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New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/asia-pacific/you-should-be-in-the-kitchen-at-afghan-assembly-women-are-told-they-dont-belong/

‘You Should Be in the Kitchen’: At Afghan Assembly, Women Are Told They Don’t Belong

KABUL, Afghanistan — On the second day of a traditional Afghan assembly this week, a delegate rose to speak on the topic at hand, peace in Afghanistan.

A bearded man from Kandahar ordered her to shut up.

“He told her: ‘Peace has nothing to do with you. Sit down, you should be in the kitchen cooking!’ ” recalled Behnoh Benod, 31, a male delegate who witnessed the put-down.

The assembly, known as a loya jirga, was convened by President Ashraf Ghani to debate Afghanistan’s path to peace. Organizers proudly pointed out that 30 percent of the 3,200 delegates were women.

But several female delegates said they felt ignored, marginalized or patronized. They were told that men should lead the jirga’s 51 committees and women should serve as secretaries. Some women complained that they were groped and fondled — not by men, but by women who patted them down during security checks.

Other women said they had been confronted by male delegates who claimed to support women’s rights, but only under Shariah, or Islamic law — a view shared by the Taliban.

“I asked them which Shariah law, the Taliban Shariah law or ISIS Shariah law,” said a delegate, Sakina Hussaini, referring to the Islamic State.

“Some men didn’t accept women as human beings and I had to scream at them,” she said.

Mr. Benod said just 16 of the delegates on his 108-member committee were women. A male delegate was selected as committee chair. Of the 51 committees, 13 were headed by women, and 28 women were elected as committee secretaries.

For many women, the jirga got off to a dismaying start when Mr. Ghani appointed as chairman Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, a combative former warlord known for his harsh views on women’s rights. Things quickly went downhill when a female delegate complained directly to Mr. Sayyaf and was hustled out by security guards. Other delegates hooted and clapped to drown out her protest.

State-run television, RTA, which broadcast the proceedings, posted a banner on Twitter showing images of Mr. Ghani and Sher Mohammed Abas Stanekzai, the chief Taliban peace negotiator. Beside them were photos of two women with their faces covered — one by a niqab, a veil that leaves the eyes visible, and the other by a burqa, the all-encompassing garment forced upon women under the Taliban regime that was toppled in 2001.

After a torrent of complaints on social media, a new banner appeared. Mr. Ghani and Mr. Stanekzai were still depicted, but four smiling women wearing head scarves that left their faces uncovered were added to the two with their faces concealed.

And on Monday, as the jirga opened, some female delegates arrived dressed in burqas.

“Most of these women have come from provinces and they have no idea why they are here,” said a delegate, Taiyaba Khavari.

Ms. Khavari and other women said they grew disillusioned as they were insulted or interrupted by male delegates.

Torpekai, 45, a delegate who goes by one name, said she had been pleased to be among war victims invited to Kabul. She said her 18-year-old son, a police officer, had been killed by the Taliban.

Ms. Torpekai said she had planned to tell delegates that she wanted the Taliban punished if a peace deal gave them a role in a postwar government. But the men who dominated the jirga did not bother to listen.

“No one would hear me out,” Ms. Torpekai said. “They said women shouldn’t be here — this isn’t a discussion for women.”

It was not just women who felt disillusioned by the jirga. Social media lit up with arch commentary from Afghans who dismissed the assembly as a patronage tool for Mr. Ghani. Some critics said the jirga usurped Afghanistan’s Parliament.

The government shut down the capital for five days, giving government workers the week off while other Afghans fumed over blocked roads and security sweeps. Taxi drivers complained that they were cut off from fares. Shopkeepers moaned that customers could not reach them.

The jirga was caught up in a bruising presidential election campaign, in which Mr. Ghani is struggling to stay relevant while his government is excluded from peace talks in Doha, Qatar, between the Taliban and the United States. The militants refuse to meet with the government, calling it illegitimate.

Many of Mr. Ghani’s political rivals boycotted the jirga, among them Abdullah Abdullah, the president’s partner in the unity government. Mr. Abdullah is running for president against Mr. Ghani.

