An Obscene Betrayal
The United States District Attorney in Pittsburgh, Mary Beth Buchanan, has widely taken credit for rescuing Masha Allen and delivering Matthew Mancuso to federal prison. Now Buchanan is once again capturing national attention for a controversial obscenity prosecution involving fictional stories on the website RedRoseStories.com about the kidnapping, rape and torture of children.
The creator of the site, Karen Fletcher, is a social recluse who missed several court hearings in the case, United State v. Fletcher, because she is uncomfortable leaving her home in rural ...
Ethics in Adoption – what about the judges?
Judicial ethics typically require judges to uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary, avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and perform their duties impartially.
Last month, the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board dismissed a complaint in Masha's domestic adoption where the jurist who decided the adoption, Judge Cheryl Lynn Allen, was the adoptive parent, Faith Allen's, former roommate.
In addition, prior to finalization, the single adoptive parent changed her last name from Lynn Ginn to the judge's last name (becoming Faith Allen) with the judge's ...
Child Rape = Death
Last week the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the Constitution allows the death penalty for child rape. Sadly, this may be one case where bad facts make bad law. Although the rape in question caused horrific injuries to an 8 year old girl, there was no physical evidence linking defendant Patrick Kennedy to the crime. The conviction was based on largely circumstantial evidence and the victim's changed testimony which only fingered the defendant 20 months after the crime.
In reality Kennedy, who is girl's stepfather, is probably guilty and should be killed. ...
2007 Pedophile Roundup – the Year in Review
2007 was a banner year for pedophiles. No hyperbolic commentary or incredulous fictionalization can substitute for the raw truth and here it is:
On January 19, 2007, a 15 year old Bangor Maine boy was charged with a felony for downloading child pornography and became the first juvenile in that city to be charged with a sexual cybercrime.
On February 20, 2007, 66 year old former Orange County California Superior Court Judge Ronald Kline collapsed in court after learning that he was being sentenced to 27 months in prison for possessing child pornography. He previously ...
“I don’t understand why someone is not in jail”
When internationally trafficked children end up in the child welfare system, it's convenient to cover up a bad international adoption story with a good domestic adoption story. After all, the institution of adoption remains sacrosanct. If "guns don't kill people, people kill people," then truly "adoption doesn't harm children, pedophiles harm children." Adoption = good. Pedophiles = bad. Unfortunately pedophiles adopting = a public relations nightmare.
Luckily the Masha Allen International Pedophile Adoption Nightmare happened not in far off lefty Oregon, where the ...
Child Exploitation Cracks in the Floor
Two years ago, the Masha Allen story sent shock waves through the adoption and child welfare community in the United States and Russia. Since then Masha's story, which is recounted on my blog and elsewhere, has become the case study for not only everything that is wrong with the international adoption system, but everything that is wrong with the domestic adoption system, the child welfare system, the war on child pornography, access to civil justice by child victims, the guardianship and conservatorship system . . .
Masha is the case study for basically everything that ...
New York Times Censorship?
By now almost everyone has heard about the bizarre saga of renowned reporter Kurt Eichenwald and his New York Times front page rescue of teenage porn huckster Justin Berry. Oddly, over two years after it's debut, the story keeps circulating on the web and in the national news.
What isn't known about the Eichenwald-Berry saga is the curious juxtaposition with the Masha Allen story:
Consider the following statement:
“Viewing images of child porn is not essential when researching the issue," Eichenwald says. He described his research on Masha Allen, who he said at age ...