Alabaster police said Daniel Montague Acker Jr., 49, was charged with three counts of sexual abuse, and additional charges were possible.

"This is not a one-time event," said Deputy Chief Curtis Rigney. "This happened over a period of 25 years."

Acker taught fourth grade at three schools and drove buses in the Shelby County school system from 1985 until he retired in 2009. He was investigated on similar allegations in 1992, but grand jurors did not return an indictment, said Rigney.

A girl who is now 12 or 13 came forward within the last week claiming Acker molested her around 2009, when he was a teacher at Thompson Intermediate School, Rigney said. He wouldn't say what drove the girl to go to police.

At least one instance of alleged abuse occurred in a classroom in front of other students, Rigney said, but it wasn't clear whether the children saw anything or realized what had happened.

An attorney for Acker did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Acker was being held in the Shelby County jail with bond set at $225,000. A jail mug shot showed him wearing a vest meant to prevent prisoner suicides.

Acker remained on the school payroll as a substitute bus driver until this week, Rigney said. Acker's father, Dan M. Acker, is a longtime commissioner in Shelby County, just south of Birmingham, but Rigney said there was no indication his father's position helped the teacher avoid charges earlier.

Shelby County schools spokeswoman Cindy Warner said Acker was placed on leave while child abuse allegations were investigated in October 1992, and the county school board voted against firing him in February 1993 after grand jurors did not indict him. She said Acker was reinstated as a fourth-grade teacher at Creek View Elementary, where he worked before moving to Thompson Intermediate.

In a statement, Superintendent Randy Fuller said the district was cooperating with police and would no longer use Acker as a substitute bus driver or in any other capacity.

"We can only say that the allegations are shocking," Fuller said. "We, as a school district, understand that child abuse is horrible with devastating consequences to victims and their families."

Confronted by police, Acker admitted molesting the girl who went to officers. He also told investigators he had abused more than 20 other girls but did not name any alleged victims, Rigney said. Acker is no longer cooperating with investigators, he said.

Investigators believe most if not all of the girls were in Acker's classes, Rigney said. But police are trying to see if some of the girls were students in other teachers' classrooms.

"He was in a school. We don't know what contact he might have had with other kids," said Rigney.

Acker's arrest stunned residents in the Birmingham suburb of 28,000, where he was well-known for his long teaching career.

"Everybody knows Danny," said former city councilman Bobby Harris, shaking his head.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/daniel-montague-acker-jr-_n_1187309.html

Heath Daughdrill, of Westlake, is accused of initiating the relationship while acting as a teacher and aide at a June religious retreat. She allegedly continued seeing the 13-year-old boy until her arrest in October, according to a press release from the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Department.

"The investigation revealed Daughdrill would engage in inappropriate sexual contact with the boy after picking him up from school without the parents' knowledge," the press release explains.

Authorities also say that they discovered "explicit text messages" between Daughdrill and the boy, whose identity remains anonymous.

Following her Nov. 28 arrest, Daughdrill now faces 17 criminal charges including sexual battery, carnal knowledge of a juvenile, kidnapping, indecent behavior with a juvenile and contributing to delinquency. Her bond in Calcasiue Parish is set at $47,000.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/heather-daughdrill-bible-camp-sex-scandal_n_1133851.html

The findings, published in the December 6 issue of Current Biology, is the first to use functional brain scans to examine the effects of abuse on children's emotional development.

"This research...provides our first clues as to how regions in the child's brain may adapt to early experiences of abuse," lead author Eamon McCrory of Britain's University College London told Reuters.

McCrory and his colleagues observed brain responses in 43 12-year-old children to pictures of male and female calm, angry and sad faces. The 20 children in the study who had been abused at home showed more activity in two regions of the brain that are involved in detecting threats. The brains of soldiers who have been exposed to violent combat show similar patterns in these areas, according to Reuters.

The findings suggest that abused children and combat soldiers "tune their brains to be hyper-aware of environmental danger," reports The Daily Mail.

This may keep children out of harm's way in the short term, McCrory said in a press release. But given that childhood abuse is one of the most common precursors to mental illness, these brain changes may also set the stage for anxiety and depression later in life.

Of course, not every child will face these mental health challenges. In fact, "many bounce back and lead successful lives," McCrory told The Daily Mail. "We want to know much more about those mechanisms that help some children become resilient."

