BIKERS FOR ABUSED KIDS

EL PASO, Texas -- An unusual child advocate organization is helping abused children in a way that might surprise you.

They may not look like your typical child advocates, but just try telling them that.

"I got my long hair, I don't shave, I don't bathe every now and then. We don't make excuses for it, but we are serious about the children," said one biker who asked to be called "Kong."

Kong and another biker called "Hooch" are members of the national non-profit organization, Bikers Against Child Abuse, or BACA.

Their mission statement says that they exist as a body of bikers to empower children to not feel afraid of the world they live in after dealing with the trauma of abuse.

It's something Kong and Hooch say they know something about.

"Being a victim myself, it made me feel I had no one to turn to," said Hooch.

"I remember the days I felt the coat hanger across my back. We want to be able to promote the fact that you don't have to be quiet as a child," said Kong.

And that's where BACA comes in. The organization works in conjunction with local and state officials already in place to protect children.

When one of those agencies determines an abused child is still frightened by his or her environment, BACA is contacted and an initial ride is organized to meet the child.

The entire BACA chapter rides to meet the child to welcome him or her to the BACA family and to offer support, protection and love.

They say they stand ready to represent, be it by attending often painful court appearances or helping with the recovery process.

But while they look like tough guys, BACA draws the line at physical violence.

"We're not vigilantes. We're not out to hunt down the bad people and beat 'em up and bring 'em to justice," said Hooch.

Unfortunately, Kong and Hooch aren't representing any children here in El Paso right now. They need five members to start a BACA chapter, and so far, they only have each other.

"You got a bike, you're over 18, then come on! If you're heart's big enough," said Kong.

A big heart does seem to be a requirement. "It would be great if there was no such thing as abused children," said Hooch. But until that becomes a reality, he says, "we'll go all over. We'll go wherever we're needed.

And to those who continue to harm the innocent, Kong and Hooch say, beware.

"Be afraid of it if you're a perpetrator, and if they don't see us, they'll hear our bikes. They will hear our roar," Kong said.

And both Kong and Hooch hope it will be the roar of many.

If you are interested in forming a BACA chapter, call Kong at (915) 356-6394 or e-mail him at bacakong@yahoo.com.

ABUSED CHILDREN GET COURT RIGHTS

LOS ANGELES (KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO) --


Neglected and abused children in California now have the right to take part in court hearings that will determine their future. That's the effect of a new law signed yesterday by Governor Schwarzenegger, in response to concerns about judges making life-changing decisions for kids they haven't even met.

Children involved in such cases will now be able to attend court hearings, and even address the judge if they want.


MMVIII KNX Radio, All Rights Reserved.

NECESITA RESIGNARSE PRA SALVAR LA IGLESIA

CANTERBURY (Reuters) - Sudan's Anglican church leader called for the resignation of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson on Tuesday to save Anglicanism from schism.

"He should resign for the sake of the church," Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul told reporters at a once-in-a-decade summit of Anglican leaders.

"God is not making a mistake creating Adam and Eve. He would have created two Adams if he wanted," he said.

A quarter of the world's Anglican bishops have boycotted the Lambeth Conference in an angry war of words between conservatives and liberals over the ordination of Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the 450-year-old church's history.

"We are for the Anglican world and we want the Anglican world to remain united," the Sudanese archbishop said.

"Over 300 bishops have stayed away from this conference because of Gene Robinson," he added. "The norms of the Anglican communion have been violated."

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, decided not to invite Robinson to the Lmabeth Conference -- but he still came to the cathedral city on Monday to meet supporters on the fringes of the summit.

In a joint statement, Sudanese bishops accused North American church leaders of ridiculing Anglicanism and destroying its credibility by ordaining gay American clergy and blessing same-sex unions in Canada.

"We appeal to this Lambeth Conference to rescue the Anglican Communion from being divided," they said.

Williams launched the conference on Monday by dismissing talk of schism and urging dissident conservatives to remain within the fold.

"We are sorry you are not here," he said of the conservatives who staged their own conference last month and decided to set up their own council of bishops to provide an alternative to churches preaching what they called a "false gospel" of sexual immorality.

But Williams did not see the end in sight for the 450-year-old church that boasts almost 80 million followers.

"Are we heading for schism? Well let's see. If this is the end of the Anglican Communion, I don't think anyone has told most of the people here," he said.

But there are clearly huge obstacles to be overcome.

A group of bishops appointed by Williams to try and find a solution to the crisis concluded in a presentation to the conference "We are at an impasse."

"There has been active fear-mongering, deliberate distortion and demonizing. Politicization has overtaken Christian discernment."

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

QUE BRUTO ESTE HOMBRE - SE CREE DIOS?

By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer

ELDORADO, Texas - Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, already convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice and awaiting trial in Arizona on other charges related to underage marriages, is now accused of assaulting a girl in Texas in January 2005.


A grand jury in this tiny western Texas ranching community indicted Jeffs and four of his followers Tuesday on charges of felony sexual assault of a child. Another was indicted for failing to report child abuse.

