Lesbian's Attackers Caught

An unidentified 28-year-old woman was brutally raped and beaten for 45 mins by a gang of 4 men. She was then thrown out of her own car and left naked on the street. During the attack the men told her she was targeted because she was a lesbian. See the initial report here.

It was announced that all four suspects are now in custody. Three of them had been arrested following tips from local residents and the fourth turned himself in. Charged in this brutal gang rape case are:

• Humberto Hernandez Salvador arrested at his Richmond home. The 31-year-old was being held without bail on gang rape, kidnapping for a sex crime, carjacking and probation violation charges.


• Josue Gonzalez, 21, known as "Pato" arrested on a $1 million arrest warrant for gang rape, kidnapping for a sex crime and carjacking.


• A 15-year-old Richmond boy and


• A 16-year-old Hercules boy going by the nickname "Blue".

The 15 and 16 year old boys were being held on a no-bail status at the juvenile detention center in Martinez on similar charges as the adults. Their names were not released because of their juvenile status.

According to Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond police, Josue Gonzalez' mother saw the announcement of the arrests of  Humberto Salvador and the two teen aged boys on TV and the family received numerous calls from inquiring relatives. It was around noon when Gonzalez walked into the Richmond police headquarters with his mother, stepfather and girlfriend and surrendered.

Humberto Salvador "had the most involvement and gave orders and directions to the other individuals," Gagan said. "But they're all responsible for the crimes that were committed against the victim."

Authorities had offered $10,000 for tips leading to the attackers' arrest. So far the police have not distributed any money, Gagan said, but the community did provide helpful information in the case.

"The crime had an immediate effect on our community," Gagan said. "Locally people were very afraid to know that these people were out there."

Gagan said the woman is recovering. Community Violence Solutions, a nonprofit rape crisis center, has opened a fund in the name of Richmond Jane Doe to help the woman pay for relocation expenses, police said.

"We know that being the victim of this crime has changed her for life. I can only imagine that knowing these people are in custody is a relief."

Lesbian Rape Considered a Hate Crime

An unidentified 28-year-old woman was brutally raped and beaten for 45 mins by a gang of 4 men. She was then thrown out of her own car and left naked on the street. During the attack the men told her she was targeted because she was a lesbian. Authorities are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to arrests and prosecution in the case.

"I've lost sleep over this. I am sickened," said police Chief Chris Magnus. "While every sexual assault is a terrible crime, this particular case is especially horrific because multiple individuals acted together in the commission of this assault, and because of the hate-crime aspect."

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The victim, who police describe as openly gay, parked her car on the 1500 block of Visalia Avenue, Richmond, Ca., at about 9:30pm. While walking away from the car she was approached by four men on foot. "One of the suspects struck the victim with a (blunt) object," Lt. Mark Gagan said. "There was very little interaction between the victim and the suspects. From that point, the physical assault turned into a sexual assault."

"She was beaten, she was robbed and she was sexually assaulted," Gagan said. A few minutes into the sexual assault, one of the men told the group that someone was approaching and they forced the victim into her car. They took her to a desolate area near the Bay Area Rapid Transit tracks, about seven blocks away, to the 1300 block of Burbeck Avenue where they continued to rape her, both inside and outside the vehicle.

During the attack, which lasted for about 45 minutes, the suspects made several statements about the victim's sexual orientation. She also had a rainbow sticker on her license plate that identified her as being supportive of the gay community. After the attack, the suspects fled in the victim's car, leaving her there naked in the street, Gagan said.

After the men left she was able to get help from a nearby resident, who called for the police and an ambulance. She was treated for her injuries at a hospital and released.

Although the four men participated in the attack to varying degrees, they are all being sought on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping and rape in concert with an enhancement for committing a hate crime.

"It's rare to find four adults willing to condone behavior this extreme and violent. It's clear that some of them behaved as followers, but all of them are responsible for what happened," Gagan said. "They should know that their best chance (for leniency) would be to turn themselves in and cooperate with our investigation before we identify them and apprehend them on our own."

The police have descriptions of the four suspects:

• The first suspect, the leader of the group, was described as a Hispanic man in his 30s. He was about 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed 180 pounds and had black hair, brown eyes and a mustache.




• The second suspect was a black man in his early 20s. He was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed about 170 pounds and had black hair and brown eyes. He goes by the nickname "Blue."




• The third suspect was described as a Hispanic man about 18 to 20 years old. He goes by the nickname "Pato."




• The fourth suspect was described only as a Hispanic man about 18 to 20 years old.

"The Richmond Police Department is pleading for the community to come forward and help us find the people responsible for committing this vicious crime," Gagan said. "We are hoping that residents know who these people are. People need to pick up the phone."

Anyone with information about any of the suspects is asked to call Detective Ysenia Rogers at (510) 672-1717.

