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American Charged With Raping Daughter, Distributing Video Via Internet and Fleeing to China



--AP


HONG KONG — An American man accused of raping his daughter and posting the videos on the Internet has agreed to be extradited from Hong Kong to the United States, his lawyer said Monday.

Kenneth John Freeman, a former reserve sheriff's deputy on the U.S. Marshals 15 most-wanted list, has been challenging the extradition request since he was arrested while traveling in Hong Kong in May.

But his lawyer, Giles Surman, told a Hong Kong court on Monday that "after due consideration, Freeman decided he will consent to surrender and be sent to the United States." The extradition process could take three to six weeks, Surman said.

But the attorney added, "Freeman maintains his innocence."

The judge, Wahab Abu Bakar bin, consented to Freeman's extradition, but final approval must come from Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang.

Freeman, 44, a computer adviser, bodybuilder and reserve sheriff's deputy, fled his home in Seattle last year after his 17-year-old daughter told her mother that he had assaulted her four years earlier.

The teenager also told her story on national television, which helped identify her as the victim in a series of child pornography videos on the Internet, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Freeman allegedly distributed those videos on the Internet.

Freeman was charged in Benton County Superior Court in Washington state with three counts of child rape and jumping bail. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.

He also faces federal charges of producing and distributing child pornography.

He flew from Vancouver, Canada, to Hong Kong in March 2006, then to China, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Working with Chinese authorities, U.S. investigators tracked down Freeman in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou near Shanghai, where he is believed to have been working as a computer consultant for a U.S.-based company.

Freeman was arrested in May at Hong Kong's border with mainland China.

Authorities waited to arrest Freeman in Hong Kong because mainland China does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. Although Hong Kong is part of China, the former British colony is governed separately and has its own legal system.

From the US Marshals Service:Washington D.C. - Former lawman Kenneth John Freeman, one of the world’s most notorious accused child molesters, was arrested yesterday in Hong Kong. Freeman, 44, was on the U.S. Marshals 15 MOST WANTED fugitive list and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ICE MOST WANTED FUGITIVES listing. The arrest was based on a formal request by the U.S. State Department. Freeman, a former Washington state resident, is accused of molesting his own young daughter, then posting the videos online.

Internet scenes allegedly showing the girl being raped by her father became one of the most widely downloaded child pornography videos in recent years. Freeman is an avid competitive bodybuilder and computer expert, and formerly worked as a reserve sheriff’s deputy in Benton County, Washington. But since 2005, a series of charges against him by federal and local courts has made him the subject of a worldwide manhunt.

Faced with those charges, Freeman fled the U.S. last year. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, which now coordinates national efforts to capture unregistered sex offenders and individuals charged with child abuse, it is believed that Freeman was living in the city of Suzhou, People’s Republic of China.

“This complex, international case was a challenge for the Marshals, ICE, and our law enforcement partners,” said Director John F. Clark. “But fugitives charged with crimes against children are our top priority. Freeman now will be returned to the United States to face the justice he deserves.”

“The arrest of this accused child molester proves the global reach of our law enforcement partnership,” said Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary, Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Freeman will be returned for trial here, where penalties for child exploitation are among the toughest in the world.”

Law enforcement went public with their search as early last December, when Freeman was featured on television’s America’s Most Wanted. His daughter, now a teenager and an advocate against child sexual abuse, went on TV to tell her story. Clues began to fall into place. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) had long known of a series of child pornography videos showing the abuse of an unidentified girl. They were convinced the child and her abuser were from the Pacific Northwest, and when the Freeman case received national publicity, calls to NCMEC linked the girl on America’s Most Wanted to the unidentified child in the video series.

Sources at the U.S. Marshals said that Freeman’s presence in China was uncovered by an investigative team made up of experts from the Marshals, ICE, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, and special agents from State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. It is believed that Freeman was working for a U.S. based firm while in China. No extradition treaty exists between the People’s Republic of China and the United States, but when the Chinese were informed about Freeman they agreed to help. An extradition treaty still exists between Hong Kong and the U.S.

In late April, information was developed by investigators that Freeman intended to travel to Hong Kong. Upon his arrival yesterday, he was arrested by law enforcement officials from the Chinese government. Freeman now faces extradition to the United States to face federal charges, as well as those in Washington State. This case is part of ICE’s Operation Predator, an initiative to safeguard children from pedophiles, international sex tourists, internet child pornographers and human traffickers.

Smartt, any thoughts?

Quote:

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former reserve sheriff's deputy

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Odds that he was on some kind of child porn task force, an elder in his church and a staunch conservative?

assholes like him need to be castrated live on TV.

A cop and a child rapist...he'll have a good time in prison.