Daycare Witch Hunt- Falsely Accused Child Pornography/Assault

[mschryslynn]

What is the name of your state? TEXAS
My husband and I's situation started at 7 pm July 13th 2004. I was in
the bathtub taking a bath and my husband watching TV in our living room
after putting our 2 yr old son down for the night. I was in the middle
of washing my hair and heard several men in my bathroom "This is the FBI
and Sheriff's Dept and we have a warrant to search your home" My mind
went nuts, I honestly thought it was my husband playing a practical joke
on me. My husband and I are both very upstanding members of our
community, owning a small family ran daycare business and absolutely no
prior criminal history, not even speeding tickets. I was told by the
officers to get out of the bathtub and wasn't even allowed to drape a
towel on myself. At this time, all but 1 of the officers left; I was
grabbed by the arm and my breasts touched by one of the Sheriff's
deputies and took into my bedroom where I quickly grabbed some clothes
to cover myself. I went into my sons bedroom and got my son and picked
up the phone to call my mother to come watch my son who has PDD (form of
autism) I was denied this and also denied the right to call an attorney.
I was sat down at my kitchen table and questioned regarding mine and my
husband use of the computer. I asked repeatedly to see a search warrant
and demanded to know what this was about and the officer only got more
rude and abrupt and yelled at me. My husband was taken into our older
children’s bedroom who weren't there at the time and browbeat by the FBI
about his use of the computer. Several officers gathered computer
equipment from my business office and repeatedly we asked what was
happening and was told "You know what this is about" In all honesty, we
had no idea. After about 45 minutes of questioning the officers took the
computer equipment and left us with a copy of the paper stating what
they had taken. At around 11 am on July 14th our local state child care
licensing representative showed up at our business requesting all copies
of our students records and asked us to voluntarily shut down pending
the outcome of the now ongoing investigation. At this time we still had
no clue what was going on. We were told CPS had been contacted and that
we would need to visit the local office that afternoon. My husband and I
went to our local CPS office that afternoon and was sickened when we
learned an Anonymous person had phoned in a complaint that a male was in
a homosexual related chat room on the internet trying to solicit sex
with
other gay individuals who wanted to have oral sex with children. At this
time, we were asked by CPS to sign a short term contract saying that my
husband wasn't allowed any unsupervised contact with our 2 yr old son.
We
also volunteered to have our son examined by his pediatrician for sexual
abuse. I took my son into his dr the next morning and her finding were
she had no reason to suspect sexual abuse of our child and that she
felt the complaint was unwarranted. My husband and I have always been
very involved in all of our children’s lives (He has 3 older children
from a previous marriage that also lived with us) and have been very
much so involved in our youngest because of his learning disabilities.
At
no time during the polices search did they want to know more about who
use our computer (Mother,Father,Childrens and Family Friend)They only
targeted my husband because he was male. I spent the majority of time on
the computer and had problems sleeping at night and stayed up the
majority of the night on the internet trying to beat insomnia. During
the
day I used our computer mainly for business and bookkeeping. My husband
spent approximately 2 hrs on the computer a week looking at local
newspapers and watching music videos or playing video games with our
children. On July 16th local police and FBI agents arrested my husband
on
his way to a job interview and told him the charge was child
pornography. He was taken into the county jail and his bond was set at
$50,000, more than local murderers get .I received a call on my cell
phone from the local CPS office asking me to come in. When I arrived I
was escorted into a conference room where 3 officers sit to question me.
I was bombarded with many lies and accusations against my husband from
these police. I was humiliated by the police officer who was in the
bathroom with me telling me my husband wanted a skinny wife instead of a
huge whale like me (I am 220) I was told so many things my head still
reels from the obvious lies I know they were. At this time I told the
officers my husband knew nothing of our computer, that the computer was
mine and we weren't the only people to use this computer. I told the
officers I had a virus in the past few weeks that popped up pornography
on my screen anytime the computer was turned on. I was told I was a liar
but that they had not found any photos of children only words typed into
a search engine. I was told I was an unprotective mother, that I didn't
love my son because I allowed my husband to molest our son. At this
time, I was forced by CPS to sign a contract stating my husband was not
allowed any contact with our son. My husband spent 11 days in jail
before
we were about to make the $50,000 bond. During this time, I was
bombarded by the local media, newspapers and people calling and
harassing me. The local police department went to the media making false
statements against my husband and his contact with children. My husband
worked in a manufacturing factory for 13 yrs and in local restaurants as
management for 5 yrs. We had our daycare for 1 yr prior to this arrests.
This was the only contact he had with children and he was never alone in
this contact, I was ALWAYS around as were other volunteers in our
facility. Three different newspapers carried this story for 3 days as
headlines and 3 different newscasts, even one in a different state had
this as their headline news for 3 days running. The police told the
papers that they found many many photos of lewd, sexual deviant nature
on our computer and were searching for local victims. The police went
from some days saying the found many photos to not discussing what
evidence if any they had .During the time my husband was in jail he
wrote
12 requests to speak with a court appointed attorney as we now couldn't
afford to pay the 15-30k that attorneys were wanting. He was never
appointed an attorney and was questioned for 3 hrs by the police and
showed a video tape of some child saying they were molested. This child
was 2 yrs old and couldn't speak without being prompted what to say. He
was forced to take a polygraph test and when he passed it with flying
colors was still told he would be charged with aggravated sexual
assault. After all the media coverage, CPS told me I had to sign over
rights of my son to my mother because I defended my husband. After
getting out of jail, my husband visited Pre Trial services and put in
once again for a attorney, even after demonstrating financial need as we
were now on state aid and food stamps and was told the county would not
pay for his defense, he would have to defend himself. On September 9th
the FBI raided our "family friends" house for charges of child
pornography and manufacturing child pornography. They removed his
computer, photography equipment and other various sexual related
objects. We had told the police about this person using our computer
periodically and it was completely blown off. On September 16th my
husband was indicted by a Grand Jury on charges of child pornography. We
were scheduled for arraignment October 1st and during this time, my
husband asked for an attorney again and was denied yet again even after
demonstrating financial need for one. We have lost our home, our
business and now live with family as we have not been able to find a job
due to extensive media coverage of this. It has destroyed our lives. We
have been told by various sources that the "family friend" had been
bragging to people about setting us up, agreeing he was a gay individual
who liked children. Our "family friend" was arrested by the FBI and
indicted on Federal Child Pornography Charge on Nov 16th 2004. We were
finally awarded an attorney by the District Judge after telling him we
had been in contact with the ACLU. We went from law abiding prosperous
business owners, making over 6,000 a month to destitute and without
anything. CPS lifted their restrictions on our youngest child August
31st but we have not been able to see our other children since July 13th
2004.
To date, our lawyer has still been unable to view any information about
our case and the prosecutor refuses him access to the information. The
DA offered my husband a plea bargain of 7 years and when he refused, he
was indicted on Agg Sexual Assault of a Child and re arrested Dec 13th.
This county has severely violated civil rights and have falsified
evidence in order to cover themselves and I think an internal
investigation of this county is greatly needed and warranted as I am
sure this is not the only incidence of things of this nature.
At one time, I thought the Justice System of Texas was fair but I am
failing to see the justice in our judicial system. My family has been
destroyed by this, I have been sexually abused and assaulted by licensed
peace officers and without proper intervention by outside appropriate
authorities I feel this county will continue with it's morally corrupt
conduct.