Doing so may lead to new treatments to help the victims of child abuse. Until then, Peter Fonagy, a psychology professor at UCL who was not involved in the study, told The Daily Mail, "the report should energize clinicians and social workers to double their efforts to safeguard children from violence."

The study is not the first to link maltreatment during childhood to mental illness later in life. Previous research has tied abuse to personality disorders, anxiety disorders, social isolation, relationship problems and suicidal behavior, among other mental health problems. Victims of child abuse may also face physical health problems, such as an increased risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke, according to findings presented in November at the American Heart Association's 2011 scientific sessions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/child-abuse-changes-brain_n_1129978.html

Bobby Davis, now 39, told sport network ESPN that Bernie Fine molested him repeatedly for 10 years from 1984.

The university said it investigated and dismissed the allegations in 2005.

The allegations come after a former Penn State coach, Jerry Sandusky was arrested on charges of sexually abusing young boys - accusations he denies.

The allegations of abuse at Penn State led to the dismissal of the university president Graham Spanier and head football coach Joe Paterno for failing to act on the reports of molestation.

On Friday, Mr Paterno's son said that his father - one of the most famous coaches in American sport - had been diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer.

He added that doctors were "optimistic" his 84-year-old father would make a full recovery.

'High standards'

Bernie Fine - who has been the assistant basketball coach at Syracuse for 35 years - was accused of abuse by two men, Bobby Davis and his step-brother Mike Lang.

Both men said Mr Fine molested them for multiple years, often reaching into their shorts and rubbing their genitals.

The incidents allegedly occurred both at Mr Fine's home as well as on the road, including at the 1987 Final Four, the US college basketball tournament.

The university placed Mr Fine on leave when the allegations surfaced on Thursday.

In an email to students on Friday morning, Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor said the allegations would be taken seriously.

"We hold everyone in our community to high standards and we don't tolerate illegal, abusive or unethical behaviour - no matter who you are," she wrote.

Head coach defiant

However, head basketball coach Jim Boeheim defended Mr Fine, telling ESPN the university had investigated the same allegations in 2005, and concluded they were unfounded.

"I've known Bernie Fine for 45 years, and there's absolutely no way that I believe any of this could possibly have happened," Mr Boeheim said, saying he believed the men were motivated by financial incentives.

Mr Davis said he never told the head coach about the alleged abuse, but that Mr Boeheim saw him in Mr Fine's hotel room on road trips.

In a statement, Syracuse University officials said they investigated the allegations for four months in 2005, after "an adult male" came to them.

Mr Fine "vehemently denied the allegations", they said, and "all of those identified by the complainant denied any wrongful conduct".

Syracuse police have opened an investigation into the allegations, saying they will interview both Mr Davis and Mr Lang.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15795618

Heidi Kaeslin, a 35-year-old special education teacher at Lincoln High School, is now on paid leave while the district investigates whether she violated its code of ethics, The Stockton Record reported.

Kaeslin and Richard Fields, a Stockton police officer assigned to the school, allegedly used the school computer to support several for-profit websites, many of which had adult content.

Fields told the Record he had acquired domain names including mysluttyteachers.com to develop them into websites. Fields said Kaeslin's involvement was limited, and he eventually abandoned the venture. Fields reportedly retired from the police force in May.

The newspaper reports that one of the websites was active for only one day in February, which could indicate a test run.

According to CBS Sacramento, most of the sites have been stripped of their content, some in just the past few days, but the About Us section of one of the sites read:

"This company was created by a young teacher who was inspired, after her male students spent most of the period staring at her boobs, to create the "I Heart Teachers" shirt. Knowing this idea would probably not land her an early retirement, she thought, "Why the hell not" and moved forward with her idea by finding a partner, a computer whiz, and a t-shirt designer. The rest is history..."

Meanwhile, Fields said the allegations are overblown.

Kaeslin, a special education teacher and former girls soccer coach, has been with the district since 2002. Fields retired from the police department in May. The two are romantically linked, according to the paper.

Lincoln Unified School District has hired a computer expert to study the content on the laptop.

Chet Quaide, an attorney representing the district, said the school adopted an ethics code in 2003.

The code calls for teachers to "adhere to the highest ethical standards" and "to attain and maintain the highest possible degree of ethical conduct," he told the newspaper. "The code says that for breaches to constitute "unprofessional conduct," they must "involve jeopardy to student welfare; evidence malice, serious incompetency or bad judgment; or show a consistent pattern of misconduct."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57327522-504083/heidi-kaeslin-teacher-accused-of-running-porn-website-from-school-computer-put-on-paid-leave/

The former captain of the boat from which actress Natalie Wood drowned in 1981 alleged on TODAY Friday that her husband, actor Robert Wagner, was responsible for her death.

