Boy Scouts of Babylon Round-Up, April 15, 2012
Vito Joseph Russo • Harry Brett Taylor • Joseph F. Zinkiewicz
Granted early release: Timothy Leopold, Jr., 27, assistant leader, Boy Scout Troop 34, Plain Township, Ohio, who was sentenced in January to one year in prison after pleading guilty to felony importuning (sexually propositioning someone of the same sex) a 14-year-old boy. In 2011, Leopold was convicted of two misdemeanor charges of importuning via cell phone messages to two other boys, one 12 and one 14. All victims were reportedly Boy Scouts. The Independent explains that for the 2011 misdemeanors, “Common Pleas Judge Charles Brown suspended a 360-day jail term on the condition that Leopold maintained good behavior for two years.” The most recent victim “was identified … after Leopold had been prosecuted for the original misdemeanor charges. Prosecutors say Leopold sent text messages, discovered on a computer seized by authorities, to the third victim, which led to the filing of the felony charge.” Story: Conservative Babylon, March 7, 2012; Independent, April 11, 2012
Trial delayed: Glen Matteson, 51, Boy Scout leader; assistant soccer coach, Chariho High School, Wood River Junction, Rhode Island; state prison employee; and married father of three sons; charged with solicitation of a child and possession of child pornography. Matteson was arrested in February after allegedly exchanging “inappropriate” text messages with a 16-year-old boy; after the boy’s parents contacted police, an officer continued the cell-phone exchange with Matteson, which reportedly turned “sexual in nature” (e.g., “Told U I was kinky … In fact send me a pic of U in the shower”), Matteson was arrested at his home, where police say they searched his computer and found images of child pornography. The Westerly Sun reports: “Pretrial proceedings were to begin last week in Washington County Superior Court, but the authorities said the case was delayed pending further investigation of evidence obtained after state and local law enforcement officials seized his home computers.” Story: NBC 10, February 22, 2012; WPRI, February 22, 2012; Westerly Sun, April 9, 2012
Guilty plea: Jonathan David Payne, former Cub Scout leader, Pack 181, Point of Grace Church (where it appears he and his wife led couples’ marriage groups), Waukee, Iowa, to one count of possession of child pornography. Sentencing, at which Payne — the father of two young sons — is expected to receive four out of a possible ten years plus registration as a sex offender, is scheduled for June, 2012. Incidentally, Jeff Mullen, the pastor of the Point of Grace megachurch (which has played host to such Republicans as Rick Perry) is running for Iowa state senate. Story: Dallas News, December 11. 2011; Waukee Patch, February 23, 2012; Waukee Patch, March 30, 2012; Des Moines Register, March 30, 2012
Arraigned: Joshua Roe, 25, assistant scoutmaster & former Eagle Scout, Wareham, Massachusetts, on two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 after he allegedly “inappropriately touched a juvenile male at his home during his capacity as an assistant scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts of America.” Free on $10,000 bail, Roe is due back in court May 3, 2012. Story: WCVB, April 11, 2012; WHDH, April 12, 2012; Boston.com, April 12, 2012
New charges: Vito Joseph Russo, 40, former 15-year Boy Scout volunteer and former youth camp volunteer, Independent Bible Church, Duryea, Pennsylvania, with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, indecent assault of a child, indecent exposure, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors. This is Russo’s third alleged victim; according to Citizens Voice: “Police said Russo came forward and volunteered information to Duryea police about the third alleged victim on March 20 while he was out on bail for a previous set of child sex charges.” A preliminary hearing on the latest charges is scheduled for April 11, 2012. Story: Citizens Voice, April 4, 2012; Go Lackawanna, April 4, 2012
Fifth judge recuses self from the case of Harry Brett Taylor, 47, former Cub Scout leader, Lawrenceville, Georgia, in custody without bond since July, 2008, after being charged with 32 counts of child molestation involving an eight-year-old boy and as many as 15 other potential victims, “including some of Taylor’s relatives,” who “came forward alleging that Taylor either had inappropriate sexual contact with them, made them undress in front of him, or photographed them naked,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which also notes: “Prosecutors said about 1,000 photographs involving alleged victims were found when police seized and searched cameras, computers and photographic equipment from Taylor’s home.” After the first judge assigned the case was removed because her “staff attorney is a former prosecutor who worked in the district attorney’s office at the time the case was indicted,” three other judges stepped aside without explanation; in February, 2012, Taylor requested a new judge. Now Superior Court Judge Debra Turner has recused herself “because her campaign chairman was the defendant’s divorce lawyer.” Story: AP, February 16, 2012; WSB, April 5, 2012; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 7, 2012
Charged: Joseph F. Zinkiewicz, 72, of Raton, New Mexico, retired teacher and (according to information received in an officer’s affidavit) former director, Boys Scouts of America’s Philmont Scout Ranch, Cimarron, New Mexico; with distribution, receipt and possession of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct; i.e., child pornography. Per a U.S. Dept. of Justice press release: “According to the criminal complaint, an HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] agent who was acting in an undercover capacity (undercover agent) engaged in communications with [a] Colorado suspect and learned that the suspect was a member of a group that used E-mail accounts to distribute and receive child pornography. In November 2011 … HSI obtained a search warrant for the E-mail account used by the Colorado suspect and was able to identify the E-mail accounts of individuals, including Zinkiewicz, who allegedly shared child pornography with the Colorado suspect. … On April 4, 2012, law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at Zinkiewicz’s residence in Raton, and seized computers and computer-media in addition to photographs and DVDs that contain child pornography. … Zinkiewicz faces … enhanced penalties because he previously has been convicted of a child pornography offense. Records reveal that Zinkiewicz was convicted of distribution of child pornography in the Superior Court of the State of New Jersey in January 2002.” Story: U.S. Dept. of Justice, April 5, 2012; Criminal complaint: U.S. v. Joseph F. Zinkiewicz, April 5, 2012
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