A partially decomposed body was found in a desolate, grassy field in Moreno Valley on Tuesday afternoon, just two miles from where a 17-year-old girl disappeared last week on her walk home from summer school.

Riverside County Sheriff's Department officials said they have not determined if the remains are those of Norma Lopez, who authorities believe was abducted Thursday, triggering a massive search throughout central Riverside County.

A local resident doing yard work found the body around 3 p.m. about a mile south of the 60 Freeway, just off Theodore Street, on the eastern outskirts of the city in an area surrounded by wheat fields, horse ranches and jagged hills. The remains, which have yet to be identified as male or female, were found in the tall grass and near a line of trees but were not otherwise concealed, said Sgt. Joe Borja, a Sheriff's Department spokesman.

"I know you're all interested in finding out whether this is Norma Lopez or not, and honestly we do not know," Borja told reporters gathered several hundred yards from the crime scene. "No matter which way it is, it's still a tragic event. There's someone out in the field who is dead." ...

Norma was reported missing about 12:30 p.m. Thursday by her older sister, Sonja, after she failed to return home from summer school. She was out of class at Valley View High School by 10 a.m. and had plans to meet her older sister and another friend, authorities said.

Investigators said they found some of Norma's belongings, and signs of a struggle, in a vacant field along Cottonwood Avenue. They are also looking for the driver and passengers of a newer-model green SUV seen near the dirt field at the time of her disappearance.

After the body was found, deputies roped off the area and waited for coroner's officials to arrive and examine the remains. FBI investigators, assisting the Sheriff's Department in the case, also went to the scene.

"It could take as short as one day to a week to determine who that person is," Borja said...

Authorities urged anyone with information about the case to call (877) 242-4345, or e-mail [the Riverside Sheriff's office].

La presidenta de la Comision Especial contra la Trata de Personas en la Camara de Diputados, Rosi Orozco pidio penalizar el consumo, intercambio y almacenamiento de pornografia infantil por Internet.

Agrego que debido a los vacios legales aunado a la rapidez con que evolucionan las tecnologias de la informacion, este delito se ha incrementado de manera alarmante en el pais.

En entrevista, la legisladora del Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) senalo que la pornografia infantil es el tercer delito mas comun en Internet despues fraude y las amenazas.

Explico que Mexico ocupa el primer lugar en apertura de paginas web de pornografia infantil, y tiende a incrementarse mas de cinco por ciento la distribucion de videos de imagenes de abuso a recien nacidos.

Por ello, considero que se debe incorporar a las redes de telecomunicacion en las legislaciones y penalizar el consumo, almacenamiento e intercambio de pornografia infantil.

"Porque hoy estas lagunas facilitan que los pederastas y quienes comercian con ella escapen a la justicia", sostuvo.

Orozco comento que a traves de reformas al articulo 202 del Codigo Penal Federal, mismas que analiza la Comision de Justicia, se busca inhibir y evitar el almacenamiento, arrendamiento y compra de material que contenga pornografia infantil.

En ese contexto, subrayo la importancia de que se castigue con penas de siete a 12 anos de prision y de 800 a dos mil dias de multa, a quien para obtener un beneficio de cualquier indole o con animo de lucro o sin el, produzca, distribuya o venda material pornografico.

Rosi Orozco calls for increased penalties for Internet Child Pornography

National Action Party (PAN) congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, who is the president of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of Congress), has called for legislative action to increase penalties for those who commit the crimes of consuming, exchanging and selling child pornography via the Internet.

Deputy Orozco explained that, due to gaps in current legislation, caused in-part by the pace of changes in information technology, these crimes have increased in an alarming manner across Mexico. Orozco added that child porn related crimes are the third largest category of criminal activity on the Internet after fraud and threats.

Deputy Orozco noted that Mexico holds first place globally in the number of accesses to child pornography web sites. [Authorities have also registered] a recent 5% increase in the distribution of pornographic videos of recently born babies.

Due to these conditions, Deputy Orozco has called upon Congress to pass legislation that includes communications networks, and that controls the consumption, exchange and sale of child pornography via the web.

Orozco: "Because of the gaps that continue to exist in our laws, pedophiles and those who commercialize [child pornography] escape justice."