Dennis Davern said he is now urging homicide investigators to look into Wood's death. She had been boating with Wagner and his "Brainstorm" co-star Christopher Walken near Santa Catalina Island off the coast of California when she drowned.

Story: Wagner's book: Drinking didn't explain Wood's death

"I made some terrible decisions and mistakes," Davern told NBC News' David Gregory. "I did lie on a report several years ago."
He added, "I made mistakes by not telling the honest truth in a police report."

Natalie Wood death probe to be reopened

When pressed by Gregory, Davern said he believed Wagner had intentionally kept the investigation into her death low-profile. And when asked if he thought Wagner was "responsible" for Wood's death, Davern said, "yes, I would say so. Yes."

"We didn't take any steps to see if we could locate her," Davern added. "I think it was a matter of, 'We're not going to look too hard, we're not going to turn on the searchlight, we're not going to notify anybody right now.'"

Wagner's publicist issued a statement saying his family supported the L.A. County sheriff's department "and trust they will evaluate whether any new information relating to the death of Natalie Wood Wagner is valid, and that it comes from a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30-year anniversary of her tragic death."

Many of the details he shared have appeared in the book "Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour," authored by Marti Rulli. That book was published in 2009.

Video: Boat captain: Wagner responsible for Wood’s death (on this page)

"I'm not really the investigator here, and I'm far away from even thinking about profiting over a 30-year anniversary," Davern told Gregory. "I've known this information for many, many years and my book has been out for two years. I'm not in it for any kind of profit, I'm in it for the justice of the whole situation"

Davern also answered questions about why he would come forward 30 years later with new information when he could have told authorities much earlier.

"Why now is because I've been trying to tell information about this for many, many years, but there wasn't really anyone listening until now," he said. "I've been trying to get somebody to listen for a long time and now somebody is listening and they're going to carry on with this investigation. I'm not saying anything different. All the information that I've revealed in the past, it's all in that book, and now it's just up to the investigators to do an investigation."

Gregory also pressed Davern on why investigators should believe him now, as he admitted lying to them the first time.

"At that time my life was just totally crazy, and I don't think it was a time when I was even able to think straight," Davern said.

Video: Natalie Wood death probe reopened (on this page)

On the night of Wood's death in November 1981, Wood and Wagner got into a "terrible argument" that was never reported to the original investigators, according to Rulli. Actor Christopher Walken, Wood's "Brainstorm" co-star, went to sleep in his cabin after an angry Wagner smashed a wine bottle on a coffee table that sent everyone scattering to avoid the flying glass, Rulli said. Walken has not made any comment since these new details emerged, other than the statement from his publicist Friday.
When a "mortified" Wood went to her stateroom, Wagner followed and an argument began, according to Rulli.

"Dennis made an attempt to stop it, and was told to go away by Robert Wagner," Rulli told Gregory. "Then minutes later, Natalie was missing...Dennis wanted to do everything. Make a phone call, turn on the search light. His instincts told him something was terribly wrong, and Robert Wagner asked him not to."
The coroner's report from the time of her death indicated that she may have slipped and hit her head after she lost balance from drinking several glasses of wine.
"The rest is just ghoulish nonsense," Wood's attorney, Paul Ziffren, said at the time about speculation that Wood's death was not accidental.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45353418/ns/today-entertainment/t/boat-captain-alleges-actor-robert-wagner-responsible-natalie-woods-death/#.TsbCnmgrx00

On November 29, 1981, actress Natalie Wood Wagner drowned while boating off the Isthmus of Catalina Island. At the time, the drowning was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. The drowning was ruled an accident.

