KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Federal
prosecutors on Monday unsealed an indictment against a man and woman
accused of training the woman's child to be a dominatrix, selling her
services and photographing some of the acts.
U.S.
Attorney John Wood said the case is the first in which a parent of the
victim has been charged with the commercial sex trafficking of his or
her own minor child.
Todd B. Barkau, 35, of New
York, and the 44-year-old mother were charged in the seven-count
indictment. Both used to live in Blue Springs, Mo. in the same
household.
From Jan. 1, 2002, until Feb. 20,
2005, Barkau created a venture to entice the minor to engage in
commercial sex acts, according to the indictment.
"The
court filings allege that Barkau obtained control of a 12-year-old girl
and he groomed, trained and forced her to become a sexual dominatrix,"
Wood said at a news conference in Kansas City on Monday.
Barkau
was arrested near the Niagara Falls area in New York and had an initial
court appearance on Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y., Wood said.
The
mother was arrested on Friday in Dallas and was scheduled to have an
initial court appearance Monday in federal court. The mother's name is
not being published to protect the identity of the victim, who is now
20 years old.
Federal prosecutors, who had investigated the
case for nearly two years, have filed a detention motion to detain both
in federal custody without bond.
The indictment
accused Barkau of training the girl, starting in 2000, and forcing her
to engage in sex acts with him and with other men while he watched.
According to the indictment, Barkau also had the girl watch pornography
on the Internet to teach technique and skills.
Barkau
is also accused of later creating a business out of a Blue Springs home
when the girl was 14 and marketing her as a 19-to-20-year-old BDSM
dominatrix on the Internet for about two years. The domain name has
since been sold, Wood said.
Wood said the
mother, who lived in Barkau's residence, assisted and encouraged the
child to participate. She is charged with participating in a venture to
entice a minor to engage in commercial sex acts and with inducing a
child who was in her custody to engage in sexually explicit conduct for
the production of visual depictions.
Prosecutors will also seek $80,000 the couple is accused of making through the illegal acts.
Lizard
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This is just SAD. I was going to post the link to the video, but it is just too shocking.
LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) -- Eight teenagers have been arrested on charges
alleging they beat another teen in an "animalistic attack" so they
could make a videotape to post on YouTube.
Seven of them
remained in juvenile detention Tuesday, authorities said. A boy who was
charged as an adult had been released on bail.
Victoria Lindsay was attacked on March 30 by six teenage girls when she arrived at a friend's home, authorities said.
One
of the girls struck the 16-year-old victim on the head several times
and then slammed her head into a wall, knocking her unconscious,
according to an arrest report.
Later, according to a clip of the
video that was released by the Polk County sheriff's office, the teens
can be seen blocking a door and hitting Victoria.
"It's
absolutely an animalistic attack," Sheriff Grady Judd said Tuesday on
NBC's "Today." "They lured her into the home for express purpose of
filming the attack and posting it on the Internet."
Victoria's father, Patrick Lindsay, said the teens intended to post the video on the video-sharing Web site YouTube.
Christina Garcia, mother of one of the defendants, said her daughter had turned the tape over to police.
The
sheriff's office said that after the attack, three of the teens forced
the victim into a vehicle and drove her to another location, where she
was told she would be given a worse beating if she contacted police.
All
eight suspects were arrested April 2 and charged with battery and false
imprisonment. The three teens who took Lindsay to the second location
are also charged with felony kidnapping.
Lindsay was treated for a concussion, damage to her left eye and left ear, and numerous bruises, police said.
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WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) -- Cars lining the street. A house full of young people. A keg and drinking games inside. Police thought they had an underage boozing party on their hands.
But
though they made dozens of teens take breath tests, none tested
positive for alcohol. That's because the keg contained root beer.
The
party was held by a high school student who wanted to show that teens
don't always drink alcohol at their parties. It has gained fame on
YouTube.com.
Dustin Zebro, 18, said he staged the party after
friends at D.C. Everest High School got suspended from sports because
of pictures showing them drinking from red cups.
The root-beer
kegger was "to kind of make fun of the school," he said. "They assumed
there was beer in the cups. We just wanted to have some root beer in
red cups and just make it look like a
party, but there actually wasn't any alcohol."
Zebro
purchased a quarter-barrel of 1919 Classic American Draft Root Beer,
and by 10 p.m. Saturday, the scene outside his rural Wausau home had
all the makings of a teen drinking party -- cars, noise and kids.
Kronenwetter
Police Chief Daniel Joling said an officer was dispatched to the home
March 1 on a complaint of cars blocking the road.
Juveniles
began coming out of the house after the officer used his squad car's
loudspeaker to warn that cars would soon be towed, Officer Jason
Rasmussen wrote in his report.
Nearly 90 breath tests were done, and officers even searched locked rooms for hiding teens.
"It
was a tremendous waste of time and manpower, but we still had a job to
do, and our officers did it," Joling said. "If one kid had come there,
even hadn't drank there, but had come there and
had been drinking
and had left and crashed and burned, then what would the sentiment be?
Why didn't the police check everybody out?"
D.C. Everest schools Superintendent Kris Gilmore did not immediately return a message Friday.
Lizard
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Yet another crane accident in Miami. What heck is going on here. Is it the same style crane? Who knows. But something is not getting done here, or certain rules are not being followed, for these cranes just to fall. OSHA is having a field day on these.
Are construction companies not training these people? Or are they trying to cut corners. Something needs to be done. People are getting hurt/killed. These companies need to start standing up and putting a little more effort into their safety area!
Lizard
The Best Hangout
