Recent Posts in Sex Offenders Category

In Sacramento, California, a United States Attorney  announced that United States District Judge Garland E. Burrell sentenced two men to 20-year prison terms today as follows:

David Wehde—Docket #: No. Cr.S-07-491-GEB

David Wehde, 24, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty to using a minor to produce images of child pornography and for receiving visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct via the Internet. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and a life term of supervised release upon his release from custody. He will also have to register as a sex offender and adhere to numerous other conditions of release.

Wehde came to the attention of law enforcement when a minor female from the Natomas area reported Wehde had contacted her via an Internet site called "espinthebottle.com," and that they had sexual relations. At the time the girl was 13 years old, and Wehde was 21 years old. During the examination of Wehde's computer, a forensic analyst found images and videos of child pornography along with Internet chats between Wehde, the 13-year-old girl, and a second 13-year-old girl from El Dorado County. In the chats between Wehde and the El Dorado County girl, the two discussed sex acts they had engaged in. The forensic analyst also found sexually explicit and provocative images Wehde had taken of this girl using his cell phone camera and evidence that he had sent one of the sexually provocative images to another person he communicated with via the Internet.

This case was the product of an extensive investigation by officers and detectives from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and the Sacramento Valley High Tech Crimes Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Laurel D. White prosecuted the case.

Russell Johnson—Docket #: 2:07-cr-491-GEB

Russell Johnson, of Tracy, California, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. On October 13, 2009, FBI, local, and state law enforcement officers conducted searches in the residences of registered sex offenders in a number of counties, including San Joaquin. Agents contacted Johnson and seized electronic media, including a laptop computer, central processing unit towers, external drives, and other computer components. In addition, law enforcement seized a thumb drive and three compact discs that had been tossed out of the window of the motel room where Johnson was staying when law enforcement knocked and announced themselves at the door. A subsequent forensic analysis of the computer revealed approximately 1,960 image files and 28 video of child pornography. Johnson has two prior state convictions for lewd acts upon a child under 14.

This case is the product of a joint investigation involving multiple agencies in support of the FBI's Innocent Images National Initiative. Both cases were brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC mobilizes federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak with the PSC coordinator.

Attorney's Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier are well known Los Angeles child pornography criminal defense attorneys.

The Los Angeles child pornography criminal defense lawyers at Marks & Brooklier are qualified to represent clients who have been accused of child pornography or any related crime. Having the most skilled and regarded criminal defense attorney will ensure you are provided with the defense you require to overcome the charges in your case. We provide our clients with the highest quality defense, including a dedicated legal team that is aware of how these charges can adversely affect your future. Marks & Brooklier has the experience necessary to present the type of defense that will allow a jury to view the facts without being caught up in the nature of the charges made against you. Contact our office for a free consultation

Authorities using DNA evidence have linked a 44-year-old convicted murderer and rapist on death row to a 1990 double homicide in Riverside County. Alfredo Rolando Prieto, who is already on California's death row and who recently received the death penalty for a murder in Virginia, was linked to the slayings of Stacey Siegrist, 19, and Anthony Gianuzzi, 21, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.

On May 5, 1990, a jogger discovered the victims’ bodies along a dirt power line access road west of the intersection of Canal and Alta streets in Rubidoux. The two were dating and had not been seen for nearly two days. Both had been shot once in the side of their heads and once in the back of their necks. Siegrist had also been sexually assaulted.

Earlier this year, Riverside County’s cold case unit submitted evidence from the crime scene to a private laboratory. The lab linked the DNA to Prieto. The department said it delayed notifying the public to ensure Virginia jurists were not influenced during the penalty phase of Prieto’s trial there. Prieto has been linked to nine murders and four sexual assaults, including the 1992 murder and rape of 15-year-old Yvette Woodruff of Ontario, the crimes for which he was sentenced to death. He is appealing his California death sentence.

In 2005, preliminary DNA tests implicated him in three 1988 Virginia slayings. Prosecutors from Fairfax County, Va., extradited Prieto from California to face trial for two of those murders. Prieto has operated with three other accomplices in the past, and authorities believe the Rubidoux murders involved one or two additional suspects.

If you have been arrested or under investigation for murder, it is important that you consult a Los Angeles homicide and murder criminal defense attorney immediately to begin planning of your legal defense. A conviction for murder can result in a lifetime sentence in a California penitentiary or even the death penalty.

Los Angeles Police will conduct an intensive investigation following a murder. If you are criminally charged, you will need an experienced murder criminal defense lawyer from Marks & Brooklier. Attorney's Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier have been successfully representing clients for murder or homicide charges for over four decades. They have the skill necessary to provide you with an exceptional criminal defense. We will conduct our own thorough investigation of the facts and study all evidence obtained against you in order to present a strong defense. Our Los Angeles homicide criminal defense lawyers are aggressive and are well-versed in a court room setting and look forward to assisting you with your case. Contact us for a free consultation, 24/7.

