Thursday, March 27, 2014

Former Officer Robert Mullen Pleads Guilty to Distributing Child Porn

A former Oklahoma police officer who now lives in Albuquerque pleaded guilty Wednesday to distributing child pornography, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Robert Mullen, 60, was arrested in December 2013 and was charged in January for committing the crimes between August and December of last year.

Mullen will serve five to 20 years in prison when sentence, according to the DOJ.

Officer Michael Stavris Accused of Setting up Fake Facebook Account to Solicit Young Boys

Michael Stavris, the Bunnell police officer who was arrested and accused of setting up a fake Facebook account to solicit young boys for sexually explicit pictures, was using his daughter's identity, according to his ex-girlfriend.

Stavris' ex-girlfriend also has an injunction for protection against domestic violence placed against the police officer, who has been suspended without pay. The woman claims Stavris has threatened suicide unless she agreed to continue their relationship.

Stavris, 30, was arrested and charged Tuesday on two counts of computer pornography and one count of criminal use of personal identification information. His bond was set at $125,000. He has been released from the Flagler County Inmate Facility.

The injunction is temporary, and a judge is expected to issue a ruling on April 3.

Stavris was a police officer in Edgewater from 2008 to 2009 before leaving to take a position with the Duval County School District, where he worked as a school security officer from 2009 to 2010. His job had him patrolling school campuses after school hours and on the weekends. He had no interaction with children.

Former Jail Guard James Kriegner Faces More Child Porn Charges



Last month a 43-year-old former New Jersey jail guard was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography. Now he is charged with creating porn with a 15-year-old girl.

James Kriegner of Bensalem, a former Mercer County corrections officer, was arrested last month after police allegedly found more than 100 images of child porn on his computer following a three-month investigation into child pornography distribution.

Bensalem Detective Kevin Cornish reportedly found that Kriegner downloaded files of known child sex abuse from an IP address registered to Kriegner's Knights Road apartment, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Kriegner, who has been unemployed since December, later turned over two laptop computers for forensic examination under a search warrant, and one had more than 100 images of child sex abuse, court documents allege. Fifteen files were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as containing known victims of child sex abuse, police said.

The forensic examination also found image files of Kriegner video chatting with an unidentified girl, and a folder containing sexual images that appeared to be of the same girl, police said.

Kreigner identified the girl as a 15-year-old, the affidavit shows.

Police said the girl told them she had been engaging in sexual activity with Kreigner since April.

Bensalem Detective Kevin Cornish, who handled the investigation, said he is not aware of Kreigner posting or sending photographs of the girl, but that the photos have to be sent to the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children to be checked.

Kriegner was arraigned Thursday before Bensalem District Judge Leonard Brown on charges of statutory sexual assault, indecent sexual assault on a person under age 16, unlawful contact with a minor, and related child porn and sex crime offenses.

His bail was set at 10 percent of $750,000, but he remains in Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $500,000 bail from his earlier child porn arrest.

Officer Jeremy Wyskiel Arrested for Drunk Driving

Colchester police officer has been arrested for alleged drunk driving.

Vermont State Police say they were called to assist Colchester police with a suspected DUI at about midnight Monday, because the suspect was Colchester Police Ofc. Jeremy Wyskiel, 36.

Troopers say earlier in the evening,Wyskiel was reportedly arguing with a woman in the parking lot of a Colchester bar. They later left together. Police say the vehicle was then reportedly seen driving erratically on Route 7. Colchester police caught up with the vehicle on Jason Drive and made contact with the driver, Wyskiel. Police suspected he maybe under the influence and called in state police for assistance.

State police say Wyskiel was arrested without incident and released on a citation to appear in court April 15 for DUI.

In a statement, Colchester PoliceChief Jennifer Morrison said, "VSP is handling the criminal inquiry into this matter. CPD is actively investigating a personnel matter related to this incident and will have no further comment at this time other than to offer the following public information: Jeremy Wyskiel has served as a Colchester Police Officer since September of 2008and is currently on administrative leave."

Officer Cory Owensby Charged with Several Felonies

An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officer faces multiple felony charges after he was indicted Thursday following an internal affairs investigation into evidence mishandling that began nearly one year ago.

Patrolman Cory Owensby turned himself in Thursday morning after a special grand jury returned indictments on five felony counts of official misconduct. He also face five misdemeanor counts of criminal conversion and three misdemeanor counts of false informing.

He was released on his own recognizance after appearing before a judge Thursday.

IMPD Chief Rick Hite suspended Owensby without pay late Thursday and said he would recommend the Civilian Police Merit Board terminate his employment with the department.

Owensby, an IMPD Officer since 2007, is the son of Fraternal Order of Police Local 86 President Bill Owensby. Hite said that did not play a role in his investigation.

“He is a member of the IMPD. He is an officer in our department, no different than any other officer in the department. We’ll respect his tenure, but no different than anyone else on the team,” Hite said Thursday.

I-Team 8’s calls to Bill Owensby and the FOP were not returned Thursday.

Owensby was placed on paid administrative duty last fall. That’s when internal affairs investigators were first tipped off that he had allegedly mishandled evidence in at least five different cases, beginning in late 2012, according to the indictment.

Court documents obtained by I-Team 8 show Owensby is accused of failing to turn over key evidence in relation to those cases, including marijuana, prescription pills, drug paraphernalia like pipes and rolling papers, and a steel axe.

Hite acknowledged that could impact the prosecution of those cases, but downplayed the significance.

“We’re looking at what the impact has been,” he said. “But, it wasn’t a widespread kind of case where we can show chapter and verse [that] there were multiple, multiple cases impacted. At this point, we’re still looking into that.”

IMPD has dealt with other recent evidence problems as well. Blood vials were mishandled in the David Bisard case, and cocaine evidence was mistakenly destroyed by property room employees earlier this year.

Despite that, Hite says critical changes have already been made.

“We’re currently recreating a new environment within that whole spear of evidence collection and property room,” he said. “And you’re seeing, as we stated, a change in management systems, internal records management systems. You’re seeing the results of that.”

Internal investigators were also the ones to open the case, Hite noted.

“I think you’ll find it, I think, refreshing to know that this was an internal process and internal audit. We caught this. So, don’t let that go by you. We found this. Our processes work,” he said.

Hite turned over his investigators findings to Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry, who requested a special prosecutor. Jefferson County Prosecutor D.J. Mote was assigned to the case.

Speaking by phone with I-Team Thursday, Mote said additional details of the case are not being made public at this time because the indictments were handed down by a six-member special grand jury.

Owensby is scheduled to return to court in May.