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Sex offender gets 8 years
By: Matthew Renda, Staff Reporter
01/24/2008
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Dutchess County Court Judge Thomas J. Dolan sentenced Staatsburg resident Kevin Millsaps, 23, to eight years in a state penitentiary for sexually abusing an 11-year-old Amenia girl he met on the Internet.

The sentencing brings the ongoing case to conclusion, after a prolonged trial resulted in Millsaps pleading guilty on Dec. 19 to one felony count of engaging in a criminal sex act. The crime carried a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Millsaps was originally arrested and charged with 11 counts pertaining to the crime, but agreed to plead guilty to the one felony count in exchange for a promise from the court that he would serve no more than eight years in jail.

The case stems from an incident in January 2007, when Millsaps allegedly contacted two underage girls via the Web site MySpace.com, an Internet networking site popular with teenagers. After arranging to pick them up at Cumberland Farms, a convenience store in Amenia, Millsaps allegedly conveyed the two underage girls to the Rhinebeck residence of his friend, Joshua Bauer, 23.

After arriving at Bauer's apartment, Millsaps engaged in oral sex with one of the girls, according to authorities. A missing persons report was filed by the parents of the missing girls and the Dutchess County Sheriff's Department detained Millsaps after picking him up in Wassiac approximately 24 hours after the report was submitted.

Earlier this year, Joshua Bauer, 23, a friend of Millsaps, plead guilty to a reduced count of criminal facilitation. The crime carries a maximum of five months in jail and five years probation. Bauer admitted that he allowed Millsaps the use of his residence for the crime, and further dared one of the girls to perform sex acts on Millsaps.

Bauer is yet to be sentenced.

By pleading guilty, Millsaps forfeited his right to appeal.



MySpace reaches deal in 49 states

In an effort to prevent sexual predators from perpetrating crimes on underage MySpace.com users, the Internet company, a division of Fox Interactive Media Inc., has recently reached a deal with 49 states that calls for more aggressive oversight of the Web site by law enforcement.

As part of the agreement, the Web site's creators pledged to enhance their review process and to review every photo or video that is uploaded to their site.

Furthermore, Myspace.com will explore the establishment of a registry for children under the age of 18, and will step up efforts to educate parents, teachers, and community activists about how they can help avoid exposing their children to dangerous individuals.

The Internet site has further pledged to cooperate more fully with law enforcement and has created a 24-hour hotline.

Finally, the site has promised to contribute toward the creation of an online safety task force, which will initially concentrate on identification authenticity technology, which will help site managers to quickly identify those using their site.

Texas was the only state to abstain from the agreement.


©Harlem Valley Times 2010


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