The charges came nearly two months after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that child welfare officials overstepped when they took all the children from the polygamist sect's ranch in a separate child custody case. The state had accused the sect of forcing underage girls into marriage and motherhood.

While authorities sorted out the custody dispute in civil court, law enforcement continued a criminal investigation by sifting through hundreds of boxes of documents, photos and family Bibles seized from the Yearning For Zion Ranch during an April raid.

State Attorney General Greg Abbott said five members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are charged with one count of sexually assaulting girls under age 17, a felony. One of them, not the 52-year-old Jeffs, faces an additional charge of bigamy.

Abbott said a sixth member of the FLDS is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse.

"Our investigation in this matter is not concluded," said the attorney general, whose office is acting as the special prosecutor in the case.

The grand jury will continue consideration of other possible criminal charges on Aug. 21, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity because proceedings of the panel are secret by law.

The identities of the Jeffs' followers who were indicted were not released Tuesday because the indictments remain sealed until authorities can arrest the men. Jeffs is in custody in Arizona.

"There will be an aggressive effort to apprehend them," Abbott said when asked whether he was concerned the men might have fled Texas.

FLDS members have historically lived around the Arizona-Utah line and bought the YFZ ranch in Eldorado about five years ago.

"We're actually quite shocked. As soon as we know who they're looking for, we'll try to face it," Willie Jessop, a church member and spokesman, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. "We believe in our innocence."

He said he didn't know who was indicted and that no one from law enforcement had tried to enter the ranch Tuesday evening.

More than 400 children from the ranch had been placed in foster care in April. The Texas Supreme Court said officials had evidence that only a few teenage girls were abused or at risk, and many of the children taken from their parents were infants and toddlers.

The criminal charges came during the grand jury's second meeting on the case; it met in June without taking any action.

Abbott spent Tuesday in the small community building where the panel was meeting near the courthouse. Women and girls in prairie dresses, including a 16-year-old daughter of Jeffs, were escorted in and out, while lawyers and FLDS members crowded a bench in front of the courthouse.

Grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret, but documents released as part of the child custody case have revealed some of the evidence collected by law enforcement during the weeklong raid that began April 3.

Investigators said they found photos of Jeffs in intimate embraces and kissing several apparently underage girls.

A journal entry purportedly from Jeffs attached to a report by a child advocate indicates he married his daughter to a 34-year-old man the day after she turned 15. The girl turns 17 on Saturday and has denied being married, though the child advocate report indicates intimate notes between the girl and man also were found in the raid.

Besides discussions of the girl's marriage, the journal entry also indicates Jeffs blessed marriages of two other underage sect members to himself and another member.

FLDS leaders have consistently denied there was any abuse at the ranch and vowed not to sanction underage marriages.

Under Texas law, a girl younger than 17 cannot generally consent to sex with an adult. Bigamy is also illegal in Texas, and although FLDS plural marriages were not licensed by the state, the law contains a provision outlawing the act of "purporting to marry" more than one person.

The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glory in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which officially renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

TODO POR TENER UN BEBE

PITTSBURGH - A woman accused of slicing open a pregnant woman's belly and taking her baby was obsessed with getting an infant and even had hallucinations of hearing babies cry after a February 1990 miscarriage, according to court records.

A few months later, Andrea Curry-Demus allegedly stabbed one woman in an apparent plot to steal her newborn; the next day, she allegedly kidnapped another baby from a hospital.

Curry-Demus, 38, of Wilkinsburg, was charged Sunday with homicide, kidnapping and related offenses in the death of Kia Johnson, 18.

Johnson's decomposing body, with her wrists and ankles bound by duct tape and layers of tape and plastic covering much of her head, was found Friday in Curry-Demus' apartment. A day earlier Curry-Demus had taken the baby to a hospital, claiming first that she was the mother and later that she paid for the child.

Court records show a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Friday. Curry-Demus' attorney, Angela Carsia, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that her client plans to plead not guilty.

Authorities say the two women met at the Allegheny County jail on July 15 while visiting different inmates.

Court records for Curry-Demus' 1990 criminal cases paint a picture of a woman apparently unable to deal with the loss of her own child in her seventh month of pregnancy. She was 21 at the time, and told authorities she also had miscarried at age 12.

"While she admitted committing the offenses, she had great difficulty in verbalizing her feelings or motivations other than to mention the loss of her own child due to a miscarriage several months prior to the present offenses," according to a presentence report prepared for the two criminal cases.

According to court records, Curry-Demus visited Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh in the spring of 1990 and she befriended a woman who had recently given birth there.

They exchanged numbers and Curry-Demus called the woman a few days later, telling her she wanted to visit the baby and bring some clothes. She spent the day with the woman, her husband and the new baby and even asked to stay overnight.

The woman wasn't comfortable with that and a jitney was called for Curry-Demus in the early morning of May 5. While the woman was looking out the window for the jitney, Curry-Demus grabbed her from behind and stabbed her in the back. Curry-Demus fled when the woman called for her husband.

