Mother arrested after children found unresponsive in hot car parked at Walmart
#HotVehicles Are Not #BabySitters #HeatStrokeKills #LookBeforeYouLock
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – The Oklahoma City Police Department says a metro mother was arrested on 2 charges of child neglect Sunday afternoon after her children were found unconscious in the backseat of a hot car parked at a local Walmart.
According to the incident report, 39-year-old Elizabeta Babb was arrested at the Walmart Supercenter near I-240 and Santa Fe Ave. after her two 2-year-olds were rescued from a hot vehicle in the parking lot.
Police say Walmart security footage shows Babb entered the store with one of the children at 2:22 p.m. before walking back out with the child at 2:28 p.m., deposits the child back in the car and walks back into the store.
While Babb is inside the store, a witness outside crawled through the open sunroof to unlock the car and retrieve the unresponsive children.
According to the report, when roused, one child began crying while the other remained lethargic.
A Walmart security officer put the children into her security vehicle with the air conditioning running.
That security officer told officers the car was hot to the touch and even burned her while she attempted to retrieve the children.
Meanwhile, security officials inside the store were repeating the vehicle’s tag number over the intercom in efforts to have the vehicle owner walk out, but no one did.
At 2:57 p.m., Babb is seen leaving self-checkout and walking outside where her children were being examined by medics.
“When confronted, Babb stated she was only in the store about five minutes,” said the reporting officer.
DHS and OKCPD determined Babb should be arrested on scene during their investigation.
The children’s father and grandmother were contacted to take the children from the scene after their medical evaluation.
US District Judge Rules VISA Aided Pornhub & Profited From Child Pornography.
US District Judge Rules VISA Aided Pornhub & Profited From Child Porn
“As the court sees it, financially benefitting from the sexual exploitation of minors is the core of this case.” US District Court Judge Cormac Carney
Ironic, isn’t it? Isn’t Visa the same credit card company that has refused to work with family owned businesses, gun stores and other all-American businesses in the past? Yep, same company and yet, here they are being called out by a US District Judge for profiting by aiding Pornhub to monetize child porn.
The East Bay Times reports:
Visa Inc. must face claims that it profited from child pornography by processing payments for the parent company of Pornhub, a decision that Visa says raises questions about the liability payments firms could shoulder as they handle billions of transactions.
US District Judge Cormac Carney in California denied parts of Visa’s motion to be dismissed from claims brought by a woman who is suing both the payments giant and MindGeek — the parent company of Pornhub — over a sexually explicit video taken of her when she was 13.
“It is simple,” Carney said in his ruling late Friday. “Visa made the decision to continue to recognize MindGeek as a merchant, despite its alleged knowledge that MindGeek monetized child porn. MindGeek made the decision to continue monetizing child porn, and there are enough facts pled to suggest that the latter decision depended on the former.”
Visa said it believes it’s an “improper defendant” in the case.
“Visa condemns sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, and child sexual abuse materials as repugnant to our values and purpose as a company,” the San Francisco-based firm said in an emailed statement. “This pre-trial ruling is disappointing and mischaracterizes Visa’s role and its policies and practices. Visa will not tolerate the use of our network for illegal activity.”
The lawsuit is the latest turn in a long-running controversy between Visa and Pornhub. The payments giant and rival Mastercard Inc. both began reviewing their ties to MindGeek after a New York Times column in December 2020 accused Pornhub of distributing videos depicting child abuse and non-consensual violence.
Immediately after the review, Pornhub announced it had removed 80% of its content. Right, Visa condemns all this sexual exploitation, but has been actively involved in allowing its services to be used for all sorts of pornography.
Today in a major lawsuit VISA was implicated as knowingly complicit in the sex trafficking and monetized child sexual abuse of numerous Pornhub/MindGeek victims. @Visa #Traffickinghub pic.twitter.com/BGzbUZ7XsZ
— Laila Mickelwait (@LailaMickelwait) June 17, 2021
The New York Post adds information about the victim.
After several weeks, the clip, entitled “13-Year Old Brunette Shows Off For the Camera,” was taken down but reuploaded on other MindGeek sites in 2014, garnering millions of views and earning the company advertising money facilitated by Visa, the victim alleged. The illicit clip was still on the company’s sites as recently as 2020, according to the suit.
The plaintiff fell into a deep depression, tried to kill herself and became a heroin user after her unwanted infamy, she claimed. Still underage, she began acting in other porn videos produced by an older man to support her habit, the lawsuit said.
The report went on to say:
In his ruling, US District Court Judge Cormac Carney wrote that there was enough evidence to find that Visa engaged in a criminal conspiracy with the online pornographers.
“Here is Visa, standing at and controlling the valve, insisting that it cannot be blamed for the water spill because someone else is wielding the hose,” Carney wrote.
“When MindGeek decides to monetize child porn, and Visa decides to continue to allow its payment network to be used for that goal despite knowledge of MindGeek’s monetization of child porn, it is entirely foreseeable that victims of child porn like Plaintiff will suffer the harms that Plaintiff alleges,” the ruling said.
The Central District of California court also ordered MindGeek to undergo jurisdictional discovery and shine a light on its shadowy operations, which the judge said ensures “a hopeless whack-a-mole situation for victims.”
It also shot down Visa’s argument that it was an innocent third party, saying the credit card company briefly suspended its ties to Pornhub in 2020 amid allegations it housed thousands of illegal videos before joining forces again.
The news came a month after two Pornhub executives resigned amid widening inquiries into purported underage and non-consensual videos on the site.
MindGeek, which is based in Montreal and also owns Brazzers, RedTube and YouPorn, claims to have 115 million daily visitors and 3 billion daily ad impressions.
