The bilingual notifications will be delivered via U.S. mail January 28th. The post card can be viewed by clicking the “Advisory” link below.

Further information on Townshend’s offense is available at Child Abuse Watch. Their link is located to the right of this page. The data includes a six-part, video documentary covering his 2003 arrest and confession to police. His qualifying offense is listed as: ”Inciting Another To Distribute Child Pornography”.

Click Below To See Two Page Advisory:
ADVISORY
(Adobe PDF Format)

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of confining some sex offenders after their criminal sentences have ended. A three-judge panel heard arguments January 12^th in response to a challenge filed by federal inmates who say the law violates their rights.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan told the court that the federal government has a responsibility to detain individuals when  “…that person has the kind of mental illness that is going to cause grave danger to the community”.

The controversial program is part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which was signed into law in 2006. Twenty states, including Florida, have their own civil commitment laws aimed at addressing the pathology of sex offenders rather than the criminality of their acts.

The case before the Supreme Court does not affect the rights of states to pass and enforce their own laws imposing indefinite confinement upon sexual felons. Florida’s version, The Jimmy Ryce Act, became law in 1998. It is named for a nine year-old Miami boy who was murdered three years earlier by a convicted predator: Juan Carlos Chavez.

Justices for the Supreme Court are expected to hand down their decision in Summer 2010. 

Townshend honored at Kennedy Center

by Kevin Gillick

Opposition to the planned Super Bowl performance of the rock group, The Who, took a new turn last week, when child advocates filed a criminal complaint against guitarist Pete Townshend.

A Florida activist group, Protect Our Children, has filed a criminal complaint with John Morton, Assistant Secretary of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. A member of the group made the complaint December 7th via the I.C.E. telephone hot line and followed up with a written confirmation to Morton. The report claims that Townshend has been visiting the United States illegally, since he fails to meet the “moral turpitude” standard proscribed in I.N.S. law.

The children’s charity cited Townshend’s sex offender registration as a public recognition that he poses a threat to children. It also claims that when British police took a D.N.A. sample from Townshend, they signaled an expectation that he would commit future sex crimes. Townshend has admitted to using his credit card to view sexualized pictures of children. One photo depicted a two year-old boy being raped by an adult. The letter to Morton suggests that Townshend may be a threat to children who live in the United States.

Townshend says he was doing research for an book when he was caught doing business with a kiddie porn ring operating out of Texas. The F.B.I. lists the “research alibi” as among the most common excuses given by people who are caught trafficking in child pornography.

U.S. immigration law says authorities will deny entrance to “ Aliens convicted of, and those who admit having committed a crime involving moral turpitude (or an attempt or conspiracy to commit such a crime).”

Townshend was listed on the United Kingdom’s registry of sex offenders for five years. In 2006 he was forced to remove a pornographic story from his website. The fictional piece which described a sexual liaison between teenagers, prompted an uproar from European child-advocacy groups.

The Who is scheduled to headline the Super Bowl halftime show in Miami, February 7.

While Pete Townshend is tuning up his guitar in preparation for his appearance at the forty-fourth Super Bowl in Miami, child activists across Florida are moving to block the British sex offender from taking the stage.

“This man admitted to using his credit card to view child pornography on the internet,” says advocate Kevin Gillick. “He was a registered sex offender in the United Kingdom. Not only should he be banned from the Super Bowl, he shouldn’t be allowed in this country at all.”

Townshend, 64, one of two surviving members of the iconic rock group The Who, will perform with Roger Daltry at the event in February. CBS made the NFL’s decision public on Thanksgiving day.

Pete Townshend was arrested in 2003 after getting caught viewing multiple kiddie-porn images, including a photo of a two year-old boy being raped by an adult. He excuses the act by claiming he was doing research for a planned book on child abuse. British authorities placed Townshend on their national sex offender registry for five years. He was also “admonished” by police: a quirk of the English justice system by which offenders are brought down to the local precinct and given a “good talking to.”

Gillick dismisses Townshend’s explanation: ”Everyone knows that when you do business with a child pornographer you place an order for his next victim.”

Kevin Gillick is the editor of The Guardian-Brevard, a free newspaper which publishes photos of child molesters along with explicit coverage of their crimes. The paper is distributed in Brevard County; a community on Florida’s East Coast.

“Florida is the place where Jessica Lunsford and Junny Rios-Martinez were murdered by child predators,” he said. “It is the place where Jimmy Ryce and Adam Walsh spent their last days on earth. If the NFL goes through with this performance, they and their sponsors are going to feel the resolve of the people who live here.”

