Trinity Mount Ministries

Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Serial Sex Offender Sentenced in Alaska and Florida to Serve a Total of 43 Years in Federal Prison:


Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Alaska

Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced the sentencing of a Maryland registered sex-offender charged in Alaska federal court for attempted production of child pornography involving a minor victim in Anchorage.

William Patrick King, 37, was indicted in Alaska on July 19, 2017, and arraigned on Nov. 14, 2018. After being charged in Alaska, King was prosecuted in the Middle District of Florida for substantially similar conduct and sentenced to serve 35 years in federal prison. Today, King was sentenced in Alaska to serve 35 years, with 8 years to run consecutive to his Florida sentence followed by lifetime supervised release. To protect the public from King, he will serve a total of 43 years in federal prison followed by a lifetime supervised release.

In May 2017, the 15-year-old victim notified Anchorage Police Department (“APD”) School Resource Officers (“SROs”) of being harassed and extorted by King. Records explain that King targeted the minor victim through the use of social media applications, attempted to extort and threaten the victim to self-produce images and videos depicting child pornography. King went so far as to photoshop images in an attempt to blackmail the victim into self-producing child exploitation images. King also created false online personas to persuade the victim to refrain from reporting his conduct to law enforcement.

The victim exhibited admirable poise under the circumstances and promptly reported King’s threats to her Anchorage Police Department School Resource Officers. During sentencing, U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason commended the victim for her courage and maturity. Anchorage Police Department was also praised for their work in the investigation of this case.

U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder stated, "A survivor's report of sexual exploitation to law enforcement is an act of bravery that greatly assists efforts to identify and prosecute dangerous offenders."

The Anchorage Police Department (“APD”) with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (“FBI”) Child Exploitation Task Force conducted the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of this case.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Alexander.

Topic(s): 
Project Safe Childhood
Component(s): 
Contact: 
Public Affairs (907) 271-5022 USAAK.PressRelease@usdoj.gov
Press Release Number: 
19-072



Sunday, February 24, 2019

Which States Have the Most Missing Persons?



Over 600,000 people go missing each year:

 BY 

According to NamUS, over 600,000 people go missing each year in the United States, ranging from young children to older individuals.
Famous missing person cases such as the Elizabeth Smart or Jayme Closs disappearances are well-known missing persons cases, but countless other cases never make it to the spotlight.
National Missing Persons Day—February 3—gives the nation an opportunity to focus more on finding those missing persons, and some states are even expanding those efforts. Arizona holds a Missing in Arizona Day each year where forensic experts and law enforcement take information, notes, and records about missing individuals in hopes of finding some of those people.
Below, we explore which states have the most missing persons to help keep you informed about this epidemic.
Missing Persons per capita map

Methodology

The team at VivintSource.com gathered data from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to see which states have the most and least amounts of missing persons per capita. State populations reported came from the 2017 American Community Survey one-year estimates.

Data Highlights

missing person is defined as “anyone whose whereabouts is unknown whatever the circumstances of disappearance.” They can be considered a lost person, someone who has voluntarily gone missing, or someone who is missing against their will. In our research, we uncovered some compelling data about missing persons:
  • Of the 15,207 people currently missing in the US, approximately 60% are male and 40% are female.
  • The average age of people when they go missing is around 34.
  • As of January 2019, there are 106 children currently missing who were younger than a year old when they went missing.
  • Alaska has the most missing persons per capita, with 41.8 people missing per 100,000 population. Massachusetts has the least missing persons per capita, with 1.8 people missing per 100,000 population.
  • However, California has the most missing persons in total, with 2,133 people missing. Rhode Island has the least, with 20 people missing.
  • The cities with the most missing people total include Los Angeles (189), Phoenix (170), Houston (165), San Francisco (163), and Detroit (150).
  • There are 12,459 unidentified persons as of January 2019.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Texas Fugitive Arrested & Missing Child Recovered in Sitka:


For Immediate ReleaseContact:
December 11, 2012Sr. Inspector Lisa Norbert, District of Alaska (907) 271-3504; USMS Headquarters Public Affairs (202) 307-9065
Texas Fugitive Arrested & Missing Child Recovered in Sitka
Anchorage, AK – The U.S. Marshals Service reports the recovery of the 400th missing child under Operation Pickup, a collaborative program involving the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), USMS and state/local law enforcement that targets fugitives who are believed to be in the company of a missing child.