Pornhub was the ninth most popular webpage in the US last month, according to Semrush, a search engine marketing company.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said it investigated some 5 million suspected child pornography videos in 2021.
Operation Maverick was a Joint Operation in Oklahoma City, OK.
Oklahoma City police part of joint operation leading to more than 130 arrests
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Law enforcement arrested more than 130 people as part of an 11-day operation in Oklahoma City.
The operation was organized by Operations North (Hefner and Springlake Crime Units), Operations South (Santa Fe and Southwest Crime Units), Special Operations, the United States Marshals Service, and the ATF.
The purpose of Operation Maverick was to have police work together to make the city safer and impact the violent crime rate by arresting the most violent gang members and criminal offenders victimizing the community. Operation Maverick focused on fugitive investigations related to violent crime and proactive efforts in areas identified by the crime units.
Warrant arrests included charges such as Murder, Rape, Kidnapping, Armed Robbery, Shooting with Intent to Kill, Shooting into an Occupied Dwelling, Assault and Battery with a Deadly Weapon, Domestic Strangulation, Domestic Assault and Battery with a Deadly Weapon, Drive-By Shooting, Forcible Sodomy, Lewd Acts with a Child, Child Neglect, Burglary 1, Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle, Aggravated DUI, and Aggravated Attempted Eluding.
Proactive efforts led to arrests for charges that include Possession of a Firearm After a Former Conviction of a Felony, Trafficking Cocaine, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm, Possession of CDS with Intent, Possession of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony, and Possession of a Firearm while Intoxicated. Members of several gangs were arrested as part of this operation as well.
During Operation Maverick, there were 134 arrests total, including 102 felony arrests and 32 misdemeanor arrests.
The Fugitive Apprehension Unit made several noteworthy arrests last week.
In Travis County, Jose Antonio Garcia-Barriga was arrested in Austin on an outstanding warrant for Sexual Assault of a Child issued by the Austin Police Department. This arrest was made on Aug. 6 while working in conjunction with the United States Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force out of Austin.
In Travis County, Cesar Ambrosio Sanchez was arrested in Austin on an outstanding warrant for Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child issued by the Austin Police Department. This arrest was made on Aug. 3 while working in conjunction with the United States Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force out of Austin.
In Galveston County, Ismael Ruiz Jr. was arrested in Galveston on outstanding warrants for Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child, Sexual Assault and Injury to a Child/Elderly/Disabled issued by the Galveston Police Department. This arrest was made on Aug. 3 while working in conjunction with the Gulf Coast Violent Offender Task Force.
Jamarkus Smith, 31, was found guilty of first-degree murder, taking indecent liberties with a child, intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury, felonious child abuse and two counts of sex offense with a child by an adult in the death of his daughter, Jourdin A’Legacy Smith.
Parents sent to prison in 2015 Fayetteville slaying, sex assault of 3-year-old daughter
Cumberland County, NC – A Fayetteville mother and father were sent to prison Monday for the 2015 sexual abuse and death of their malnourished 3-year-old daughter.
After a week of testimony and just over four hours of deliberation, a Cumberland County jury found Jamarkus Smith, 31, guilty of first-degree murder, taking indecent liberties with a child, intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury, felonious child abuse and two counts of sex offense with a child by an adult in the death of his daughter, Jourdin A’Legacy Smith.
Octavia Bennett-Smith, 32, a former Fort Bragg Army sergeant, pleaded guilty in December 2019.
Jourdin’s mother and Smith’s wife, Octavia Bennett-Smith, 32, a former Fort Bragg Army sergeant, pleaded guilty in December 2019.
Testimony in Smith’s trial began July 19, with closing arguments on Friday.
Following the jury verdict, Smith professed his innocence when he addressed the court before sentencing.
“I showed them I was innocent,” he said. “They know I’m innocent, and you know I’m innocent. Everybody here knows. How is that right? At what point is the legal system about justice?”
No statements were made on behalf of Jourdin before Judge Claire Hill sentenced Smith to life imprisonment for the murder and a combined 25 to 35 years for the other charges. He will also be required to register as a sex offender for life.
Smith’s attorney, Kris Poppe, said his client plans to appeal the verdict.
As Smith was escorted from the courtroom Monday, he turned to two women in the gallery who appeared to be there on his behalf and said, “I didn’t do it.”
“I know you didn’t baby,” one of the women said. “He didn’t do that. I don’t care what nobody says. He didn’t do it.”
According to the child’s autopsy report, the cause of death was pneumonia in the setting of malnutrition, neglect and sexual abuse. She weighed just 28 pounds at the time of her death, and her body and genitals were riddled with lacerations and contusions, the report said.
Bennett-Smith’s sentencing came some 30 minutes after her husband’s.
Her defense attorney, Antonio Gerald, called Jourdin’s death a tragedy.
Gerald said that Bennett-Smith accepted responsibility for her role in Jourdin’s death and “agreed to testify and assist in any way to help bring justice for Jourdin.”
Bennett-Smith did not speak during the hearing but cried as she was sentenced to a minimum term 10 years, five months, and a maximum of 13 years, six months for the second-degree murder charge.
The judge declined Gerald’s request for a consolidated sentence and instead stacked the sentence for the other charges.
For the child abuse and sexual assault charges, she received a consecutive minimum sentence of four years, four months, and a maximum of more than 10 years in prison. She will be required to register as a sex offender for 30 years after release.
The judge also recommended a psychological evaluation for Bennett-Smith.
Gerald said that the court heard during her testimony at Smith’s trial that she was also a victim of assault as a child.
“These are not excuses for her actions of what she has pled guilty to, but only to shed some light as to what may have led her to be in this courtroom today,” he said.
Paxton’s Law Enforcement Round Up
My Brother's Keeper 