Man Rapes 5-Year-Old Girl, Blames Her For It

An Ohio man convicted of raping a 5-year-old girl blamed the victim for his crime during his sentencing.

Clifford Taylor, a 51-year-old former research scientist, was given the maximum sentence of 22 years on Nov. 12, the News-Herald reported.

In October, Taylor admitted in court to molesting his girlfriend's daughter while baby-sitting her sometime between May and July of last year, according to Cleveland.com. The child later told her mother, who went to authorities. Taylor was convicted on two counts of rape.

During his sentencing, Taylor blamed his defense lawyer for suggesting the plea deal he had earlier agreed to take.

“I was threatened with mental incompetence," Taylor said of his lawyer. "He threatened me, saying there was some reason I wasn’t thinking properly.”

Judge Eugene A. Lucci wasn't buying the excuse, and explained that Taylor's lawyer was only asking his client if a hearing to determine his mental competency would be necessary.

Taylor avoided spending his life in prison when he admitted to raping the child, telling a court that he got drunk and bribed the child with Pudding Pops to perform oral sex on him.

“I did not stop the child. That’s the part the prosecutor will get me on,” he said at the time. “She wanted a snack.”

During his sentencing, Taylor blamed the little girl for getting raped by him. More from the News-Herald:

“It’s not true! I was told to lie to you by the man sitting right next to me,” Taylor said Nov. 12. “I don’t even remember what I told you. But it wasn’t true. The lie was that I put my penis in her mouth for Pudding Pops. My penis did get in her mouth, but I didn’t put it in there. She put it in there. She grabbed me. She was experimenting. I was drunk and realized it too late.”
Several people in the standing-room only courtroom gasped at Taylor’s claims.

The convict went on to say he was "not a monster." Lucci responded by adding two more years to his sentence.

"Even in court he blamed the victim for taking his penis in her mouth as a form of experimentation," Lucci said. "At the age of 5!”

Taylor's attorney asked the judge to be excused from representing the rapist at his future appeal hearing.

Teacher Accused Of Sending Penis Pics To Teen Girls

A former Wisconsin high school teacher is accused of sending graphic Snapchat pictures to underage students.

Brandon Amato, 24, is charged with two counts of exposing genitals to a child, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. Amato was employed with the Stoughton School District during the last academic year as a social studies teacher and coach, according to Channel 3000.

Police say that a 16-year-old student at Stoughton High School told them Amato started sending her Facebook messages on June 29 asking her to sneak out to go see him. When she declined, she says he continued sending her messages on Snapchat.

They then allegedly exchanged clothed photos, after which point she says he sent her a photo of himself with his hands in his boxers and another picture of his penis.

A second girl, aged 17, says that in August, Amato sent her Snapchat pictures of his penis and also messaged her on Facebook inviting her over. The girl reported the incidents to a school counselor when she was registering for school later that month.

Police say that Amato at first denied knowing the girls were under 18, but later admitted that he knew they were minors.

In a statement obtained by Connect Stoughton, Stoughton School District officials released a statement that reads:

The safety of our students is the top priority for the Stoughton Area School District, and our staff have been and will continue to cooperate with our local law enforcement agencies to provide a secure learning environment for all. Because the case against Mr. Amato has not yet been concluded and the investigation by the Stoughton Police Department is ongoing, it would be inappropriate for the district to comment further at this time.”

Arizona Teacher Had Sex With Student, Fled To Hawaii, Resumed Teaching: U.S. Marshals

The Huffington Post  | By James Cave

Posted: 11/19/2014 2:09 pm EST Updated: 11/19/2014 2:59 pm EST

Hoshiyama's Facebook page has since been deleted, but HuffPost captured this screenshot.

A 45-year-old teacher, considered to be a fugitive from Arizona, was arrested for alleged sex crimes at her condo in Hawaii on Tuesday morning.
Deborah Hoshiyama, known to some as Deborah Nicholson, is accused of having sex with an eighth grade student at a school where she taught in Avondale, Arizona. A warrant issued on October 20 by Maricopa County charged Hoshiyama with five counts of sexual assault of a minor for participating in a sexual relationship that lasted from 2007 to 2008.

Hoshiyama fled to Hawaii, but recently posted a photo to her Facebook page (which has since been deleted), showing her new teaching certificate, issued by the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board.
Hoshiyama had worked six days as a special education teacher at Voyager Public Charter School in Honolulu before Tuesday's arrest. She's now suspended with pay, according to Principal Jeff Vilardi, who told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that she cleared three reference checks and a background check.
Although the school hired Hoshiyama based on its protocol, Hawaii's Department of Education told the Star-Advertiser that she was not yet approved to work by DOE standards.
DOE Spokesperson Donalyn Dela Cruz said that Hoshiyama's review process had only just completed its first phase; Hoshiyama was not yet cleared for hire.
After the U.S. Marshals narrowed down her location, a task force consisting of U.S. Marshals, ICE-ERO Agents and Honolulu Police Department detectives arrested her at her Ala Wai home a little after 5 a.m. on Tuesday, according to Honolulu's KITV-4.
Hoshiyama is waiting to be extradited to Arizona.

