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Posted by: kwflatbed

Trial of former selectman to start



Dodgson

By TAMARA RACE
The Patriot Ledger

PLYMOUTH - Former Selectman Sean Dodgson has waited more than two years for his day in court, and today he was to get it.

Dodgson, 47, of 26 River St. was one of more than 20 men caught in an Internet sting aimed at child-sex predators.

He is charged with soliciting sex from undercover detectives posing as girls 13 and 14.

Police say Dodgson, a West Point graduate and retired Army captain, sent the ‘‘girls’’ a picture of a penis, engaged both in sexually charged online conversations and arranged to meet both for a three-way sexual encounter.

Dodgson has maintained his innocence, saying he knew he was talking to police and was just making sure they were protecting minors from predators.

He is the first to take a case to a jury trial. Others caught in the sting have pleaded guilty. Most have been sentenced to probation, a few received suspended jail sentences and one served one year of a 2½-year sentence.

Early on, Dodgson said the truth would exonerate him at trial.

His attorney, Jack Atwood, said Dodgson would probably testify during the Brockton Superior Court trial, which is expected to last two or three days.

Atwood said the trial might be delayed due to a full court schedule.

The criminal charges forced Dodgson to resign from the board, although he did not go willingly.

He stayed on for several months after being charged until a group of residents gathered signatures to recall him.

He resigned in November 2006.
Dodgson is free on $15,000 bail, but he did spend several weeks in jail after being charged with violating the terms of his initial release by cooking hamburgers at a waterfront festival last year.

Judge Thomas Brownell ruled that the activity violated his order that Dodgson have no contact with minors younger than 18 except his own children.

http://ledger.southofboston.com/arti...ews/news06.txt

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Posted by: Irish Wampanoag

What is with that soutshore region. In the last 15 years there have been at least a half dozen selectmen arrested or charge with sex crimes against children.

Remember Meinholtz he was a Kingston selectmen as well as a minister

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Posted by: Jeepy

Here's an update on this scumbag and how he tried to b.s. his way out of the charges. What a nutjob:

Quote:

Dodgson: Sex Talk Was a Ruse By Tamara Race, Gatehouse news Service BROCKTON — The hours of graphic sex talk were all a ruse to fool police and test Yahoo's Internet monitoring system, Sean Dodgson told jurors Tuesday, taking the stand in his own defense. Dodgson, 47, of 26 River St., Plymouth, is charged with attempting to lure minors into sexual acts and disseminating harmful material to minors over the Internet. He vehemently maintained his innocence, saying he never intended to have sex with children. Dodgson said he used an adult dating Web site to research a technical computer problem because of the large numbers of ''live'' people available at the site. At the time, W.B. Mason in Brockton was paying him $75 per hour as a computer consultant to solve a networking problem. Dodgson began chatting with a 13-year-old girl from Kingston and quickly steered the conversation to sex, but said he knew it was a police officer because teens were not allowed on the adult Web site. At that point, he said he launched his own investigation to test the effectiveness of Yahoo's monitoring system and to determine if police were doing a good job protecting children. The explicit sexual conversations with two detectives posing as 13-year-old girls included detailed descriptions of sexual acts, such as masturbation, oral sex and group sex. Dodgson said it was all intentional as he tried to convince police he was interested in sex with the girls. He said he sent one of them a picture of a penis to test Yahoo's monitoring system. Dodgson said his fake name, Rich Davis, and screen name “big9rich,” were used to shield his identity from police so he could continue his own investigation. Dodgson, a former Plymouth selectman, feared police might recognize his real name. He said the flaws and inconsistencies in the “girls” characters might have tipped off a real sexual predator and said he wanted to alert police to weaknesses in their undercover operation. As the father of two teenaged girls, he felt obligated to investigate the police operation and report back on its deficiencies, Dodgson testified. He arranged to meet both girls for sex, but lied about his age and the car he would be driving to shield him from police. “I wanted to observe a sting operation,” Dodgson told the jury. By going in a different car, he could observe the sting undetected, Dodgson said. If he were really interested in meeting the girls for sex, he would not have used a fake name and vehicle, he said. Dodgson said he had intended to identify himself to police at the sting and end the operation, but changed his mind, fearing they would dismiss his concerns. He decided to write a report and take it to police supervisors. Instead, police eventually discovered his identity and arrested him for attempted child sex solicitation. Jurors today will hear from at least one character witness to establish Dodgson's reputation in the community. Assistant District Attorney Mark Dunderdale and defense attorney Jack Atwood will then make their closing statements before jurors begin their deliberations. Tamara Race may be reached at trace@ledger.com. http://enterprise.southofboston.com/...ews/news14.txt