“They will be shocked,” he said. “This is going to be breathtakingly ugly”

A child advocacy group In South Florida has asked NFL Chief Executive, Roger Goodell to drop Townsend from the entertainment venue.

“I trust you will act in the best interests of your audience and advertisers in deciding to drop Townshend from the line-up…” writes Evin Daly in his letter dated November 16.

Daly is the leader of Child AbuseWatch, an internet advocacy group based in Boca Raton. His letter to Goodell points out that Townshend published a salacious story on his blog, describing teenagers having sex. The fictional tale was removed from Townshend’s site after receiving complaints from European child advocacy groups.

The official Super Bowl XLIV web site schedules the game at Dolphin Stadium, February 7, 2010.

Then, Evin Daly (pictured) got mad. Sickened by the salacious lyrics which alluded to Glitter’s sexual predilections, Daly began a letter writing campaign that quickly turned into a worldwide, fist-shaking, fire-storm.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, had no reason to believe his stream of income would be cut off by a web savvy gadfly from Boca Raton. He was free to do as he pleased in his native Great Britain despite his 1996 conviction for possession of child porn. H.P’s national ad campaign would bring in a pretty penny, and Daly’s initial complaints were brushed aside by corporate heads.

In October 2008, Daly turned up the heat. His web-based group Child AbuseWatch.net, called for an international boycott of Hewlett Packard products. A few weeks later, H.P. withdrew the ad campaign, and ceased paying Glitter. The National Football League also banned Glitter’s song: “Rock and Roll Part II, otherwise known as the “Hey” song.

All in a day’s work for Evin Daly, a Guardian Ad Litem for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach. The program provides legal representation for neglected and abandoned children who are before the court. His web site, “ButlerReport.com”, maintains a rolling commentary on a host of issues, particularly those concerned with child abuse. He is the founder of the AbuseWatch network that sent shivers up Hewlett Packard’s corporate spine.

In August, Protect Our Children picked Daly to receive the 2009 “Junny Award”. The annual award goes to the Floridian who has done the most to advance the American Child-Protective Movement. Daly, who was born in Sligo County Ireland, will be in Brevard November 21, to accept the award at the “Celebration In The Park”, in Cocoa.

“It is an unexpected honor…” he writes, “I am grateful to your board for their vote of confidence.”
Daly was the unanimous choice this year. Members of Protect Our Children were in awe of his activism. Executive Director Mark Wigley nominated Daly for the accolade:” It was a no brainer…” said Wigley, “his tenacious campaign to right a wrong inspired all of us.”

In 2008 Daly formed “Child AbuseWatch.net” as a compliment to the Guardian AdLiten movement. It is proving to be a potent force for pressing the agenda of child protectors. The group decries the use of children in reality TV shows, its website is filled with child safety information and links to useful sites on the internet.

“It has blossomed into an international mouthpiece for the protection of children and the education of parents,” says Daly. He asked that we recognize the organization on the award, a testament to his selfless commitment to the cause.

Daly’s restless activism moves on to the next issue. He was disgusted by the reaction of some members of the international film community after the arrest of pedophile director Roman Polanski.

Polanski had been on the run since his sentencing for assaulting a thirteen year-old in 1977. He was picked up by police in Switzerland in September and is being held for extradition to the United States. Prominent members of the film industry signed a petition protesting the arrest.

Daly has some words for them: “Shame on you and on the egocentric mentality that thinks that anything, any standing, any career, any contribution no matter how noble, can get you a free pass to the crime of child rape. It can’t, it won’t and it never will!”

Melbourne resident Dave Hardman (pictured) has added a new wrinkle to his kiddie-erotica business. Now his customers can buy swimsuits along with movies of young girls wearing them. (Photo Courtesy of WFTV, Orlando)

A Melbourne man who peddles sexy movies featuring preteen girls, appears to be back in business after a seven-month break. David Hardman is on the hunt for fresh talent, according to a Deltona mother whose eleven year-old daughter was scheduled for a photo shoot at Hardman’s home in June.

“I can’t believe I almost fell for this…” says Suzanne Mark, “…my daughter was asked to do a photo shoot for Dave Hardman.”

Mark said she responded to an online ad for children to model swimsuits for sale on the net. Hardman sent her a link to site operated by an actual swimsuit manufacturer. The catalogue has benign photos of children modeling swimwear with one frontal picture and one rear. Beneath each graphic is the item name and price.

“It was presented to me that it was a swimsuit site…as in a purchase site…not the purchase the DVD site I found after some research.”

Mark E-mailed the Guardian on June 10th – the same day her daughter was scheduled to report to Hardman’s house for her session.

