March 9

Events

1990 - Making the world safe from our mere fantasies - San Jose California Police Officer Brenda Herbert, using the name Barbara, met with suspect John Webster on this date to entrap him. He had replied to an ad in a "swinger's" magazine that read, "White female with children, seeks the right man who understands my needs and those of my children, society does not. Please be discreet. " When they met, she re-confirmed her interest in involving her fictitious kids in a sexual encounter, he agreed, and was arrested. Taped conversations show that Webster always spoke of such child involvement as fantasies only. This despite evidence the police doctored the tapes to make him look even worse. He was convicted at trial anyway.

1998 - A dream come true for the Gladys Kravitz's of the world - In the United States, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children inaugurated the CyberTipline on this date. The CyberTipline was set up to help people report cases of child pornography, child prostitution, child sex tourism, child sexual molestation not in the family, and online enticement of children for sexual acts. In the first year of operation the line received in excess of 10,000 submissions of information, 80% for viewing porn. No statistics were available as to how many of those reports led to arrests or convictions.

2001 - This ruling is brought to you by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - The all-Mormon Utah Supreme Court issued its decision that in the case of Lynette Franco who alleged that she was sexually assaulted when she was 7 years old by a 14-year-old boy in her Mormon ward. The court said that Mormon church leaders did nothing wrong by not reporting the abuse allegations to police. Utah law requires anyone with knowledge of the sexual abuse of a child to report the crime to police within 72 hours. Clergy are not exempt from reporting, unless the sole source of the information is the perpetrator. In Lynette’s case, the source of information was the victim. Associate Chief Justice Leonard Russon wrote the high court’s opinion in favor of the church, saying that claim, if upheld, would, "foster an excessive government entanglement with religion in violation of the Establishment Clause, contained in the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution." The decision resulted in accusations that the court was protecting church leaders under a "legal shield" from fallout from their counsel to victims of abuse or their abusers.

2002 - An enlightened decision or blindness in the system? You be the judge - In Wisconsin on this date, a man was sentenced to a year in jail and 10 years of probation for sexually assaulting his two daughters and a son between 1989 and 1998. Judge Fred Hazlewood stayed a 15-year prison sentence for Roger Wegner, who could have been sent to prison for as long as 40 years. Hazlewood called the assaults "pretty much near the top of serious offenses" but said Wegner is a good candidate for rehabilitation. A former state Department of Corrections psychologist, Gerald Wellens, testified that one evaluation indicated less than a 10 percent chance Wegner will become a repeat offender. A second test indicated a 24 percent chance, he said. Perpetrators of incest generally have a low recidivism rate, Wellens said.