Former Bullitt educator pleads guilty to rape, sodomy charges

This from the Pioneer News:

SHEPHERDSVILLE - An educator in both Bullitt and Nelson counties has admitted his guilty to rape and sodomy charges dating back to 1993.

Larry Brent Childress, 41, of Pioneer Village, entered the plea Thursday morning in Bullitt Circuit Court.

Childress was indicted last fall for rape and sodomy. Two of the charges were dismissed and two others were amended.

Childress could face up to eight years in prison.

According to the plea agreement between special prosecutor Todd Lewis of the state attorney general's office and defense attorney Joseph Wantland, Childress could ask for probation at the May 21 final sentencing. Lewis said he would not oppose the probation but would ask that the defendant serve at least 120 days in the county jail.

As the victim looked on, Childress admitted that he knew that she was under 16 years of age at the time of their sexual encounter in 1993; however, the then-assistant coach at North Bullitt High did not know she was under 14.

The allegations occurred from 1993 until 1995 in Bullitt, Jefferson and Fayette counties...

Judge Scolds Rapist Dinkel, then Goes Easy

This from the Enquirer:

COVINGTON - The revelation that child rapist Jeni Lee Dinkel told probation officials that she felt like the one "raped, threatened and blackmailed into having sex" with the 15-year-old she molested drew the ire of a judge Friday.

"This statement ... that she was a victim in the case is outrageous," Kenton Circuit Judge Gregory Bartlett said during Dinkel's probation revocation hearing. "It is outrageous and unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
Dinkel, 52, told probation officials she didn't feel that she "raped anyone," according to their transcripts.

It was this and similar statements, in addition to her refusal to take a polygraph as required in her sex-offender treatment program, that led officials to ask Bartlett to revoke her probation.

The wife of former Bengals linebacker Tom Dinkel pleaded guilty in May to one count of third-degree rape for having sex with the 15-year-old friend of her son. She was ordered to 60 days in jail, given probation for five years and ordered to register as a sex offender for 20 years.

Bartlett found that Dinkel violated her probation by not complying with the requirements of sex-offender treatment programs. But the judge didn't follow Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders' recommendation of sending Dinkel to prison.

Acknowledging she had followed the other terms of her probation, including paying for her victim's therapy, Bartlett tacked on another 40 hours to the 200 hours of community service she must serve.

Bartlett said if he hears even a whisper that Dinkel continued to blame the victim he would not hesitate to send her to prison.

Department of Corrections official Debbie Hoyt took the stand during the hearing and testified that she recalled Dinkel saying she deserved "to be punished for giving the kids alcohol but nothing else."

During Dinkel's August sentencing, the victim's mother told Bartlett that Dinkel's Villa Hills home was a "sexual smorgasbord for a very hungry, sick woman" who plied her son with alcohol before raping him. She said Dinkel manipulated her son by telling him she might be pregnant with his child.

The mother has filed a lawsuit in Kenton Circuit Court that accuses several people
and agencies with failing to take proper actions to stop the abuse.

Sanders told Bartlett that Dinkel is "preoccupied with this civil case and not with
complying with her probation."Dinkel's attorney, Robert Lotz, said his client tried to turn the probation-revocation hearing into a condemnation of the state-run sex offender treatment program Dinkel must attend.

Lotz called Dinkel's personal therapist to the stand to question why the state-run program required Dinkel to attend group therapy with male rapists. Dr. Peter Ganshirt said to be with male sex offenders, in his clinical opinion, was the equivalent
of attending chemical dependency meetings at a bar.

Backstory from the Enquirer

Alleged Rape at the Shock School

This from the Sun Chronicle (Massachusetts):

Center worker accused of raping fellow employee

NORTON - A mental health supervisor at the Judge Rotenberg Center on Shelly Road is in jail after he was charged with raping a fellow employee. Ellison Livingstone, 24, of Providence, was ordered held in jail on $100,000 cash bail after pleading innocent Wednesday to sexually assaulting the woman.

The incident is alleged to have occurred early Sunday in a bathroom at the Rotenberg Center...

This from Maia Azalavitz at the Huffington Post:

Will Rape Shut the Shock School?

When I wrote recently about the Judge Rotenberg Center -- the facility for autistic kids and other children with "behavior problems" that uses electric shock to gain compliance -- I asked rhetorically what it might take to shut it down. If the latest incident doesn't do it, I simply cannot imagine what would.

Of course, you would think exposure of its methods would be enough. Especially given our increasing knowledge about oversensitivity in autism and the fact that many "inappropriate behaviors" are actually attempts by people with autism to soothe themselves when overwhelmed. Brilliant treatment, this is:
Take a kid who is distressed and trying to soothe herself-- and punish her with
more distress to try to make her stop.

Ok, so that's not enough for the state regulators. How about the fact that a former inmate of the program can call in and order employees to shock other kids -- for no reason -- and the employees comply, replicating Milgrim's chilling "obedience" experiment? That's the one where ordinary people become "good Nazi's" simply by being told what to do.

Oh yeah, that didn't do it. Comes now word that a staff member allegedly raped
another staff member at a Rotenberg facility. Police were called to the site just after the incident -- and the rape apparently occurred in a bathroom.

Can we please, please spend the $200,000 a year states give to this program each year per child instead on evidence-based, nurturing treatment at home? I mean, for that money, you could hire a psychiatrist full-time to see only your child.

It's time to turn the page on this shameful chapter in the history of treating troubled children.