Recently Sheriff’s Homicide Investigators were contacted by persons who stated they had additional information about the Natalie Wood Wagner drowning. Due to the additional information, Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau has decided to take another look at the case.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Lieutenant Corina at (323) 890-5641. If you prefer to provide information Anonymously, you may call "Crime Stoppers" by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or by using the website http;//lacrimestoppers.org

Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau - Newsroom
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour (Natalie Wood)

Video Preview, 48 Hours Mystery, airing Nov. 26

Preview: Vanity Fair: Hollywood Scandal - 48 Hours - CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7388391n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

48 Hours Presents Vanity Fair: Hollywood Scandal - CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18559_162-57325318/48-hours-presents-vanity-fair-hollywood-scandal/

More details will be announced Friday at a press conference in Los Angeles. Sheriff's Homicide Detectives said they decided to look into the case again because they were recently contacted by "persons who stated they had additional information about the Natalie Wood Wagner drowning."The Los Angeles Times is reporting that comments made by the captain of the boat off which Wood drowned on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of her death prompted the reexamination.

Captain Dennis Davern was recently interviewed for a collaboration between the magazine Vanity Fair and the television series "48 Hours Mystery" that focuses on Wood's death. A primetime special airs Saturday, Nov. 19 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Natalie Wood Wagner -- married at the time for the second time to actor Robert Wagner -- died on Nov. 29, 1981.

She drowned -- while boating with Wagner and actor Christopher Walken -- off the Isthmus of Catalina Island. Her death was investigated at the time and ruled an accident by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.Robert Wagner on Natalie Wood's death
48 Hours Presents Vanity Fair: Hollywood Scandal

Time magazine reported at the time that Wood was "full of wine" when she stumbled "off a quarter-million-dollar yacht in her nightgown...while her actor-husband sits oblivious with her film co-star a few yards away."

Wood's sister, Lana, asked for the case to be re-opened last March.

When her body was found, Wood was wearing a parka and it was believed at the time she fell overboard and the parka filled with water and caused her to drown.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-57327031-10391698/l.a-sheriff-reopening-natalie-wood-case/

"He grabbed me and told me to take my clothes off," Leeronnie Ogletree, who said Fitzpatrick lured him into years of molestation when he was just 10, told thepostgame.com. "I'll never forget him putting his mouth on my penis. I don't mind telling it now because I'm over it. But that stands out. And I'll never forget it."

It took decades for the truth to come out about Fitzpatrick, who is white, and his criminal desire for young black boys. In 2003 the Boston Red Sox settled a $3.15 million federal lawsuit brought against them by Ogletree and seven other men from Winter Haven who said Fitzpatrick repeatedly molested them as boys.

Benjamin Crump, the lawyer who handled Ogletree’s case against Fitzpatrick and the Boston Red Sox, said the similarities between the Penn State and Red Sox scandals are startlingly similar. There were cover-ups, denials and the enabling of pedophiles to use the power of their institutions to prey on the weak, in the Red Sox case, "poor black boys," he said. The kinds of youth often considered societies "throwaways."

"You have these sports institutions; you have all these people of authority; you have all this public support for these institutions and hear talk about what great institutions they are, but then when you ask them to do the right thing and have compassion for these young people, the institutions deny, deny, deny," said Crump, of Parks & Crump. "They sweep it under the rug and they look the other way."

According to reports, former Red Sox players such as Jim Rice and Sammy Stewart got wind of Fitzpatrick's deeds and would warn kids in the clubhouse to avoid him. In 1971, one of Fitzpatrick's victims came forward to the team, and in a manner similar to Penn State's handling of the Sandusky allegations, the team did not alert authorities or fire Fitzpatrick.

But supporters for Ogletree and the other men who settled in the case, who have become known as the Winter Haven seven, wonder how race and class might have played in the team's inaction once they got a whiff of what Fitzpatrick might have been up to.

"These kids came from impoverished backgrounds and many times, no father. Fitzpatrick used that to his advantage and preyed on these kids that were poor," Crump said. "The one thing that I do think is not similar to the Penn State situation is that with the Boston Red Sox case, they had 11 kids and they were all black, almost as if they wouldn't let this happen to little white boys."

It wasn't until 1991, two decades later, that wheels of justice began to turn. Howard Bryant of ESPN.com, wrote that in '91, a young aide whom Fitzpatrick was suspected of recruiting showed up at a nationally televised Red Sox game with a sign that read "Don Fitzpatrick sexually assaulted me." The Red Sox paid out a $100,000 settlement, Bryant wrote. The $3.5 million settlement came years later.

The seven men who settled with the team and Fitzpatrick include Myron Birdsong, Terrance D. Birdsong, Walter Covington III, Eric Frazier Jr., Willie Earl Hollis, James A. Jackson and Ogletree.