Deputy Orozco seeks to bring about changes to Article 202 of the Federal Penal Code, which is currently being reviewed by the Commission on Justice in the Chamber of Deputies. She added that the proposed legislation will seek criminal penalties of 12 years in prison and 800 to 1,000 days of salary [typically minimum wage salaray is used to define these types of fines], for anyone associated with the production, distribution or sale of illicit pornography.

The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University cosponsored a first-ever United Nations panel discussion about how the news media is exposing and explaining modern slavery and human trafficking -- and how to do it better. Below are the transcript and video from that conference, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on June 16 and co-sponsored by the United States Mission to the United Nations and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Take a look as some leading media-makers and policymakers debate coverage of human trafficking. What hinders good reporting on human trafficking? What do journalists fear when they report on slaves and slavery? Why cover the subject in the first place? What are the common reporting mistakes and missteps that can do more harm than good to trafficking victims, and to government, NGO, and individual efforts to end the traffic of persons for others' profit and pleasure?

Read the transcript

Baltimore - U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. sentenced Lloyd Mack Royal, III, a/k/a “Blyss,” “B,” and “Furious,” age 29, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, to 37 years in prison followed by 10 years supervised release for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; sex trafficking of a minor; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; conspiracy to distribute drugs; and distribution of drugs to persons under 21, related to a scheme to prostitute three minor females. Judge Williams also ordered that after his release from prison Royal must register as a sex offender where he lives, works, or goes to school. Royal was convicted at trial on March 25, 2010.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department.

“Maryland’s human trafficking task force follows a policy of zero tolerance for child prostitution,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Anyone who pays for or profits from sex with children should understand that we are standing by to send them to federal prison.”

“The defendant violently preyed upon some of the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Assistant Attorney General Perez. “He sought out troubled young girls and through physical violence, drugs, guns, and lies, coerced them into prostitution for his own benefit. The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute these cases.”

According to testimony at the two week trial, from April to May 2007 Royal and his co-conspirators coerced a minor girl to engage in sex for pay. In addition, witnesses testified that Royal: coerced two additional minors to engage in sex, for which he was paid; threatened to harm the girls and their families; struck the girls; and held one of the girls at gun point. In order to assert his authority over the girls, Royal would forbid them from contacting certain individuals and forced them to kiss his pinky ring. Royal drove the girls to hotels in Gaithersburg, Maryland, or caused them to be transported from Maryland to the District of Columbia, to have them engage in sex.

On several occasions, testimony showed that Royal gave the girls illegal drugs before forcing them to engage in sex with him in order to test the girls’ sexual aptitude. Royal and his co-defendants provided the girls with cocaine, “dippers” or “ciga-wets” (cigarettes dipped in phencyclidine liquid known as PCP), marijuana and alcohol before coercing them to engage in sex with customers, and sometimes sold cocaine to customers. Witnesses testified that Royal gave the girls instructions on pricing for different sexual acts and instructed the girls to lie about their ages.

Paul Raymond Green, a/k/a “PJ,” age 25, of Washington, D.C., and Angela Samantha Bentolila, age 27, were sentenced to 52 months and 15 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the sex trafficking conspiracy. The case was investigated by the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force formed in 2007 to discover and rescue victims of human trafficking while identifying and prosecuting offenders. Members include federal, state, and local law enforcement, as well as victim service providers and local community members. For more information, see the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, web site.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez commended former Assistant United States Attorney Solette A. Magnelli and Trial Attorney James Felte, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, who prosecuted the case.

Newark - A judge has postponed the case of a Togolese citizen living in New Jersey who was due to be sentenced today for his role in the smuggling of girls and young women who were forced to work at hair braiding salons.

Geoffry Kouevi was found guilty in August of visa fraud.

U.S. District Judge Jose Linares says additional documents are needed to settle a dispute over how much prison time Kouevi should get.

Prosecutors say at least 20 people were brought from Togo using fraudulent visas and forced to work for no pay.

Lassissi Afolabi was sentenced in July to more than 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring with his ex-wife and her son to commit forced labor.

Afolabi's ex-wife faces sentencing in September. Her son received a 55-month prison term.

