WebProNews

Tag: sex abuse

  • Cara Labus: Teacher Accused of Sexual Abuse Was Warned About on Teacher Rating Website

    Cara Labus: Teacher Accused of Sexual Abuse Was Warned About on Teacher Rating Website

    Parents in the Chicago suburb of Joliet are dealing with yet another case of a teacher accused of having sexual relations with school kids.

    Cara Labus, 30, of Joliet is accused of four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse stemming from incidents involving two students from a school she used to work at.

    According to prosecutors, Cara Labus met the students at Jerling Junior High School in Orland Park while she was a teacher and basketball coach at the school. The school district had hired Cara Labus in 2006 to teach math to sixth-grade students. She left that job about five years ago. School officials there say they had no complaints about Labus prior to receiving a subpoena on January 12 or 13 about the investigation.

    Prosecutors say that Cara Labus knew the former students from her time at Jerling Junior High. They say that one of the students filed a complaint in December.

    Cara Labus was arrested last week and held on a $150,000 bond. She was later released when that bond was met and is now on electronic home monitoring. She may not have contact with either victim or anyone under 18 unless supervised. She will next appear in court Feb. 23.

    Cara Labus is currently employed at Hufford Junior High School in Joliet.

    During the gap of time between the complaint in December and Labus’ recent arrest, an interesting comment about the teacher appeared on the Rate My Teacher website. The comment is from January 4, 2015, and it is anonymous. It reads.

    “She likes kids. Stay away.”

    Other comments from Labus’ time at Jerling include:

    Apr 10, 2008 “she favors her basketball team people but yea shes still pretty nice”

    Mar 02, 2011 “i miss her sooooooooooo much wish she hadn’t gone away 🙁 “

  • Teri Hatcher Speaks To UN About Her Childhood Experience Of Sexual Abuse

    On Tuesday, November 25, Teri Hatcher spoke to the assembly at a United Nations event about her childhood experience of sexual abuse. The UN event commemorated the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and Hatcher recalled when she was being molested by her uncle, Richard Hayes Stone, at age 7.

    “I was convinced it was my fault and I blamed myself for what had happened, so I didn’t tell anyone and I was silent. I did, however, unsurprisingly, start to act out and my mother decided to keep me away from my uncle. I didn’t see him anymore, but no one in my family ever asked exactly what happened. We remained silent,” revealed Hatcher.

    Stone was reportedly the uncle of Hatcher by marriage and allegedly stopped abusing her by the time she was 8 or 9 years old. However, he allegedly continued to sexually abuse other young girls. Hatcher apparently found a current news article about an 11-year-old girl named Sarah from her hometown who had committed suicide, implicating Stone in her suicide note as having sexually abused her for years. Hatcher then decided to reach out to the District Attorney and cooperated with the office to get her uncle sentenced to 14 years in prison.

    “I am simply one in three women who is forced to accept violence as part of their life story,” said Hatcher. “This is a statistic that has to change. One in three women can no longer have to face a stigma and a fear that prevent them from seeking help.”

    “Until violence against women is not a part of any woman’s story, silence will not be a part of mine,” Hatcher added.

    Hatcher, who has made the prevention of sexual abuse her passion, also commemorated the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Monday, November 24, by helping to light the Empire State Building orange.

  • NFL Cheerleader: Former Ravens Cheerleader Charged With Raping Teen

    A former NFL cheerleader is facing serious prison time over an alleged sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy. According to The News Journal, 47-year-old Molly Shattuck was charged Monday with two counts of third-degree rape, four counts of unlawful sexual contact, and three counts of providing alcohol to minors. She was arrested on Wednesday and later released on $84,000 bail.

    Shattuck is a former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader and was once the NFL’s oldest cheerleader. In 1997 Shattuck married businessman and future Constellation Energy Group CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III. The couple have three children together. According to a Baltimore Sun report the couple were separated in March of this year. Shortly before the split Shattuck released a self-help book titled Vibrant Living.

    According The News Journal, Shattuck’s contact with the alleged victim started online. Shattuck had posted comments to the teen’s Instagram account in May. Shattuck’s phone number was later provided to the victim by one of Shattuck’s sons, who is quoted in court records as saying his mother was “obsessed” with the victim.

    Court records obtained by The News Journal show that the relationship between Shattuck and the victim became intimate over the summer, eventually escalating to incidents of kissing and groping in Shattuck’s vehicle. The teen has stated to police that Shattuck requested and received photos of him shirtless and in his underwear.

    Over Labor Day weekend Shattuck allegedly hosted a get-together for her children and their friends in a rented house. Court documents state that Shattuck provided alchohol to at least three teenagers at the event. Court documents allege that Shattuck performed oral sex on the victim that weekend. The teen has also stated to police that Shattuck offered to have sex with him, but that he declined.

