As both a rape and cold-case survivor, the Carlee Russell situation -- and especially the discussions surrounding it -- have been really triggering for me. 

There are several large problems in play.  Below are my thoughts on changes I would like to see.  I know they won't happen.  But I pay for this blog so that I can have some voice in this world, even if nobody ever reads it.  Maybe some day someone will, after my death.

1. Racialization of crime has gone full circle in my lifetime.  When I was a child, the races of the people involved were often reported.  Not always.  You wouldn't be told if the criminal was white, unless he was an immigrant.  But you would always be told if any criminal was black, and especially if the victims were white.  That changed over time as African-Americans gained more voice.  We became "politically correct," more aware of appropriate verbal boundaries.  That has come full-circle now.  The race of a perpetrator is always mentioned if they are white, even if it wasn't an actual crime but only rudeness.  Victimization is important if the victims are black.  I'm hoping we will eventually come to a point of actual decency, where we treat people equally.  I'm not counting on it though.  Everything doesn't boil down to race every time.  I must agree to disagree with Ibram Kendi on that point. 
2. Nobody in America actually understands how the 911 system works.  I ran 911 calls for a number of years, both as a firefighter and paramedic.  In my personal experience, Americans of all demographics severely abuse the emergency response system and think nothing of it.  Mitt Romney, in his presidential campaign, advised people to do more of the same -- use ambulances as taxis to the emergency room for primary care.  This is why we can't have nice things, and why firefighters and paramedics have greatly decreased life expectancy.
3. While it's popular to demonize Karen at every turn, every demographic in America does all of the behaviors attributed to white women.  As a homeless person, the first time anyone lied about me to the police it was an African-American woman in Henrico, Virginia.  I saw her stiffen up and zoom past me when she came around the corner walking her dogs.  The police showed up a few minutes later.  They had no lawful reason to ask me to leave.  I left just to humor that bitch, so she wouldn't worsen my situation.  I had an African-American apartment manager once decline to rent to me.  He suggested that next time I park around the corner and walk up so they couldn't see I was homeless.  In Fort Bragg, California, the white librarians, and on another occasion two white guys in a City truck, both called the police and lied about me.  In both of those instances the police were annoyed about it.  That was two incidents of city employees, while on the payroll, filing false, malicious reports with the police.  My point is, not only does the same malicious reporting happen to people who aren't black, African-Americans also do it to people who are below them socially.  White men especially love talking about Karen while doing Karen behaviors.  They talk about male Karen and black Karen, how does that work?  White women make everybody act stupid?  Every obnoxious person gets relabeled a white woman?  That's healthy.
4. There are other horrible ways that people abuse the 911 system that also need to be criminally charged IMHO.  Back when I used to waste my time trying to have reasonable conversations on Reddit, I saw a post about BLM in Rochester.  Someone had set fire to a car in the street -- an incredibly dangerous act.  When the tires explode, they go projectile.  They endangered all kinds of life and property. Worse yet, when the fire crew arrived, someone jumped onto the bumper and wouldn't allow them to put out the fire.  The BLM people of Reddit would not allow themselves to be educated on the many ways in which they endangered lives with that stunt.  I explained that other people were waiting to have their 911 calls answered, waiting for help that would not come while this arsonist was stalling the fire crew.   They could not be convinced that they had ground the paramedics to a halt, because they didn't see paramedics in the video and don't understand how shit works in real life.  The BLM people were as reasonable and rational about it as MAGA people.  They couldn't be convinced that they didn't know what the dispatchers had pending. I'm white and telling them something they didn't want to hear, so I'm fake news.  Many people flatly announced to me that nobody else needed help in that moment.  Like small children who think anything they can't see doesn't exist, as if all of Rochester could be seen in that video.  JFC.   Just like MAGA people, they didn't blink before telling me -- someone with credentials -- how things work.  No matter how patiently I attempted to explain, I got called a racist and my input dismissed.  There was no talking sense to any of them.  I regret that the fire crew didn't floor it and send that idiot flying through the sky.  The arson was bad enough.  Deliberately bringing the emergency response system to a standstill to make your point is domestic terrorism, punishing the most vulnerable and the hardest working simultaneously.  Fuck everything about that guy and everybody who thinks that was fine.  If that's an official BLM thing, that's an OK strategy to employ, I withdraw my support from BLM.  N-O.