2 Daughters Raped by Their Dad

A British man was sentenced to 25 life sentences - to run concurrently. His name was withheld in order to protect the identities of his victims: His 2 daughters and their 7 living children. This because he is the father of his daughters' children. In a case that brings back memories of Josef Fritzl of Austria, this unnamed man had an ongoing sexual relationship with his two daughters for 27 years.

The two daughters were made pregnant 19 times; there were nine births, five miscarriages and five terminations. Seven of the children are alive but suffer genetic deformities.

After pleading guilty to 25 counts of rape, at Sheffield Crown Court, northern England, the presiding judge Alan Goldsack - calling it "the worst (case) I have come across" in 40 years of judicial practice - said the man should serve a minimum of 19.5 years before being eligible for parole. South Yorkshire Police Chief Superintendent Simon Torr said:

"The victims of these terrible crimes have asked me to state the following: 'His detention in prison brings us only the knowledge that he cannot physically touch us again. The suffering he has caused will continue for many years, and we must now concentrate our thoughts on finding the strength to rebuild our lives.' "

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Many questions abound as to how the crimes this man committed went unnoticed by the authorities. Despite visiting hospitals and meeting with social workers over the 27 years of abuse, no investigation was launched into the family. Authorities are investigating exactly how the rapist was never called to account by neighbors, teachers, doctors, social workers, police or his extended family. The 56-year-old man was only apprehended when his daughters finally broke their silence.

Prosecutors told the court that the man began raping his daughters in 1981, from the time they were 8 or 10 years old, beating them when they resisted. They described how the defendant used intimidation, fear and evasiveness to keep his secret. He warned his children to keep quiet and when they were older he beat them. Each daughter said she was unaware the other was being abused until the pregnancies began. "The defendant also ensured that his family were kept isolated and that there were very few visitors to the home," prosecutor Nicholas Campbell told Sheffield Crown Court.

"The victims were too frightened to tell anyone, even their mother," Campbell said. The court was told that the girls' mother left their father in the early 1990s, more than a decade after the abuse began, and it is unclear whether she knew what was going on.

The girls would be raped up to three times a week, and the assaults would continue through pregnancies. Their only reprieve came after they had just given birth or when they were ill because of the abuse.
If either daughter tried to refuse their father's attacks, they would be punched, kicked and or held to the flames of a gas fire, burning their eyes and arms, PA reported.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that people "will rightly want to know how such abuse could go on for so long without the authorities and the wider public services discovering it and taking action."

"If there is a change to be made in the system and the system has failed, we will change the system as a result of the inquiries," Brown said.

There were, however, telltale signs of the abuse:

• A school asked questions about burn marks on one girl's arm, but it was attributed to bullying.


• In 1997, the daughters' brother went to police to report the incest. But his sisters refused to cooperate and the investigation stalled.


• Medical staff also had concerns about the high number of abnormalities in the women's pregnancies. One doctor even asked one of the women whether her father was the father of her children. She denied it.


• in 1998 one daughter rang Childline, a charity to help abused kids, and asked for assurances about being able to keep her children if she came forward. When Childline could not make that guarantee, the daughter did nothing more to raise her plight.

"Where were the medical professionals? Where were the social workers? What were they doing for the last 20 years?" said Nick Clegg, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, who represents a district of Sheffield.

In June the two women finally reported their abuse to social workers leading to the arrest, trial and conviction of their father.

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Joseph Duncan Must Die says Jury

Joseph Edward Duncan III, 45, was sentenced to death by a jury in Boise, Idaho for the 2005 kidnapping, torture and murder of a 9-year-old boy, Dylan Groene.

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"We're happy with the verdict, but it's a shame — this should have been limited to one death," said Steven Groene, the father of the children. "He should have had the courage and the guts to kill himself before killing anyone else."

In his closing arguments the prosecutor reminded the jury of the many crimes committed by Duncan and summed up by saying:

"This defendant is dangerous. He is a predator who takes pride in his work," prosecutor Traci Whelan said. "He earned this day. His actions ... call out for the death penalty."

The heinousness of the evidence in Dylan's murder made it particularly difficult for the jurors to remain impartial as they deliberate, said Art Patterson, a jury consultant and senior vice president of the trial consulting firm DecisionQuest.

"Generally, for human beings, it's pretty hard to maintain impartiality when confronted with such horror," Patterson said.

"How could any juror not want to see this person removed from our list of living human beings? How could you live with yourself as a juror if there's any chance this human being could escape from jail and do something like this again?" Patterson said.

After 3 hours of deliberation, the jury agreed with the prosecutor and returned a unanimous verdict of death.

"The jury speaks the mind of the community," U.S. Attorney Tom Moss said. "By the verdict today, they have given voice to the victims."

Joseph Duncan had a long history as a violent sexual predator. He had spent time in prison for the gunpoint rape of a young boy in the 1980's. He gained national notoriety, and spot on the FBI's most wanted list, for his involvement in the kidnappings and murders that eventually lead to his death sentence. He was also featured on the TV program America's Most Wanted.

