In 1973, Richard Ausley kidnapped 13-year-old Martin Andrews, raped and beat him for days and left him to die in a wooden box. Fortunately, Andrews was found by a passing group of hunters, but in 2002 he found out that his attacker was going to be released after 29 years in jail. Andrews fought Ausley’s release and lobbied lawmakers, and Ausley stayed in custody. Why? The civil commitment law.
The civil commitment law allows inmates who are considered sexually dangerous to be institutionalized at high-security treatment facilities even after they’ve completed their federal prison terms. Next week the Supreme Court will decide if the national civil commitment law will be upheld. Based on what several U.S. Supreme Court justices suggested during arguments recently heard in Washington, it’s likely that it will be.
Under the civil commitment law, more than 100 people have been held, and twenty states have such laws in place. The civil commitment law has strong public support, but is opposed by many psychiatrists, defense lawyers and civil libertarians. Critics claim that the understaffed and overcrowded rehabilitation facilities used for offenders are only detention centres for people the state doesn’t want on the streets.
The civil commitment law isn’t perfect. But there is only one way to keep a child sex offender from abusing kids: remove them from having contact with children – period. If we must lock sex offenders up in prison or let them sit in a hospital for the rest of their lives to ensure that kids will be safe – then we must do it.
Read the CNN article.
Eric Tillman, the general manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, was given an absolute discharge Tuesday morning after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his children’s teen babysitter. An absolute discharge means that he will have no criminal record, and will not be on probation.
Tillman first pleaded not-guilty of sexual assault after the charges were brought up in February 2009, but changed his plea to guilty before the trial began. During the last year, while Tillman maintained his innocence and was paid a salary by the Roughriders to work from home, the young girl faced scrutiny over her allegations.
The court heard how Tillman came up behind his then 16-year-old babysitter as she bent over to feed one of his kids, put his arms around her, and pulled her towards him. His defense is that he was heavily medicated at the time, blaming a mix of sleep aids and pain medication. The Judge in the case said that he believed he was sorry for his behaviour, and accepted that Tillman was under the influence of a mixture of drugs he was taking for a sore back.
Tillman announced has stepped down from the team; his resignation was accepted today.
Tags: eric tillman, sexual assault
Happy New Year!
It’s 2010 and for many of us, the new year means trying to stick to diet resolutions. How many times have you said you’ll drop ten pounds or stay away from fatty foods after January 1st?
While we make long lists of strict New Year’s resolutions for ourselves, we forget about our kids, who have been devouring unhealthy foods along with us all through the holidays. Children are freely given all kinds of treats that are high in sugar, saturated fat and salt. Research shows that many young kids take in a whopping four times their daily recommended intake of calories on Christmas Day (Carnegie Weight Management).
It is a special time, and everyone should indulge. I’m not suggesting cutting out your child’s favorite foods over winter break or limiting what they eat at Christmas dinner.
But, it’s a new year, and making a commitment to healthy eating should not only be on your list of New Year’s resolutions, but also on your kids’.
A great way to start eating healthy this year is to plan out weekly family meals. We tend to stock the shopping cart with whatever we’d like during the holidays, or let the kids nibble on snacks throughout the day instead of eating proper meals.
Rediscover veggies – fatty and processed meats tend to be the focus on holiday plates. Use healthy vegetarian recipes, or serve bigger portions of veggies and less meat at mealtimes.
When your kids feel like snacking, don’t let them reach for junk food. Promote healthy eating habits by serving cut-up veggies, fruits, low-fat cheese and nuts. The American Academy of Pediatrics also has a great list of 21 New Years Resolutions for Kids to help them come up with some healthy eating ideas for the year ahead.
Remember, child safety isn’t just about predators, or protecting your kids from immediate danger – it’s about keeping them physically healthy and fit, too. Read my other blog post on childhood obesity to learn how encouraging good eating habits and preventing obesity now will help protect their futures.
I was captured this Christmas by a story that really wasn’t meant for me. It wasn’t created for a woman in her forties, who survives on being a true realist. Where learning is a compulsion and there is little time left in my day for fantasy.
To add to the disbelief that I have gotten myself into this dream-like state, you have to understand, for all of my life I have had this fascination with vampires. Not the kind of fascination that would make me long to meet one, if they existed that is. Quite the opposite! Of all the mystical, fantasy creatures created by myth and imagination, the vampire seems to scare me the most.
So when the Twilight series first came out, I stayed far away. As always, I wanted nothing to do with the story, the characters and especially the image of a blood thirsty vampire biting down on the neck of on some naïve, love-starved girl.
But over the holidays, one quiet day when my family was out shopping, I curled up on my couch with my cat and puppy, and searched the TV for a good movie. I was scanning through the channels when an image forced me to stop.
It was this ominous scene between two young people, just laying outside – together – not speaking - just this haunting image – camera spinning – eyes locked, looking deep into each others souls. It took me a minute before I realized I wasn’t breathing and that I was watching the movie Twilight.
Vampires.
Hum.
I wasn’t sure.
I never read the books. Never wanted to – vampires?
But I was captured. I was memorized. And I know it’s ridiculous. It wasn’t the actors, or a lost youthful fantasy for Robert Pattinson. It was the story……
So I watched.
A vampire story.
Alone.
And I loved it.
I was embarrassed to be smitten by such a teen movie so it took me a while to tell anyone I watched it. But when I casually said “ Hey anyone seen the Twilight movie?” to a group of women in my office, I was quickly bombarded with “Oh my God Yes! You have to read the books!”
So when I opened my new Kindle at Christmas, I knew immediately what book would be my first purchase. Twilight. What I didn’t expect was to be taken away over the next week reading New Moon, Eclipse, and then finally Breaking Dawn.
In one week – I was captured. I have been completely and utterly overcome with emotion for this intense, melodramatic and eerie love story.
I realized that I had to blog about it but the protector in me started to over think it.
I started to think about how I can pull this connection together between how girls are attracted to bad boys. How I can make sense of the attraction to it all. How “love shouldn’t hurt”, and “if he loves you he won’t kill you”, and every other slogan we use as we try desperately to keep real girls safe in the real world.
But then it occurred to me – maybe I should just let it be this time.
Just let the story be a “story” and focus instead on celebrating an epic creation that makes us fall in love again – with love. And call out to all the other middle aged mom’s out there who have experienced the same attraction to the story.
So that’s what I’m going to do. Leave it alone and enjoy it. Maybe I’m just a silly girl after all.
I’ll get back to the crime fighting tomorrow.
Tags: New Moon, Robert Pattinson, Twilight, Vampires
Canadian police are warning the public about the release of Curtis Dale Hill, a dangerous 30-year-old man who was released in Edmonton after serving a 10-year prison sentence for seven armed robberies. He has also been in jail for break and enter, possession of stolen property, theft, assault, utttering threats, attempt to escape custody, assaulting a peace officer, contempt of court, and unlawfully causing bodily harm.
“Hill is both predatory and opportunistic and uses violence to achieve his goals. He is particularly violent toward authority figures,” police said in a news release Tuesday.
The police are releasing this information because they believe Hill poses a significant risk to the public. If the Correctional Service of Canada believes an inmate being released is a high-risk offender, they notify the police, who then decide to notify the community.
Hill will be monitored by the Calgary Police Service High Risk Offender Program, police said.
He has green eyes and a fair complexion, and is 5-11” and 150 lbs.
See a photo of Curtis Dale Hill.
Tags: canadian law, criminal, curtis dale hill, offender