Under Operation Pickup, the U.S. Marshals Service in Northern Texas and Alaska assisted the Amarillo Police Department in Texas in locating fugitive Micki Brogdon who allegedly abducted her son in November 2011. Brogdon was wanted by the Amarillo Police Department in Texas for Interference with Child Custody and the child was reported missing.

The USMS nationwide investigation revealed that Brogdon traveled from Texas to South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington and Alaska prior to her arrest.

On Monday, December 10, 2012, the Alaska USMS requested assistance from the Sitka Police Department which resulted in the arrest of Brogdon. The missing child was recovered and placed into the custody of the State of Alaska, Office of Children’s Services pending being reunited with his father.

On Tuesday, December 11, 2012, Brogdon will appear before the court in Sitka, Alaska; pending her extradition based off the Texas warrants.

The U.S. Marshals Service would like to thank the Sitka Police Department and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for their assistance which led to Brogdon’s arrest and the recovery of the missing child.

Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov.
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Friday, October 19, 2012

FBI - North to Alaska Part 2: An Explosive Situation in the Dead of Winter:

Federal Bureau of Investigation

North to Alaska
Part 2: An Explosive Situation in the Dead of Winter
10/18/2012
The call came in to the Anchorage Field Office early on a Sunday morning in January 2010. An explosion had taken place at a Fairbanks residence, and a 21-year-old man had been seriously injured.
After consulting with local authorities on the scene, our weapons of mass destruction (WMD) coordinator and other FBI personnel were not sure if the explosion was related to a drug manufacturing operation or linked to a terrorism threat. But everyone understood that our assistance was required, because the house contained a variety of hazardous, unstable materials.
Members of our Evidence Response Team (ERT), the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), and others from the Anchorage office gathered their equipment and prepared to drive to Fairbanks—365 miles to the northin the middle of a violent winter storm.
“It was 58 degrees below zero, with high winds, blizzard conditions, and black ice on the highway,” said Special Agent Derek Espeland, the WMD coordinator who is also one of Anchorage’s two special agent bomb technicians.
Based on the description of materials in the house, agents initially thought the man was making methamphetamine—meth labs are an unfortunate reality in many rural communities. The victim, who walked to a nearby fire station despite the sub-zero temperature, was burned and bleeding. He claimed he was building a rocket when it blew up. Before he could be questioned further, he was flown to a burn unit in Seattle for treatment.
After a harrowing drive from Anchorage that took more than seven hours, FBI personnel arrived on scene along with bomb techs from the Air Force and local law enforcement. The meth lab theory was ruled out, “but then you almost had to conclude that the guy could be a terrorist,” Espeland said. “Everything we saw in the house we had seen being used by terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
As it turns out, the 21-year-old was neither a drug maker nor a terrorist. He was just fascinated with explosives and blowing things up. He had legally purchased all his ingredientsof course, our agents didn’t know that at the time. And because the house was a public safety threat, Espeland said, “we couldn’t just walk away.”
To neutralize the threat, it was decided to employ several render-safe techniques using specialized equipment. But that was easier said than done. Robots and other battery-powered equipment were inoperable in the nearly 60-below temperature because the batteries were frozen. Espeland’s evidence camera froze to his face when he tried to take a picture—inside the house. Vehicles had to be kept running for fear they would freeze if turned off, even with warming blankets and engine block heaters. An extension cord designed for extreme cold snapped and disintegrated.
“The cold was drier than anything I ever felt before,” said Vicky Grimes, an ERT member. “It almost took your breath away.”
A command post was established at the nearby fire station, and after a joint effort, the house was finally rendered safe. “Responding to this incident reinforced our understanding that we have to rely on our state and local partners for assistance, just as they rely on us,” said Special Agent Sandra Klein, Anchorage’s JTTF supervisor.
The 21-year-old recovered from his injuries, andsince he had committed no federal crimeswas not charged. “This was a public safety threat that could have been something far more serious,” Espeland said. “That’s why we responded, despite the conditions. That’s what we’re here for.”
Next: A domestic terrorist with a deadly plan.