San Diego FBI Special Agent in Charge announced the arrest of Joseph Valencia Gonzales II, age 36. He was arrested by FBI and NCIS agents on Naval Base Coronado. At the time of his arrest, Gonzalez was sitting in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, using the restaurant’s wireless Internet service to view and download child pornography. FBI and NCIS agents arrested Gonzales as he sat in the driver seat of his truck typing on a laptop computer in his lap.

In a criminal complaint filed in United States District Court, Southern District of California, San Diego, California, Valencia was charged with possessing child pornography. Gonzalez’s laptop computer was found to contain at least 42 image files and three videos depicting child pornography.

It is anticipated that Valencia will be booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) followed by his initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge. If convicted, Valencia faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the child pornography charge.

This investigation was assisted by the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, whose members include the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the San Diego Police Department, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the Chula Vista Police Department, the United States Attorney’s Office, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the United States Marshals Service, the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the National City Police Department, the La Mesa Police Department, the Oceanside Police Department, the El Cajon Police Department, the San Diego State University Police Department, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, and the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. This case was brought about as part of the Department of Justice Project Safe Childhood (PSC), and the FBI’s Innocent Images National Initiative (IINI). Both are nationwide initiatives designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.

Los Angeles child pornography criminal defense attorneys, Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier are exceptionally qualified to represent clients who have been accused of child pornography or any related sex crime offense. Having the most skilled and regarded child pornography criminal defense lawyer will ensure you are provided with the defense you require to overcome the stigma and charges in your case. We provide our clients with the highest quality defense, including a dedicated legal team that is aware of how these charges can adversely affect your future. Marks & Brooklier has the experience necessary to present the type of defense that will allow a jury to view the facts without being caught up in the nature of the charges made against you.

Serving the Los Angeles & Beverly Hills areas since 1976, we have a thorough understanding of the complexity and details involved in defending against child porn charges. Having successfully defended other individuals against these types of charges, we are confident we can do the same for you. Our skilled and caring lawyers will provide you with the individual support and experience you need to fully understand the process and guide you through this difficult time in your life. Conact our office for a free, strictly confidential, consultation.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation to put some sex offenders in prison for life at a bittersweet ceremony for family and friends of a 17-year-girl who was killed after being abducted while running less than seven months ago.

Chelsea's Law is named for Chelsea King, who was murdered by 31-year-old convicted child molester John Gardner. He was sentenced to life in prison fter pleading guilty to murdering Chelsea and 14-year-old Amber Dubois. "Because of Chelsea, California's children will be safer. Because of Chelsea, this never has to happen again," said Schwarzenegger, an early backer of the legislation.

The ceremony began under a light drizzle then gave way to sunshine at an outdoor theater in Balboa Park, where Chelsea played French horn for the San Diego Youth Symphony. Many of the 200 people in the audience carried sunflowers, her favorite flower.

Brent and Kelly King, who traveled from their new home in suburban Chicago, thanked lawmakers for speeding the bill through the Legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support. Brent King said he was initially skeptical about the bill's prospects and had been preparing to sponsor a ballot initiative. Kelly King said the lawmakers were an example for young people.

The Kings, in an interview, said they plan to promote similar legislation in other states and have tentatively targeted Texas, Florida, Colorado and Ohio, the scenes of high-profile child abductions. They have not settled on a timetable.

The Kings have not been considering their new home state of Illinois for legislation because they want to shield their 14-year-old son Tyler from the spotlight. The avid baseball player has recently shown renewed interest in the game.

The Kings plan to use their nonprofit foundation, Chelsea's Light, to promote peer counseling programs  and to offer scholarships for college and other programs.

Chelsea's Law allows life without parole sentences for adult predators who kidnap, drug, bind, torture or use a weapon while committing a sex crime against a child. Life terms could be ordered for first-time and repeat offenders.

It also increases other penalties for child molesters, including requiring lifetime parole with GPS tracking for people convicted of forcible sex crimes against children under 14. Previous law permitted lifetime GPS monitoring, but most tracking ended when offenders leave parole.

Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, the San Diego Republican who spearheaded the Chelsea's Law legislation, said in an interview it would have resulted in a longer prison sentence, possibly life, and longer parole for Gardner in 2000 for molesting a 13-year-old neighbor. Gardner served five years of a six-year sentence and repeatedly violated parole. Supporters came to the ceremony wearing T-shirts with one of Chelsea's favorite quotations, "They can because they think they can," from the Roman poet Virgil.

If you have been arrested with a sex crime, you will need to consult a Los Angeles sex crime criminal defense lawyer who has the special knowledge of this area of the law. Attorneys Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier are qualified Los Angeles and Beverly Hills sex crimes criminal attorneys to defend you. You will need the over 33 years of experience that our law firm can provide you with. Contact us for a free consultation, 24/7, strictly confidential.