In a recent story published on the website thepostgame.com, Ogletree recounted those days of his stolen youth. He remembers hearing the sounds of pitched baseballs smacking into gloves and the sounds of balls cracking off of bats. And eventually being lured in by Fitzpatrick.

"If you're a kid, you fall in love with the game of baseball," Ogletree said. "There's one-in-a-million chance of meeting a professional ballplayer, let alone working with them. If kids like something, and if you say you're going to take that away, they'll do anything to keep what's good to them. I know what happened to me at 10 years old."

"I was a good kid," Ogletree said. "I was raised right. The sentence I really got was a life sentence because of what I went through with the Red Sox."

Sometimes, Ogletree said, "I'm not sure who I am."

Crump, who has kept in touch with Ogletree's family, said that Ogletree and many of the others victimized by Fitzpatrick have never shaken the trauma of their assaults. Some have turned to drugs, he said. Others, like Ogletree, have battled with addiction and have had numerous stints in jail.

"It's one of those situations where once you steal a kid's innocence, they never ever get it back. And the question is, are they ever really going to be normal when something like that happens so traumatically at such an early age?" Crump said. "Their assaults color their feelings on mostly every issue in their lives, that's what we were dealing with. These guys never got right after that.”

In 2002 Fitzpatrick accepted a plea deal. He would serve no jail time, get a 10-year suspended sentence and 15 years of probation, according to reports.

Ogletree, who has battled the trauma brought on by the boyhood assaults, was in a mental institution when the multimillion dollar settlement was reached. He called Fitzpatrick's deal a "sweetheart deal."

But he has vowed never to let people forget what Fitzpatrick and others like him have stolen from innocent, vulnerable young people.

"I need to tell people my story," he said.

Below is statement reportedly released by the Boston Red Sox and reprinted on thepostgame.com:

Mr. Fitzpatrick served as the team's clubhouse manager from the 1960s until 1991, and the actions you have inquired about occurred between 1971 and 1991. When the team, then under a previous ownership group, became aware of the allegations against Mr. Fitzpatrick in 1991, he was promptly relieved of his duties. Civil litigation was filed in 2001 by victims of Mr. Fitzpatrick for actions that had occurred more than 20 years earlier. The team, which was acquired by the current ownership group after the lawsuit was filed, reached a settlement in 2002. Mr. Fitzpatrick has since passed away. The Red Sox have always viewed the actions of Mr. Fitzpatrick to be abhorrent.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/donald-fitzpatrick-red-sox-sex-scandal_n_1095118.html

She told ABC News that her son had been afraid to come forward and accuse former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

The investigation into alleged molestation by Mr Sandusky has now widened to the state of Texas.

Head coach Joe Paterno, accused of failing to act, was fired on Wednesday.

Speaking to ABC News' Good Morning America on Friday, her identity concealed, the mother said: "I want justice. I want him to be locked up.

"There's no help for someone who does this. Not like this. He needs to be put away. He needs to be put away for a long time."

'Moral bearing'
She said she had asked her son why he did not inform her earlier and he replied: "'Well, I didn't know what to do… you just can't tell Jerry, no.'"

She said the right action had been taken against Mr Paterno and other Penn State officials who are accused of failing to notify the authorities.

"There's got to be some moral bearing, in my opinion. Yes, they all needed to be gone," she said.

Court papers, which refer to her son as Victim 1, describe how Mr Sandusky met the boy in 2005 when he was 11 or 12 through a charity for vulnerable children which the former coach had founded.

According to grand jury testimony, Mr Sandusky "indecently fondled Victim 1 on a number of occasions, performed oral sex on Victim 1 on a number of occasions and had Victim 1 perform oral sex on him on at least one occasion".

Texas prosecutors say they are looking into possible abuses that took place in 1999, when Mr Sandusky travelled there to see the Penn State team play.

A now-27-year-old man, identified as Victim 4, told the Pennsylvania grand jury that Mr Sandusky had threatened to send him home from Texas when he resisted the coach's advances.

'Multiple threats'

Authorities meanwhile plan to boost security at Penn State's final home football game on Saturday.

Mike McQueary, one of the other coaches, will not attend the game after receiving "multiple threats", said officials.

It is alleged that he saw Mr Sandusky raping a boy as young as 10 (known in the grand jury testimony as Victim 2) in a locker room shower in 2002.

A distraught Mr McQueary reported it to Mr Paterno, who said he alerted the university's athletic director, Tim Curley, and senior vice-president Gary Schultz. They in turn informed University President Graham Spanier.