SHAMELESS LIARS

I worked as a paramedic in a high-volume, high-acuity urban system.  That means that we ran a lot of bad calls every day, often 14 or more in a 12-hour shift.  We often didn't get a potty break for eight hours or more.  I was frequently much sicker than the people I was transporting,

I was once called to a woman with chest pains.  Because of the seriousness of the call, a fire truck was dispatched because the medics (a) often can't get there fast enough, and (b) may need extra help when someone is dying.

Because of the way we haul ass when we're led to believe someone is dying, the ambulance I was in almost collided with the responding fire truck as they came around a corner.  We almost got killed racing to help this woman.

We arrived to find an elderly woman sitting with her neighbor in no distress at all.  She had a large, necrotic wound on her leg, a dead patch of flesh.  She has needed ongoing care at a wound clinic for months or years.  Her neighbor, seeing her condition, had convinced her to finally seek help.  And that's great.  She definitely needed some intervention.  She may end up losing that leg, which is unfortunate when she could have been helped all along.  This is absolutely not an emergency and does not warrant a 911 call.  The neighbor should have called her primary care physician and made an appointment.  At her age she gets Medicare.  Her Medicare Advantage plan will send free transportation to carry  her to her medical appointments.  These were African-Americans, very unlikely to be Romney voters.

We asked her why she said she was having chest pain.  She flatly explained that she knew from experience if she told the truth, it would take too long to get an ambulance.  She has called for gout before, another thing that constitutes system abuse when you call 911 about it.  Nobody ever dies from gout.

We explained to her that we had almost been killed attempting to respond to her false report.  She shrugged.  It's very special to tell someone you almost died just now because of their lies and have them show you how much they truly don't care.  We explained to her that when it takes so long, that's because we have other people that are much sicker than her, who may die because they're not getting helped while we deal with her.  She just DGAF.  She was fine cutting the line in front of whoever.  She only wants what she wants.  This is America, where everybody uses the wheelchair toilet every time they're going to stink it up, and doesn't think of that as a privilege flex.

So while she's an elderly woman with a serious medical problem, I want her to be criminally charged for what she did there.  And there's no way it will ever happen, because America is a big, fat, selifish idiot that likes to stay broken and blame Karen for everything.

Men and African-Americans are just as likely to make frivolous or retaliatory 911 calls, or be wild and abusive in public, as "Karen." Watch Parking Wars sometime and see.  Watch every demographic of Americans try to call the police on the parking enforcement people, as if they're not on the same payroll. Again, I personally had malicious, untrue 911 calls made against myself by people of all demographics as a homeless person, and I am white and female.  You don't have to be African-American to have your civil rights violated by the police, or be hassled by other citizens.  I could give many examples.

MALICIOUS LIARS

When I lived in Chicago I was once a witness on a malicious, racist 911 call.  Some teenagers were hanging out with a radio near my house.  The police arrived.  Someone had called in a "fight," probably because most of the kids were African-American.  If I had to use one word to describe their behavior I would go with "flirting" or "dancing."  And that's what I told the police.  There was no fight.  So the cops left.  I would like to see the person who called in that report charged for lying to the police.

FREQUENT FLYERS

It was common discussion among firefighters and paramedics, that we had no power to do anything about our "frequent flyers," or chronic system abusers.  There were many people we recognized either by the complaint or the address.  But we had people who called us all the time over absolute nonsense.  And they were just as likely to be male or African-American as white and female.  This isn't a Karen problem.

Unfortunately the police are the only ones who can criminally charge people.  And they don't know or care what havoc people are wreaking on the fire crews.  You have to antagonize the police before they do anything. 

