OK- Police investigating Meeker attack

2-29-2008 Oklahoma:

CHANDLER — Anthony Mayfield's kidnappers beat him, dragged him by a rope tied around his genitals and injected him with methamphetamine, according to an affidavit filed Wednesday in Lincoln County court.

Five people are charged with felony kidnapping and misdemeanor assault and battery in the alleged Feb. 19 attack — a bizarre case that may involve sex, lies and vigilante justice.

According to the affidavit:

•Mayfield, 37, was accused by his attackers of "being sexually inappropriate" with two girls.

•Kenneth Alan Cowan, 40, and four others confronted Mayfield and took him to a house in Meeker.

•The group accused Mayfield of molestation, "beat him, tied a rope around his genitals and gave him an unknown number of injections.”

•After more than 14 hours, Mayfield was cleaned up and dropped off at Unity Hospital in Shawnee. He was treated for bruises on his head, face and body and released that day.

•During an initial meeting with police on Feb. 22, Mayfield said he was beaten "somewhere in downtown Shawnee” and "an anonymous person” took him to the hospital. Later that day, Mayfield identified Cowan and others and told police that he was accused of molestation and beaten.

•At least one of the girls told law officers she had not been molested by Mayfield.

Some arrests made

Cowan; his wife, Rebecca Ruth Cowan, 42; their son, Brian Wayne Cowan, 18, all of Meeker; Sonya Mae Bull, 27, of Shawnee; and a man identified in the affidavit only as "Ed” face charges in the case.

The Cowans were arrested and have been released from the Lincoln County jail on bail. Bull and "Ed” were still at-large Thursday.

Leann Paczkowski, Lincoln County assistant district attorney, said Thursday she could "neither confirm nor deny” whether the girls had been molested. Despite the affidavit, she said the motive for Mayfield's beating has not been determined.

"I'd prefer not to talk about that because nothing has been confirmed,” she said. "I'd hate to compromise the investigation.”

John Tice, Lincoln County sheriff's deputy, said Meeker police still are investigating, and additional complaints could be forwarded to the district attorney's office in the next few days. ..more.. by Staff Writer Ken Raymond

OH- He says he's now the victim

8-11-1997 Ohio:

McCOMB, Ohio -- A convicted child molester who accused his wife and two of her relatives of kidnapping and sexually assaulting him complains that they've turned him into a victim.

''Where I work, people know, and I have to face them. I get prank phone calls. A radio deejay in Toledo said they should get a medal for what they did. These women were torturing me,'' Rodney Hosler said at his parents' house in this northwestern Ohio village.

Hosler, who denies ever molesting a child, told police that five women entered his apartment on July 26 in the town of Delaware, about 70 miles away. He said three of the women sheared his pubic hair and the hair on his head, assaulted him anally with a cucumber, and put a heat-producing ointment on his genitals.

They scribbled ''child molester'' with black marker on several areas of his body, then drove him to McComb and dumped him outside a pizza parlor, clad only in a pink-and-green Minnie Mouse blanket.

''I am the victim, and I am being convicted,'' Hosler told The Columbus Dispatch, which published the interview Sunday.

Hosler, 27, said he thinks the attack was part of his wife's plan to get out of their marriage. He said he now wants a divorce and custody of one of their two children.

Relatives said the women feared Hosler was again molesting the child whom he was convicted of molesting in 1994. Hosler was released in January after serving his full two-year prison term for molesting the girl, who is now 7.

He denies that he ever molested the girl, saying he only pleaded guilty to spare the child a court battle.

Hosler complained that people all over the country know about the incident.

''My brother called and said it was on the news where he lives in New Jersey,'' Hosler said. ''What's next? Is Oprah Winfrey going to walk up.''

''At least my family thinks of me as a victim,'' he said. ''My friends are standing by me.''

Indicted on rape and kidnapping charges were his wife, Jewel Hosler, 28, of Delaware; her mother, Mary Franks, 44, of Sunbury; and Mrs. Hosler's aunt, Vickie Coulter, 39, of Delaware.

The other two women were not identified or charged.

Mrs. Hosler pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of insanity. Mrs. Franks and Ms. Coulter pleaded innocent. Each of the charges carries a possible three to 10 years in prison. ..more.. by AP

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Women praised for avenging molester
9-14-1997 Ohio:

The way Doc Bradley sees it, Rodney Hosler got lucky.