She discovered his “near-porn” site: “DHPro”, only the night before. After searching Hardman’s name, she found news coverage posted by local TV stations last Fall.

Hardman’s quiet, Melbourne neighborhood was rocked by media attention last year when he posted sexy pictures of preteen girls on his site. The images are teasers to get customers to purchase movies of the scantily- clad girls. The youngest models, age ten and twelve, were interviewed by a news team from WSVN in Miami. The mother of the ten year-old, said she was shocked to know Hardman was selling movies of her daughter Kyra.

Hardman offers parents $500 dollars to sign a release granting him unlimited rights to the movies and pictures of the children. Most material is shot in his house on Mt Carmel Lane, which is equipped with a homemade performance stage. Some of Brevard’s beaches have also been used as settings for the movies which Hardman sells directly to consumers.

The soft-core porn is legal because Hardman is careful not to show exposed genitalia. But legislation sponsored by Sen. Mike Fasano (R) of New Port Richey, could change that. Governor Crist signed a new law July 1st, allowing prosecutors to charge teen modeling producers under an expanded definition of “obscenity”. Now, manufacturers of material deemed “obscene” according to community standards, can be charged with a felony in the third degree.

The new law enhances penalties for erotica vendors who pose as modeling agencies. It also restricts a parent’s ability to sell unlimited rights to images of their children.

A nimble businessman, Hardman seems determined to press on with his venture. As if to answer critics who say he’s peddling porn, not modeling swimsuits, he has opened a new site: “Dayla Bay Swimwear” is a web store that actually sells bathing suits along with the salacious DVD’s.

Although his current models appear to be in their teens, and movies of the ten year-old are no longer available, the new catalogue offers his slobbering clientele a hint as to his intentions. He notes that his sexy garments, can be sized for “progressive teens and preteens”.

The General Counsel for Wuesthoff Health Systems called the office of Protect Our Children May 5, to ask the group to stop trying to contact Johnette Gindling the corporation’s Vice President of Public Relations. The request came after an eighteen-month effort to determine why Gindling ordered the local charity to stop distributing their publication The Guardian Brevard, at all Wuesthoff facilities.

The Guardian was given the boot, days after Wuesthoff Nurse Joanne Pratt went before the Palm Bay City Council, to protest proposed ordinances aimed at restricting sex offenders. Wuesthoff’s Marketing Director Stephanie Bacon called P.O.C. in October 2005 asking that we stop distributing the Guardian at Wuesthoff. The notification newspaper has been made available to staff and patients at the corporation’s Rockledge hospital for over eight years.

Bacon denied that the request was connected to Pratt’s molester rights activities. She said all publications were being removed except Florida Today Newspaper, which is provided free of charge to Wuesthoff patients.

However, Guardian staff received an anonymous call in July 2006, from a woman who said she was a Wuesthoff employee. The caller said hospital officials had not removed any publication but the Guardian.

Bacon was contacted again to ask about the call, and said only publications that had advertising for Wuesthoff were allowed to distribute under the new policy. Later that day, a volunteer visited the lobby of Wuesthoff’s Rockledge facility and found six publications on display – none contained an ad for Wuesthoff.

Protect Our Children sent a fax to Gindling in August 2006, offering to run a free ad for Wuesthoff in order to reinstate the publication in their lobby. The offer was rejected.

Bacon said the removal of the Guardian was the result of a memorandum published by Gindling and said we would have to speak directly to her. Guardian staff left more than fifty messages with Gindling’s secretary over a two-month period, but the V.P. refused to return our calls.

Wuesthoff’s Attorney said The Guardian was harassing their staff and asked us to stop inquiring about the publication’s removal. Davila phoned the group one day after Wuesthoff lawyers were rebuked in their attempt to block construction of a new hospital in Viera, after the contract for the facility was awarded to a competing company.

Protect Our Children continues to receive calls from Wuesthoff employees asking why the notification newspaper is no longer available. Davila said Wuesthoff had a right to disallow distribution of any printed materials, and was not compelled to give any reason for its decision.

However, Wuesthoff employees who have contacted The Guardian insist the ban was the result of Nurse Pratt’s highly publicized activities in the Fall of 2005. Pratt appeared before the Palm Bay City Council on October 10, 2005, wearing her Wuesthoff I.D. badge, after helping to assemble a cadre of pedophiles and sex offenders to protest city ordinances restricting their movement. Pratt left a voice message on Protect Our Children’s main line, in which she identifies herself as “a nurse at Wuesthoff Health Systems Melbourne.” She asked for a return call and gave the number for her office in the hospital’s Wickham Road facility. The next day, Director Bacon said that the call was not official, and that employees were not allowed to use hospital facilities to conduct personal business.