The other issue is that they don't want to discourage people from crying wolf, because then they might have a real emergency, not call and then die, and the county will get sued.  So we have to kiss their butts every time.

NOTE:  If you call an ambulance, and the paramedic asks you, "Have you tried any over-the-counter medications?" that's probably their way of saying you're abusing the system.  You should get in a car and go to urgent care.  They're not allowed to refuse to treat you or tell you how they really feel. 

MY POSITION ON FALSE AND MALICIOUS REPORTING

It's very simple.  As a rape survivor, people have reflexively called me a liar all my life -- even when, especially when, they know for sure I'm telling the truth.  So false reporters really piss me off.

Making a false police report is a crime.  When that guy in Boston murdered his wife, he blamed some non-existent black men.  Guess what?  The police rounded up however many people who had nothing to do with it and hassled them about it.  Did they get beaten up?  Miss time from work?  Who knows how inconvenient it was for how many people.  That guy needed to be charged separately for that.  And because he racialized it, I would be good with adding hate crime charges.

So for another example, say someone calls 911 and says, "There's a black man walking around my apartment and he doesn't live here."  If the police arrive and the person is another tenant, two things should happen.  1. they should be charged with a false report.  and 2. you can add hate crimes, because they mentioned the race of the person as the reason they were calling.  They didn't talk to him, or the building manager.  He wasn't doing anything.  They were just harassing somebody and misusing the 911 system.  Charge them.  Teach them not to do it.

If you drank a box of wine and went to CVS to scream about Sharia law, you can be arrested for drunk and disorderly.

Many people are suggesting that Carlee Russell should just be forgiven, no harm, no foul.  Some people have argued that Carlee shouldn't be charged because the "Karens" don't get charged. 

That person has it exactly backwards.  First of all, it's someone who would rather scapegoat one demographic than actually solve problems, evidenced by their use of the word "Karen" as a euphemism for "problematic person."  But if "Karen" has committed a crime, this white lady would like to see her charged rather than just have people talk shit without learning or solving anything.  And false, malicious reporting is a crime.  Lying to the police is a crime.

The old woman who lied about having chest pains shouldn't go to jail.  She's too old and frail.  But she should be called up in front of a judge and made to explain why she lied to the ambulance crew.  Somebody needs to impress upon her the seriousness of her problem behavior.  She absolutely didn't get it.  I advised the nurse, when I dropped her off, to treat everyone in the hospital, and possibly some people walking past, before seeing that woman.  It was all I could do.

Carlee Russell needs to go to jail for what she did.  It was not okay.  The many people who are fine with turning a blind eye to it are absolutely part of the problem.

WARNING:  This is graphic and will make your blood boil.

The police have named Sergio Garcia a suspect, with several clear CCTV images of him.  He is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Mr. Garcia should turn himself in before the neighbors catch him.  That's my best advice to him.  It's not going to end well.  I can't imagine how they will protect him in prison in California.

The A&E network is that digital true crime frenemy.

On the one hand, they do a lot of crime journalism that I don't find anywhere else.  They often get things done that nobody else does.  The problem is right in the name:  Arts & Entertainment.  True crime isn't a form of entertainment, or it shouldn't be.  Therein lies the issue.  We're using the wrong tool to address the crisis of violence against women: entertainment.

Frankly, whenever I see the "graphic content" warning, I bristle.  It always seems to me like the thing creepers use to determine whether they'll be turned on by the content or not.  And unfortunately A&E usually doesn't disappoint them, routinely including at least a few graphic photos of dead/mangled women.

I didn't see the above-linked program, The Killing Season, when it first aired.  I recently watched the whole thing back-to-back.  I have thoughts.

