Daily Archives: April 12, 2012

The former sheriff of the year who was last year caught in a meth-for-sex sting will no longer be incarcerated in a jail bearing his name.

The Arapahoe County Commission voted unanimously to remove the Patrick J. Sullivan Detention Centre sign from the Colorado jail; it was taken down Tuesday, leaving only shadowy traces of the shamed former sheriff’s name.

The jail will go back to its original name of the Arapahoe County Justice Centre Detention Facility.

Sullivan was sentenced only a week ago after he was caught on video in a police sting. The jail was rededicated and renamed in his honour in 2002.

Sentenced: Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan, pictured last month, is serving 30 days in the prison named after him

image0023

image0031

Overhauled: After former Arapahoe sheriff Patrick Sullivan Jr was caught in a meth-for-sex sting, he was placed in the prison bearing his name; a commission voted unanimously to change it

What’s in a name? The jail was named after Sullivan in 2002

He plead guilty to felony possession of methamphetamine and the misdemeanor of soliciting prostitution earlier last week.

Stunning police surveillance video shows the moment the former sheriff of the year is swarmed by police and arrested in a sting operation.

In the video, Sullivan is seen entering the room of one confidential informant, who made a deal to have sex with him in exchange for meth.

The informant said Sullivan had done this ‘time and time again’ – but once the crimes were committed to video, the arrest was made.

The 69-year-old former sheriff was sentenced to 30 days in jail, with two years’ probation. He was also fined $1,100. However, the rest of his charges were dropped in the plea deal.

The video was released only two days after he pleaded guilty.

It begins with undercover officers doing a check on the equipment and explaining that they’re waiting for Sullivan.

Around the five-minute mark, Sullivan enters the bedroom and asks the informant to try on a pair of underwear, saying: ‘See if these might fit you.’

As the informant is seen looking at the underwear, Sullivan says: ‘The problem with that one is, it doesn’t have any real elastic. Maybe too big for you. Try it as we mess around.’

Nobody move: Sullivan, 69, did not resist arrest, but asked that officers be wary of his bad leg

image006

image007

The sting: Sullivan can be seen handing the informant black underwear and a shirt

He then takes out a laptop and lounges on the bed, watching a gay porno on his computer.

Shame: He once served on a methamphetamine task force

At one point in the video, the informant asks if Sullivan tried any of the meth he’s giving to him, to which Sullivan responds: ‘No, it’s a social issue, why smoke it yourself?’

Minutes later, several police burst into the bedroom, detonating a flash-bang grenade.

Sullivan does not resist arrest, but does ask that the police be mindful of his ‘bad leg’ – and ask them not to break it.

According to 7News, the video was shot November 29.

Deputy Attorney General Michael Dougherty, who investigated the former sheriff, said the law enforcement officer’s actions ‘disgraces the badge.’

Mr Dougherty told the court that Sullivan used the power associated with his position to garner the trust of gay meth users in the area.

He said: ‘(Sullivan) became a manipulator, someone who used his position.’

Sullivan served as the county sheriff from 1984 until he retired in 2002, and took part in the Colorado-wide methamphetamine task force in 2000.

After retiring, he became director of safety and security for Cherry Creek Schools before stepping down in 2008.

Day in court: Patrick Sullivan, left, seen in court on November 30 of last year

The law won: The former sheriff of the year as seen in court last November, on the other side of the law

The good ol’ days: Sullivan retired in 2002 but remained active in the community

According to The Denver Post, there were no public hints to show that Sullivan began using meth. However, the shamed former sheriff promises to make amends.

He said: ‘I plan to seek forgiveness from those that I have harmed.’

Reading from a statement before his sentence, he said: ‘I apologize to this court, this country, and my family. There is no excuse for my behavior.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127950/Patrick-Sullivan-Jr-Shamed-Arapahoe-County-Sheriffs-yanked-jailhouse.html

Confession: Paul LaDuke, 75, was accused of fondling himself in front of nine students

A former Christian high school teacher has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years probation after admitting he masturbated behind a podium in front of a classroom of students.

Paul LaDuke was arrested after a student at Schaumburg Christian High School near Chicago reported the incident on November 11.

