Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Officer Corey Yocum Arrested for Child Sexual Abuse

A former Olney police officer was arrested on a district court warrant alleging two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact.

Corey J. Yocum was arrested by the Dallas Police Department on Friday and held on a $100,000 bond.

According to two indictments issued by a Young County grand jury in May, Yocum intentionally caused a child under the age of 17 to touch him and he allegedly touched the girl in sexual manners. At the time of the alleged offense, Oct. 24, 2008, Yocum was a police officer in Olney.

“We received the allegation and forwarded it to an impartial agency to investigate,” said Randall Davis, chief of the Olney Police Department. “That investigation led to him being indicted. It’s embarrassing that it happened to us. We have every intention of policing ourselves, as well as the community.”

Jim Reeves, the investigator for 90th Judicial District Attorney Brenda Gray, said when he learned Yocum was still at large and might be in the Dallas area, he asked for help in finding the man who police have been looking for since May.

“I saw the guy hadn’t been arrested, and he had been indicted in May,” Reeves said. “I picked up the phone and contacted a Texas Ranger, Sgt. Eric Casper. Casper put out the information to his contacts in Dallas. As a result, he was arrested by the Child Sex Exploitation Unit of the Dallas PD.”

Yocum was taken to the Dallas County Jail on Friday and was transported to Young County on Monday. He is currently being held in the Young County Jail

Former Houston Officer & others Arrested for Sex Trafficking

A sex trade ring in which young girls were allegedly pistol-whipped and forced from their homes into sexual slavery was broken up in Houston this week and several suspects are in custody.

Five people, including a former Houston police officer, were arrested in the largest sex trafficking case in Texas' southern district, MyFOXHouston.com reported. A sixth remains on the run.

John Butler, 47, William Hornbeak, 34, Jamine Lake, 27, Andre McDaniels, 39, and Kristen Land, 28, all of Houston, as well as Tulsa, Okla., resident Ronnie Presley, 35, are named as suspects in the case.

All are charged with conspiracy to traffic women and children for the purposes of commercialized sex; sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and other offenses, according to the station.

The five Houston residents were arrested Monday and Tuesday; Presley is still at large, MyFOXHouston.com reported.

Butler was a Houston police officer for a brief period in the 1980s, sources told the station.

The sting was the result of a joint investigation by local and federal authorities.

“It is a horrible reflection on our society when adults prey on the vulnerabilities of children and reduce them to indentured sex slaves,” U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson said in a prepared statement.

The suspects allegedly used businesses like massage parlors, modeling studios and health spas to disguise their sex trade business, according to the 16-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

Women and teens as young as 16 were among the victims allegedly coerced into prostitution and regularly beaten and threatened, according to the U.S. attorney's statement.

Former Officer Robert Starling Arrested for Armed Robbery

A former Santa Rosa police officer has been arrested after police said he got away with more than $400,000 in a series of armored car robberies.

Robert Stephen Starling was arrested Monday on suspicion of armed robbery and other charges in connection with four armed robberies between April 2008 and May 2009 in Sonoma and Marin counties, said Santa Rosa police Sgt. Lisa Banayat.

Starling, 35, worked as a Santa Rosa police officer in two separate stints between 2000 and 2006.

He worked for the department from December 2000 to April 2001, then again in May 2003 to July 2006, according to Banayat.

In one of the four heists Starling is suspected of, a Brinks armored car guard was held up as he walked into a bank in Novato in April 2009.

After pointing a gun at the guard, the suspect ran off with a bank bag that turned out to be empty. There was no financial loss in the incident.

But just prior to the holdup, police received a 911 call from an unidentified caller reporting a possible kidnapping.

It was later determined that the call was false and a possible attempt to divert officers from the robbery, Banayat said.

Through a check of cell phone records, investigators were able to link the calls to Starling and a second suspect, Andrew Esslinger, 26, of Santa Rosa, according to Banayat.

Esslinger was also arrested Monday in connection with two of the robberies.

Both suspects were being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

It was not known if the two suspects had attorneys, and police did not know if a court date had been set.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/25/BA1S19DIGN.DTL

Cpl Eddie Jimenez & His Brother Arrested for Battery


A Cedartown police officer and his brother have bonded out of the Polk County Jail after their early-morning arrests, but both face charges.

Cpl. Eddie Jimenez, 33, of 596 Dry Creek Road, Cedartown, is charged with battery under the Family Violence Act (FVA), cruelty to children and discharging a firearm under the influence. He was released on $1,500 bond and his own recognizance at the request of Judge Whitehead, according the jail docket book.

Martin Julian Jimenez, 34, of 602 Dry Creek Road, Cedartown is charged with battery under FVA. He was released on $500 bond and his own recognizance.

Both were arrested around 5:05 a.m. this morning after Polk County police received a domestic disturbance call. Both men were arrested by the Polk County police and county police are conducting the criminal investigation, according to Cedartown Police Department Assistant Chief Jamie Newsome.

Newsome said Jimenez was a school resource officer. He is still employed with the police department for now.

"Currently, as it stands right now, he's on adminstrative leave pending an internal affairs investigation, which I've called an outside agency to conduct," Newsome said, adding that he is sticking to protocal on the matter.

"I want the citizens to feel comfortable about the intregity of the investigation," he said.