• I'm grateful that the filmmakers put in so much time and effort.  They truly invested themselves in humanizing a lot of disposable, disposed-of women.  They went to a lot of grimy, swampy, crime-infested places, and talked to a lot of people nobody cares about.  As a survivor it means a lot to me.
• It horrifies me how easy it is for anyone with mainstream media access to get a sit-down with the authorities in this country.  As a survivor of a cold case I can't always get detectives to return my phone calls -- a refrain you'll hear over and over from loved ones of murder victims in this series.  But these filmmakers, who have no skin in the game, can get meetings with all kinds of authority figures by the grace of A&E.   Because it's entertainment.   INFURIATING.
• The filmmakers -- and I bless them very much for their efforts -- are out of their depth. 
• This genre of "entertainment" exists because women's needs are not being met by the system itself.  I hear Josh, the male filmmaker, decrying over and over the "broken system."  It is absolutely not a broken system.  The system perfectly reflects the ethos of its designers, and the violence against women that they demand.
• On the one hand, I appreciate that they are willing to track down leads from the crowdsourcers at Websleuths.  On the other hand, there's a reason they don't start police officers with murders on their first investigations.  Street smarts are something people build up over time.  It's painful to watch the filmmakers being played, especially since they don't always seem to know it, even when they should be able to see it coming, even in hindsight.  But I applaud their courage and heart.
• The most cringeable part of the show is their German profiler, a former submarine crewman and current fiction author named Brendt.  He's prominently featured on multiple episodes and even in the intro, and says such laughable drivel that I won't even waste time quoting him.  How did this person make it into the final edits?  WTF?  Don't make me pull quotes.
• The thing is, some of the other people from Websleuths were worthwhile, like the two women with the topographical surveys in New Mexico.  And because they're affiliated with A&E, the crew was able to get access to the New Mexico Department of Geology to coordinate with them.  GOOD JOB! 
  
• New Mexico was where that whole series should have stopped and done some self-examination.  Because they accomplished some very good things.  And in that episode, they also exemplified all that hurts me about A&E.  They allowed the self-important German fantasist to say all sorts of silly things as though he were equally valid as the others, entirely skewing everything IMO.
  
• In the New Mexico portion of the above-linked video, they discuss the West Mesa killer.  This bold film crew took the time and effort to speak with multiple sex workers on the stroll and ask their opinions on the murders!  For that, I give them all the stars.  That's real journalism.  And the women said the same things over and over:  the cops were involved.  They gave the same name over and over, too.  As did the social service and NGO workers they spoke with, that one guy's name kept coming up.  They did some real investigative journalism in New Mexico.
  
• Another excellent thing they did in New Mexico was to work with a private detective and possibly get a confession, or at least an admission, on tape.  Another example of the system not being broken but functioning the way the powers that be want it to work.
  
• They spoke with another credible investigator who discussed a potential Mexican cartel connection. The dumps didn't match her scenario.  And being afraid to raise American law enforcement's attention? Yes and no.  I've seen pictures of the cartels arresting the police in Mexico.  They really don't care how many of their people get arrested here, if they're not already on the ABQ police force. Then again, they don't want to raise a lot of attention if they're on the police force.  Which defeats the purpose of sending a message, right?  If nobody finds the bodies?  But that investigator is still worth listening to, unlike Brendt who is so prominently featured.
  
• Based on what I know, ABQ/Gallup is a major human/drug trafficking thoroughfare anyway, no Mexican cartels needed.  Though they're by no means ruled out.  It's already a huge place for women to disappear, especially Native women.  And all of these women were in or near the local drug scene.  The West Mesa situation looks to me, after watching this investigation, more like a Jefferson Davis 8 situation involving local law enforcement and criminals working together with a nod from the FBI, like with Whitey Bulger.
  