Hours later, Curry-Demus visited another hospital and met a young mother whose 3-week-old baby was being treated for meningitis. The next day — May 6 — several nurses saw Curry-Demus at the hospital and later noticed the baby was missing.

Police located Curry-Demus by tracing calls made from the hospital to Curry-Demus' mother. The baby was recovered unharmed.

Curry-Demus pleaded guilty in January 1991 to kidnapping, concealment of the whereabouts of child and related offenses and was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in state prison for taking the baby from the hospital. She also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the stabbing case and received 10 years' probation. She was released in 1998.

While awaiting resolution of the 1990 cases, Curry-Demus was twice briefly committed to a state mental hospital. An examination found her to be "in the midst of a major depressive episode." She also reported auditory hallucinations — that she kept "hearing babies cry."

She was found competent to stand trial, but also diagnosed with major depression and a mixed personality disorder. She graduated high school, but tests showed she had a "borderline intelligence level."

Johnson's funeral will be Friday in McKeesport, her family announced. In obituary information provided by a funeral home, the family said Johnson volunteered with the Salvation Army, helping with the homeless and day care.

The family has named her son after her: Terrell Kian Johnson.

LA MAMA SABIA

ORLANDO, Fla. - The mother of a missing 2-year-old is a person of interest in a case that is beginning to look like a homicide, prosecutors said Tuesday. Sheriff's deputies said they still hope to find the girl alive.

Casey Anthony, 22, is charged only with child neglect and lying to investigators. Circuit Court Judge Stan Strickland set her bond at $500,000 Tuesday, saying the law did not allow him to hold her without bail.

He set the unusually high amount after hearing about evidence of human decomposition allegedly found in Anthony's yard and car. Her daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony, has been missing since mid-June.

"Not a bit of useful information has been provided by Ms. Anthony as to the whereabouts of her daughter," Strickland said. "And I would add that the truth and Ms. Anthony are strangers."

Anthony is charged with child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. Authorities say she did not report the girl missing until last week, and only then at her own mother's insistence.

Sheriff's deputies said Anthony's car smelled of decomposition, and a cadaver-trained German shepherd noted a smell of human remains in the car and her yard. They said they found a stain, dirt and what seemed to be Caylee's hair in Anthony's trunk. A search of the yard turned up no body.

"The risk of her flight if she is released on some low bond increases exponentially, especially now that she's heard this additional evidence and that she is their person of interest," said assistant state attorney Linda Drane-Burdick.

Deputies emphasized they were still looking for the girl — alive — and urged anyone with information to step forward.

Defense attorney Jose Baez requested bond around $10,000. He said Anthony's family can't pay a high bond and she has the right to freedom while facing lesser charges.

"This is not a capital case, and if it were they certainly would file it, if they had evidence to," Baez said. "There is circumstantial evidence of a possible homicide, I will give them that. But circumstantial evidence has not made them confident enough to charge her with any specific homicide or kidnapping, or any capital offense."

Anthony's parents became concerned after her car was towed from a check-cashing business where it had been parked for days. She and the child lived with her parents, and she told them she worked as an event planner at an area theme park.

Investigators say Anthony was unemployed, and a purported babysitter seems to never have existed. The mother and child hadn't been home in the month before investigators were notified that Caylee was missing. Investigators believe the girl's father is dead.

Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, acknowledged in court that her daughter had lied before, but said she was a caring mom. The registered nurse believes the girl is alive, and Casey Anthony lied to police because she was somehow threatened. Cindy Anthony said she would even sell her house to free her daughter.

"I know Casey as a person," she said. "I know what she is for a mother and I know there's only one or two reasons why Casey would be withholding something about Caylee. I believe that it's something that someone is holding over her and threatening her in some way."

Casey Anthony's face filled with tears at the hearing, watching her parents at the witness stand and again after Strickland set bail.

"Casey, we love you!" yelled Cindy Anthony as the courtroom cleared.

Her daughter nodded and sobbed before being led away in chains.

SI LA MATO!

Woman pleads innocent to killing pregnant woman

KENNEWICK, Wash. - A woman pleaded innocent Thursday to stabbing a pregnant woman to death and cutting the baby out of her womb.

The charge of aggravated first-degree murder against Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong, 23, carries either the death penalty or life in prison without parole, if she is convicted. Prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
Araceli Camacho Gomez, 27, was found dead in a city park on June 27, stabbed multiple times. Her baby had been cut from her body.
Police have said Sisouvanh Synhavong tried to pass off the baby as her own in calls to emergency dispatchers. Authorities have said there was no evidence the women knew each other.
The baby boy is in serious condition at a hospital in Spokane. Camacho Gomez's husband, Juan Campos-Gomez, who was in court Thursday, said he plans to take his wife's body back to Mexico to be buried when it is released.
Sisouvanh Synhavong was granted credentials as a nursing assistant by the state Department of Health in 2005. She applied for renewal of her credentials in March.
The next hearing in the case is set for Aug. 6.