[calatty]

And your question is? Are you testing your story out to see whether we believe it? I for one don't. If you made $6,000 a month, you weren't entitled to a public defender. Child pornography doesn't download itself onto computers. Family friends who have their own computers don't use their friends' computers, and child pornographers download pornography onto their own computers so they can enjoy it later. The DA is legally required to share information about the case with the defense lawyer, at least the initial police reports. And I'm the most charitable attorney in this forum. Wait til IAAL gets his hands on this story.

[JETX]

Calatty, you are indeed a more dedicated person than I am.
I simply refused to read through that long and rambling diatribe, much less to a point of trying to figure out what the hell he/she was trying to convey.

[mschryslynn]

I truly thank you for your very callous remarks. Obviously you didn't read the post in its entirity because my family USED to make a good living; that all ended when I closed my business and lost everything. Our "family friend" did indeed use our computer; he didn't have a printer of his own and used our computer for resume/job searches. You obviously don't know to much about how computers work and YES child pornography does indeed "just end up" on computers. It's called Malware, Spyware and you might want to start looking yours over, you probably have some and don't realize it. I was posting for informational purposes, hoping someone could offer suggestions as to what to do about this and on filing libel/slander charges against this police department and how a detective has misrepresented information (blatant lies) to the public in order to create mass hysteria. Your post was truly enlightening, it makes me realize just how insensitive people truly can be.

[calatty]

Callous? You've come to the wrong place for sensitivity and sympathy for people with child pornography on their computers. Spyware does not load child pornography onto computers, people do. So was it the spyware or the neighbor, or both? If your husband is acquitted, which is highly unlikely if all he has is the spyware/neighbor defense, he can start suing people. Betcha he takes a plea bargain instea.

[Shay-Pari'e]

[url]http://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=211337[/url]

Why are you re-posting this?

[john123456]

Looks like this is the story.


Former daycare center co-owner charged with sexual assault of child

By SHERRY LONG
The Daily News

An Overton man who operated a Kilgore daycare center was recently arrested on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Jeffery Steven Hardy, 38, is being held in the Gregg County Detention Center on $100,000 bond after being indicted by a Gregg County Grand Jury.

Longview Police Sgt. Mike Hyko said Hardy was charged with aggravated sexual assault for allegedly assaulting a three-year-old child attending a daycare center where Hardy was listed as a co-owner.

Law enforcement and Texas Department of Family & Protective Services officials are continuing to investigate the case to determine if any other children were victimized while attending the center.

"He (Hardy) was the perfect example of a person who preyed on children because every job he's had has either been church youth director or at the boys and girls club.

"All his activities involved kids," Hyko said. "Most of the time we think that is a pretty reputable job. That's nice that he likes kids like that. But the reason he likes kids is because he had other reasons to like kids."