But police say the allegation was never reported to them.

Mr Spanier was also sacked on Wednesday, while Mr Curley and Mr Schultz are charged with failing to report the suspected abuse and of perjury during their grand jury testimony.

Wednesday night's firings prompted outbreaks of disorder from Penn State fans that saw a news van overturned and missiles thrown.

Mr Sandusky, 67, was arrested last weekend accused of sexually abusing eight boys between 1994 and 2009.

He retired from Penn State in 1999, but continued to use the university's facilities for his work with the Second Mile foundation, a charity for vulnerable children.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15697773

Penn State's head football coach Joe Paterno had earlier said he would retire at the end of the season, and that he was "absolutely devastated".

University President Graham Spanier was also dismissed with immediate effect.

Mr Paterno has been accused of failing to act over alleged child abuse by long-serving assistant Jerry Sandusky.

Mr Paterno has not been implicated in the case.

News of the university trustees' decision emerged shortly after 22:00 local time on Wednesday (03:00 GMT) when officials held a news conference.

'Great sorrows'
Hours before news of his dismissal emerged, Mr Paterno said in a statement on Wednesday: "I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief.

"I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: to serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today.

"That's why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season."

He added: "This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."

Addressing his players in the auditorium of Penn State's football building, Mr Paterno reportedly broke down in tears as he told his team he was leaving.

He said he wanted the team to finish the season with "dignity and determination" - but was eventually denied that opportunity.

Players gave him a standing ovation when he walked out.

Mr Paterno's announcement came three days before the Nittany Lions, Penn State's football team, play their last home game of the season against Nebraska.

The 84-year-old has won 409 games, a record for major college football, and was dismissed in the middle of his 46th year as coach.

Never reported
Former assistant football coach Mr Sandusky was arrested at the weekend for allegedly abusing eight boys between 1994 and 2009.

Mr Paterno has said he alerted the university's athletic director after he was informed in 2002 of an alleged serious sexual assault by Mr Sandusky on a boy as young as 10 in a locker room shower. But the incident was never reported to police.

Police have said that Mr Paterno fulfilled his minimum legal requirement but have suggested the coach had a moral responsibility to do more.

Penn State's athletic director Tim Curley along with the university's senior vice-president Gary Schultz were charged on Monday with failing to report the suspected abuse.

Both men are also accused of perjury during their testimony before a grand jury.

Mr Sandusky retired from Penn State in 1999, but continued to use the university's facilities for his work with the Second Mile foundation, a charity for vulnerable children.

He is facing 40 criminal charges, and has been released on bail.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15662479

California jurors delivered their verdict to a stone-faced Murray on Monday after deliberating for ten hours.

The jury of seven men and five women concluded that the evidence was sufficient beyond any reasonable doubt that Murray caused the sleep-deprived singer's death.

On the ground, John Smith, 60, followed the trial for 33 days outside. "I never thought he would go on to be this huge," he said. "Mike was loved for his human rights, charity and music. Conrad Murray is going to be found guilty."

Kimberly Binion stood outside the courthouse holding a photo of herself and Michael Jackson from when they were both teens. She has been following the trial since it began and this is her first day outside to hear the verdict. "I think that Conrad Murray should get second-degree murder. Manslaughter is not enough," she told HuffPost.

The judge has ordered jurors' personal information sealed.

Before the verdict was read, crowds outside the courthouse were chanting "Guilty, guilty, guilty" and "This is it, this is it" -- not only signaling the resolution of a lengthy investigation, but recalling the name of the tour Jackson was working on at the time of his death.

Murray has been remanded without bail, and scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 29.

After the verdict was read, Julia Thomas, 39, burst into tears outside. She has been coming to courthouse for two years and has held protests outside Murray’s apartment. "I'm just overwhelmed. He was a great soul and a great humanitarian. Now there is justice for his children, family and for him," she said of Jackson.

Jamie Khawaja, also standing outside the courtyard, told HuffPost of feeling "an overwhelming feeling of jubilation and excitement. Conrad Murray has set an example for other doctors who are treating celebrities. He did not get away with it and now nobody else will either."

Murray faces a sentence ranging from probation to four years in prison, according to the Associated Press.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/conrad-murray-guilty-verdict_n_1074088.html

Jackson doctor convicted
in singer's 2009 drug death

Michael Jackson's doctor was convicted Monday of involuntary manslaughter after a trial that painted him as a reckless caregiver who administered a lethal dose of a powerful anesthetic that killed the pop star.