• They spoke with a former police officer from New Mexico -- a woman with actual credentials, who I understand had been professionally vetted by Websleuths.  And the one and only point she made was that there are some very, very bad people in law enforcement.  That was what she tried to impress upon them.  They didn't have any follow-up questions.  They didn't seem to understand what she was trying to say.  They didn't ask her if she was saying that anyone in law enforcement might also work for a Mexican cartel.  They had the German guy, the former submariner with no credentials other than chain smoking on webcam, talk out his butt.  He rambled on and on about who would or wouldn't go out on the Mesa and dump a body where.  Those three people weren't presented as equally credible or valuable.  It wasn't a level playing field. There was much, much more of him.  He was presented as more credible than either of the two women with real-world knowledge, the guy who has no credentials and has probably never been to ABQ. It was a very false narrative in that way. That keeps the conversation firmly at the gibberish level in the mainstream American media.
  
• I don't know if the filmmakers truly lost the plot that hard or if A&E won't let them bite the hand that feeds it.  But this is why we're frenemies.  Because A&E will allow that sort of ridonkulous bullshit to go unchecked.  They don't insist on critical thinking in the final edit.  They allow for emotional baiting and other foolishness, because at the end of the day it's entertainment.
  
• This will be my last point on it, the most important one, and I'll leave you to consider the following.  Because I'm very grateful that they did this series.  And I'll need to rewatch the part about Oklahoma.  I think the part about Daytona is worthwhile and well-solved -- the bikers handle their business however they do.  But what got missed on the Mesa said it all for me.  This last point landed right on my heart.
  
• At one point Josh calls the police officer who was named over and over again as the possible West Mesa killer.  Many sex workers have said they were Holtzclawed by this guy, taken up to the Mesa and shaken down for sex.  Some say they had been taken up there, beaten up, and left up there to walk back to town. These are things police are known have done to harass people in other areas of the country.  None of these complaints, if verified, would be the first time this had happened in America. The filmmakers receive at least a dozen reports on this one person. 
  
• When contacted, the accused cop says that the ABQ police department told women that they were the ones killing and dumping sex workers on the Mesa, in order to keep them off the streets.  He goes on to say that all prostitutes accuse vice detectives, and it's par for the course and means nothing.  The crew accepts both of these explanations and moves on.  I wanted to smash the device I was watching it on.
  
• Again, I don't know if these two lack the street smarts to understand what just happened there, or were not allowed to bite the hand that gets them invited into every police chief's office.  But this is why we can't have nice things. 
  
• Josh, ask yourself.  Why him and not any other officers?  Why his name over and over?  Can you imagine a police agency telling people that they're murdering people and dumping bodies to deter crime?  That absolutely didn't happen.  JFC, man.  And no prosecutor followed up after hearing that phone call, go figure.  Because for sure public safety veterans know that that absolutely didn't happen.
  
• No matter how well these filmmakers may mean, there's always what I've now come to think of as "the Harvey factor."  It's the way movies always left me unsatisfied, and I really never went.  Because movies always have to suit the male gaze.  Harvey Weinstein always has to enjoy them, which makes me not enjoy them.  And you know what?  A&E makes sure that the creepers are always okay with their content, too.  They do.
  

In the old days, I used to waste my time trying to have reasonable conversations on Reddit.  And I once pointed out that I've never heard of a woman or women dragging a random man or boy into their car, sticking things up their butts, and murdering them.  Yet the reverse happens so often that it doesn't always make the news. And because Reddit is Reddit, someone sent me an anonymous link to "Reddit cares," a thing where you can get mental health resources, because I made that totally obvious point.  The suggestion being that I'm unhinged for noticing the rampant violence that men do against women and girls.

In yet another example of the same super-obvious point, a 13-year-old girl was allegedly abducted by an adult man in Texas, as reported in the video above.  After two days of being sexually assaulted and driven around, she found herself in my old neighborhood, Cambodiatown, in Long Beach, California.

This is a very high-crime area, where anything could have happened to her aside from the kidnapping.  But it's also an actual neighborhood, where people know each other.  We even know a lot of our local homeless people in the area.  There are some really good people there.  I'm so glad she was able to get helped.

What bothers me about this story is that yet again the same old magic eraser of police work was used.  She was listed as a runaway despite being forced into a car at gunpoint.  The girl was 13 years old, and the authorities still found a way to not look for her, to blame her and assign her full agency for her own plight at the hands of a grown man.