Pratt lied on a nationally televised program when she was questioned about her husband’s offenses. She appeared on the television program “The O’Reilly Factor”, along with her husband, sex offender William Pratt Jr., on the eve of the molester rights march . The Pratts answered simultaneously, when O’Reilly asked about Bill’s victim. They said his victim was a twelve year-old boy.

Guardian volunteers researched Pratt’s criminal record, and found he had been sent to prison in New Jersey for molesting two children, a boy and a girl. Both were age nine at the time of the assaults. He was indicted by a grand jury on twelve counts of child sex offenses. Nurse Pratt told O’Reilly that her husband was a “kind and loving man…”

A spokesman for Wuesthoff’s Human Resources Department said Joanne Pratt is employed in their Medical Education Section. She said employees who are caught passing out The Guardian Brevard would be subject to disciplinary action, and repeat offenders could be fired, pursuant to Gindling’s order.

The Guardian Brevard is still available in other hospitals in Brevard. Health First makes the child-protection newspaper available to staff and patients in two places at their Cape Canaveral Facillity. Wuesthoff’s Rockledge employees can pick up a copy of the quarterly paper at the Rockledge Police Department on Barton Boulevard, as well as the Public Safety Center, on Florida Avenue.

Former teacher Daniel Cliatt (pictured), age 30, was sentenced January 16th, to serve seventy years in prison for the sexual abuse of a twelve year-old male student. Prosecutors say Cliatt may have a total of six student victims.

On January 16th, the packed courtroom in Viera fell silent as a thirteen year-old boy took the stand in the sentencing hearing for Daniel Cliatt, his former elementary school teacher. Sporting a dreadlock hair cut, and wearing a dark “T” shirt, he sat calmly in the witness box waiting for Cliatt’s attorney Michael Dwyer to cross-examine him.

“You said you want Mr. Cliatt to go to prison forever. Is that right?”

“Yes.” He answered.

Dwyer retrieved a sheaf of paper from the defense table. “But when Detective Mathews asked you why you didn’t report this, you said you didn’t want him to go to jail… is that correct?”

“That’s what I thought then…but I don’t think that now,” the boy replied.

Judge David Dugan sentenced Cliatt to seventy years in prison for abusing his former elementary school student beginning when the child was twelve.

The molestation was discovered by accident in May 2005, when a teacher at Endeavor Elementary School happened to walk into the classroom as Cliatt was assaulting the child.

Cliatt had been a classroom teacher for only five years, but police say he may have abused as many as six of his male students.

Assuming he could have taught for another fifteen years, the fortunate fluke that brought him to justice, may have prevented the molestation of another twenty students.

As we can see by the response Cliatt’s victim gave to the defense attorney, children who are being abused rarely come forward because they are under the spell of a predatory adult.

The whole nation is currently baffled by the case of the Missouri boy who was kidnapped by a suspected pedophile and lived for over four years in the home of his alleged abductor.

Why didn’t Shawn Hornbeck simply knock on the neighbor’s door, and tell them he had been kidnapped by Michael Devlin in 2002? Neighbors reported seeing the boy riding his bike and even spending time with his girlfriend. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Hornbeck spoke to local police in 2003, at age twelve, telling them that his bike had been stolen from outside Devlin’s apartment.

How can an institution like our school system locate victims and perpetrators without relying on children to extract themselves from their tormentor?

“First of all, we should allow school counselors to actively question students about any abuse that may be occurring,” says Criminal Investigator Jerome Hudepohl. He said current policies prevent counsellors and teachers from doing so, because the schools fear a law suit.

“They are set up to take a report from the student, but they may not actively question students.” Hudepohl said an affirmative response should be turned over to sex crimes investigators immediately.

Hudepohl is currently a private investigator and a past member of Protect Our Children’s board of directors. He retired from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office after a thirty-year career with the department.

He said fear of litigation also affects the way school systems check the backgrounds of perspective employees: “They contact the personnel department and ask for a recommendation. If the employee hasn’t been arrested and convicted of something they give the person a clean report. The employee may have had two hundred complaints filed against him, but if none of the complaints has resulted in a criminal sentence, they say nothing. This is due to fear of litigation.”

Two law suits have been filed to date, against the Brevard County School District, on behalf of Cliatt’s alleged victims.

Hudepohl says school security people should talk with former co-workers of any prospective employee.

