Baby-Sitter Guilty of Child Porn

Aaron Jay Lemon, 23, of Little Canada, Minn. pleaded guilty to a single count of producing child pornography before U.S. District Judge David Doty in federal court in Minneapolis. He was hired through Craig's List as a baby-sitter for a 2-year-old girl in St. Paul. In the plea, Lemon admitted he coerced the toddler to engage in sex, and he recorded the incident on a video camera. It wasn't clear how many times Lemon baby-sat for the 2-year-old victim or whether he had a history of baby-sitting other children.

Lemon was charged Aug. 5 with Production, Distribution and Possession of Child Pornography in connection with the incident, which occurred in August 2007 in St. Paul. He was released in August on a $25,000 bond. Lemon faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. A federal judge will determine Lemon’s sentence at a future date.

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This is a case in which Lemon should never have had the opportunity for access to a 2-year-old without supervision. What interests me, personally, with this case is:

What kind of parents would hire an unknown person, with no references, from a service like Craig's List, to take care of their child (of any age) and have the confidence to leave this individual alone in their home with their child? To me it is no different than grabbing a stranger off the street and saying: "Here is my child and the keys to my house. I have somewhere to go. I will return later."

As it turns out, Aaron Lemon is the worst kind of pedophile. He wasn't just a collector of child pornography. He produced it. He starred in it. He distributed it.

Last year (2007) the FBI was investigating an unrelated case involving a man in San Francisco. They found evidence that someone in the Twin Cities may have been exchanging child porn with him. They turned this evidence over to The Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force which investigated the matter. It led them to Lemon. They got a search warrant for his Little Canada home and found evidence that "led them to believe he wasn't just a collector of pornography, he was manufacturing it".

They discovered, by checking his e-mail account and IP address, that Lemon had been in contact with the suspect in San Francisco as early as 2006. When authorities came to the apartment, which he shares with his mother, to interviewed him, Lemon admitted to exchanging and possessing child pornography. He was subsequently charged.

Lemon was also charged with distributing child pornography across state lines, according to the original indictment against him. He was forced to hand over a laptop computer and a pocket-sized digital camera when those charges were brought. Police found over 100 pictures of children on the computer, ranging from 6 months to 5 years old.

Because of the large number of images found on his computer, the ICAC task force plans to present the case to the Ramsey County Attorney's Office to consider additional charges against Aaron Lemon. According to the Justice Department:

• 1 in 33 children receives an unwanted sexual solicitation online each year.


• 1 in 4 children experiences unwanted exposure to sexually explicit material on the Internet each year.


• more than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week.

Recent research by the Federal Bureau of Prisons indicates a strong correlation between possessing or distributing child pornography and committing sexual crimes against children, a news release from the U.S. attorney's office said.

Erin Hammill, owner of Apple Valley-based Above and Beyond Nannies, consults 10 character references, five employer references, state, county and national background checks and a credit check on her potential employees. Individuals searching for a sitter should do something comparable, she said.

"There is no way that you can tell a sex offender. You don't just trust. You don't say, 'Oh, they seem like they're safe and sane,' " Hammill said. "But if you checked four references, you would have a sense of who they're dealing with ... And pull a criminal background check that's as thorough as possible."

8-Year-Old Girl Seeks A Divorce

When it comes to women's issues, there are 2 institutionalized cultural practices in some countries that I think are just plain wrong. One is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the other is Pedophilia. Both of these are practiced in Yemen. The following story is about an 8-year-old Yemeni girl who was "married" to a 28-year-old man with the blessing of her father.

8-year-old Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer. Even though she was too young under Yemeni law to bring charges, she found a sympathetic ear in judge Muhammed Al-Qathi. She also asked the judge for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse.

“My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage,” Nojoud Nasser told the Yemen Times. “I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’ So this is what I have done,” she said.

Nasser said that she was exposed to sexual abuse and domestic violence by her husband.

“He used to do bad things to me, and I had no idea as to what a marriage is. I would run from one room to another in order to escape, but in the end he would catch me and beat me and then continued to do what he wanted. I cried so much but no one listened to me. Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him. This lasted for two months," added Nasser. "He was too tough with me, and whenever I asked him for mercy, he beat me and slapped me and then used me. I just want to have a respectful life and divorce him.”