Arrest warrants have been issued for a Southern California couple who may have fled to Mexico after abandoning their 4-year-old nephew with the battered body of his 3-year-old sister.

A relative found the 4-year-old boy sleeping in one room of a home in southwest Bakersfield; the body of his sister, identified as Serenity Julia Gandara, was found on the floor of another room, police said. The two children had been living with Alberto Garcia and Carla Torres Garcia, both 26, whom authorizes believe may have crossed the border into Mexico along with their own three children after Serenity's death.

Bakersfield Police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said arrest warrants were issued, charging the couple with murder and felony child abandonment. They also face federal charges for unlawful flight.

DeGeare said investigators believe the couple was already in Mexico when Torres called her sister to inform her of the death. DeGeare said the two children exhibted signs of abuse.

"Both of these children had injuries, old and new," she said. "They had scars and marks in various stages of healing, including recent injuries."

The death and abandonment surprised neighbors, who described the couple as caring and preoccupied with the well-being of their children.

"I never saw any cruelty there to any of those children," neighbor Patty Clemons told ABCNews.com. "I feel it must have been an accident."

Police said Serenity had trauma to her head and torso, and that both she and her brother had injuries that were still healing. An autopsy was performed on Monday but the exact cause of death was pending. The boy, whose name was not released, was placed in foster care.

The children were apparently being adopted by the couple. Alberto Garcia did auto body work, which enabled him to stay home with the children and do repair jobs outside, according to neighbors. Carla Garcia cleaned homes.

"The guy was very nice and always very happy," said another neighbor, who asked not to be identified by name. "You wonder why this happened. They were very nice people."

Neighbors said Carla Garcia called her sister Sunday morning and asked her to come to the home in southwest Bakersfield. The sister found Serenity's body on the floor in one room while her brother slept in another room. The Garcias and their three young children – ages 4 to 10 – were gone. Maria Garcia, the maternal grandmother of the foster children, told television staton KGET in Bakersfield that she had warned a child protective services social worker about abuse in the Garcia household but nothing was done. "I told her many times something happened with these kids," Maria Garcia told the station.

The two children belonged to Alberto Garcia's sister, but he and Carla were in the process of adopting them, according to neighbors.

Clemons said she never witnessed the abuse although Serenity and her brother were rarely seen outside. "I never saw cruelty to any of those children," she said. "Now all these people are coming out of the woodwork saying these children were abused. I never saw it but I don't know what happened behind closed doors."

Clemons said the Garcia and Torres were pleasant neighbors who sometimes stopped by with plates of Mexican food. Alberto Garcia occasionally rode the younger children on a red wagon when he picked his children up from school. "They always made sure all the children got ice cream," Clemons said. "The children were always well dressed. She worked all day cleaning and then came home and always cooked for the family. I used to tell them you guys need some time for yourselves."

The FBI was assisting in the investigation. The family vehicle was described as a white Ford Eddie Bauer Expedition, license plate 5FLC681.

Steven Perez, 24, was arrested in Galena Park Thursday on a charge of super sexual abuse of a child.

Investigators said the attack happened while the 1-year-old's mother was in the shower at a southeast Houston home in May.

A warrant for Perez's arrest was issued this week. Detectives said he was arrested at his new girlfriend's home.

Toms River - A Lakewood man is facing up to 60 years in prison after admitting that he sexually abused eight children, between the ages of 4 and 9, said Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford.

Cirilo Cholula Maranchel, 19, of Woehr Avenue pleaded guilty to six counts of aggravated sexual assault on six children, and two counts of sexual assault on two more children, Ford said.

The abuse took place between January and June of 2009, when the defendant was 17 and 18. Although Maranchel was a minor when he committed the offenses, he was prosecuted as an adult, Ford said in a prepared statement.

Maranchel entered his guilty plea Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels.

The defendant admitted acts of sexual penetration — digital as well as sexual intercourse — with six of the victims, who were between the ages of 6 and 9, said Senior Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Laura Pierro. He admitted molesting another child in front of yet another child who was 4, Pierro said.

All of the victims are girls who are known to the defendant, Ford said.

The abuse was revealed after one victim, age 6, came forward to her parents, who contacted Lakewood police on June 13, 2009, Ford said.