Duncan kidnapped Dylan Groene and his sister Shasta from their home, after brutally murdering their mother Brenda Groene, her boyfriend Mark McKenzie and their older brother Slade Groene. He had tied them up and mercilessly bludgeoned all three of them to death with a hammer. He took the two children and for the next 6 weeks repeatedly raped and sexually molested both of them in various campgrounds before shooting Dylan in the head and burning his body in front of his sister. Duncan was so perverted that he made a videotape.

At his trial jurors viewed horrifying video Duncan made of him sexually abusing, torturing and hanging Dylan until the boy lost consciousness.

Duncan was arrested and Shasta rescued weeks after the kidnappings when a waitress at a Denny's in Coeur d'Alene called police after recognizing the two as they ate. He pleaded guilty in December to 10 federal charges involving the kidnappings and the murder of Dylan. He pleaded guilty to the other three murders in state court, where he also could be sentenced to death.

With multiple murder convictions and a death sentence hanging over his head, the law is not yet finished with Joseph Edward Duncan III. Prosecutors in Riverside County, California say they know of Duncan's murderous past. Duncan is charged in the 1997 murder of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez, and they are still waiting to put Duncan on trial.

Duncan is suspected of abducting Martinez at knife-point from his front yard. Fifteen days later, Martinez was found dead. At the time of Martinez's murder, Duncan was wanted for violating his parole in Washington, as he failed a drug test and fled the state. Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said he's glad juries in Idaho are holding Duncan accountable, but now it's time for him to face justice in California. Despite the potential cost of a death penalty case, Pacheco says the Martinez family deserves to see Duncan tried.

"It's not something where you go, well, you can wait a couple years. We can't wait," Pacheco says. "We need him today. I understand Idaho needs to finish their stuff, but we need him as soon as possible. I can't wait."

For complete coverage of the Joseph Duncan case see KXLY.COM and also True Crime Report.Com.

Guards Guilty in Teen Jail Rape Case

It was a snowy day on Feb. 13, 2003. School at Pendleton County High School was canceled that day. An 18-year-old teen borrowed his Dad's car to visit a friend. On his way home he was arrested for speeding and fleeing from the cops. Little did he know at the time, but before he would see his family again he would be assaulted, raped and forced to perform sexual acts on prison inmates.

Two prison guards, Jack Powell and Clinton Sydnor, pleaded guilty in the case. Two other guards, Wesley Lanham and Shawn Freeman, stood trial....and were found guilty. They both face the possibility of being sentenced to life in prison when they face the judge again on Dec. 8.

The jury of nine women and three men deliberated for about five hours Thursday, Aug. 14th before announcing their verdict. Wesley Lanham, 30, of Dry Ridge, and Shawn Freeman, 35, of Irvine, were found guilty of conspiring to violate the teen's civil rights by allowing other inmates to sexually assault him in the 2003 attack. They were also found guilty of obstruction of justice because the jury also found there was aggravated sexual abuse.

"I just want to go home," Freeman cried as about 12 family members and friends of the defendants wept in the courtroom following the verdict.

"We will appeal. You can quote me on that," Lanham's attorney, Dan Dickerson, said.

The convictions are a result of a five-year investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, which concluded that the jail was violating inmates' civil rights. The case was prosecuted by Forrest Christian and Kristy Parker of Washington, D.C. The presiding judge was U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves.

The teen's ordeal began when the guards at the jail where he was being booked on the traffic violation decided to teach him a lesson. He was of slim build weighing only about 120 lbs. They made fun of the blond highlights in his hair, they made fun of his satin boxers, they told him he would make a good "girlfriend" for some of the inmates. Instead of putting him a holding cell, as was customary in such situations, he was put in a cell with 14 convicts.

The victim, now 23, graphically described being stripped, hit with jail-issued flip-flops, raped in a shower and then paraded around half-naked. He said the attacks ended only when he bit an assailant. He told the jurors that he thought the risk of being killed was better than continuing to be sexually molested.

"I was thinking, 'Oh, God, here it goes,' " the teen said. "I'm going to die tonight."

Upon learning about the rape assistant jailer Greg Wells, told the youth that he could take care of the molesters for a pack of cigarettes. "That wouldn't be enough," the teen recalled saying to him. All the teen said he asked for was medical treatment from the jail's nurse. His request wasn't granted.

"I told the nurse everything that happened, and I wanted to be checked for any kind of diseases, you know, any cuts or bruises or anything, and she didn't, she didn't do anything."

The jail’s former nurse, Sandra Cook, testified that her attempt to get the teen medical treatment for the assault was stopped by former Assistant Jailer Greg Wells. She said she called the FBI to report the jail staff’s actions when Wells said he would take care of the teen but instead just released him. Greg Wells, was never charged with a crime. It wasn't until the teen was released that he was able to get to a hospital.

In September 2005, the victim settled a lawsuit he filed against Grant County for $1.4 million.