Blog Archives

Victim Testifies in Support of Bill that would fund Kentucky Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force

2/25/2015

Rep. John Tilley (left) with Alicia Kozakiewicz and PROTECT's Camille Cooper with members of the Kentucky state police

A young, shy and insecure 13-year-old Alicia Kozakiewicz met another teenager in a chat room, or so she thought. When she stepped out during a holiday dinner to meet her friend, he took her across state lines from Pittsburgh, Pa., to Virginia where she was kept in a basement dungeon and was raped live on an Internet video stream.

Kozakiewicz testified before the House Standing Committee On Judiciary in support of HB 427, a bill sponsored by Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, and House Majority Caucus Chair Sannie Overly, D-Paris, which creates a dedicated revenue stream funding Kentucky State Police’s training, salaries and equipment in the Kentucky Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in order to address the overwhelming flood of child pornography in the state.

“I never went outside alone after dark. I was and am still scared of the dark. And yet on Jan. 1, 2002 between dinner and dessert during a holiday meal, I walk out the door to meet somebody who I thought was my friend,” Kozakiewicz said.

“He groomed me quite simply. He acted like he was someone my age … grooming is as simple as befriending a child by telling them what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.”

After kidnapping her, Scott Tyree, a 38-year-old computer programmer in Virginia, took Kozakiewicz to his home, put a dog collar on her and chained her to the floor.

Not easy to tell

“It’s never been easy to tell my story, I’ve been telling it for 10 years,” Kozakiewicz said. “I was raped. I was beaten. I was tortured and the degradation was shared live to an audience on streaming video.

“I was a little 90-pound girl who cried for my mommy and my daddy and prayed I would be rescued. A viewer was able to recognize the girl in that horrendous video as a girl from a missing poster.”

The viewer contacted FBI. When a task force similar to the KSP’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force rescued her, they cut the collar from her neck and Kozakiewicz said she survived for a second chance and has advocated for “Alicia’s Law” across the nation.

Kentucky would join eight other states that have adopted “Alicia’s Law” dedicating revenue for law enforcement resources to combat Internet crimes against children. A situation Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer said continues to grow at an almost unmanageable rate.

‘Alarming statistics’

“We’ve got a problem in Kentucky and the problem is the alarming statistics,” Brewer. “We have many tracking databases ... one that was randomly pulled (for sampling) showed that we have nearly 10,000 child pornography files that were downloaded last year in Kentucky alone.

“More alarming during a 24-hour period that we randomly sampled just this week, we had over 2,600 child pornography files that were made available for sharing here in Kentucky.”

Brewer said the bill’s dedicated stream from fees attached to misdemeanor and felonies convictions in Kentucky’s district and circuit courts would help Kentucky State Police’s task force keep up with training, the workload, the equipment and the technology involved in prosecution.

The bill passed favorably from the committee and was put on the consent agenda slating it for a vote on the House floor.

By: Brad Bowman, The State Journal

Read full article: http://state-journal.com/local%20news/2015/02/24/victim-testifies-in-support-of-bill-that-would-fund-kentucky-internet-crimes-against

Alicia Kozakiewicz speaks in support of House Bill 427 that includes “Alicia’s Law,” named in her honor. The bill would give a financial boost to the Kentucky State Police’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Photos by Dylan Buell/dbuell@state-journal.com

0 Comments

"Special Report: Abducted by an Online Predator" via KIMT

2/18/2015

0 Comments

KIMT News 3 – When you hear the term, child exploitation, the severity of the crimes that term covers may not hit you right away. But the crimes are serious, everything from child pornography, to sexual abuse, abductions, and sex trafficking.

26-year-old Alicia Kozakiewicz knows the reality of that term. At 13-years-old, she was abducted by a man she had met on an internet chat room. It was 2001, and the internet was picking up speed, and entering more homes across the country.

“It felt like somewhere I could be safe, where I could speak up a little bit more even though it wasn’t speaking I was typing, but where I could voice my opinion more.” Alicia says her friends started logging on more, and finally, she broke down, and got a screen name as well.

Along the way, she met 38-year-old Scott Tyree. Initially though, she didn’t know who he really was. “I thought it was somebody around my own age and I didn’t think anything else. Now people ask ‘How could you not know?’ But I was a 13-year-old kid and 13-year-old kids think they know everything.” After 8 months of grooming her, on January 1st 2002, Tyree drove from his home in Virginia to Alicia’s home, in Pittsburgh. She said between dinner and dessert, she slipped out the front door of her home, into the bitter cold January night, going against everything she would normally do.

“My intuition said ‘Alicia you need to go home this is really dangerous, what are you doing?’ And I went to turn around and I heard my name being called. And the next thing I knew I was in the car and this man was squeezing my hand so tightly and was barking commands at me. ‘Be good. Be quiet. I have the truck cleaned out for you.’ He drove me about five hours from my Pittsburgh home to his house in Virginia where I was held captive in his basement dungeon.”