The verdict against Dr. Conrad Murray marked the latest chapter in one of pop culture's most shocking tragedies -- the death of the King of Pop on the eve of the singer's heavily promoted comeback concerts.

Members of Jackson's family wept quietly after the verdict was read, and his mother, Katherine Jackson later told The Associated Press, "I feel better now."

La Toya Jackson told the AP she was overjoyed.

"Michael was looking over us," she said on her way out of the courthouse.

Murray sat stone-faced during the verdict and was handcuffed and taken into custody without bail until sentencing on Nov. 29. He appeared calm as officials led him out of the courtroom.

"Dr. Murray's reckless conduct in this case poses a demonstrable risk to the safety of the public" if he remains free on bond, Judge Michael E. Pastor said.

District Attorney Steve Cooley said it will be difficult to achieve an appropriate sentence for Murray because of a new state prison alignment law that allows early release for people convicted of nonviolent felonies.

He said his office gave the case the same attention it would give a lower profile case, but conceded that because of the identity of the victim, "obviously this takes on a viral dimension."

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said the sympathies of prosecutors went out to the Jackson family who have "lost not a pop icon but a son and a father."

Jurors were escorted from the building and not available for comment after the verdict was read.

It was unclear whether the jury determined that Murray had administered the fatal dose of propofol while deciding he was responsible for the death of Jackson.

Prosecutors had said Murray violated at least 17 separate standards of care, a number of which could have resulted in death.

A shriek broke the eerie silence in the packed courtroom when the verdict was read, and the crowd erupted outside the courthouse. Jubilant Jackson fans cheered and sang "Beat It" as they held signs that read "guilty" and "killer." Passing motorists honked their horns.

The jury deliberated less than nine hours. The Houston cardiologist, 58, faces a sentence of up to four years in prison. He could also lose his medical license.

Murray's attorneys left the courtroom without commenting.

In Las Vegas, a former Murray patient and current friend, Donna DiGiacomo, sobbed and said she thought the jury was under "overwhelming pressure to convict."

"This man didn't deserve this. They needed a scapegoat," said DiGiacomo, 53, a former Long Island, N.Y., teacher's aide who said she didn't believe Murray did anything to intentionally harm Jackson.

http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2011/11/07/jury_in_jackson_case_a_diverse_cross_section_of_la/?p1=News_links

http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2011/11/07/jury_in_jackson_case_a_diverse_cross_section_of_la/?page=2

In a deal with prosecutors, Julianne McCrery, 42, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her son, Camden Hughes.

She is expected to be to be sentenced to 45 years to life in prison on Jan. 13, 2012.

After her arrest, McCrery told police she drove cross-country from Irving, Texas to Maine to buy castor beans to use in committing suicide, and spent the drive thinking of ways to kill her young son, Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell said in court.

"There was no one else in her family she believed was fit to raise him if she were dead and she did not think he should be raised by social services," Morrell said.

But Morrell also told Rockingham Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau that investigators believe, after speaking with acquaintances of McCrery in Texas, that she felt "inconvenienced" by having Camden in her life and that she intended to return to Texas without the boy.

Morrell declined to elaborate on that theory after court.

Morrell said McCrery obtained the potentially lethal castor beans at a Maine emporium on May 12, and spent May 13 at Hampton Beach with Camden, checking into the Stone Gable Motel in Hampton that night. Early the next morning she ingested some of the castor beans and gave Camden some cold medication, Morrell said.

"An hour after feeding him the Nyquil, she took all the pillows off the bed and put them on the floor," Morrell said. "She lifted her son and placed him face down on the pillows. She lay on top of him, applying pressure to his body, with one hand over his mouth and smothered him. She said her son struggled, flailing his legs and arms for about three minutes."

McCrery told police it was daybreak when she put her son's body in the back seat of her Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck and covered it with a green blanket.

"She drove for some time," Morrell said, at one point turning onto a dirt road that led to another road in South Berwick, Maine, where she left her son's body in a wooded area not far from the road.

The discovery of Camden's body under a blanket on May 14 launched a nationwide effort to identify him. Even as that effort was under way, McCrery called his Texas elementary school daily to report him absent, saying he had appendicitis.

Morrell said the mystery of Camden's identity and the conviction of his mother might not have occurred but for a coincidence.

