You have to love our judicial system.
The Turner Report featured a post Sunday on the arrest of Donal Wadsworth, 46, Fayetteville, Ark., during an Internet sex sting set up by the Fayetteville Police Department.
The police collared Wadsworth after he arranged for a sexual encounter with an underaged girl. At the time, Wadsworth was arrested, he was free on a $5,000 appeal bond after a Jasper County jury found him guilty of the same crime. Wadsworth was arrested after another of Diamond Police officer Jim Murray's internet sex stings. The case was heard in Jasper County on a change of venue, with Judge Tim Perigo presiding
Naturally, the moment word reached Newton County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Watson that Wadsworth was purportedly continuing to prowl the internet for 13-year-old girls, Watson petitioned the court to have Wadsworth's bond revoked.
Watson was turned down. The prosecutor was reportedly livid and wondering just what someone has to do have a convicted felon's bond revoked.
According to a report last week on KHOG, Fayetteville, Wadsworth was trolling the Internet even while he was being tried here on seven counts of enticement of a child.
"The investigation was primarily done online, and officials said that Wadsworth engaged the undercover officer in sexual conversations several times over the past two months," the KHOG report said.
The station quoted Fayetteville Police Sgt. Bill Phelan as saying, "He showed up at 12:30 a.m. to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl, and was taken into custody by an officer."
Wadsworth was nailed in Missouri on April 26, 2004, as another one of Diamond Police officer Jim Murray's Internet stings. Newton County prosecutors indicated Murray and Wadsworth had more than 50 Internet communications, according to print reports.
A Jasper County jury convicted Wadsworth after hearing evidence that he had spoken graphically about girls with whom he had sex and told Murray's teen alter ego "Cindy" what he would do to her if they ever met.
According to a Neosho Daily News account, Murray testified that the discussions continued even though Wadsworth knew "Cindy" was supposed to be 13 years old. The two arranged a meeting at the George Washington Carver National Monument. When he arrived, Wadsworth was arrested by the Diamond Police Department.
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There was a time when I questioned the wisdom of these Internet sex stings. I was teaching at Diamond when one of these perverts was arrested just outside school property after arranging a liaison with Murray's 13-year-old alter ego. I wondered why we should invite these people into our area.
After having seen the continuing string of arrests, including some from this area (i. e. Gary Blankenship of Neosho) and watching the recent NBC Dateline investigation into older men who are using the Internet in an effort to have sex with teens, I have completely changed my mind.
The Dateline report showed that time after time, these twisted people continued to follow the same patterns even after they had already been arrested, and in some cases convicted on sex charges.
If the Fayetteville charge proves to be true, Donal Wadsworth should have his bond revoked immediately. In this case, since Wadsworth has already been convicted, the judge need not worry about the presumption of innocence, his obligation is to the safety of the people.
12 comments:
I was first upset when I read this report. Then I went to Case.Net and checked the court filings. No bond revocation has been filed.
I am sure if it is requested, the Court will do the right thing in this case.
I'm not saying the bond revocation request has or hasn't been filed, but CaseNet isn't always the fastest on the draw when it comes to updating. It sometimes takes a day or two before court records are updated, as many courts leave this duty up to secretaries, who have a myriad of other duties to perform. The best thing to do is to use CaseNet as kind of a way to track cases on, say, a weekly basis, but for faster updates, contact the court directly. CaseNet can provide the case number, which sometimes speeds up court inquiries.
Old News Hound
Another thing to remember is that not everything is that despite the purpose for which case.net was intended, sometimes things happen that are not recorded.
Yet another reason to contact the court directly. The number can be found in the blue pages of your phone book, or on-line through the state's office of the courts administrator site (the same folks who bring us CaseNet) www.courts.mo.gov/osca. Click on the circuit courts menu bar, scroll down to the county you want, then click on GO.
From Case.net
02/17/2006 Docket Entry: Order
Text: MOTION FOR REVOCATION OF APPEAL BOND SUSTAINED. BOND INCREASED TO $100,000 CASH ONLY. TWP. JB P.A., Defendant's Attorney and Bunch Bonding notified. JB
02/21/2006 Docket Entry: Certificate of Mailing
Text: Legal file Certification along with copies mailed to the Defendant's Attorney. JB
I would suggest you check on the updates about this case. Yes, revocation was denied at first, but then the bond was revoked. And while I feel sympathy for any members of the family who may stumble upon this website, I feel more strongly about children who might possibly become viotims. We know of two cases in which Donal Wadsworth set up meetings with policemen whom he thought were underaged girls. We don't know if there were occasions on which he talked with actual underaged girls. When there are future developments in this case, they will be posted on this blog.
ok ppl i dont like this cuz none of it is ture i wopuld know cuz me i am his daughter.
yea i didnt think any1 would comment after that
yea i didtn think any1 would comment after that
ok first of all it doesnt matter who sees this they need to know what kind of man donal wadsworth is i actually used to talk to him and im only 16 i done a bad thing by putting up a really beautiful girl on the net and posing like i was her i could have got this girl killed he's crazy and i believe he would go as far as raping a child or teen most people know who i am because it got around school and yes it did bother me but i dont let them people get to me anymore because i know i done wrong but once i told him the truth that i really wasnt that girl me and him met i had to bring a friend with me cause something didnt feel right and now that he has been locked up he wants to kill me he said that with his own mouth now i had to move so that he wouldnt find where i live and so dont any of you say im his daughter or i know about this case because you probably really dont so dont post anything unless you know stuff that really happend blabs at cha later
ok i am his daughter so dont tell me not to say i am.i really dont like this site and all the comments people leave.yea i dont appove of what he did i dont even like because he hurt me more than u will know but its not your place to tell everyone about what he did.how would you like it if u did something bad and everyone talked about it.
For one he doesn't have children and plenty of women work with him currently don't you believe they should know I do. Working in the same establishment with him is a concern especially how he still touches woman or gets to close to them
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