Wichita police make a huge identity theft arrest, that could affect more than 50 people.

It was Wednesday morning when someone stole Bob Brunch’s truck in northwest Wichita.

“It was kind of devastating, cause it happened so quick,” said Brunch.
Eight hours later, police found it in southeast Wichita.

Inside the stolen truck, officers found hundreds of stolen documents, everything from fake ids, to checks, car titles, social security cards and Kansas Department of Correction release papers belonging to Craig Drees.
Police say Drees had the keys to the stolen truck in his pocket. Officers arrested him.

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

“This really isn’t his first day in dealing with identify theft and forgery,” said SCAT Officer Kevin McKenna. “To have this amount of victims and forged checks.”

Police say Drees had personal information from at least 50 victims, including local businesses. He could face hundreds of felony charges.

In the mess, officers found a laptop and printer that police believe Drees had been using to make the fake documents.

‘You’ll see that drug addiction is the fuel behind the fire of committing these crimes,” said McKenna.

For Brunch, getting his truck back was the best news of the day. Now he hopes the thief will pay.

“I hope he goes to jail and stays,” said Brunch.

Drees was just released from prison in September after being convicted of dozens of counts of forgery.

One other interesting note, in the box of stolen items, was a handwritten note, from Drees, who was starting a group to help people who are addicted to stealing checks and credit cards.

One way police say you can protect yourself from being a victim, don’t keep personal information, including your car title, in your car.

A Clinton man has been reported missing.

On Jan. 6 the Clinton Police Department took a missing person report on Joshua Snyder, 36. Snyder is described as a white, 6′ 2″, 265 pound male with brown hair and blue eyes.

According to a police release he was last seen at 4 a.m. on Jan. 6 leaving the 2900 block of North 4th St in Clinton.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Snyder has multiple tattoos on both arms and a scar on the left side of his face. Snyder is known to have seizures.

The case is currently under investigation by the Clinton Police Department. Information on Snyder’s location can be sent to the police department at 563-243-1458.

The former Louisville teacher and assistant football coach, previously employed by a parochial high school, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by United States District Judge David J. Hale, to 504 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release, for violating child exploitation laws, announced United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr.

Patrick Newman, age 33, previously pleaded guilty to 16 counts of producing child pornography, one count of online enticement of a minor, one count of transporting child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography.  The charges involved 16 different victims, all boys.  The ages of the children ranged from 12 to 17.  Newman engaged in sexual activity with three minors from the Louisville area and recorded the sexual activity with one of the minor aged victims. According to information exchanged during online communications, the remaining victims are from Texas, Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, North Carolina, New York, Utah, Oregon, and the United Kingdom.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

“This significant sentence reflects the severity of Mr. Newman’s crimes and is an appropriate punishment in light of the terrible harm he caused the multitude of vulnerable 12 to 17 year-old victims, their families, and a high school community,” stated U.S. Attorney John Kuhn. “Protecting our children will always be the highest priority of this office, and we will continue to prosecute those who exploit children as vigorously as the law allows.”

According to the Affidavit attached to a previous criminal complaint, the investigation started in early 2015, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip from Twitter, Inc. regarding the upload of child pornography materials to VINE (a video sharing website owned by Twitter) from the same IP address in Texas, between 12-28-2014 and 12-30-2014.  Law enforcement officials in Texas identified the child depicted in the images and later identified Newman as an adult who had been communicating with the child and obtaining sexually explicit images of the child.

Law enforcement officials executed a federal search warrant on Newman’s Louisville home in early June.  Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested Newman that same day.  During a recorded, post-Miranda interview, Newman admitted a sexual interest in boys 13-17 years of age.  He also admitted to communicating with minors through social media tools/applications such as KIK, VINE, Snapchat and Topix for the past two years.

Forensic examination of Newman’s cellular telephone revealed electronic communications between him and many other individuals involving the sexual exploitation of minors.  Based on representations during those communications, Newman solicited and obtained sexually explicit images from 16 boys under the age of 18.  He gave specific directions to some of the children as to what he wanted them to do, record, and send to him.  With one child, he specifically asked for sadistic images.  Newman met at least three boys in person and one (age 15) on several occasions.  Newman and the minor boy engaged in sexual activity which Newman recorded – using his phone.  He told other people, via social media, about his sexual activities with the boy and transported/distributed the videos to them.  He also shared other images and videos of child pornography with people via social media.  According to a review of his phone, he transported/distributed child pornography to 56 people, in addition to the 16 minors.  Also, a review of Newman’s “Dropbox” account, found that he possessed 87 videos depicting child pornography involving boys.

Newman has been in federal custody since his arrest on June 1, 2015.

Assistant United States Attorney Jo E. Lawless prosecuted the case.  The investigation was led by HSI Louisville Division of the Department of Homeland Security, with assistance from state, local, and federal law enforcement entities in Kentucky, Indiana and Texas.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

The former pastor of a Louisville, Kentucky, parish pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge David J. Hale today, in United States District Court, to charges of violating federal child exploitation laws, announced United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr.

