Recently in Children Category

A Gardena-area man is spending a year in county jail for breaking his 2-year-old son's leg, prosecutors said Monday.

Travondray Woods, 23, pleaded no contest on July 14 in Torrance Superior Court to one count of child abuse and was immediately sentenced to a year in jail, five years probation and parenting classes.

He was arrested in April after the boy was taken by ambulance from the home in the 14700 block of Lemoli Avenue to a hospital for what turned out to be a broken leg.

Woods told officers the boy hurt himself when he collided with his little sister. He later admitted he punched the boy in the leg.

Raphael Jakim was convicted this afternoon of one count of attending an arranged meeting with a minor with the intent to commit a sexual offense. The Simi Valley married father traveled to Redondo Beach to meet a 13-year-old girl that was really Torrance Detective Dennis Brady.

Brady, the father of his own teenage daughter, was sure to punctuate his online chat with some well-placed kid verbage, including the word "like" and talk about the mall. It was hard imagining the burly, mustachioed police officer participating in a girlie talk. But, it apparently worked, for he caught the predator.

Jakim, who was out on bail, was taken into custody without bail pending his sentencing hearing Friday.

In beginning her closing argument Monday in Raphael Jakim's trial for allegedly meeting a minor for sex, Deputy District Attorney Delanee Hicks told the jury that the Internet offers many valuable opportunities - like making restaurant reservations, buying airline tickets and social networking. But it also gives pedophiles many ways to contact and groom their vulnerable victims anonymously and under the radar, she said, making online predators very hard to catch.

Hicks compared the "old" ways pedophiles operated versus the "new." The old way involved lines like, "Hey little girl, would you like some candy?" or "Hey little boy, I lost my dog. Can you help me find my dog?"

But because the new way makes it easy for child predators to find kids and even establish relationships with them with a few key strokes, the Internet needs a new way to fight crime.

Jakim's case is the result of a sting that was conducted by Torrance Detective Dennis Brady, who is a member of the Interent Crimes Against Children task force. If you've ever watched Dateline NBC's - To Catch A Predator, you have a pretty good idea how that works. To find out more about how to keep kids safe online, check out these useful sites:

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's NetSmartz411

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Protecting Our Kids page

The jury in Jakim's trial resumes deliberations this afternoon.

Dwight Mitchell Waters, 39, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two child molestation counts for having sex with a 13-year-old student in May 2008. He got six years and will have to register as a sex offender. Read all about it here.

Previously: San Pedro boxer accused of raping teen had fight of his life inside his head

David Sosa, a former worker at the El Segundo aerospace giant, appeared in a San Bernardino courtroom today with a new lawyer. He was convicted a little more than a month ago for abusing two female family members and faces up to 24 years in prison.

Sosa will return June 5 for a status conference and then is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 11, prosecutors said today.

An appellate court issued a conditional reversal Wednesday for four sexual assault convictions against a man who raped a 15-year-old girl at the South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Antoine Reed, 45, lost his appeal on several other grounds, but convinced the 2nd District Court of Appeal that the trial judge should have allowed a hearing on whether he could call the victim's mother to the witness stand.

Reed said he wanted her to testify about why she didn't want a detective to question her daughter. Reed argued that it went toward the possibility that the mother believed detectives were manipulating the teen, who gave several versions of the incident.

The case will return to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing regarding the issue. Depending on the outcome, Reed could get a new trial.

Reed was convicted by a Torrance Superior Court jury in December 2007 of rape, oral copulation of a minor and two counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child.

He picked the girl up on Aug. 2, 2006, as she waited at a South Los Angeles bus stop before school. With promises of making her a model, he took her to the garden to photograph her.

After he took pictures, he pulled off her clothes and assaulted her.

He was sentenced to 110 years to life.

You can see the appellate opinion here.

Sorry, folks, for the delay on this and a few other stories! Been off for a few days and I'm playing catch-up.

On Friday, Francis Miguel Cuellar was sentenced to 161 years to life for molesting a Westchester boy, who was a family friend, and three others years ago in Pico Rivera.

Look for the full report later in the Daily Breeze and at www.dailybreeze.com, which will include some details of some of the things said before he was sentenced. (Hint: Cuellar said he didn't do it.)

Previous entries on the case are here.