Medical Journal with a “fact check” and “missing context” label, reducing the visibility of a post, for a study delving into data-integrity issues with a Pfizer vaccine clinical trial.
Facebook also deleted the page of the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter led by dozens of medical professionals, including Dr. Jay Battacharya, a Stanford epidemiologist, and Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a former employee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which advocated for less restrictive measures to address the dangers of COVID-19.
“Big Tech set up a system where you can’t disagree with ‘the science’ even though that’s the foundation of the scientific method,” Dan Gainor, MRC vice president of Free Speech America, told the Daily Caller National Foundation. “If doctors and academic journals can’t debate publicly, then it’s not science at all. It’s ‘religion.’”
Big Tech also scrubbed podcast host Joe Rogan’s interviews with scientists Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone, the latter of whom was instrumental in pioneering mRNA technology. Twitter banned Malone from its platform permanently in late December over the virologist’s tweets questioning the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We tallied 32 different doctors who were censored, including mRNA vaccine innovator Dr. Robert Malone,” Gainor said. “Censoring views of credentialed experts doesn’t ensure confidence in vaccines. It undermines faith in government COVID-19 strategies.“
In addition to medical doctors, the study examined instances in which members of Congress were censored by tech platforms.
These included an incident last August in which YouTube suspended Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for posting a video arguing that “cloth masks” are not effective against the coronavirus, a view later echoed by many prominent medical commentators. Twitter also flagged a tweet from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., in which he wrote “studies show those with natural immunity from a prior infection are much less likely to contract and spread COVID than those who only have vaccine-induced immunity.”
The study also examined Big Tech censorship of prominent media personalities, such as Rogan, Tucker Carlson, and Dan Bongino.
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According to records obtained by the Daily Mail, between 1993 and 1995, Jeffrey Epstein visited President Bill Clinton’s White House 17 times, bringing with him a total of eight women.
The convicted sex offender had connections to many celebrities, journalists and prominent political figures, including Clinton. Many of them were listed in Epstein’s little black book.
In its report on Epstein’s many visits to the Clinton White House, the Daily Mail noted that hanging on the walls of Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, were photos of these visits and a few of the women he had with him.
Low-Res pics from the Florida State Attorney’s Office show pics hanging in Epstein’s mansion of The late-financier visiting Clinton’s White House with two different women.
A report from the Daily Mail indicates Epstein brought 8 women to the White House over the years.
In addition to Epstein’s longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, the names of the other seven women who accompanied him to the Clinton White House were listed in the report.
Maxwell was recently convicted of several crimes related to her complicity in the sex-trafficking crimes of Epstein.
The Daily Mail said three of the women named were Epstein’s former girlfriends — Celina Midelfart, Eva Andersson-Dubin and Francis Jardine.
The other women in the photos were Jennifer Garrison, Shelley Gafni, Jennifer Driver and Lyoubov Orlova.
As this news surrounding Bill Clinton continues to develop, one can just imagine Hillary tensing up with frustration and thinking to herself, “Not again!”
After all, her husband has been accused of sexually assaulting and harassing several women over the years, and he was impeached for lying about his sexual relationship with a White House intern.
It’s unclear how many additional prominent figures were involved in Epstein’s crimes.
Britain’s Prince Andrew faces a lawsuit over allegations that he sexually assaulted one of Epstein’s victims when she was 17 years old.
Will other prominent political figures — former U.S. presidents, for example — face similar legal proceedings related to their relationships with Jeffrey Epstein?
Maryland man gets 9 years for human trafficking case
October 29, 2021
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) — A Maryland man was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison for sex crimes against a minor, prosecutors said.
Timothy Ford, 40, of Columbia was sentenced to 25 years with all but nine years suspended for a 2019 incident in Columbia, the Howard County State’s Attorney Office announced in a news release. Ford pleaded guilty last year to human trafficking and filming a child engaged in a sex act.
The victim was panhandling when Ford approached and asked if he was looking for work. Once in the car, Ford told him he could earn hundreds of dollars if he engaged in sexual acts with other people. Instead, the victim said Ford took him to his home and sexually assaulted him, prosecutors said.
Investigators with Howard County Police identified Ford as the suspect and arrested him about a week later.
As part of his sentencing, Ford must complete a psycho-sexual evaluation and treatment, sex offender treatment, have no contact with the victim, have no unsupervised contact with minors and must register as a Tier II sex offender.
Let’s start back in 1919. Charlie Chaplin, who would become one of the most famous and celebrated movie stars of all time, was 29 when he married 16 year old aspiring actress Mildred Harris. Their marriage only lasted 2 years. In 1924, Chaplin repeated the pattern with another 16 year old, Lita Gray. He met Lita when she was just 6 and began taking her on dates around the age of 12.
