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dyllbrad
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: December 2006
Messages: 34
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UNION, Mo. (AP) — A pizzeria worker pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of kidnapping a 13-year-old boy who was found four days later in the man's apartment with another boy who had been missing for more than four years.
Michael Devlin, 41, is charged with abducting Ben Ownby after the boy stepped off a school bus earlier this month.
Devlin, also a part-time funeral home employee, remained in the Franklin County Jail during the arraignment, appearing through a video hookup. He is jailed on $1 million bond.
Devlin stood with his hands folded in front of his stomach, wearing orange jail-issued clothing. He mostly responded to the judge's questions with yes or no answers and did not make a statement.
Associate Circuit Judge David Tobben scheduled a preliminary hearing for March 15. But after the arraignment, prosecutor Robert Parks said he would take the case to a grand jury in February, negating the need for a preliminary hearing.
Devlin's defense attorneys told reporters they wanted the case moved from Franklin County.
"There's no way we can get a fair trial in this county with the amount of attention it's gotten," defense attorney Michael Kielty said.
Ben had just returned home from a day at middle school Jan. 8 when he was abducted soon after getting off his school bus. Another student who got off at the same stop, Mitchell Hults, saw a white Nissan pickup speeding away.
Devlin's pickup, spotted Thursday at his apartment in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, matched the description. Police entered Devlin's apartment Friday and found Ben and, astonishingly, Shawn Hornbeck, now 15, who had been missing more than four years.
Sheriff Gary Toelke on Thursday offered some insight into Devlin's demeanor inside the jail. He said Devlin has been quiet and mostly keeps to himself.
"He's being kept in a holding cell," Toelke said. "He's not being kept in suicide watch for now, but due to the magnitude and circumstances of this case we're keeping a closer eye on him. We'll just have to watch his demeanor and behavior."
Devlin has diabetes and reportedly had a toe amputated. Toelke said the medical issue was requiring no special needs at the jail.
Defense attorney Ethan Corlija said Devlin was being held in isolation as a "preventative measure."
On Wednesday, prosecutors in nearby Washington County filed kidnapping and armed criminal action charges against Devlin in the Shawn Hornbeck abduction.
Prosecutor John Rupp said the then-11-year-old boy was terrorized with a handgun into cooperating with his abductor when he was taken Oct. 6, 2002, from near his home in Richwoods.
"Shawn was abducted against his will," Washington County prosecutor John Rupp said. "Period. End of story."
A probable cause statement released by Rupp said Devlin "abducted SDH utilizing force for the purpose of terrorizing the victim. After securing SDH, Michael Devlin flourished a handgun in order to gain compliance of the minor child. Michael Devlin then transported him out of the county and concealed his whereabouts for four years and three months."
Washington County Sheriff Kevin Schroeder called Shawn "very strong" and "very articulate," but said investigators are being careful not to push him too hard because of his age.
"Give Shawn some time and proceed through this thing slowly," Schroeder said. "He's been away from his family four-and-a-half years. We've got to give him some time to rejoin that family unit.
"This is something so bizarre that the normal individual cannot grasp what this then-11-year-old boy went through."
BOY TALKS: Teen says he prayed for reunion
Kielty told reporters he wanted the case moved from Franklin County.
"There's no way we can get a fair trial in this county with the amount of attention it's gotten," he said.
Devlin also is under investigation in the 1991 disappearance of another Missouri boy who still has not been found. Investigators in Lincoln County called him the "most viable lead" in the case of Charles Arlin Henderson, who was 11 when he disappeared in 1991. He was never found.
Arlin, like Ben and Shawn, weighed about 100 pounds and was abducted from a rural area about an hour's drive from St. Louis. Both Shawn and Arlin vanished at age 11 while riding their bikes.
"If you were to take a photo of Arlin Henderson and you place it next to Shawn's picture, there is a striking resemblance," Lincoln County sheriff's Lt. Rick Harrell said.
Investigators began re-examining the 1991 case after Devlin's arrest. Detective Chris Bartlett said a witness saw a man snapping photos of Arlin before the Moscow Mills boy vanished.
Arlin's uncle, James McWilliams, said the boy came home from school a few months before he disappeared and told his mother a "tall, thin man" had been taking pictures of him.
Asked whether the man's description fit that of Devlin, who stands about 6-foot-4 and weighs around 300 pounds, Bartlett said: "It matched the description enough that we have to pursue him as the most viable lead."
"We've got other indications that cause us to be concerned with this," he added.
Lincoln County deputies have sent their leads to the Franklin County task force that spearheaded the hunt for Ben.
Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said his office and the FBI were investigating whether Devlin might have been involved in other abductions. FBI spokesman Pete Krusing would not discuss whether the agency was investigating a link between Devlin and the 1991 case.
as a kid i stand here to say two words
BULL SH*T
sorry if you're offended anyone but i am at his plea
dyll's jac's cousin brad is my boyfriend...
so wat if i kissed another boy in class and got caught
(THIS MAY WELL BE OUR LAST POST)
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I guess the reaction to being charged is always to plead "not guilty". After all a court and a jury are odd things and one might be acquitted.
Equally, he may be barking mad. He may have convinced himself that this is his family and the kids came to him willingly. The unusual thing is that they are both alive - something to be thankful for.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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tickie
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Getting started |
Registered: January 2007
Messages: 2
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Timmy you can say that again, the only good thing that came out of this was both boys were safe and now back with their families.
No one can come close to understanding the worry or loss of the parents of either of those two boys.
Thank God for there return. All I can say for the A.. Hole that took them, may god have mercy on your sole, for those in the prisons will not!!
Tickie 
[Updated on: Fri, 19 January 2007 22:13] |
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a movie that touches upon this subject is, I know my first name is stephen
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097553/
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
~Phil Ochs "I Aint Marching Anymore"
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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A very difficult movie to watch. Marc will recall that he and I met, some years ago, a young man who identified with the Stephen of the movie, except that he had not been abducted. He was molested by a family "friend". He came through the trauma of that, and is married with a young son nowadays. Quite a long story behind it, but not one I can go into here.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Yes this is really a hard movie to watch. I always felt that Steven was never given any kind of proper help by someone to try to deal with all that went on with him and his abductor for those 7 years. It is a sad commentary on how we treat the victim of such an ordeal.
Steven barely got out of the situation he was in by taking the "new" young boy that had been abducted to the police. When he did that he was discovered also and rescued. The book points out that his "father" and another boy were going to kill Steven so the new kid could then take his place. Luckily it had been raining so much that the plan had been delayed.
Even more tragic is that you learn that Steven's real older brother later became the Yosemity killer. This guy who took Steven screwed up more than just Steven's life and thru a bunch of bad police work, Parnel only got 5 years in jail and got out on parole before it was over.
It is really hard to keep the tears out of your eyes so you can read it!
Ken
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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The young man in the movie later killed himself in real life. The pity is that the young man Marc and I met identified so closely with the subject of the docu-film that he was also intending to kill himself.
I spent many long evenings on line with him showing him that he was worth something. I think he was 15/16 when we met, and his son was fathered when he was 12. Mainly showing him, a really proud dad, how his really great kid woudl be totally devastated by his death, got him through things.
He also turned for a lad who hated gay people to one who understood them. He managed, despite being abused from the age of 6 or so to 14 or so, to differentiate between homosexuality and abusing children.
The thing that puzzles me still is that his abuser was never prosected. I know who he is, and I know where he is. He works in a facility that give shim ready access to children. The local police are not interested, nor did a report to the FBI yield anything, because they need a victim to testify. They are not willing to investigate to determine if there are further victims.
However, there is a problem with people in the position of my young friend. Because they have been psychologically damaged in some manner, while one absolutely must believe that they allege something of importance and one must investigate it, one may not, precisely because of that damage, assume that everything happened as they describe it. The natural reaction is to lynch the alleged perpetrator, but lynch mobs do more injustice than justice. One must investigate carefully and formally.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Why would you want to make this your last post? I am concerned for the mental state of Shawn Hornbeck and I hope he is given extensive therapy to deal with what he has experienced. I hope that your impression of this site is not one of being unsympethetic towards the victims in this case.
Ken
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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Ken, they left that signature on after some sort of incident earlier. I imagine they will change it when they are ready
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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what kind of idiot defence attorney would advise a plea of not guilty when you're caught red handed???
unless he plans to put a defence of insanity, thats absurd
Odi et amo: quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
Nescio, set fieri sentio et excrucior
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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It's probably to do with plea bargaining. I suspect it is easier to alter from "not" to "guilty" than the other way about.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Mo. parents believe son was sexually abused
15-year-old, family appear on ‘Oprah’ after teen’s four years in captivity
The Associated Press
CHICAGO - The topic was sensitive — the sexual abuse of a kidnapped boy — yet it was broached in the most public of settings. On Oprah Winfrey’s TV show, the parents of Shawn Hornbeck disclosed for the first time their belief that he was sexually molested by his captor.
The revelation, in a show airing Thursday, raised anew the thorny problem of identifying sexual assault victims and dramatically demonstrated how the line between public and private has been redrawn in this 24-hour media world.
For Winfrey, it was a powerful interview and a scoop. For some experts on child abductions and molestation, there were qualms.