That girl told investigators she had witnessed other children being sexually assaulted by Maranchel, leading them to seven other victims, Pierro said.

Ford said the special victims unit of her office worked with Lakewood Detective Leroy Marshall and other Lakewood officers to identify the other victims and arrest Maranchel.

"The young victims of these crimes have been courageous in cooperating in this investigation," Ford said.

Ford said the arrest of Maranchel, an illegal immigrant, followed an intensive investigation and hunt for him.

"At the time of his arrest, it appeared the defendant was attempting to board public transportation and escape criminal responsibility for his actions," she said.

Maranchel faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of 60 years when he is sentenced following an evaluation at the state Corrections Department's Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, Ford said. He will be held at the Ocean County Jail until then, with his bail set at $2 million.

Maranchel will be deported to his native Mexico after he serves his prison term, the prosecutor said.

A Sun Valley man was arrested today on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old California girl nearly a month ago.

David Mosqueda, 22, was booked about 4 p.m. into the Washoe County Jail on charges of sexual Assault of a child under the age of 16 and lewdness with a child under the age of 14 and held on $27,500 bail, Deputy Armando Avina said in a news release.

On June 21, deputies answering a domestic disturbance report found Mosqueda had locked himself in a bathroom with a knife and had self-inflicted injuries to his neck, wrist and stomach region. After an investigation, Mosqueda, a previously convicted sex offender, was taken into custody, Avina said.

Springfield Police Dept.Police in Springfield, MA, are looking for an illegal alien from Guatemala, who they say brutally raped a 4-year-old girl on Saturday.

Springfield Police Sgt. John M. Delaney told reporters the suspect, Edilzar Mazariegos is wanted on a charge of aggravated rape of a child with force.

The tiny victim, whose name is being withheld, was found by her mother, after returning from work, crying and bleeding. She rushed her daughter to Mercy Medical Center, but because of the “severe trauma” she suffered, she was transferred to Baystate Medical Center, where she remains in serious condition.

Another illegal alien, Angel Santizo, 20, who was babysitting the girl at time of the rape, has been charged with of permitting serious bodily injury on a child while being a caretaker.

Sgt. Delaney said: “He was the caretaker of this child while somebody else there raped her.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a hold on Santizo, who is also from Guatemala.

Mazariegos (aka Edy Gonzales), is described as 5 feet, 3 inches tall with a stocky build. He is driving a blue Dodge Durango with two white racing stripes on the hood and roof, with a South Carolina license plate of FSX-544.

Mazariegos is employed as a farm worker in Connecticut. He is known to have ties in West Palm Beach, FL, as well as in Massachusetts.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mazariegos is asked to call the police Special Victims Unit at (413) 787-6352.

A pair of illegal immigrants raped a 14-year-old Texas girl at July 4th party in Texas, where the teen was later found sitting naked in a bathtub, police said.

The victim told police that she went to an Independence Day party with her cousin in Horseshoe Bay, Tex., about 40 miles northwest of Austin, where she was left in a room with Anibal Escobar, 19, and Anael Martinez, 22, MyFoxAustin reported.

The two Honduran natives, who told police they are in the U.S. illegally, made advances at the victim and then raped her, she told police. The victim’s cousin discovered her in the bathtub and brought her home.

Escobar and Martinez were arrested early in the morning on July 9 and face felony charges of aggravated sexual assault, MyFoxAustin reported. Local investigators contacted Texas Rangers to assist in their investigation and translate, as none of the witnesses at the party or the suspects spoke English.

A 27-year-old man who police say assaulted five women in his car in the past two months was arrested Tuesday night during a traffic stop in the western Las Vegas Valley. Police said a “Beauty and the Beast” sticker on his car that was described by the alleged victims helped them nab the man.

Antonio Farias was booked into the Clark County Detention Center in connection with two counts of attempted sexual assault and two counts of first-degree kidnapping tied to five sexual assaults, the first of which allegedly occurred May 9.

Police said Farias approached women at bus stops in the area of Flamingo Road and Arville Street. Some of the women got into his car voluntarily and others were threatened and forced inside, authorities said.

He appeared friendly to gain their trust and would drive them to different areas in western and northern parts of the valley to sexually assault them, police said.