For the next four days, Alicia lived a nightmare. Tyree kept her locked up, and raped, beat, tortured and starved her. “Now there’s no words to describe. ‘Well how does it make you feel?’ There’s no words to describe the pain, and the loss of self and hopelessness that you can feel in that situation.”

On the fourth day, Tyree told her they would be taking a ride later and left for work.

Little did Alicia know, the FBI was at work, looking for her. Agents finally found Alicia chained up in her abductor’s bedroom. “All these agents rushed in and they cut the collar from around my neck and they set me free and gave me a second chance at life.”

The FBI had received a tip from a man in Florida. That man had met Tyree online, in an internet chatroom, and had witnessed Alicia’s abuse over live streaming video. He had heard about a missing girl from Pittsburgh, and made the connection. Alicia does not consider him a hero, but believes the tip he gave was because he didn’t want to be considered an accomplice in the crime.

“It’s amazing, one monster coming forward about another. I’m so lucky. But to think that there are so many children right this second, as we are speaking, as people are watching us, who are being raped or being tortured or being degraded.”

Alicia is an advocate now, and shares her story around the nation. She speaks to kids, teens, parents and has even testified before Congress. Her story is one she knows holds power, and comes with a warning. “I wasn’t torn from the silver screen of a horror film or ripped from the pages of a scary novel. This happens to me, it happened in real life, and it’s happening to so many kids right now.”

Alicia has also teamed up with PROTECT, a non-profit organization that’s dedicated to the protection of children from abuse, exploitation, and neglect. They are working to pass “Alicia’s Law” in all 50 states. Alicia explains why it’s so important to her. “The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is making a huge difference when they can. Their funding and resources are so limited. It’s terrifying to think, and heartbreaking to think of the images and videos that they see every day, the child pornography. They look at this every day, and then they go home to their families with the screams of children echoing in their heads. They know where these kids are, but they can’t go get them because they don’t have the funding. They don’t have the resources, they don’t have boots on the ground. And that’s what Alicia’s Law provides.”

The law would direct state specific funding to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces around the country. According to her website www.aliciaproject.org the money would also be used to make sure there are child rescue teams in place, and the funds would be safe from cuts to the general budget. Alicia’s Law is in place in Virginia, Texas, Arizona, Hawaii and Idaho, and similar legislation was passed in California and Tennessee as well.

While her story can be hard to share at times, Alicia says she will continue to push for internet and child safety measures, more awareness about what’s happening online, and will advocate for those children who are missing.

“I continue to tell my story, even though it’s very painful because it is still to happening to others. And if I can save just one life. If I can save one person, or one family from going through what my family did, then it’s entirely worth it.”

For more information about Alicia’s Law, and resources to talk to your kids about internet dangers, check out these sites:

www.aliciaproject.org

www.protect.org

www.missingkids.com

http://www.netsmartzkids.org

http://www.icactaskforce.org

By: Sarah Danik, KIMT
Source: http://kimt.com/2015/02/18/special-report-abducted-by-an-online-predator/

0 Comments

"Bill would boost task force fighting child crimes" via FOX 10

2/10/2015

0 Comments

FOX 10 News | fox10phoenix.com

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - A bill is quickly making its way through the Legislature; it would provide more resources to help catch child predators lurking online.

The bill has a lot of support with Arizona lawmakers; it would allocate $4.5 million to the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

It's called Alicia's Law, named after a young girl who was just 12-years-old when she was abducted and abused by a man she met online.

"We're talking about real children, real victims, real people... when I was 12-years-old I was groomed and lured from my home by a predator who abducted me and held me captive in his basement dungeon," said Alicia Kozakiewicz.

Kozakiewicz is the namesake of Alicia's Law which is quickly making its way through the legislature. She is from back east and met a man on a Yahoo! chatroom. After talking for a few weeks the man lured her out of her house. She was held for four days in his house where she was raped, beaten, and tortured countless times.

Pictures and videos of the crime were posted online by her captor.

"Somebody had seen this video, and they were able to recognize this little girl on the missing poster as the girl in the video and they contacted law enforcement," she said.

Fortunately Alicia was saved, but many children are not. That is why Representative Paul Boyer introduced this bill to increase funding for the task force.

"The bill will allow us $4.5 million in lottery money to help us protect and rescue children," said Rep. Paul Boyer.

The bill is getting the backing of some heavy-hitting politicians in Arizona.

"If we want to attack that evil in Arizona, we need to do more," said Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.

"What does it say about us as a society if we're not willing to commit the resources to help law enforcement help prosecutors prosecute those who commit unspeakable crimes," said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

"I was given a second chance at life, and with that second chance at life I'm trying to save other children," said Kozakiewicz.

According to Rep. Boyer, there are only four investigators for the ICAC task force here in Arizona. With the additional funding, if the bill passes they would be able to hire up to 35 full-time investigators.