Rahmatullah Nabil, another presidential candidate who boycotted, called the jirga a waste of money and a campaign rally for Mr. Ghani.

Jirga organizers said it was an effective exercise in grass-roots democracy that incorporated a wide range of Afghan society. Among the delegates were urban and rural residents, victims of war and terrorism, young people, traditional elders, and ulema, or Islamic religious scholars.

Organizers said that with the government sidelined at the peace talks, the jirga produced a national consensus on conditions for peace with the Taliban. The assembly’s recommendations are not legally binding.

“It’s our sacred tradition,” said Mohammed Umer Daudzai, who organized the gathering. “I doubt that anybody will say consensus-building or dialogue is a bad idea.”

The jirga has a long and contentious history. After delegates to a secret jirga in the late 18th century conspired to replace the Afghan ruler, Zaman Shah, he had them all killed. In 1987, a gunfight erupted outside a jirga hall, killing or wounding 30 people.

In 2002, some 200 female delegates attended a jirga that elected Hamid Karzai president. But many women had to jostle with male delegates for public microphones. Others said they had been threatened by government intelligence agents.

At the close of the jirga on Friday, Mr. Ghani accepted its recommendation to seek a cease-fire, a goal of the Doha peace negotiations. He urged the Taliban to negotiate within Afghanistan and said he would release 175 Taliban prisoners.

Among other recommendations accepted by Mr. Ghani was a demand that any postwar government honor the Afghan Constitution and protect the rights of women and children. He thanked the delegates, “especially the women.”

One delegate, Wazhma Tukhi, 25, said she was satisfied. “The Constitution protects our rights, and that’s all Afghan women want,” she said.

But another, Masuma Bahar, 24, said the jirga should have made a stronger case for preserving women’s gains over the past 18 years.

“There were women on the board and they should have raised their voices, but they haven’t done anything,” she said.

[orendrasingh]

A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of “witness intimidation by threat of force”.But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that Kimball’s pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball’s plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she “let him make love to you gently”.“His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high,” she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was “a fine detective” and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote.“And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists,” Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh’s post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor’s memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff’s department told The Los Angeles Times it would “conduct a review of the internal process” related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime.“There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child,” he said. “It’s something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault.”New York Times

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[myeclecticcollectorblazeus]

A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of “witness intimidation by threat of force”.But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that Kimball’s pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball’s plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she “let him make love to you gently”.“His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high,” she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was “a fine detective” and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote.“And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists,” Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh’s post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor’s memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff’s department told The Los Angeles Times it would “conduct a review of the internal process” related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime.“There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child,” he said. “It’s something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault.”New York Times

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[supertrendingnewsarticles]

A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of “witness intimidation by threat of force”.But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that Kimball’s pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball’s plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she “let him make love to you gently”.“His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high,” she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was “a fine detective” and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote.“And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists,” Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh’s post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor’s memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff’s department told The Los Angeles Times it would “conduct a review of the internal process” related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime.“There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child,” he said. “It’s something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault.”New York Times

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[45news]

A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of “witness intimidation by threat of force”.But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that Kimball’s pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball’s plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she “let him make love to you gently”.“His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high,” she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was “a fine detective” and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote.“And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists,” Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh’s post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor’s memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff’s department told The Los Angeles Times it would “conduct a review of the internal process” related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime.“There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child,” he said. “It’s something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault.”New York Times

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[weopenviews]

A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of “witness intimidation by threat of force”.But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that Kimball’s pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball’s plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she “let him make love to you gently”.“His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high,” she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was “a fine detective” and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote.“And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists,” Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh’s post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor’s memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff’s department told The Los Angeles Times it would “conduct a review of the internal process” related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime.“There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child,” he said. “It’s something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault.”New York Times

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[bloggerofworld]

Teenage girl making sexual abuse claim sexually assaulted by detective dealing with case