“There is no replacement for good old leg work and good investigative procedure. That always includes talking to people who know the person being investigated.” He said the current method used by schools relies primarily upon computer searches of the F.B.I. Fingerprint Database and the National Sex Offender Registry.

Hudepohl says school security people should do a “residential inquiry” of every place the prospective employee has lived. He said local, county and state police agencies should be contacted,checking to see if the subject’s name is in the agency’s “Intelligence File”, a data base of names known to the police for various reasons.

“They should ask if the person’s name appears in the intelligence file as a victim, complainant or suspect. This would help to direct a further investigation.”

He said the background investigation should be conducted on any adult employee who has contact with children including coaches, volunteers and non-instructional staff.

School officials said Daniel Cliatt passed both the F.B.I. and F.D.L.E. background checks. Until his arrest in 2005, he had no prior criminal record.

Hudepohl says there should be a statewide clearinghouse containing all the data collected in the background check. This would prevent a duplication of effort should a rejected employee apply for a school position elsewhere in the state.

He said adults in the school system should be checked and rechecked on an in-house, rotating basis: “People are people…things come up. The model citizen on Monday can be uncovered as an abuser on Tuesday”

When told about the recent proposal made by a local polygraph examiner, that adults in schools should be polygraphed on random basis, he had mixed feelings: “I’m not a big fan of polygraphs, because sociopaths can beat it. Most sex offenders are sociopaths or psychopaths.”

He does agree that the tests can be useful in bringing forth suspicions that people have about other employees: “When good people are confronted about suspicions they may have, or even about direct knowledge of abuse perpetrated by others, they usually tell the examiner before the test commences. This can be valuable in directing an investigation,” he said.

“I had to put it all away for a while… I had to concentrate on keeping my family and my marriage together,” she says.

Mrs Martinez talked a bit about the spiritual life she has found – a life which helps her deal with the anger and the grief she has felt since April 18th 1991. That was the day Mark Dean Schwab ended the life of her eleven year-old son, Junny.

Schwab had been released to the community one month earlier, after serving less than half of the eight-year sentence he received for molesting a thirteen year-old boy.

“He saw Junny’s picture in the newspaper and a few days later he contacted us. He said he was a photographer for a surfing magazine. Back then there was no sex offender registry… no warning at all.”

“He brought all these things, T-shirts, caps, shorts. He said these people would sponsor Junny and this was some of the free merchandise he would get from these companies. Junny was all exited.”

Later that week, Schwab picked Junny up at school on a pretext. Two weeks later he told police where the body was.

On May 19th, Mrs. Martinez will present an award to Mark Lunsford, whose daughter Jessie was allegedly murdered by another convicited molester: John Couey.

Called “The Junny”, it represents all the progress that has been made since April 18th 1991. She glances around, as mothers do…

State Representative Mitch Needleman, co-sponsor of the Jessica Lunsford Act, will be on hand to discuss the dynamic legislation in the works in Tallahassee.

Scheduled between the 2006 legislative sessions, the conference is an opportunity for law enforcement to present a laundry list for state law makers.

“Certainly, there will be some tweaking to do.” says Sheriff Jack Parker, “these laws have changed the landscape for local law enforcement.” Parker who is earning a reputation for his agressive posture toward policing sex criminals, will take his turn at the podium to outline his goal of creating a “Child Safe” community.

Parker will be joined by Chief Phillip Ludos of the Cocoa Police Department. The veteran cop is president of the Association of Chiefs of Police: “In some cases, these local ordinances are running ahead of existing state law.” Chief Ludos spoke to THE GUARDIAN by telephone March 14.

Melbourne-based attorney Michael Kahn, will discuss issues concerning civil liberties at the workshop. An expert in constitutional law, Kahn’s presentation will be aimed at anticipating challenges to this radical new legislation.

Activist and Author Claire Reeves (pictured), will keynote the event along with Mark Lunsford. Her organization Mothers Against Sexual Abuse (M.A.S.A) spearheaded some of the fundamental laws of the American child-protection movement. She was a prime mover behind the elimination of the statute of limitations for sexual assault on young children. The adoption of the law allows victims to file charges many years after their abuse. Reeves was instrumental in forcing adoption of California’s chemical castration law. She is the author of “Childhood: It Should Not Hurt”.

Host Mayor, Rocky Randells of Cape Canaveral will welcome the conferees at the Radisson-Resort at the Port. The one-day event begins at 9:00 AM, May 19th and registration can be made by calling Protect Our Children at 321-638-3711. To register on-line visit the website at www.uspoc,org. The cost of registration will increase after May 5th, and group discounts are available. Luncheon will be provided by the Radisson’s banquet staff.