First of all, thank God this girl is okay.  I'm proud of the strength it took for her to survive that situation and get herself out of it.

ABC13:

"Sunday night, an 18-year-old girl started knocking on doors on Foxmont Lane looking for help, according to the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office.

She told constables that she was tied up and held captive in a home on the street for a month by Macias and Reyes. The girl escaped her restraints when the couple left the home Sunday night and she sought help.

Authorities reported she had marks on her hands and legs.

A search warrant was executed at the home in question on Monday, and Precinct 4 said they found a chain with multiple padlocks in the bedroom. They said other items were found that supported the teen's story."

You can read the linked article for more details.  But the married couple is now charged in her abduction and sexual abuse for a period of one month while she was missing. 

COMPARE TO CARLEE RUSSELL

• This person did not walk back to her mother's house.  She ran door to door in desperation.
• She had visible marks of restraint.
• The ruse used to allegedly kidnap her actually makes sense.  She was well-known to the perpetrators, which is the usual way.  Carlee's "baby on highway" ruse sounds like it was made up by Frank and Charlie from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
• The Texas survivor immediately cooperated with the police.
• She told them where she was held, and they were able to search the location and find evidence supporting her story.
• The police were able to find physical evidence supporting her story, both on her body and in the alleged kidnap location.
  
• She's not claiming they took naked pictures of her without any physical contact.  That is one of the most laughable pieces of horseshit Carlee Russell said.

I can't go on without impacting my mood.  Thank God this Texas woman is safe now.

I followed the Long Island Serial Killer case some years ago and am really glad they caught Rex Heuermann.  I believe they have the right person.

However, along the way, they discovered an incredibly dark web of corruption and violence against women, including a police chief, a doctor, all kinds of rich people.  And a lot of dead, low-income women.

But the thing that struck me about the above video is the gender divide in the comments.  A lot of men are going so far as to call it clickbait, that the voicemail isn't creepy at all. 

Even in hindsight they aren't willing to validate that Rex Heuermann -- described as looking like an ogre by one of Amber Costello's neighbors years ago -- creeped this girl out. 

This woman sidestepped an alleged serial killer, and the comment section is jam-packed with men in hard denial about it.  This is why we can't have nice things. 

I encourage you to scroll through the comment section and see how many men lack self-awareness at that level.  They can't look at the picture of him, and the picture of her, and immediately know why that phone call accurately creeped her out in real time.  They don't get why he shouldn't think he stands any chance with her at all, especially not after bringing up his sex crimes in work conversation.

In the conversation itself he all but admits it's a ruse to talk to her.  Guess what?  Guys make excuses to talk to her all day, every day.  I remember having a similar problem.  She's not confused about it.  Really sad, the percentage of men in the comments who lack the very first clue, even with the stack of evidence in that bail hearing.  They can't give her credit for having accurately read the tea leaves about it.

At first I was hopeful, along with most people, that this young woman would be found alive.  While her whereabouts were unknown I could only take a positive position on her behalf.

But as soon as she showed up back at her mother's house, I wanted her clapped into handcuffs like old Sherry Papini, for the same reason.   Allow me to list the things that set off my bullshit detector.

• No sign of any kidnapper either at the disappearance or return site.
• No sign of any toddler.
• She sees an infant in a diaper and can identify it as male?
• Most ridiculous "ruse."  Think about it.  You put an infant on the shoulder to lure a woman?  There was no missing infant reported.  So it's your infant.  How do you know the person who stops, if anyone, won't be an Alabama State Trooper?  In that case, you got some splaining to do and probably lose your baby.  Only the dumbest ruse in the world, virtually guaranteed to fail because if the baby's far enough off the road to not get hit, nobody even sees him in the dark at 65 mph in the first place.  Think about it.  DUH.
  