A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of “witness intimidation by threat of force”.But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that Kimball’s pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball’s plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she “let him make love to you gently”.“His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high,” she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was “a fine detective” and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote.“And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists,” Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh’s post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor’s memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff’s department told The Los Angeles Times it would “conduct a review of the internal process” related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime.“There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child,” he said. “It’s something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault.”New York Times

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[worldnews-blog]

A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of “witness intimidation by threat of force”.But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that Kimball’s pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball’s plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she “let him make love to you gently”.“His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high,” she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was “a fine detective” and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote.“And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists,” Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh’s post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor’s memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff’s department told The Los Angeles Times it would “conduct a review of the internal process” related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime.“There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child,” he said. “It’s something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault.”New York Times

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[usuallyleftnight]

A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of “witness intimidation by threat of force”.But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that Kimball’s pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball’s plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she “let him make love to you gently”.“His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high,” she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was “a fine detective” and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote.“And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists,” Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh’s post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor’s memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff’s department told The Los Angeles Times it would “conduct a review of the internal process” related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime.“There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child,” he said. “It’s something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault.”New York Times

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[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/asia-pacific/russia-dispatch-as-chinese-flock-to-siberias-lake-baikal-local-russians-growl/

Russia Dispatch: As Chinese Flock to Siberia’s Lake Baikal, Local Russians Growl

LISTVYANKA, Russia — When Andrei Sukhanov saw that the Chinese-owned hotel rising next door was about to obstruct the sweeping view of Lake Baikal from his small, rustic motel, he steeled himself with a shot of vodka, grabbed his chain saw and chopped down eight wooden pillars buttressing the construction.

Nothing fell down, and far from being condemned, Mr. Sukhanov was treated as a hero for standing up to the Chinese, whose expanding presence around Lake Baikal is the source of deep resentment. His actions have become a rallying cry amid a growing stream of petitions, protests and court cases aimed at blocking the Chinese around the lake and surrounding areas.

“If we let them, the Chinese will take over,” said Mr. Sukhanov, 57, who fled St. Petersburg decades ago for a bucolic life by the Siberian lake, the world’s largest, deepest body of fresh water. “They will just steal all the money and the local people will get nothing.”

President Vladimir V. Putin pivoted toward China five years ago, after the annexation of Crimea soured relations with the West. China became Russia’s new best friend, allied through trade, diplomacy and even military cooperation to counter American influence globally.

Yet, this supposed new era of Sino-Russian friendship is exhibiting pronounced strains in Listvyanka, an old resort town on the lake, as an influx of Chinese tourists and businesses stirs recurrent Russian fears of a Chinese land grab and raises concerns about polluting the lake.

At the same time the local authorities see in the flood of visitors the best hope they have for new jobs and economic development in an impoverished region.

More than 1.6 million tourists, mostly Russians, visited the region last year, according to the Irkutsk Tourism Agency; the 186,200 Chinese were the largest foreign group.

The number of Chinese jumped 37 percent over the previous year, and the surge is expected to continue, as Beijing is just a two-hour flight away, versus six hours to Moscow, 2,700 miles west.

“People understand that China is a much more powerful country and its economy is producing numbers that Russia cannot hope to achieve,” said Yuri Pronin, the editor of Baikalskiye Vesti, an independent weekly published in Irkutsk, the regional capital. “We feel this breath.”

Many Russians say Lake Baikal, which holds nearly 20 percent of the earth’s fresh surface water, is under siege.

Framed by pine forests and distant mountain peaks, the picturesque lake draws visitors both summer and winter, when even trucks can navigate across its thick, intensely blue ice.

But Listvyanka’s rudimentary infrastructure cannot cope with the sewage and trash generated by the current number of visitors, and residents shudder at the thought of tens of thousands of more Chinese.

The local authorities have dragged into court the owners of at least 10 hotels constructed with Chinese financing, accusing them of building illegally on plots designated for single-family homes or other infractions.

A district court ordered two hotels demolished earlier this year, and eight others are likely to face the same fate.