“This is a time to get to know one another and build new memories and heal, and they should be leaving these kids alone,” said Patty Wetterling, who became a prominent child-protection activist after her still-missing son, Jacob, was abducted in Minnesota in 1989.
Until the Winfrey show, there had been no public mention by any of the principals in the case of sexual abuse — even though it is a common motive for child abductions.
The alleged abductor, Michael Devlin, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Union, Mo., to charges of kidnapping another boy, 13-year-old Ben Ownby, who was found last week along with Shawn in Devlin’s apartment four days after disappearing. Devlin — who has not been charged with sexual abuse — is to enter a plea later in connection with Shawn’s abduction.
Parents suspect sex abuse
On “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Shawn’s parents, Craig and Pam Akers, said their 15-year-old son hasn’t told them directly but they believe he was sexually abused during the more than four years he was missing.
“OK, I’m going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?” Winfrey asked the parents. Both nodded and said yes.
Rona Fields, a Washington, D.C., psychologist specializing in traumatized children, said she was troubled at how and where the issue was broached.
“It’s not something I would think a 15-year-old boy would want to have broadcast all over the country,” Fields said. “This impacts on the whole rest of his life, and it makes me cringe to think people would be so careless.”
The communications staff for Winfrey’s show responded with a statement noting that the show had been pre-taped on a closed set with no audience present.
“Oprah, who has years of experience interviewing children who have survived trauma, respectfully posed questions first to his parents and aunt — and then to Shawn with his family present — so that they could share their message of hope with other families who have missing children,” the statement said. “As with all guests. ... it was their prerogative not to answer any questions posed to them.”
Media disclosure issues
While it is a policy of The Associated Press, and many other news organizations, not to identify alleged victims of sexual abuse in most cases, Shawn’s case has been widely publicized and his name is well-known. Also, the family has gone public, conducting several interviews.
John Butler, news director of St. Louis radio station KMOX, noted that — as in other child-abduction cases — the media initially was doing a public service by reporting the names of missing youths and could not suddenly withdraw them from public access.
“The name was already out there,” Butler said. “If we look at it from damage to the child, the damage has already been done.”
Similar dilemmas have arisen in previous abduction cases, including two in 2003. Utah teen Elizabeth Smart’s name was so widely known that there was no turning back by the media after disclosure that she had been sexually abused during her nine months of captivity.
However, many news organizations — after initially identifying a missing 9-year-old San Jose, Calif., girl — did stop using the name after it became known that she had been sexually assaulted.
Case-by-case approach
“Each case has to be looked at carefully based on all the facts you’re aware of,” said Dick Rogers, reader’s representative for the San Francisco Chronicle. “The facts regarding the 9-year-old dictated restraint, while this one (the Missouri case) seems different. You hope every newsroom slows down enough to talk about it and do the right thing.”
University of New Hampshire sociologist David Finkelhor, an expert on crimes against children, said the media should strive for sensitivity even in cases where an abused kidnap victim’s name has been publicized.
“In abduction cases where the identity is already well known, it seems to me that special considerations ought to apply about trying to ensure the maximum amount of confidentiality,” he said. “We should not start from the presumption that, because we are so personally involved in this case from having followed it, we’re entitled to know everything.”
Kelly McBride, an expert on journalistic ethics at the Poynter Institute, said the media should be willing to identify adult sexual assault victims if those individuals want to speak out on the record.
“When a victim’s parents want to talk about that, I have a few more reservations,” she said. “I don’t know that anyone can make that decision for anyone else.”
© 2007 The Associated Press.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16689051/
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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Parents: Abducted boy wants to help other kids
Shawn Hornbeck said to finally feel safe again for first time in four-plus years; 'doesn't want anybody else to have to go through' what he did
MSNBC
The 15-year-old Missouri boy who was rescued by police more than four years after he was abducted wants to turn his ordeal into something positive and help other families of missing children, his parents say.
In an interview with TODAY’s Ann Curry, portions of which were broadcast on Friday, Craig and Pamela Akers said their son, Shawn Hornbeck, told them he wants to become actively involved in the foundation they started in his name after his Oct. 6, 2002 disappearance. The Shawn Hornbeck Foundation helps educate children, parents and communities in preventing child abduction.
"When he told us that, the first thing we asked him is, 'Are you sure?' and his answer was 'Nobody knows what it is like unless you have been there,'" said Pam Akers, Shawn’s mother. "He has been there for four and a half years and he doesn't want anybody else to have to go through it again."