• After escaping from "brutal kidnappers" in some weakened condition two days later, she goes all the way back to her mother's front door.  How many police or fire stations, hospitals, or other such places did she pass between her "kidnap" location and her mother's house, and why?
• She's too traumatized to talk to the police or the press about it now that she's back.  And the money that was raised to find her isn't being refunded.

I'm working on being the kinder, gentler version of myself.

Like false rape accusers, people who do this sort of thing and gin up all this attention make life absolute hell for people like me, who struggle to have any voice at all. 

My friend Wendy Huggy was kidnapped at age 16 and murdered by an adult man with a history of violence against women.  The authorities found every possible way to blame Wendy and decline their responsibilities to her until it was far too late.  Throw Carlee Russell's ass in jail and make them give back all the money.  I'll leave it there.

ABC3340.com

The bail document for the accused Long Island Serial Killer, Rex Heuermann, can be found here.

I always like to review the public record whenever possible.  This one delivers the bottom line in the first paragraph, literally as soon as they stop listing victims:

"As described below, based on the serious, heinous nature of these serial murders, the planning and forethought that went into these crimes, the strength of the People’s case, the length of incarceration the defendant faces upon conviction, the extended period of time that this Defendant was able to avoid apprehension, his recent searches for sadistic materials, child pornography, images of the victims and their relatives, counter-surveillance conducted online as to the criminal investigation, his use of fictitious names, burner email and cellphone accounts, and his access to and history of possessing firearms, the only means to ensure Defendant Rex A. Heuermann’s return to court is to remand him without bail. "  [emphasis added]

This is one of those situations where I wish I could laugh at the story itself, just how hilarious he sounds with that narrative coming out of his mouth.

The police commissioner of Detroit, one of the people charged with cleaning up police corruption, was allegedly caught getting a blowjob in his truck.  Kudos to the Wayne County deputies who didn't honor his alleged request to "help [him] out."  Anyway listen to his story about it, but not with liquids in your mouth.

I'm not surprised that he didn't think he'd have to resign, after Andrew Mitchell recently got a walk on that murder charge.  However, the next day the board put out a statement that Ferguson would in fact step down.

I'm so glad they caught this guy and stopped his despicable abuse, using his money and privilege to prey on desperate girls.   It sounds like some of their families were okay with it, too. He's still listed on LinkedIn as a Certified Nursing Assistant as of this writing.

From DOJ:

CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for enticing at least nine girls in the Philippines to produce sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves and send them to him.
KARL QUILTER, 58, pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of sexual exploitation of children.  U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall imposed the 30-year sentence after a hearing July 7, 2023, in federal court in Chicago.
Quilter admitted in a plea agreement that he communicated with the girls via Facebook, Viber, and Skype from 2017 to 2020.  Quilter referred to the minor victims as his “girlfriends” to manipulate and pressure them into sending specific types of photos and videos that he demanded.  Quilter also preyed on the victims’ financial difficulties, using money transfers to the victims’ families to entice the girls to take the sexually explicit images.  In a message to one 16-year-old victim in 2020, Quilter promised to send money to her family for medicine and food if she complied with his demands.  “If u do what I tell you… I will make sure u can buy food for 2 weeks and your medication,” Quilter said in the message.  “Think of your little sister that she can e[a]t for 2 weeks everyday 3 meals a day and u get well.”
Quilter traveled to the Philippines in 2017 and 2018 and explicitly referenced his plans to have sex with several of the minors when he next visited the country in December 2020.  Law enforcement arrested Quilter in Chicago in November 2020.
The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Sean Fitzgerald, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago.  The Chicago Police Department provided valuable assistance.
“Victim by victim, and message by message, defendant used social media and the internet to target and groom young Filipino girls,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley A. Chung argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.  “This was not a one-time aberration, but rather a years-long pattern of predatory abuse and exploitation of minors.”
If you believe you are a victim of sexual exploitation, you are encouraged to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by logging on to www.missingkids.com
or by calling 1-800-843-5678.  The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Updated July 14, 2023