Sure, Hosler was abducted, tortured, and sodomized with a cucumber by his wife, her mother and her aunt. Sure, the women scrawled "I am a child molester" all over his body, then dumped him in his hometown, naked except for a pink-and-green Minnie Mouse blanket.

But at least Hosler is alive. If he ever returns to Bradley's bar, now that people know he abused his 5-year-old stepdaughter, he might not be as fortunate. "Those women are heroes in this town," said Bradley, a bushy-bearded grandfather who used to serve drinks to Hosler. "The only thing is, they should've left their cucumber home and used a shotgun instead."

NY- Mistaken identity has mom fearing for son

Threats plague woman with same last name as alleged sex predator

3-15-2008 New York:

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Her last name is Gordon, her son is roughly the same age as alleged sexual predator Christopher Gordon and she lives on the same block of Genesee Avenue that the Willowbrook preschool teacher told police is his address when he was arrested last week for sexually abusing one of his 5-year-old students.

Marie E. Gordon says she never knew or met Christopher Gordon, nor did anyone in her family.

But in the last week, Mrs. Gordon has gotten numerous harassing phone calls from anonymous people who believe she is his mother. Some of the callers even threatened to kill her son, 24-year-old Iraq veteran Gregory Gordon.

"My daughter survived the World Trade Center, my son survived Iraq. I don't need them taken away from me by some lunatic," a distraught Mrs. Gordon said yesterday. "They say these horrible, horrible things, cursing at me and threatening to kill my son. It's just a very, very frightening experience and now I can't even leave my home."

Christopher Gordon was charged March 7 with five counts of first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He is accused of making the 5-year-old sit on his lap and bounce, or stand with her back against the wall while he rubbed his genitals on her body inside the bathroom of the Oakdale Academy on Victory Boulevard, according to court documents.

Mrs. Gordon -- whose son Gregory has served two tours in Iraq since the war began and whose daughter Marissa was working at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 -- said the callers all have been women and she suspects they're mothers of Oakdale students.

She notified the office of District Attorney Daniel Donovan and the police and was advised to keep her doors and windows locked, keep the lights on at all times and not to answer the door without knowing who's there. Police also told her to be aware of her surroundings and be alert, she said.

"It's terrifying," said Mrs. Gordon, adding that she has lived on the 500 block of Genesee Avenue since 1979.

Christopher Gordon's arrest report indicates that he lives just down the block.

"These women are insane. They're jumping to conclusions about a family they don't even know," Mrs. Gordon said."

A spokesman for Donovan said authorities are "reviewing the situation."

Oakdale administrator Debbie Wallach was disturbed to hear about the threatening phone calls but expressed skepticism they were placed by employees or parents of pupils.

"I have no control over who it is or isn't," Ms. Wallach said, stressing that no one with a connection to the school has made remarks to her that would indicate they're out to get Christopher Gordon's family. "To the best of my knowledge, it certainly is not anyone who is involved with Oakdale Academy as a staff member, or a parent of someone who attends the school."

Regardless, she penned a memo that was to go home with students yesterday, pointing out that there is no connection between Christopher Gordon and Marie Gordon's family.

"My heart goes out to the woman because it's certainly something she shouldn't have to go through," she said. Christopher Gordon "is responsible for what he did and nobody else." ..more.. by Glenn Nyback is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at nyback@siadvance.com.

CA- Mistrial declared in bid for molester's freedom

2-7-2008 California:

An Orange County jury deadlocked Wednesday on whether an aging pedophile who admitted he molested 10 boys should be released from a state mental facility. It was the second time a jury had failed to reach a decision in the case.

Sid Landau, wearing a hearing aid, showed little reaction as jurors reported that they were at an impasse after 3 1/2 days of deliberations, leaning 8 to 4 in favor of the petition by prosecutors to keep him hospitalized because he remained a danger to society.

Judge Richard M. King declared a mistrial and ordered a hearing Friday on whether Landau should face a third trial. The 68-year-old's first trial, in June 2006, ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of setting him free.

After court adjourned Wednesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Amy Pope said she believed "unequivocally" that Landau remained a danger but declined to say whether her office would retry the case.

Landau's attorney, Leonard Levine, said, "We believe 12 people may never agree unanimously on a verdict."

Landau has been hospitalized at state mental facilities for nearly eight years while prosecutors have pursued a petition under the state's Sexually Violent Predator Statute, which allows offenders deemed a continual threat to remain in state custody after their prison sentences are completed.