"He wants to be able to talk to other kids and help them try to stay safe," said Craig Akers, Shawn’s stepfather. "He wants to turn this into a positive to help as many other people as he can. We really admire him for that. It is going to take a lot of strength and courage for him to do that and I just can't believe that he has the strength to even say that this early on."
Four years in limbo
Shawn, who was 11 when he was abducted, and another boy, 13-year-old Ben Ownby, were found last week in the suburban St. Louis apartment of 41-year-old Michael Devlin. Ownby had been abducted four days earlier near a school-bus stop.
Devlin, a pizza-store manager and part-time funeral home employee, was arrested and remains jailed on kidnapping and other charges.
The Akers wouldn't discuss details of their son's time in captivity, including whether he was physically threatened by his abductor. But they told talk-show host Oprah Winfrey in an interview that aired Thursday they think Shawn was sexually abused.
Shawn told Winfrey he was not ready to talk about specifics of the 51 months he apparently spent living with his accused kidnapper. But he said he continually prayed for a reunion with his family. "I prayed that one day my parents would find me and I'd be united," the boy said.
Winfrey said the boy told her off-camera that he was "terrified" to contact his parents during the last four years.
In the TODAY interview, his parents suggested that Shawn was too afraid to ever try to escape, even though he was apparently left alone for hours at a time during the four years he went missing.
"You gotta to remember that Shawn was 11 years old when he was taken. So he was much more vulnerable then than he is now and obviously something was done to keep him there," Craig Akers said. "You know you can be bound mentally as well as physically. You can be so terrified and so afraid that it can control your life, which obviously it did."
'Tickled pink'
Craig Akers said Shawn, though now darker-haired and several inches taller, hasn't outwardly changed all that dramatically. "He is just so much like the boy that that we remembered from so long ago."
Shawn was also amazed his parents hadn’t moved any of his belongings. "To put his clothes away he had to go to his dresser, and there were the clothes that he wore nearly four and a half years ago," Craig Akers said. "Believe it or not there was one T-shirt left in that drawer that did fit him ... and he was able to wear. He was just tickled pink that ... it was left."
Asked how long it might take before "things get back to normal," Pam Akers said only time will tell.
"Shawn will let us know when he feels it's normal again. I will say the other night that he told us it was the first time in a long time that he felt safe. And that was just wonderful for him to hear that and for us to hear that. And … for me just to hear that he felt safe again at home that was just great."
Shawn's grandmother, Anna Quinn, told the Associated Press on Thursday that the boy has not spoken Devlin's name, and that he has said little to relatives about what he went through
Meantime, his parents are keeping a close eye on Shawn.
"If he is not with us we make sure that he is with his sisters. When he has gone outside we have been standing at every window just making sure he still on our sight," Pam Akers said.
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16690284/
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Here, one is presumed innocent UNTIL found guilty by trial.
It is THAT PRESUMPTION that warrants a plea of not guilty in just about all criminal cases.
After all, without the presentation of pertanant evidense there is NO PROOF of guilt.
It is with that knowledge that "idiot defnece atorney" protects the constitutional rights of the accused.
My question now is what kind of law student would not know this?
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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because people very often admit to offences, and plead that they are indeed guilty. When being caught red handed, a plea of not guilty sends a very nagative impression to both judge and jury, and tends to result in sentences at the higher end of the sentencing scale.
On the flip side, a plea of guilty is encouraged becasue courts give reductions in sentence for guilty plea, for a variety of reasons. In the UK, such reductions are part of the mandatory sentencing guidelines, and introduced with the criminal justice act 2003, but the practice predates the act by about 120 years.
certainly, you are innocent until proven guilty, but if all parties know you will inevitably be proven guilty, actually forcing a contested trial you cannot win gives a negative impression.
Odi et amo: quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
Nescio, set fieri sentio et excrucior
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He was charged today with multiple counts of forced sodomy, each count, if found guilty, results in a sentence of life in prison. Justice? Prisoners have their own code of morality and they don't like guys that hurt kids. Their sentence will be more severe than any court can hand down. I just hope the kids aren't ruined for life.
Tad Durham
Belfast, Maine U S A
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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In general it is not the act that harms the victim but the prurience of society and the media makikng them feel guilty over what they could not help. Physical harm we can usually recover from, but the odd social stigma of having been raped is a huge burden.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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I hope those boys, especially the older boy, gets some hugs and some unconditional love from his family. I dont care if he did seem to stay with the guy voluntarily and maybe he liked the idea of not having to go to school so that might have entered into things a bit. But that kid should not have any kind of blame put on him at all and damn anybody that does. He is going to probably suffer more than his kidnapper by how we all treat him so I hope he gets some good counseling and a lot of love from his family.
Ken
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Re: Man pleads not guilty to kidnap of teen 