1954 — Sam Cooke meets a 12-year old Aretha Franklin and brings her to his hotel room. Before her father interrupted, Aretha said the conversation “took another turn.” Cooke was 23 years old.
Sam Cooke was 18 and Barbara Campbell was only 13 when they met on the South Side of Chicago.
In 1957, 23 year old Jerry Lee Lewis married his cousin, 13 year old Myra Brown. She still believed in Santa.
Also in 1957, 16 year old Anna Mae Bullock met 24 year old Ike Turner. He quickly took her into his band, helped make her a star, and began to treat the newly christened “Tina” as if he owned her. They married 6 years later. Tina once wrote that she was afraid not to accept his proposal.
In 1959, Elvis Presley met his future wife. He was 25 and she was 14. They stayed in touch via phone and letters for the next 2 1/2 years. At that time, Elvis took her on a drug romp to Vegas, followed by moving her into his Graceland mansion. They didn’t marry until 1967. While both parties claimed that Priscilla was a virgin on her wedding night, biographer Susan Finstad makes a strong case that this could not be true. Priscilla herself has admitted that she & Elvis slept in the same bed and that Elvis “taught (her) other ways to please him.” Elvis reportedly had a predeliction for 14 year old girls, both before and after his marriage to Priscilla.
Chuck Berry was arrested and found guilty of transporting an underage girl across state lines for immoral purposes, spending two years in jail in 1960.
In 1969, Sable Starr, queen of the so-called “baby groupies”, had a brief relationship with Iggy Pop. She was 13. He later wrote a song about it. Starr had sexual relationships with many other band members, including encouters with David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and Rod Stewart.
It’s 1972 and Rock stars are still having sex with little girls and everyone knows it, but no one does anything about it. Lori Mattix tells of losing her virginity at age 14 to David Bowie. She went on to start “dating” Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page that same year, a relationsihp that began when Page’s manager kidnapped her and brought her to Jimmy’s hotel room. Page kept Lori essentially locked up in his house for most of their 18 months together. The “baby groupie” also reports a sexual relationship with Mick Jagger when she was just 17.
In 1973, married singer Marvin Gaye met and pursued 17 year old Janis Hunter. He wrote “Let’s Get it On” as a tribute to his lust for her. Marvin took his teen date to dinner shortly after they met, where he bribed the waiter to bring her alcohol, then had sex with her later that night. They had a baby by the time she was 18, and married in 1977. The marriage lasted just 3 years.
In 1975, Steven Tyler purchased the guardianship of a 16 year old girl (Julia Holcomb) from her mother when he was 27 so that he could legally take her with him across state lines while he was on tour.
In 1978, Ted Nugent also purchases the guardianship of a teenager from her parents. He was 30, Pele Massa was 17. Years later, Ted reportedly received oral sex from a 12 year old Courtney Love.
March 10, 1977. One of the most well-known cases. Director Roman Polanski drugs and rapes 13 year old Samantha Gailey. Allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge, Polanski nevertheless fled to France before sentencing and remains exiled from the United States. He has not been exiled, however, from Hollywood and continues to make movies and win awards to this day. Eagles drummer and vocalist Don Henley was arrested in 1980 in Los Angeles after paramedics were called to his home to save a naked 16-year-old girl who was overdosing on cocaine and Quaaludes.
Colored over as a a “grand romance” and a “decades long relationship”, Celine Dion was 12 years old when 38 year old Rene Angelil became her manager. They went public with their relationship when she was 19.
In 1984, Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman started dating Mandy Smith. She was 13. Although they did not marry until she was 18, Mandy says she was 14 when they first had sex. Mr. Wyman has never been investigated, much less prosecuted.
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ lead Anthony Kiedis readily admits to having sex with a 14 year old girl when he was 23. According to him, once he confirmed her age he “had sex with her again.” In 1986, the 24-year old musician began dating 16 year old Ione Skye.
In 1990, 16 year old Mayte Garcia’s mother sent a video of her belly-dancing to Prince. He arranged to meet her, confirmed she was 16 and a year later moved her into his house. When she was 19, he initiated a sexual relationshi by informing her it was time to go on birth control. They married when she was 22 and he was 37. Before Mayte, Prince met “Anna Fantastic” when she was 15. At 17, she moved into his compound where they had a two year long relationship.
In 1991, 32 year old director Luc Besson met and eventually married model Maïwenn Le Besco when she was 15. Their relationship inspired his movie Léon: The Professional (1994), which followed an emotional relationship between an adult man and a young girl.
In 1993, Jerry Seinfeld picked up a high school student in a public park. He was 39 and she was 17. He and Shoshanna Lonstein dated for four years — through her college years.