Stephen A. Pohl, age 57, voluntarily surrendered himself to the custody of the United States Marshals Service today, and will remain in custody until sentencing before Judge Hale on March 29, 2016 at 1:30 pm.

Pohl pleaded guilty to a single charge of knowingly accessing, via the Internet, with intent to view material that contained images of child pornography between January and August 2015. Pohl was initially charged with the same offense by criminal complaint on August 21, 2015.  The complaint was filed after law enforcement officials executed two federal search warrants on August 12, 2015, in the work and living areas used by Pohl in the parish office and rectory of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Community, located at 7813 Shelbyville Road, in Louisville, Kentucky.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

The investigation began after a child told his mother that Pohl had taken pictures of him that made him feel “weird.”  When the child’s parents confronted Pohl about the pictures of their son, they saw similar pictures of another child and reported the matter to law enforcement.  Law enforcement officials obtained the search warrants based on the inappropriate images.  It is important to note that no child pornography images of Saint Margaret Mary school children were found on the digital devices seized and examined as a result of the search warrants.  All child pornography evidence and the charge in this case relate to Pohl’s online searches and viewing.

Law enforcement officials arrested Pohl in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, on Friday evening, August 21, 2015.  Pohl was then held at the Pinellas County Jail until his transfer to the custody of the United States Marshals Service.  He appeared in United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky on September 2, 2015.

Assistant United States Attorney Jo E. Lawless is prosecuting the case.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation in conjunction with Louisville Metro Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit conducted the investigation.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

A wanted Lexington man is in custody and has racked up more charges after allegedly threatening to shoot a police officer Monday night.

Marcus Hill is due in court Thursday after being arrested Wednesday night at his home on Mckenzie Lane. The arrest stemmed from the events that unfolded during a traffic stop Monday.

According to arrest warrants, an officer spotted 23-year old Hill driving recklessly and blowing through a four-way stop around 11 p.m. Monday night. A slow-speed chase ensued where the officer tried to pull him over several times, but documents say Hill drove off.

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The officer then learned that Hill was on the phone with police dispatch telling them he would only stop for a “black police officer or supervisor.”

Several officers then arranged to meet Hill at a gas station, until he told dispatch he had a gun and would shoot the officers. At that point, police say they stopped following and issued warrants for his arrest.

Hill is charged with fleeing or evading police, terroristic threatening and driving on a permit without a licensed driver.

A Colorado grand jury has indicted seven people who are accused of running a child sex trafficking ring in the Denver Metro area, according to records unsealed last week.

According to the indictment, the group is accused of recruiting three juvenile girls and at least one woman and forcing them into prostitution, renting them for sex acts out of Denver-area hotel rooms.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

The ring is indicted on 59 counts, which include kidnapping, keeping a place of child prostitution, pimping of a child, soliciting for child prostitution and assault with a deadly weapon, among others.

Ring members are accused of violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, keeping money made from pimping the victims, giving the victims drugs such as marijuana and ecstasy and also beating and sexually assaulting their victims.

Brock Franklin, Michelle Payne, Isis Debreaux, Donye Johnson, David Fullenwiley Jones, Brandon Garrison and Ralph Jones were listed in the indictment, with 29-year-old Franklin listed as the ringleader. All of the indicted except for Ralph Jones have been arrested, with Jones’ arrest pending according to authorities.

Brock Franklin, Michelle Payne, Isis Debreaux, Donye Johnson, David Fullenwiley Jones, Brandon Garrison and Ralph Jones (not pictured yet) were indicted on charges related to a child prostitution ring operated in the Denver Metro area. (Photo: Arapahoe County Court)

Franklin allegedly recruited girls by contacting them through Facebook and meeting them at hotels and nightclubs, using violence, drugs and sexual assault to control and coerce the victims, according to the indictment.

The girls and woman were given rules to follow, authorities say, including that they meet daily earning quotas.

Payne is accused of renting hotel rooms used by the ring, instructing the victims on the practices of prostitution, supervising the victims and taking money from them to give to Franklin.

Rign members allegedly rented rooms at various hotels and motels across Denver, including a Doubletree Hotel, the Warwick Hotel, the Commons Hotel, the Red Lion Hotel and a Motel 6, then forced the victims to engage in commercial sex acts while pocketing the victims’ earnings.

One member of the ring, authorities say, allowed his home in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood to be a hub for child prostitution.

Members of the ring allegedly posted ads on Backpage.com to find patrons who would pay to engage in sexual acts with the victims.

The indictment says the alleged crimes took place from 2014 through the summer of 2015.

The indictment was filed Nov. 6 by state prosecutors and unsealed last Tuesday per a court order. The case is being prosecuted in Arapahoe County because officials say the majority of the ring’s crimes were committed there.

The ages of the victims were not included in the indictment.

Franklin is being held at the Arapahoe County jail without bond. Payne, who was arrested last week on 31 felony counts in the case, is being held there as well, in lieu of $50,000 bond.

Franklin is next due in court Jan. 11 for a hearing on bond.

Court records show Payne was arrested in a separate case by Evans police in July on suspicion of prostitution charges.