Counter Pedophilia Investigate Unit

Forget for a brief moment what he did to a little girl, Jose Luis Ledezma believes he’s been terribly wronged by Orange County’s criminal justice system.

Yes, Ledezma freely admitted that in August 2008 he raped, sodomized and got forced oral copulation from a 6-year-old girl when he was 20 years old.

But he thinks that he should have been allowed to plead guilty and then have some time–a few weeks or months?–to contemplate the consequences and then change his mind. (more…)

Authorities in Orange County said Monday they were looking for possible additional victims of a children’s book author charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl who is a relative.

Michael William Snyder, 43, a San Clemente resident, allegedly rubbed the girl’s chest and stomach under her shirt “with a sexual intent” and sat her on his lap and put his hands up her skirt, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in a statement.

The girl’s mother became suspicious after her daughter did not want to be left alone with Snyder, according to the district attorney’s office. The mother contacted authorities.

Snyder calls himself “Mr. Mike” and is an author and illustrator, according to his website. He could not be reached Monday afternoon for comment. (more…)

By Amy Pavuk, Orlando Sentinel

A man who volunteered with the deaf ministry at a Central Florida church, who also told federal agents he engaged in “sexual acts” with boys, is slated to be sentenced in Orlando federal court today on child pornography charges.

Jerry Nickelsen, 46, signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in August, admitting guilt to a count of distribution of child pornography and a count of possession of child pornography.

The FBI began investigating Nickelsen in May in an undercover capacity through a peer-to-peer online file sharing program. Detectives saw child pornography in Nickelsen’s shared directories. (more…)

The Associated Press – SANTA ANA, Calif.—A convicted pedophile who became the public face of Megan’s Law in the 1990s was denied his bid for release from a state mental facility on Thursday.An Orange County Superior Court jury determined Sid Landau, 69, was still a threat to society and should remain hospitalized in state custody, where he has been held for eight years.

Two previous juries deadlocked on whether Landau should be released.

Dressed in a blue-and-white checkered shirt, the gray-haired Landau looked down at the table, sighed and whispered to his lawyer, “I’m going to die in jail,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

(more…)