Source: http://www.fox10phoenix.com/story/28075492/2015/02/10/bill-would-boost-task-force-fighting-child-crimes

0 Comments

Lawmaker: Use lottery money to fund child-exploitation investigations

2/4/2015

0 Comments

PHOENIX – Thousands of Arizonans are trading in child pornography online and almost none of them are being investigated, said a state lawmaker who wants to spend leftover lottery money to help find and prosecute them.

“Children are being raped, tortured, abused – beastiality, the worst possible things that you can imagine, are occurring right here in Arizona, and we only have four full-time investigators in the entire state to proactively go after these guys,” said Rep. Paul Boyer, R-Phoenix.

Boyer authored HB 2517, which would direct $5 million of leftover state lottery funds each year to the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children task force. The money would be used to hire up to 35 full-time investigators and forensic examiners to locate and prosecute people participating in the sexual exploitation of children, Boyer said.

There currently are four investigators and two forensic examiners working full time, a number that hasn’t changed since the task force was established in 2001. Boyer said that even with its limited resources, the task force rescued 70 children last year.

A typical investigator can handle around 20 to 25 cases a year, Boyer said.

“We have great laws on the books, but unfortunately we have little enforcement, and the guys on the task force, in my opinion, they’re heroes, because they’re going out there, and they’re rescuing kids,” he said at a House Judiciary Committee meeting in January.

Of the $5 million, $4.5 million would be used to fund the task force and $500,000 would go to a victims’ fund.

“That’s just really to help restore the victims to wholeness,” Boyer said. “They can utilize services at their discretion, what may be a good fit for them. Perhaps it’s counseling, perhaps it’s some kind of restorative services, really whatever the victim needs.”

Boyer started looking at ways to give the task force more funding after a friend informed him of the issue last May.

“I thought to myself, ‘What possible way could I come up with that isn’t a direct tax or general fund impact?’” Boyer told the committee.

Boyer’s bill is receiving support from The Alicia Project, led by Alicia Kozakiewicz, a Chicago resident who survived child sexual exploitation and advocates for Internet safety awareness. Kozakiewicz was abducted in 2002 at age 13 and raped and abused before she was rescued by the FBI.

Her foundation advocates for legislation, under the name Alicia’s Law, that would direct more money toward combating these crimes in all 50 states. So far, Alicia’s Law has passed in Virginia, Texas, Idaho, Tennessee and California with state funding.

“Law enforcement does not have the funding and resources to rescue these victims, and every child deserves the same chance that I had to be recovered,” Kozakiewicz said in a phone interview.

Boyer said the Internet Crimes Against Children task force would receive money from the Arizona State Lottery Commission only after all the beneficiaries are paid, and the attorney general would then be in charge of administering the enforcement fund.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich testified at the House Judiciary Committee meeting in favor of the bill.

“Ultimately, I’m a fiscal conservative, but there are folks out there, kids, that can’t protect themselves, and we have the obligation to protect the least among us,” he said.

Brnovich said it’s important to offer proper training for investigators, both in the technology necessary to track down criminals and on the psychological effects of the work.

“These are very very difficult cases emotionally on the detectives and the folks that have to investigate these crimes,” he said. “They also involve the Internet, they involve computers very often. The folks that are engaging in child pornography, child exploitation, those types of crimes, they’re very sophisticated in how they do it.”

Phoenix Police Detective Eric Oldenburg, who testified in support of the bill, was one of the four original investigators on the task force. After leaving in 2005 because of the emotional toll the work had on his personal life, he’s now back as one of the two forensic analysts responsible for connecting criminals to the evidence.

“Our goal as investigators is to find the victims that we don’t know about, and because of that it takes us going through every single bit of every single hard drive that we seize,” Oldenburg told the committee.

According to Boyer 60 to 65 percent of images intercepted in Arizona are of pre-pubescent children, most younger than 10 years old. Nine percent involve infants.

“The victims that we’re rescuing here still believe in Santa Claus,” Oldenburg said.

Arizona law enforcement agencies’ computer forensic detectives dealt with more minor sexual exploitation cases in 2014 than any other crime, at 106, followed by narcotics at 63, according to data collected by the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center’s Computer Forensic Unit.

“They have to sort through every single image, every single video, and I can’t even imagine what that would be like,” Boyer said. “That’s why it’s so important, I think, to hire more investigators to share that load.”

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery told the committee it’s also critical to target those who create the child pornography.

“We don’t just have people within the state of Arizona downloading these images as consumers of this deplorable product; we actually have people who are abusing children and creating the product and then distributing it,” he said.

Montgomery noted that one Arizona resident was sentenced last April to 170 years after authorities found his collection of images and videos featuring the rape and torture of children.

“It involved infants, pre-pubescent children, the most vile and deplorable things you could imagine, and then some,” he said.

Boyer said Arizona ranks 13th in the country in the number of pornographic images and videos circulating that involve children.

“I don’t think that we should wait another day to see this legislation passed,” he said.

By Karla Liriano
Cronkite News

http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2015/02/lawmaker-use-lottery-money-to-boost-funds-for-child-exploitation-investigations/

0 Comments