← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · jay
Thread ID: 8381 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2003-07-23
2003-07-23 19:21 | User Profile
[url=http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/news/6354523.htm]http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascityst...ews/6354523.htm[/url]
Two charged with sexual assaulting teen runaway By LINDA MAN The Kansas City Star
Two men who may be HIV-positive were charged Monday with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old male runaway they had met through a telephone chat line.
Jackson County prosecutors charged Thomas Luce, 46, of Independence with one count of statutory sodomy. Juan Chester, 39, of Kansas City faces two counts of the same charge.
Based on statements the men made to police, authorities are testing the men for HIV, the virus linked to AIDS. Police were also investigating one suspect's claim that the two might have had sex with as many as 25 other juvenile males.
Independence police are asking other victims, or anyone with information about the two men, to call the detective unit at (816) 325-7330.
Luce, who is registered as a sex offender in Jackson County for sexual misconduct, and Chester were being held on $250,000 bond. Independence police said that in the late 1990s, Luce had left nude photos of himself at a bus stop and inscribed his phone number on the photos.
Police said that about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, they found the 13-year-old boy inside Luce's apartment at 1109 S. Brookside Ave. The boy's mother had reported him missing on Thursday, a couple of days after he had disappeared, police said. Authorities said the boy had a history of running away.
They were led to Luce's apartment after the victim called a friend, who gave the boy's mother the number that appeared on the telephone's caller ID.
**According to court documents, police found the Kansas City boy hiding in the bathtub.
Police said the boy acted "frightened and paranoid."
The boy told police that he had been forced to have sex and to watch Luce and Chester have sex. **The boy told police that the men threatened him not to alert anyone about the incident.
Independence police said the boy met the men through an area phone chat line. He then agreed to meet them Saturday at a Kansas City public library.
Police said phone chat lines can work as dating services to connect people of similar interests. Police said the men might have met other local youths though the phone chat line system. Police don't know how long the men have used a phone chat line system.
"Parents need to pay attention to what...their children are doing," Independence police spokesman Bill Pross said. "Kids need to be especially wary of adults who want to hang out with them."
Child-safety advocates agreed.
"That's just a basic parental rule," said Dawn Beye, executive director of the Child Abuse Prevention Association.
"Children need supervision, and sometimes I think teens need supervision even more than younger children do. Teens are prone to seeking independence, but are not skilled in making good choices."
Mark Smith, the group's director of operations, noted the association frequently gives advice on safe Internet use for children.
"But the phone is a lot harder to police," he said. "How many kids have phones in their rooms? I saw a kid talking on a cell phone while riding a bike tonight."
He added that parents need to have open communication with their children about the dangers of predators.
"It's hard to say how he got enticed," he said, noting some predators attract children with promises of gifts. Parents need to help their children "understand that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true."
The Star's John Shultz contributed to this report