The Chinese stand accused of not only running roughshod over local residents, but also of trying to siphon off the water itself.

This winter, the construction of a new bottling plant to export water to China from a village near Listvyanka prompted more than 1.1 million Russians nationwide to sign an online petition denouncing it.

A district court in Irkutsk cited environmental concerns in halting the construction of the plant in March.

What may rankle the most, local people say, is that the Chinese are not paying business taxes.

“They do not pay us a kopeck,” Mr. Sukhanov growled. “If they paid the 20 percent required to the local budget, we would get the infrastructure and the schools that we need.”

Caught in the middle between the Chinese business interests and local residents is Aleksandr A. Shamsudinov, the mayor of Listvyanka, population 2,122.

Mr. Shamsudinov spent much of 2018 under house arrest, accused of exceeding his authority by issuing housing permits for single-family plots in the village. Many of those plots soon mushroomed into illegal guesthouses for Chinese tourists.

The three-story, 14-bedroom buildings with balconies rising on various plots were clearly not ordinary homes, Mr. Shamsudinov said. “They all said we need big houses, we have a lot of relatives who are planning to come visit,” he said.

With the construction, the character of the village began changing as quaint blue wooden cottages with white gingerbread trim were obliterated. Huge billboards, some in Chinese, advertised venues like the Las Vegas Strip Club.

The town has no central water or sewage system. Litter piles up, side roads remain unpaved and one main kindergarten is an old wooden barracks lacking indoor plumbing.

Marina Rikhvanova, an environmentalist, said she no longer drank lake water near any hamlet. Pollutants seeping into the lake cause algae blooms.

“It’s a microbe cocktail,” she said.

The mayor, a retired police officer, said the federal government should have a development plan that balances the needs of visitors and residents.

“Everybody shouts that Baikal is the pearl of Russia and a Unesco World Heritage site, but getting rid of the garbage and other environmental issues are left on the backs of the small-town mayors,” Mr. Shamsudinov said.

Farther north, Olkhon Island also attracts tourists. Yelena Kopylova has been taking in guests for some 25 years, expanding from one bedroom in her house to 10 buildings with a total of 32 rooms.

Her hotel, fully booked for the summer, accepts only Chinese groups that hire a Russian guide and local vehicles.

“This is the main source of income for young families,” Ms. Kopylova said, adding, “We have to defend the interests of our local people.”

Locals often grumble that the Chinese refer to Lake Baikal as the Northern Sea, its ancient Han name. Some are convinced that Beijing is secretly plotting to reclaim the lake and the huge, sparsely populated areas beyond, ceded to the Russian Empire in an 1858 treaty that China has long considered unfair.

For years, the only Chinese in the area were poor vendors selling cheap goods in the Shanghai Market in Irkutsk. Now, the sight of Chinese tourists tossing wads of rubles around points to how China has surpassed Russia.

The influx revived Karl Marx Street, Irkutsk’s once-derelict main shopping thoroughfare, where one jeweler is selling a gold and amber necklace for more than $6,500. A sign in Chinese promises a gift to anyone who spends more than $1,200.

The Chinese tourists themselves, mostly oblivious to the grumblings, delight in Lake Baikal.

Recently, a honeymooning couple from southern China, snacking on lake fish bought at a small outdoor market, happily declared that they had never felt so cold.

Asked why they came, the couple used a smartphone to play a hit Chinese pop song “On the Shore of Lake Baikal,” about taking your love to the lake. It has inspired countless visits.

A Chinese-born businessman, Alexei Dzhao, 37, and a Russian citizen, sings a different tune.

Last year he built two large houses in the woods above Listvyanka. His Baikal Seal Guest House was originally meant to be a private home, he said.

It is a pleasant complex with whimsical birdhouses nailed to the surrounding trees and cozy, pine-lined rooms.

Mr. Dzhao said he would do anything to legalize the place, but his building permit was revoked and he expects a demolition order. Many Chinese owners are hoping to sell before the bulldozers arrive.

“Things are not calm in Listvyanka,” said Mr. Dzhao, who plans to move to Moscow. “There is all this nationalistic tension.”