    According to a TMZ report, Shattuck has been banned from her children’s school, which the victim also attends. TMZ reports that a letter sent from the school’s headmaster to parents states that “additional security” has been implemented.

  • ‘X-Men’ Director Named in Teen Sex Abuse Lawsuit

    A lawsuit filed on Wednesday has accused X-Men film franchise director Bryan Singer of sexually abusing a teenage male 15 years ago. According to a civil suit filed in U.S. District Court in Hawaii, Singer had offered the 17-year-old aspiring actor a role in an X-Men film, and likewise threatened to destroy his career, if the teen failed to acknowledge the director’s sexual advances.

    Jeff Herman, the attorney who filed the suit, chose Hawaii, as that state had enacted legislature allowing for old sex abuse cases to be filed. Though, the window for these claims closes next week, right in time for Singer’s upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, which hits theaters in May.

    The lawsuit details alleged sex abuse incidents that occurred in 1998 and 1999, mostly during parties at a California mansion, when the plaintiff was 17. The suit alleges that other casting couch scenarios occurred during two visits to Hawaii, adding that Singer “manipulated his power, wealth, and position in the entertainment industry to sexually abuse and exploit the underage Plaintiff through the use of drugs, alcohol, threats and inducements which resulted in Plaintiff suffering catastrophic psychological and emotional injuries.”

    Here is the final trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past:

    The lawsuit adds that Singer “promised acting roles to Plaintiff in an X-Men movie, in commercials, and in other of his projects, and professed that he would arrange for Plaintiff to audition for roles and projects in others’ productions.”

    A representative for Singer commented, “We are very confident that Bryan will be vindicated in this absurd and defamatory lawsuit. It is obvious that this case was filed in an attempt to get publicity at the time when Bryan’ s new movie is about to open in a few weeks.” The representative added that the accusations were “completely without merit.”

    The $250 million X-Men: Days of Future Past has an all-star cast including Jennifer Lawrence, Hugh Jackman, Peter Dinklage and Michael Fassbender, and opens on May 23.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Army General Receives Wrist-Slap in Sex Abuse Case

    A two-year court case involving allegations of sexual abuse in the highest levels of the military came to an end today as Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair was sentenced.

    According to a New York Times report, Sinclair has been ordered by a military judge to forego $5,000 of his pay per month for four months. The general was not discharged from the military and will be allowed to keep his pension and benefits. The general’s chief defense lawyer has stated that Sinclair will be retiring with haste.

    The sentence was far more lenient than many following the case had expected. Sinclair had faced up to life in prison if convicted of several of the more serious charges he was facing.

    Sinclair was originally charged with eight charges related to sexual assault, including forcible sodomy, indecent acts, and conduct unbecoming an officer. The general pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    Sinclair was accused of forcing a female captain to perform oral sex on him and issuing death threats against the woman and her family. The general has since admitted that the woman was his mistress while he was stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The case was further complicated when the case’s former lead prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel William Helixon, asked that the more serious charges against Sinclair be dropped. The colonel reportedly argued while in tears that he believed Sinclair’s accuser had lied about evidence found on her phone and had lied under oath.

    Earlier this week Sinclair agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges of misconduct through a plea deal with the prosecution. The deal led to the dismissal of the sex abuse charges, though adultery (a crime in the military) was still included.

    Shortly before the sentencing Sinclair had offered an apology for his conduct and to his accuser. The general called his actions “selfish” and “self-destructive” while stating that he felt “shame and remorse.”

    Image via U.S. Military

  • Church Sex Abuse Files Will Soon Be Made Public

    The Archdiocese of Chicago is planning to release thousands of pages that document clergy sex abuse allegations to victims’ attorneys. Allegations of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church have gone on for years, but if these attorneys have their way, the church will finally be held accountable for these acts.

    The attorneys will make these pages public next week. The records will include information about priests who have been accused of molestations and sexual abuse as well as those who have been moved to other positions within the church where they were still able to be around children and possibly molest them. The church has agreed to release the files of 30 priests within the church.

    “Until there is public disclosure and transparency … there is no way people can learn about it and make sure it does not happen again,” said attorney Marc Pearlman, who has helped represent about 200 victims of clergy abuse in the Chicago area.

    The Archdiocese of Chicago has already paid over $12.6m to 16 victims of sexual abuse and will likely pay more in the future as the attorneys figure out exactly which priests were molesting children and how long the molestations lasted. Some of the priests whose names are included in the report are already dead.

    The attorneys and victims say that they are not looking for money and care more about exposing the molesters and the church for hiding them and allowing them to continue working within the church and around children.

    “For me, it’s going to empower me again … and hopefully it will help others out there struggling to come forward and get help,” said one victim, who was abused in the early 1960s while he was a student.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons.