aussiegran
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2005
- Messages
- 979
- Reaction score
- 42
A former counselor at a Madison group home, already facing 85 felony charges related to videotaped sexual encounters with boys as young as 14, was charged Thursday with another batch of felonies, including having sex with teenage group home residents.
The encounters involving Gregory A. Ledbetter, 38, of Madison, were discovered as police reviewed videotapes taken during a search of Ledbetter's apartment in October. The new charges are reminiscent of those Ledbetter faced while he was a group home counselor in Lafayette, Ind., in 1996, which ultimately were dismissed after the alleged victims recanted.
The latest criminal complaint, filed in Dane County Circuit Court, charges Ledbetter with three counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child, one count of second- degree sexual assault of a mentally ill victim, two counts of child enticement and one count of sexual exploitation of a child.
Bail on the new charges bail was set at $35,000, added to the $44,000 bail for the 85 felonies Ledbetter was already facing. He now faces up to 1,529 years in prison if convicted on all charges against him.
A plea hearing on the 85 felonies is scheduled for April 17. Ledbetter faces a preliminary hearing on the new charges on March 2.
According to the prior criminal complaints, Ledbetter videotaped sexual encounters with teenage boys and then meticulously labeled the tapes with the names and ages of the boys and the date of the encounter. According to the latest charges, the pattern is the same, and using the videotapes police were able to find the boys who were in the videos.
Four of the latest victims were residents of the group home, which is not being identified in this story to protect the identity of the victims. Two of the boys were not residents, while the seventh victim was a 24-year-old man who has a diminished mental capacity due to a head injury he suffered as a boy.
According to the criminal complaint filed Thursday:
The encounters with the boys, who were 14 to 17, occurred from 1999 to 2001 at various apartments Ledbetter occupied and at the group home. Along with sex, Ledbetter plied the boys with alcohol, marijuana and *advertiser censored*, let them play video games at his apartment and showed some of them his .45 caliber handgun. One of the boys told police he was not aware Ledbetter was videotaping them.
"I was a (expletive) kid, it was not my idea," he told Detectives Dorothy Doheny and Rosa Aguilu.
More recently, Ledbetter worked at a Madison hobby shop, and also in the photo department of a Walgreen Drug Store.
The group home where Ledbetter worked has been the subject of nine complaints since it was first licensed in 1998, said Stephanie Marquis, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Family Services, which regulates group homes.
Nobody from the group home could be reached for comment Thursday.
Group homes are required to do background checks on employees, Marquis said, including past criminal behavior and substantiated reports of abuse.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=73923&ntpid=4
................................................
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: Unfrickenbelievable
The encounters involving Gregory A. Ledbetter, 38, of Madison, were discovered as police reviewed videotapes taken during a search of Ledbetter's apartment in October. The new charges are reminiscent of those Ledbetter faced while he was a group home counselor in Lafayette, Ind., in 1996, which ultimately were dismissed after the alleged victims recanted.
The latest criminal complaint, filed in Dane County Circuit Court, charges Ledbetter with three counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child, one count of second- degree sexual assault of a mentally ill victim, two counts of child enticement and one count of sexual exploitation of a child.
Bail on the new charges bail was set at $35,000, added to the $44,000 bail for the 85 felonies Ledbetter was already facing. He now faces up to 1,529 years in prison if convicted on all charges against him.
A plea hearing on the 85 felonies is scheduled for April 17. Ledbetter faces a preliminary hearing on the new charges on March 2.
According to the prior criminal complaints, Ledbetter videotaped sexual encounters with teenage boys and then meticulously labeled the tapes with the names and ages of the boys and the date of the encounter. According to the latest charges, the pattern is the same, and using the videotapes police were able to find the boys who were in the videos.
Four of the latest victims were residents of the group home, which is not being identified in this story to protect the identity of the victims. Two of the boys were not residents, while the seventh victim was a 24-year-old man who has a diminished mental capacity due to a head injury he suffered as a boy.
According to the criminal complaint filed Thursday:
The encounters with the boys, who were 14 to 17, occurred from 1999 to 2001 at various apartments Ledbetter occupied and at the group home. Along with sex, Ledbetter plied the boys with alcohol, marijuana and *advertiser censored*, let them play video games at his apartment and showed some of them his .45 caliber handgun. One of the boys told police he was not aware Ledbetter was videotaping them.
"I was a (expletive) kid, it was not my idea," he told Detectives Dorothy Doheny and Rosa Aguilu.
More recently, Ledbetter worked at a Madison hobby shop, and also in the photo department of a Walgreen Drug Store.
The group home where Ledbetter worked has been the subject of nine complaints since it was first licensed in 1998, said Stephanie Marquis, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Family Services, which regulates group homes.
Nobody from the group home could be reached for comment Thursday.
Group homes are required to do background checks on employees, Marquis said, including past criminal behavior and substantiated reports of abuse.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=73923&ntpid=4
................................................
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: Unfrickenbelievable
