A well-known local former teacher and debate coach was sentenced Monday to serve more than 13½ years in state prison after being convicted for sex crimes against minors. This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Reno,Kansas Sheriff's Office, Buhler Kansas Police Dept, the Wichita Police Department's Exploited and Missing Children's Unit, the Philadelphia (Pa.) Police Department's Special Victims Unit (PPDSVU), San Bernardino California Sheriff's Office, and the Purdue University Police Department.
Richard Young, 68, was convicted Oct. 17 in Reno County, Kansas, on one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a minor, two counts indecent liberties, and one count of indecent solicitation of a minor. He was sentenced Feb. 9 to serve 164 months in prison.
Young is a resident of Buhler, Kan., and most recently was employed as a teacher and debate coach at Buhler High School. He taught for the past 47 years in various school districts in Kansas. He has hosted as many as 12 foreign exchange students in his home since 1997. Some of those students are residents of Germany, Bolivia and the Netherlands.
The investigation surrounding Young first began after a 16-year-old South Korean student that he sponsored in 2007 was terminated from the exchange program at Young's request. Following his termination, the Korean student visited his aunt in Philadelphia. The exchange student's attorney later contacted the Philadelphia ICE office, which referred the investigation to the Wichita ICE office. Further investigation revealed more molestation accusations from Young's three former stepsons, now adults. All three testified against Young at his trial.
"We received incredible cooperation from all the involved law enforcement agencies," said Antonio Farias, resident agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Wichita. "Due to this cooperation, this child molester who betrayed the trust people placed in him, won't be able to victimize any other children."
Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson praised the work done by law enforcement and expressed his appreciation for the courage displayed by both the current victim and the three past victims. "These three gentlemen gave their time and opened old wounds in support of this young foreign exchange student."
This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 11,600 individuals.
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org). In addition, he's the blog editor for the House Conservatives Fund's weblog. Recently, the editors Examiner.com appointed him as their Law Enforcement Examiner. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.
He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer for NewswithViews.com and PHXnews.com. He's also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 300 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri's own website is located at http://jimkouri.us
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This is happening all over the country. Go to www.schoolteachernews.com and click on the Scandal page. This year they have documented over 50 of these types of incidents. Last year they found 479 of these kinds of cases.
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