Police Lt. Christopher Carroll said at a news conference Thursday that officers were able to link Farias to the assaults during a traffic stop at Valley View Boulevard and Viking Road on Tuesday night. He said officers stopped the vehicle and noticed a “Beauty and the Beast” Disney sticker on the car's dashboard, which some of the alleged sexual assault victims had described.

Carroll said Farias also matched descriptions given by victims. He said Farias is currently facing charges in four cases, but additional charges are possible.

“In our discussions with him, we’re more confident that other people are out there,” Carroll said...

“This city is too much,” said the Cardinal Primate of Argentina, Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, who denounced the South American republic’s capital city as a “meat grinder that destroys the lives of these people and breaks their dignity.”

Moreover, said the prelate during a Sunday July 11 homily in the Constitucion neighborhood of Buenos Aires, there are “mafias” that have turned the city into a “slave workshop” dedicated to “human trafficking.” He reflected on the mafias as criminal organizations that “corrupt and destroy, including with drugs, and later throw people to the side of the road.” The mafias control “dens of slavery” that operate openly, having bribed the police and other authorities in one of the largest cities of the Americas.

“Please,” said the clergyman to his listeners, “let us not wash our hands, since otherwise we become accomplices in slavery!”

In May 2010, Nancy Miño, a Paraguayan woman who worked with Argentina’s Federal Police corps, provided testimony that the police in charge of controlling human trafficking and vice were receiving payoffs from the owners of brothels. Prostitution is legal in Argentina, for the most part. However, pimping and the profiting from prostitution is illegal and ostensibly controlled. For its part, the Federal Police has denied Miño’s claims and says that she is currently on medical leave for the treatment of a mental disorder.

Martin Barillas is a former U.S .diplomat, who also worked as a democracy advocate and election observer in Latin America.

La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), recibió una demanda contra el Estado peruano, interpuesta por la negación del acceso a la justicia para mujeres víctimas de esterilizaciones forzadas, durante el gobierno de Alberto Fujimori.

La organización feminista “Estudio para la Defensa y los Derechos de la Mujer” (Demus), informó en un comunicado que el 11 de junio pasado, presentó la demanda ante la CIDH, con dos casos de esterilización forzada, calificados como emblemáticos, porque revelan lo ocurrido a más de 200 mil peruanas, en su mayoría pobres de zonas rurales y urbano marginales en los años 90.

Información proporcionada a Cimacnoticias por Mariela Jara, integrante de la organización peruana, precisó que lejos de que el gobierno hiciera justicia y reparara los daños ocasionados a las mujeres, dejó impune el delito, que se considera de lesa humanidad.

Una investigación presentada en 2002, por organizaciones defensoras de los derechos humanos de las mujeres en el país revela que entre 1996 y 2000, se realizaron 215 mil 227 ligaduras de trompas y 16 mil vasectomías.

Diana Portal, abogada del caso señaló que acudieron al sistema regional de protección de derechos humanos, ya que ante la instancia nacional, se agotaron los recursos para obtener justicia.

“Es fundamental que el Estado peruano reconozca su responsabilidad internacional, al haber violado de manera sistemática y generalizada los derechos reproductivos de miles de mujeres peruanas, que termine la impunidad, y que las víctimas reciban una reparación integral por los daños irreversibles sufridos”.

Los casos presentados ante la CIDH son el de una mujer que murió en julio de 1997, a consecuencia de la operación realizada en el hospital de Piura, a donde llegó tras el incesante acoso del personal de salud.

Así como el de una mujer migrante andina quechuahablante de la zona periférica del distrito La Molina, que fue convencida de practicarse una ligadura de trompas a la que finalmente se negó al observar el abundante sangrado en otra paciente. Fue entonces llevada a la fuerza a la sala de operaciones del hospital Hipólito Unanue y amarrada para proceder con la intervención...

Peru denies justice to [hundreds of thousands of indigenous] victims of forced sterilization

The Inter American Human Rights Commission has received two cases that are emblematic of the abuses faced by women under the rule of former president Alberto Fujimori...

El presidente de la Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, llamó a todos los sectores sociales y a los tres niveles de gobierno a conjuntar esfuerzos para combatir y castigar la trata de personas.