North to Alaska

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Friday, October 12, 2012

FBI Stories - North to Alaska:



North to Alaska
Part 1: Smallest FBI Office Takes on Big Job
10/12/2012
The FBI recently investigated a white powder letter incident in Alaska with the help of a partner law enforcement agency. “It took our partners two days to get to the place where the white powder letter was,” said Mary Frances Rook, special agent in charge of our Anchorage Field Office, “because they had to take a ferry and a plane and an all-terrain vehicle to get to the school where the letter had been sent.”
Welcome to the Anchorage Divisionthe FBI’s smallest field officewhose agents are responsible for covering the most territory of any office in the Bureau. That’s an area of more than 600,000 square miles, twice the size of Texas and packed with natural beauty and hard-to-reach places.

Anchorage

An Opportunity for New Agents
Of the FBI’s 56 field offices, Anchorage has the fewest personnel—but that turns out to be an opportunity for new agents assigned there fresh out of the FBI Academy.
“It’s a huge benefit for a first-office agent to come to a place like Anchorage because you get to do so many things,” said Special Agent in Charge Mary Frances Rook. “You aren’t pigeonholed here. Some of our biggest cases have been made by first-office agents. That’s not an experience you are going to find in a larger office because those cases usually go to the more senior agents,” she explained. “Here everybody has the opportunity to develop a case and run with it and be successful.”
Rick Sutherland, a former North Carolina police officer, joined the FBI in 2009 and his first office was Fairbanks, in our three-man resident agency. Shortly after his arrival, he was assigned a domestic terrorism case that recently ended with the subject’s lengthy trial and conviction. “Getting this case and this kind of experience so early in my FBI career was a great opportunity,” Sutherland said, “and it might not have happened had I been sent to a large office.”

Although the Anchorage Division investigates the same types of violent crime, public corruption, and national security matters as FBI offices in the Lower 48, “there is so much that is different here,” said Rook—and she’s not just referring to the bears and moose occasionally spotted on downtown Anchorage streets.
“If you’re in Anchorage, there are roads to Fairbanks and to the Kenai Peninsula, but other than that there are no roads,” Rook said. Getting to remote villages and towns requires a plane or a boat. Combine the geographical difficulties with extreme weather and one begins to understand how the 49th state can pose considerable challenges for the agents and support staff in Anchorage and our satellite locations in Fairbanks and Juneau.
Few FBI offices require snowmobiles to respond to crime scenes, but Anchorage keeps two on hand. The harsh Alaskan winters, where temperatures can plummet to more than 50 degrees below zero and the sun rises above the horizon for only a few hours each day, can make being outdoors seem almost otherworldly.
“It can be a challenging place to work,” Rook acknowledged. “But the flip side is that everybody knows it. So everybody works together. We work great with each other and with our local and federal law enforcement partners. Everybody’s got each other’s back, because you just can’t survive up here alone.”
Not surprisingly, it takes a certain kind of person to work for the FBI in Alaska. “The most successful Bureau people here are the ones who come with an idea that this is going to be a great adventure,” said Rook, whose assignment in Anchorage began in January 2011.
Special Agent Catherine Ruiz, who transferred to Anchorage with her husband last year from Chicago, agreed. “Every few days you will be driving home and you look up at the snowcapped mountains and say, ‘Wow, this is a beautiful place.’ ”
Bureau personnel who come to Alaska tend to be multi-talented as well. “We don’t have a lot of resources,” Rook said, “so everyone has to do a little bit of everything.” One of the office’s three pilots, for example, is also the polygraph examiner and a full-time counterintelligence agent. “That’s not unusual,” Rook noted.
“I originally thought I would come to Alaska for a few years,” said Special Agent Eric Gonzalez. That was 15 years ago. Gonzalez liked the place and the people—and so did his family. He added, “Most of the Bureau folks I know who worked here and left wished they would have stayed.”
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

DOJ - Protecting the Rights of American Indians and Alaska Natives:



Protecting the Rights of American Indians and Alaska Natives

November 15th, 2011 Posted by Tracy Russo
The Civil Rights Division is responsible for enforcing federal laws that protect the rights of American Indians and Alaska Natives, including laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, religion and membership in a language minority group.
These federal laws prohibit discrimination in education, employment, credit, housing, public accommodations, voting, state and local government services, and in certain federally-funded and conducted programs, among other areas.  The division also prosecutes actions under several criminal civil rights laws designed to protect personal liberties and safety.
 During American Indian and Alaska Native heritage month we are proud to highlight work that has protected American Indians and Alaska Natives.
President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have made the prosecution of hate crimes a top priority. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (HCPA) expanded the division’s ability to prosecute violence motivated by animus toward American Indians because of their race, national origin or color.  Working with U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the Civil Rights Division has prosecuted civil rights crimes victimizing Native Americans through sex trafficking, hate crimes and police brutality. 
In United States v. Beebe, Sanford, and Hatch (PDF), three defendants pleaded guilty in June and August 2011 for their roles in a racially-motivated assault on a 22-year-old Navajo man with a developmental disability.  Their indictment constituted the first time anyone had been charged with violating the HCPA. 
The Civil Rights Division also enforces the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act that protects the religious exercise of persons confined to institutions covered by the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, including Native American religious beliefs and practices.
In April 2011, the division filed a statement of interest in Limbaugh v. Thompson (PDF), challenging a requirement by the Alabama Department of Corrections that male inmates cut their hair short.  The plaintiffs are adherents to Native American religious practices that mandate that hair be worn long, particularly during a time of mourning.
The Civil Rights Division enforces the civil rights of Native Americans to participate in all parts of the electoral process, including voter registration, running for office, and exercising the right to vote.
Last year, the division signed a memorandum of agreement (PDF) with Shannon County in South Dakota to remedy alleged violations of the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act.  The agreement provides for a comprehensive Lakota Election Information Program to ensure that election information and materials are translated and disseminated orally in Lakota in a timely manner. It also ensures that limited-English proficient voters receive assistance in Lakota with registration and absentee voting, and that bilingual poll officials are hired and trained.
Further, the agreement ensures that on Election Day each polling place has an operational voting system accessible to persons with disabilities and persons with limited English proficiency, provisional ballots and written verification information, and the required signage. 
The division enforces the civil rights of American Indian students to receive education free of discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, color, religion or English language proficiency.
In March of 2011, the division obtained a resolution agreement with the Arizona Department of Education in which Arizona agreed to rescind its policy of mandating the use of a one-question Home Language Survey.  Instead, Arizona issued a directive that requires all school districts to use a three-question Home Language Survey, which will ensure that all potential English language learner (ELL) students are identified and assessed
 In the wake of the nationwide housing and foreclosure crisis, the Civil Rights Division has made enforcement of fair housing and fair lending laws a top priority.
 The division has created a dedicated fair lending unit in the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section and hired a Special Counsel for Fair Lending.  The division investigates allegations of discrimination in housing sales and rentals, as well as lending and other aspects of credit by entities such as car dealerships, commercial lenders, home lenders, and credit card companies.
The Civil Rights Division also has authority to challenge places of public accommodation, such as hotels, restaurants and movie theaters, which discriminate based on race, color, religion or national origin.
The Civil Rights Division will continue that all Americans are protected and able to live a life free from discrimination.
 For more information, please visit justice.gov/crt

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Alaska mother convicted of abusing adopted Russian son:

Jessica Beagley in court in Anchorage, Alaska, 23 Aug 2011 Beagley said her adopted son had emotional problems
A US woman accused of using extreme methods to punish her adopted Russian son as a ploy to get on a TV programme has been convicted of child abuse.
The jury in Alaska was shown a video in which Jessica Beagley poured spicy sauce into her son's mouth.
Defence lawyers said she wanted to appear on the TV programme after normal punishments had failed.
Correspondents say the case has outraged many in Russia.
The court in Anchorage heard that Beagley recorded the video for an American TV show called Doctor Phil, in which parents seek help over child behaviour issues.
Ban lifted Prosecutors said Beagley asked her 10-year-old daughter to record footage, in which she confronts her adopted son about his behaviour, and then pours hot sauce into his mouth.
In the video, which Beagley recorded for a programme segment called "Mommy Confessions", she could also be seen forcing the screaming seven-year-old boy into a cold shower.
Defence lawyers said she was desperate to appear on the programme after normal punishments failed to work on the boy, who they said had emotional problems.
"It is our feeling Jessica was doing the best she could," said defence lawyer William Ingaldson. "This is a very good, loving family."
Beagley showed no emotion when the jury announced its verdict. (More)