After hearing the child's story judge Muhammed Al-Qathi promptly ordered the arrest of both her father and her husband. At the ensuing trial the courtroom was packed with members of the press and human rights activists, who are using the case to highlight the need for more child protection in Yemen.

Her unemployed father, Mohammad Ali Al-Ahdal told the court he felt obliged to marry off his daughter after receiving repeated threats from the would-be husband and his entourage. He said was frightened because his oldest daughter had been kidnapped several years earlier and had been forced to marry her abductor.

Faez Ali Thameur told a judge that he married Nojoud with her consent and her parents', and that the marriage "was consummated, but I did not beat her."

"Yes I was intimate with her, but I have done nothing wrong, as she is my wife and I have the right and no one can stop me," he said. "But if the judge or other people insist that I divorce her, I will do it, it's ok."

In issuing his ruling, the judge said he was terminating the marriage because the girl "had not reached puberty." A provision in Yemeni law allows parents to sign marriage contracts for children younger than 15. However, the article states that a husband can only consummate the marriage when the wife reaches puberty. He annulled the marriage instead of granting a divorce, to stop the husband trying to reinstate the wedlock. He also ordered that the girl be removed from the control of the father who forced her into the wedding. In addition he ordered the girl's family to pay $250 in compensation to Faiz Ali Thamer. There were no provisions for any punishment for the husband, Faez Ali Thamer.

Shatha Ali Nasser who represented Nojoud Mohammed Ali before the court said:

"We are grateful to the judge" she explains. "Had it been someone with strong traditional views, Nojoud could have been sent back home."

Instead, Nojoud is now living with her maternal uncle, Shu'ee Salem Attabi'ee who said: "Nojoud is living happily with me and my eight other children. She is looking forward to going back to primary school as soon as possible." Nojoud wants to have no further contact with her father. According to her uncle, after Muhammed Nasser, the girl's father, lost his job as a garbage truck driver in Hajjah, he became a beggar, and soon after suffered from mental problems.

Shatha Ali Nasser confirmed that item number 15 in Yemeni civil law reads that “no girl or boy can get married before the age of 15." However, this item was amended in 1998 so parents could make a contract of marriage between their children even if they are under the age of 15. But the husband cannot be intimate with her until she is ready or mature,” said Nasser.“This law is highly dangerous because it brings an end to a young girl’s happiness and future fruitful life. Nojoud did not get married, but she was raped by a 30-year old man.”

Sex Tourist John Armstrong Sentenced

John Dickens Armstrong, 51, a registered sex offender, found out the hard way that certain crimes perpetrated in foreign countries can and will be prosecuted in the U.S.

Armstrong was living in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico when the Mexican police found him in the company of a 15-year-old El Paso girl. The teenager, a U.S. citizen, lived in Juarez with her grandmother at the time. She told the police that she had sex with Armstrong for money and crack cocaine. Upon further investigation it was discovered that Armstrong had solicited under-aged girls in a bar. He offered them $40 to have sex with him. He was also reported to have provided them with crack cocaine. Ciudad Juarez police officers arrested him for engaging in sexual conduct with underage girls.

When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) learned of Armstrong's arrest they conducted their own investigation and obtained an arrest warrant for him. When Mexico deported him, I.C.E. was waiting for him at the border. He was taken into custody and charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place, a federal offense.

A federal judge sentenced the 51-year-old man to more than nine years in prison (110 months) after he pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual activity with teenage girls in Juarez. In addition, Armstrong also received 10 years of supervised release after he's released from prison. He must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). He was already a registered sex offender in Arizona for a 1978 rape conviction.

"So-called sex tourists such as Armstrong are in for a rude awakening," said Roberto G. Medina, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in El Paso. "ICE and its law enforcement partners on both sides of the border are vigilant to this crime. Although we cannot restore innocence to those who sexual predators have exploited and abused, we make sure that justice is served on their behalf."