Linda Gove was driving to visit her in-laws in South Berwick when she noticed a blue truck, doors open and vacant, on the typically deserted road. She noticed U.S. Navy insignia on the truck. Glancing in her rear-view mirror, Gove noticed a woman, dark hair pulled into a ponytail, emerging from the woods. With her relatives, she went back and made the grim discovery.

Camden died of asphyxiation, according to a medical examiner, who also noted red blotches around his eyes and a bruise on one cheek.

Based on Gove's descriptions, McCrery and her truck were spotted at a Massachusetts truck stop. Morrell said when she was told about the effort to identify the little boy found dead in Maine, McCrery told a police officer, "Yes, that's my boy."

When Judge Nadeau asked McCrery if she was pleading guilty because she is guilty, McCrery answered softly, "Yes I am."

McCrery appeared calm throughout the hearing as she answered the judge's questions, wearing handcuffs shackled to a waist belt. Her father, Claude Hughes and brother, Christopher Hughes, attended the plea hearing but refused to comment, leaving the courthouse stoically.

"Today is really a difficult day for the McCrery and Hughes families," Morrell said outside court. "They are mourning the loss of Camden and struggling with how he died, at the hands of his mother."

"Today, we have justice for Camden," Morrell said.

Texas public records show that McCrery was arrested at least twice on prostitution charges and once for possession with intent to distribute drugs. In 2009, she was sentenced to one year in prison for a misdemeanor conviction of prostitution. In 2004, she was sentenced to three years of probation for a felony conviction of possession of a controlled substance.

Law enforcement authorities and friends have portrayed McCrery as a loving but troubled mother whose mood swings often prompted her to take lengthy road trips.

A lawyer who represented her at a brief court appearance in Massachusetts has said he got the impression from McCrery that her intent was to take her son's life and then kill herself. But Morrell said text messages to a new boyfriend in Texas that McCrery sent from the Chelmsford rest area implied she thought otherwise.

"That she maintained contact with the school and offered an excuse for Camden's absence suggests she intended to return to Texas," Morrell said.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/11/04/texas_mom_to_plead_guilty_in_death_of_son_in_nh/?p1=Local_Links

Aruban prosecutors announced the ruling after a closed hearing on the Dutch Caribbean island. Gary Giordano, a 50-year-old employment agency owner from Gaithersburg, Maryland, has been in jail since Aug. 5, three days after he told police companion Robyn Gardner was swept out to sea while snorkeling.

Authorities have said they believe that the 35-year-old woman is dead and that Giordano was involved. Her body has not been found, and any evidence against Giordano has not been disclosed. He has denied any wrongdoing, while his attorneys have appealed for his immediate release.

"Our client is innocent and there has been a lot of investigation already," attorney Chris Lejuez said in an interview outside court. "There is no evidence, and his life is being destroyed."

Lejuez said that during the hearing prosecutors disclosed that a DNA test confirmed that blood found on a towel came from Gardner. But the attorney said that Giordano has maintained that she cut her toe on a rock while they were on a beach and used the towel to stop the bleeding.

The same judge previously issued a 60-day detention order on Aug. 31. The prosecutor's office said in a statement that investigators needed more time to process additional evidence gathered in recent weeks, including the results of a re-enactment of the couple's snorkeling trip off the southeastern tip of the island.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/29/robyn-gardner-blood-towel_n_1065041.html

Prior to that role, she was the senior health scientist in the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, an office that oversees the allocation process for $1.5 billion in terrorism preparedness.

According to CNN:

"Authorities also charged Lindsey's live-in boyfriend, Thomas Joseph Westerman, 42, with two counts of child molestation.

The two are accused of 'immoral and indecent' sexual acts involving a 6-year-old ...

The bestiality charge says Lindsey 'did unlawfully perform or submit to any sexual act with an animal.'"

Between January and August last year, Dr. Lindsey and her boyfriend allegedly involved the child during sex, and DeKalb County police claim they discovered photographs of Lindsey performing sex acts on a couple of her pets.

Some of you may wonder why I've chosen to discuss this story. Some may think it's in poor taste and doesn't belong in a newsletter about health. However, I believe it's relevant to be aware that someone in charge of your child's health is allegedly engaged in child abuse. Her actions raise serious questions in my mind about her level of concern for the health and well-being of children in general.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/28/cdc-director-arrested-for-child-molestation--bestiality.aspx?e_cid=20111028_DNL_art_1