The 75-year-old math teacher confessed in court on Tuesday, pleading guilty to nine counts of felony exploitations of a child.

The Chicago Tribune reports he was taken into custody after the student told another teacher LaDuke unzipped his pants and fondled himself during algebra class.

LaDuke was fired from the school the same day the incident was reported. He had been a staff member for 26 years, and taught math to students in grades nine through 12.

Police interviewed several other students who corroborated the story.

Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Dave Weiner told the judge LaDuke initially admitted to the act, and said November was not the first time such an incident had occurred.

Scene: LaDuke was fired the same day a student at Schaumburg Christian High School, 30 miles north west of Chicago, reported the incident

In November, Weiner’s office had received a handwritten note from LaDuke, in which he confessed to ‘masturbating while fantasizing about various students for the past 10 years,’ he said.

But LaDuke later recanted, blaming the admission on dementia.

Authorities said no student had reported a similar incident until November.

Defense attorney Frank Furlett told The Daily Herald his client had been diagnosed with a frontal lobe dysfunction that left him unable to control his impulses.

On Tuesday, his client pleaded not guilty to nine counts of felony exploitations of a child – one for each minor present during the incident.

In addition to the 30-month probation sentence, LaDuke must also register as a sex offender for 10 years, abstain from unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 and undergo psychiatric treatment.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2128474/Paul-LaDuke-Christian-high-school-teacher-pleads-guilty-masturbating-classroom.html

Gang rape: The alleged victim said Jack McCullough also allowed his friends to sexually assault her

Half a century after the alleged crime, a former police officer, now an elderly 72-year-old, is on trial, charged with raping his 14-year-old half sister.

The 1962 assault left such a mark on the victim, now age 64, that she fought back tears as she testified about the day Jack McCullough offered her a ride in his red and white convertible and then took her to his apartment and raped her in the dark.

The charges were filed after police began investigating McCullough for an even older crime — the abduction and murder of Maria Ridulph, 7, who disappeared from Sycamore, Illinois, in 1957.

The statute of limitations on rape in Illinois is 10 years. The crime must be reported within three years. Prosecutors can charge McCullough because he left the state shortly after the alleged attack.

The victim, who is retired after a career as a university professor and a hospital chaplain, said after McCullough was finished raping her, he asked three of his friends if they wants to assault her, as well.

Two of them also took advantage of the young teen.

The woman said it was a warm day in 1962 when her half brother, home from a stint in the military, visited her family in Sycamore, Illinois.

She said she wanted a ride in his convertible because she had never been in one before.

As soon as the car pulled away from her house, the woman said, McCullough, who was 22 and known as John Tessier then, became silent and had a menacing intensity.

‘I knew I had made a terrible mistake, I knew I was in danger,’ she testified.

Murdered: Maria Ridulph stoked national attention when she disappeared from Sycamore, Illinois in 1957

He drove her to a part of town she didn’t know and brought her to his apartment.

There, he raped her on a dingy cot in a dark room. Then let his friends assault her, as well, the woman testified Tuesday.

McCullough’s lawyer has dismissed the allegations as uncorroborated testimony based on one woman’s account of something that happened five decades ago.

He said McCullough never had access to a red convertible.

The defense also brought in a neighbor who said he never remembered McCullough bringing his sister to his apartment.

However, prosecutors claim McCullough has a history of abusing teenage girls.

They brought in a 45-year-old woman who said he raped her in 1982 when she was a 15-year-old runaway.

McCullough, then a police officer in a small town in Washington, let the girl and her friend stay at his girlfriend’s apartment. One night, she says, he raped her while she slept on the couch.

He was arrested and pleaded guilty to illegal communication with the minor.

McCullough is still awaiting trial on the charges that he murdered Maria Ridulph.

The little girl’s disappearance 57 years ago captured national attention, with former FBI director J Edgar Hoover and President Dwight Eisenhower demanding updates on the investigation, the Daily Beast reported.

Police arrested McCullough last year after an unused train ticket was discovered, which destroyed his alibi.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2128228/Jack-McCullough-trial-Man-72-charged-raping-girl-50-years-ago.html