Also in 1993, MC Ren of N.W.A. was accused of raping and impregnating a 16 year old girl in the group’s tour bus. The case never went to trial, however a paternity test showed that he was the father of the girl’s baby.
Noted paedophile R Kelly secretly married R&B singer Aaliyah in 1994 when she was 15 and he was 27. They met when she was 12 and he later helped write and produce her first album — “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number.”
In 1995, teen star Brandy (age 16) started dating 21-year-old Boyz II Men member Wanya Morris. Keeping their relationship under wraps due to her age proved too stressful for the couple and they broke up soon after.
In 1997, Woody Allen should have become notorious when he married his de facto step-daughter. Though she was 21 at the time of the wedding, the two met when she 8. No matter the spin, the facts are stark. This wasn’t the only time Allen dated a much younger woman. Actress Babi Christina Engelhardt began a years-long love affair with Allen when she was 16 and he was 41. When Allen was 42, he romanced 17-year-old actress and high school senior Stacey Nelkin.
It’s the early-mid 2000s and “That 70s Show” actor, Wilmer Valderrama, continues to date teenage girls in an effort to deny that he is now over 30. He dated 16-year-old Mandy Moore despite being four years her senior. At age 24, Valderrama dated 17-year-old Lindsay Lohan though they kept the relationship a secret until her 18th birthday in 2004. In 2010, the 30-year-old began dating 17-year-old Demi Lovato.
In 2001, Fast & Furious star Paul Walker (28 at the time) was dating 16-year old Aubrianna Atwell. This was not Paul’s last time to date a teenager. His girlfriend at the time of his death, Jasmine Pilchard-Gosnell, was 23 to his 40. They met when she was 16.
Back in 2004, 26 year old Joel Madden and Hilary Duff did the familiar dance of being “just friends” until her 18th birthday in 2006. When asked about whether she was intimate with Madden or not in a 2015 interview with Cosmopolitan, Duff stated, “I had a 26-year-old boyfriend. So everyone can make their own assumptions about what I was doing.” In 2005, clean cut TV heartthrob Chad Michael Murray begins dating a girl in high school. They get engaged when she turns 18 and Murray calls her a “little sweetheart” and says they have been together “for awhile.”
Similarly, in 2006, co-stars Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia began dating. She was 17. He was 12 years her senior.
Actor Doug Hutchison married 16-year-old Courtney Stodden in 2011, when he was 51 years old. The dysfunctional pair became famous as reality stars, with Courtney undergoing extensive plastic surgery to maintain their image.
Rapper Tyga and Kylie Jenner began “hanging out” an awful lot beginning in 2014 when she was 16 and he was 24. They dated on and off after that, though they became a lot more openly “on” after her 18th birthday in 2016.
In late 2018, 44 year old Leonardo DiCaprio publicly reveals that he is dating 21 year old model Camilla Morrone. It’s not the age gap that puts Leo on our list, it’s the fact that he’s known Camilla since she was 11.
2018 — 14 year old Millie Bobby Brown innocently revealed that rapper, Drake, age 31, has been close friends with her, for the last year giving her advice about boys. He texts her, “I miss you.” This is the same Drake who has, more than once, skated around that “just friends until she turns 18” line — most recently with 18 year old model Bella Harris.
1992 – Fashion was a major part of Kimora Lee Simmons and Russell Simmons’ story from the start. The pair met at a New York Fashion Week show in 1992, when Kimora Lee was 17 years old.
At the time, the young model was making waves on the catwalks and was particularly favored by Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld. She was also still finishing her education in high school.
Simmons was 35 years old when he started a relationship with the teenager. He was known as a “ladies man”
A number of women, some of whom were aged 17 at the time of the alleged incidents, have accused Simmons of sexual harassment, assault or rape.
Guys, this isn’t a friendship. This is GROOMING. No one will stop it. They’ll “date.” He’ll have sex with her, probably in a couple of years. No one will care because he’s a man and a star.
NO ONE WILL CARE UNLESS WE START MAKING PEOPLE CARE.
Make them care. No free passes. No 2nd chances. A ruined career is the least they deserve. It’s not cute. THIS IS NOT OK.
~ Verity Violet
My personal views:
Why have hardly any of these predators been prosecuted? and just as disturbing is why family and friends and employees of both parties involved seemingly turned a blind eye!
The true list will no doubt be double this length, also adding sexual assaults by Hollywood stars, music artists and others in the limelight that over the years were brushed under the carpet.
The culture of power, money and fame isn’t a defence, neither should the perpetrators be allowed to get away with it.
Too much victim blaming goes on in the world of stardom and Hollywood, even for the youngest of victims who are labelled gold diggers or fame hungry by many…. What’s forgotten is that THESE ARE CHILDREN!!
The Trailblazing Patriot 