[tendance-news]

A Los Angeles County sex crimes investigator accused of raping a teenager after having been assigned to investigate her previous sexual assault allegations has pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison.It was at least the third time the detective, Neil David Kimball of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was accused of misconduct while on duty, though he was not charged as a result of the first two allegations.District Attorney Gregory Totten of Ventura County, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kimball, 46, met the then-15-year-old victim in 2017 when she reported a sexual assault.He befriended her and then sexually assaulted her, according to the statement.Kimball was originally charged with raping the victim while she was tied or bound. Kimball was also accused of “witness intimidation by threat of force”.But Patrice Koenig, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that prosecutors later determined they could not prove that Kimball had used force during the encounter, which she said took place in his trailer in Camarillo, in southern Ventura County.The girl did not report the encounter. Rather, when a different officer took over her case about a year later, her father told the new investigator about the assault, Ms Koenig said.Kimball pleaded guilty last week to a lewd act with a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, and is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison at his next appearance, on 8 August. He must also register as a sex offender.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that Kimball’s pay was suspended in March and that it was seeking to terminate him immediately. A lawyer for Kimball declined to comment.Kimball’s plea comes just more than a month after Sara Abusheikh, a Los Angeles fashion designer, wrote in a post on Medium about her experience with the detective after she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance in 2014, and reported it to the authorities.Kimball was assigned to her case, but she wrote that he never investigated, and instead said wildly inappropriate things to her.Ms Abusheikh wrote that Kimball teased her about going back to her assailant and suggested she “let him make love to you gently”.“His only interest in the details of my rape came in the form of perverse, sick questions, and he – most tellingly – suggested he come inside to get high,” she wrote.She later filed a restraining order against her assailant, which led Kimball to joke that she was paranoid, she wrote. When she reported his inappropriate behaviour to his supervisor, word got back to Kimball immediately, she added.The next summer, after getting help from a rape treatment centre, she met with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, she wrote.A deputy district attorney told her Kimball was “a fine detective” and insisted there was no evidence to back up her claim, she wrote.“And the Special Victims Bureau? It only functioned to protect not one, but two, alleged rapists,” Ms Abusheikh concluded in her essay.The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Ms Abusheikh’s post.Last year, Ms Abusheikh shared screenshots of text messages she said were from Kimball with The Daily Beast, as well as records of email exchanges with lawyers and patient advocates from the rape treatment centre. She did not return calls or respond to messages seeking further comment.Kimball, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau in 2013, The Los Angeles Times reported.The bureau has been involved in high-profile cases, including accusations by a young actor that he was sexually abused by Asia Argento, a leading figure in the MeToo movement, who had herself accused the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She denied the allegations.In 2009, Kimball was investigated for sexual battery but not charged after an episode at a hotel the previous year, The Los Angeles Times reported.According to the report, which was based on a prosecutor’s memo, the detective had questioned a group of friends in a parking lot.Afterward, women in the group and Kimball went to a hotel room, where some of the women stripped down to their underwear and got into a hot tub as he encouraged them, the memo stated.It also said that one woman accused the detective of grabbing her hand and trying to place it on his genitals.But no charges were filed. Witnesses gave contradictory statements, there was a lack of evidence and the complainant failed to cooperate with investigators, the memo said.Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney, confirmed that the office had declined to prosecute Kimball over the hotel incident. In an email, he said that no other cases involving the detective were under review.The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office had also urged any additional victims to come forward, Ms Koenig said, but none did so.Asked last year why Kimball was selected to serve in the Special Victims Bureau even after the 2008 hotel allegations, the sheriff’s department told The Los Angeles Times it would “conduct a review of the internal process” related to the assignment.The department did not respond to a question about the outcome of that review.Grier Weeks, senior executive at the National Association to Protect Children, a non-profit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that pushes for child protection laws, said that the sentence was too light considering the severity of the crime.“There should be more severe penalties for people in positions of authority or trust who assault a child,” he said. “It’s something that has to be treated as the most serious type of assault.”New York Times

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[wp-yahoo-style-1042-yahoopa-blog]

Céline Dion makes a splash in lingerie for steamy 'midnight pool shoot': 'Wanted to have a little fun on a hot and sticky night'

Queen Céline even reigns underwater.