El ombudsman nacional denunció que la falta de armonización legislativa en el sistema jurídico mexicano amplía la brecha de impunidad y dificulta la acción coordinada de las autoridades encargadas de la seguridad pública y la procuración de justicia.

Otro obstáculo para combatir ese flagelo, que alcanza proporciones alarmantes en algunas partes del país, es la carencia de instrumentos y políticas públicas para dar protección y asistencia adecuada a las víctimas.

Ello debido a que la reparación del daño a que tienen derecho las personas afectadas no llega, porque no resulta fácil denunciar al tratante, ni luchar contra las inercias legales, dijo.

De acuerdo con un comunicado del organismo, Plascencia Villanueva destacó, durante la instalación del Comité Regional contra la Trata de Personas Zona Occidente (Colima, Jalisco y Nayarit), que la erradicación de ese delito plantea muchos retos y sólo en un marco de colaboración se podrá avanzar en el tema...

Human Rights Ombudsman Calls for More Effective Legislation to Combat Human Trafficking

Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, president of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, has called upon all sectors of society and government to join forces to improve the nation's efforts to fight human trafficking. Plascencia Villanueva denounced the lack of synchronization between various state laws, stating that the lack of a homogenous legal framework nationwide is leaving the door open for impunity, buy, for example, making the coordination of interstate law enforcement efforts exceedingly difficult [states jurisdiction predominates over federal law in the case of the current national anti-trafficking law].

An additional obstacle to effective efforts to halt human slavery, which is reaching alarming proportions, is the lack of adequate services provided to victims...

Springfield – Investigators continue to search for a man suspected of raping and assaulting a 4-year-old girl on Saturday.

Although detectives with Special Crimes Unit initially charged Angel Santizo, 20, of 693 Carew St., with the rape, they now believe that a second man was responsible, Sgt. John M. Delaney said.

“He was the caretaker of this child while somebody else there raped her,” Sgt. John M. Delaney said of Santizo. “We are looking for the guy that did.”

Santizo’s charges have been amended to permitting serious bodily injury on a child while being a caretaker, Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, said.

The U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs has also put a detention order on Santizo, who is from Guatemala, police said.

Delaney said the girl, who required surgery, remains at Baystate Medical Center.

Police have to release any information regarding the second suspect.

El paso, Texas - Detectives say a man wanted for the rape of a child has been deported to Mexico after being arrested in Phoenix, according to ABC-15 in Phoenix.

Miguel Manuel Hernandez-Beltran, 29, was arrested in Phoenix last month and deported to Mexico on June 28. He allegedly molested his 7-year old nephew approximately fifteen times in 2005 in Juarez, according to the US Marshals Office.

Shortly after law Mexican law enforcement became aware of the alleged molestation, authorities believe Hernandez-Beltran entered the United States illegally near El Paso and eventually traveled to Phoenix.

"Persons wanted for crimes in Mexico cannot find a safe haven in the United States," United States Marshal David Gonzales said in the ABC-15 report. "The United States Marshals Service places a high priority on arresting those accused of sex crimes, particularly cases involving children. By two federal agencies working together, an accused child predator was arrested which now allows him to face justice."

Lebanon - A Texas man in jail with a $1 million bond was indicted on rape charges.

The Warren County grand jury on Friday, July 2, returned indictments for rape, attempted rape and abduction against Armando Bautista Hernandez, 27, of Houston, Texas.

Hernandez is accused of raping a 16-year-old female at the Red Roof Inn in Deerfield Twp. on June 4.

The prosecutor’s office also asked the grand jurors to consider kidnapping charges, but they returned a “no bill” verdict, meaning they didn’t think there was sufficient evidence to prove the charge. Kidnapping is a first-degree felony, abduction is a third-degree felony.

Hernandez’s attorney Tim McKenna asked for a lower bond, saying the high bond would be appropriate if he stood charged with a special felony or murder. He said his client has a family back in Texas and he was here working on a water tower project.

If found guilty on all charges, Hernandez faces 46 years in prison. Because there is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement holder on Hernandez, Assistant Prosecutor Matt Nolan said it is likely he would be deported following legal proceedings or if he is convicted and serves time in prison..