Hardy's attorney Richard Hulburt said his client maintains his innocence.

Hardy formerly co-owned the Krayola Corner Daycare on Danville Road in Kilgore with his wife.

The daycare was closed voluntarily during the summer after his July arrest, according to Linda Cummingham, the Texas Family and Protective Services spokeswoman said.

In July, Hardy was arrested and later released on a $50,000 bond for a second-degree felony charge of possession of child pornography.

Hyko said Hardy had made some inappropriate comments about young children when he was chatting with another person in an online Internet chat room.

The other unidentified person then contacted the Child Protective Services hotline for child abuse giving them Hardy's screen identification name.

"I do cybercrime and I was able to identify who this guy was through his screen name," said Hyko, a unit commander for the federal Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, as he described how Hardy originally became of interest to police.

Hulburt said the two cases would be combined into one, but a trial date has not yet been set.

Source: [url]http://www.hendersondailynews.com/articles/2004/12/20/news/03daycaresun.txt[/url]

[mschryslynn]

I posted in 2 different forums as I didn't know the same people "trolled" the same forums. As for sensitivy towards people who ACTUALLY peruse and pursue child pornography, I have none either. However, for those people who are truly innocent, as my husband is, I do have the deepest sympathy for those people because until you walk in those shoes you have no idea how being falsely accused of such heinous things can damage a persons life. I don't wish this hell on earth on my worst enemy.
This is the most callous, inhumane and utter disrepectful community forum I have ever visited. The majority of the answers I have gotten are vile and I hope that one day you don't find yourself on the other side of the fence and have to experience this hell yourself. God Bless You, because you DO need it.

[john123456]

Originally Posted by mschryslynn

I posted in 2 different forums as I didn't know the same people "trolled" the same forums. As for sensitivy towards people who ACTUALLY peruse and pursue child pornography, I have none either. However, for those people who are truly innocent, as my husband is, I do have the deepest sympathy for those people because until you walk in those shoes you have no idea how being falsely accused of such heinous things can damage a persons life. I don't wish this hell on earth on my worst enemy.
This is the most callous, inhumane and utter disrepectful community forum I have ever visited. The majority of the answers I have gotten are vile and I hope that one day you don't find yourself on the other side of the fence and have to experience this hell yourself. God Bless You, because you DO need it.

I think it's fascinating you failed to mention your husband was arrested for sexually assaulting a 3-year-old several months after the child pornography charge.

[CdwJava]

Granted, allegations and suspicions can flow easily, to get a Grand Jury to indict as well as a seperate arrest for two related types of offenses in so short of a time indicates something is going on.

And Trojans and adware type programs are not going to download, categorize and archive dirty pictures ... at least I have never heard of such a thing. I will have to ask the regional computer crimes task force if they have heard of anything like that ... but I can guess the answer will be, "No."

He needs a good attorney.

- Carl

[JETX]

Originally Posted by CdwJava

GAnd Trojans and adware type programs are not going to download, categorize and archive dirty pictures/

Nor will they make "inappropriate comments about young children when he was chatting with another person in an online Internet chat room"!!!

[mschryslynn]

I didn't fail to mention that

Qoute:

"The DA offered my husband a plea bargain of 7 years and when he refused, he
was indicted on Agg Sexual Assault of a Child and re arrested Dec 13th."

I have no reason nor nothing to gain from coming online to lie about anything. I agree spyware and trojans do not have conversations but neither did my husband. This same "profile" used has been traced to the "family friends" by a subpoena of a chat room SINCE and WHILE my husband has been jailed. Answer that. Also, the police did a "2 wk" investigation of this which included seeing who "lived" in the home, NOT who used the computer and even after learning who did DIDN'T even question any other people, only assuming it was my husband, who has never been in trouble before and despite what the detective continues to tell the news media HAS NOT worked in the capicities he tells the public he has. Documented proof as well that he has not. I live in a small town and this detective is running for sheriff in the next year and has something to "gain" by this.
I am not a niave person, I think people who DO commit these crimes are horrible people, not people I would be associated with but I also know, from working in a police department myself, that cops aren't always truthful and certainly don't own up to mistakes.
I have not come here to have people sympathize with me, only for advice, not condemnation.

[mschryslynn]

And photos were not "downloaded, archived and categorized" as you suggest. 4 images (questionable to be child pornography) were found in temporary internet files.

[Shay-Pari'e]

Originally Posted by mschryslynn

And photos were not "downloaded, archived and categorized" as you suggest. 4 images (questionable to be child pornography) were found in temporary internet files.

(QUOTE)and I hope that one day you don't find yourself on the other side of the fence and have to experience this hell yourself. God Bless You, because you DO need it.(QUOTE)

OH!~ Please Stop Whining. The only people that would live this type of hell is people who think it it normal. It is not normal lady!

One less pedator off the street. I did not buy into your first post, and I find it sad you had to open another thread.

He has been found guilty, and that is a good thing.

[mschryslynn]

I find you to be a sad person and maybe one day you'll suffer injustices and see what it feels like to be wrongly accused of something you didn't do.