Canadian superstar songstress Céline Dion shared a glimpse of a “midnight photo shoot” she had at a rooftop pool during a recent trip to Singapore. The 50-year-old was wearing what appeared to be black lingerie for her plunge, judging from the hem around the bottom and the bra. Her hair was wet and slicked back in a ponytail as she perched herself partially out of the pool — for ample derrière exposure.

Midnight photo shoot, on the rooftop pool in Singapore last month. Wanted to have a little fun on a hot and sticky night off, so we put something together last minute. Loved Singapore! – Céline xx… . Souvenir d’une séance photo spontanée en pleine nuit à Singapour. Il faisait tellement chaud que nous avons décidé de nous rafraîchir dans la piscine sur le toit. On a eu beaucoup de plaisir, j’ai adoré cette ville! – Céline xx… . 📸: JF Perreault

A post shared by Céline Dion (@celinedion) on Aug 24, 2018 at 4:17am PDT

“Wanted to have a little fun on a hot and sticky night off, so we put something together last minute,” wrote Dion, who gave the photo credit to Jean-François Perreault, whom she has worked with for years.

The mom of three has been having a lot of fun with fashion as of late. After getting a lot of attention for her “style transformation” into a “fashion icon,” she told Australian publication Stellar, “I’ve always loved fashion, but I thought after turning 30 or 40, if it’s not happening with me and fashion, it’s never going to happen. Well guess what? It’s happening! It’s never too late to feel good about yourself, never too late to be presented as a best-dressed woman. It’s fun, it makes you feel really sexy and there’s no age limit on that.” Dion has been working with celebrity stylist Law Roach on her new look.

Céline Dion at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards. (Photo: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

And after going through the mourning Dion experienced in 2016 over the loss of her husband, René Angélil, who had a yearslong battle with cancer, it’s good to see her doing what makes her happy. Speaking of happy, while she’s never confirmed a romance with her backup dancer Pepe Muñoz, they are still “inseparable,” according to a new report.

So perhaps he’s the biggest fan of all of this black-hot look.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Cecile Richards, former Planned Parenthood president, says Trump administration is ‘putting politics ahead of the lives of women’

People are angry with this safe sex guide, which calls the vagina a ‘front hole’

Unpacking the Asia Argento accusations: When the alleged victim becomes the alleged abuser

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[smnews]

NEW YORK (AP) — Two days after a report detailed an accusation of sexual assault against #MeToo activist Asia Argento, the Italian actress and filmmaker said she never had a sexual relationship with the young actor whom she agreed to pay $380,000 in a settlement.

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[stagepakistan]

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[teeky185]

Italian actress and sexual abuse campaigner Asia Argento denied Tuesday having had a sexual relationship five years ago with an underage teen, calling the allegations part of "a long-standing persecution". The New York Times reported on Sunday that Argento, 42, a Harvey Weinstein accuser and leading figure in the #MeToo movement, had paid actor and rock musician Jimmy Bennett $380,000 over the alleged 2013 incident at a Los Angeles hotel. Bennett was two months past his 17th birthday at the time of the alleged encounter, while Argento was 37.

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[findlocalonlinedating-com]

Anthony Bourdain and girlfriend Asia Argento 'loved without borders of traditional relationships' - Yahoo Entertainment

Yahoo Entertainment Anthony Bourdain and girlfriend Asia Argento 'loved without borders of traditional relationships' Yahoo Entertainment He began dating Argento shortly after his split, and told People at the time that he would never marry again — and that Argento, herself twice divorced, was on the same page. However, he added he was not opposed to living with her. For her part ... Rose McGowan Says Anthony Bourdain and Asia Argento Had a 'Free Relationship' 'Without Borders'Yahoo News all 104 news articles » http://dlvr.it/QX0xMw