VIDEO - Rising suicide rate for Indian farmers blamed on GMO seeds...

Reuters/Ajay Verma

Monsanto, which has just paid out $2.4 million to US farmers, settling one of many lawsuits it’s been involved in worldwide, is also facing accusations that its seeds are to blame for a spike in suicides by India farmers.

The accusations have not transformed into legal action so far, but criticism of Monsanto has been mounting, blaming the giant company for contributing to over 290,000 suicides by Indian farmers over the last 20 years.

The author of a documentary on Indian farmers’ suicides, Alakananda Nag, who has interviewed dozens of the relatives of those who have taken their lives, links the rise in the suicide rate to the use of GMO seeds. She believes small farms are particularly vulnerable.

“The large farms certainly have the funds to support themselves and get on, but the smaller ones are really ones that suffer the most,” Nag told RT. “Monsanto definitely has a very big hand to play. A few years ago it was illegal to grow GMO crops in India. It’s not like the suicide did not exist back then. It did, but I think there was definitely a sharp rise in the [suicide] numbers once [GMOs] were allowed.”

The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice has estimated that in 2009 alone 17,638 Indian farmers committed suicide, or one suicide every 30 minutes.

Farmers’ widows, such as Savithri Devi from India’s southern state of Telangana, explain just how tough things can get for those trying to grow enough crops to earn a living.

“[My husband] initially put a bore well, then started cultivation, but we didn’t get enough water from the bore well and there were no rains, too,” Devi told RT. “So he again tried to deepen the bore well, but it didn’t work. So he borrowed money. His depression eventually led him to committing suicide. He drank pesticide and died.”

The legalization of GMO in 2002 has only added to the stress experienced by Indian farmers, according to the head of the Council for Responsible Genetics, Sheldon Krimsky.

“The people would give out the loans if they believed these seeds would give the greatest yields,” Krimsky told RT. “So they are not going to get a loan if they don’t go with the GMOs. And many of them felt coerced to take the GM seeds. The GM crops have not done as well in all regions of India... [That has led to] much greater indebtedness with the GM crops that did not perform as well.”

The problem with GMO seeds in India is that they are often “not bred for that area, for rain-fed agriculture, so they fail more frequently,” Dr. Vandana Shiva, an Indian environmental activist and anti-globalization author, told WeAreChange.com.

She also says the problem is most acute in the regions where cotton is grown. Small farms there increasingly have to compete with multinational agribusiness corporations.

Big firms use biotech cotton seeds to gain higher yields, while smaller ones are trying to do the same.

“Generating high yields with [biotech] cotton seeds also requires much higher amounts of water than other cotton cultivars. For farmers who lack access to proper irrigation and whose farms are primarily rain-fed, the crop often fails,” a report by Center for Human Rights and Global Justice says.

Monsanto, meanwhile, denies that its seeds have contributed to the hardships of the Indian farmers.

“Despite claims by those who oppose GMO crops, research also demonstrates there is no link between Indian farmer suicides and the planting of GMO cotton,” the company says on its website, where an article is titled: “Is Bt or GMO Cotton the Reason for Indian Farmer Suicides?”

The US company cites several studies to support its claim, including a 2008 report published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, a Washington-based think tank. The study argues that there is no evidence for an increased suicide rate following the 2002 introduction of biotech cotton.

Monsanto, which is the world’s largest producer of genetically engineered seed, has been involved in high-profile lawsuits globally over its products.

A number of human rights advocates have warned that GMOs have not been studied thoroughly enough to evaluate their potential risks.

Fears over GMOs possible impact have given rise to a worldwide March against Monsanto movement. Their annual protests against the spread of GMO have seen hundreds of thousands of people on all continents participating.

SCANDAL: New private video by Tulisa Contostavlos...

Judge of the British "X Factor", singer and actress Tulisa Contostavlos is involved in the new porn scandal, given that its home video found on the Internet.

The film was shot on a camera phone, shows Tulisa in a sexual relationship that lasts more than six minutes. Records via the Internet offered for sale, but the site has been offered quickly extinguished.

The video was made two years ago, and yesterday caused a frenzy in the British public. On the other hand, its advocates argue that it is a fake video.