The happy ending to this story was reported just late Thursday:

Quote:

Breaking News: Dodgson Guilty on Six Counts, Sentenced to 3 to 5 Years Brockton - Plymouth resident Sean Dodgson has been found guilty Thursday afternoon of two counts of enticing a child, three counts of attempted dissemination of harmful material to a minor, and disseminating obscene material. The former selectman was found not guilty on two counts each of attempted rape of a child and attempted indecent assault and battery. The jury in Dodgson’s trial deliberated Wednesday afternoon and about six hours Thursday. Dodgson received a sentence of three to five years at Cedar Junction state prison. After his release he will be on 10 years of probation with four special provisions: That he have no contact with children under 16 other than his own; That he undergo sex offender evaluation and treatment; That he have no employment with children under 16; That he have no access directly or indirectly to the Internet. Defense attorney Jack Atwood asked that Dodgson be placed on probation with a monitoring bracelet. That will be a part of his probation after serving his sentence. He will be given credit for time already served. Dodgson showed no reaction to the verdicts and sentence. He was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs and leg irons. He can appeal both sentence and verdicts. http://www.townonline.com/kingston/homepage/x1429056756

Well the good news is he'll have three to five years to disseminate his obscene material all he wants. Better still is that he'll have three to five years to be on the "receiving end" while other inmates disseminate their obscene materials.

Good riddance.

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Posted by: 94c

his defense would have worked if he showed up to court in an unmarked Crown Vic, wearing a security jacket and police baseball cap.

He could have claimed the whacker defense...

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Posted by: Jeepy

Quote:

Originally Posted by 94c his defense would have worked if he showed up to court in an unmarked Crown Vic, wearing a security jacket and police baseball cap. He could have claimed the whacker defense...

Wearing a scanner clipped to his belt would help, too. Yeah, I'd believe him then.

May he rot in jail.

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Posted by: csauce777

Quote:

Dodgson said he used an adult dating Web site to research a technical computer problem because of the large numbers of ''live'' people available at the site.

Let me get this straight Mr. Ex-selectman, Current pedophile/Inmate, you were only using the adult sex website because it allowed you to talk to live people while you worked on a technical problem at WB Mason??? LOL...there were no better bullshit answers than that?? Idiot...

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Posted by: Irish Wampanoag

Kingston, MA where the men roam and the teenagers run scared even from the Kingston cops

Must be the nuclear fall out from the PLYMOUTH PLANT


Yesterday's news was disturbing: Selectman Richard P. Cretinon allegedly raped a 14-year-old boy on Sept. 24 at a Plymouth beach, capping a year of Internet chat between the boy and the 53-year-old selectman about being gay and coming out of the closet.
Some residents who remember the four Kingston police officers -- two of them former police chiefs -- who were accused of sexually abusing teenagers in the 1980s and 1990s said they'd heard the same troubling tale too many times before.
"Unfortunately, it should be unusual, but it's alarmingly usual here," said Daniel Sapir, a 32-year Kingston resident and editor of the local newspaper.
Cretinon is well known around Kingston, a coastal town 32 miles southeast of Boston that counts fishermen and cranberry growers among its 11,000 residents. Active in town politics since the 1970s, Cretinon, a sign-maker, has been a selectman since 1999.
But it wasn't just Cretinon's public service that made him known around town. Last year, Cretinon made news when he bought and moved the former rectory of St. Joseph's Church across town to his own property, where it now serves as his house.
The century-old rectory had been home to Monsignor Frederick J. Ryan, who resigned as pastor of St. Joseph Parish last year after two men accused him of sexually abusing them as teenagers at West Roxbury's Catholic Memorial High School in the 1970s.
Cretinon also turned heads in July when he walked into Town Hall with no shirt on, according to The Kingston Observer, Sapir's monthly newspaper.
Still, those events paled in comparison to the buzz generated by Cretinon's arrest and arraignment in Plymouth District Court yesterday, where he pleaded not guilty to two counts of forcible child rape and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child over 14 years.
"It's been the talk of the town," said a waitress at Daddy-O's diner, where Cretinon takes his breakfast every day of eggs and toast with a Coke, no coffee.
For Kingston residents, Cretinon's arrest struck a painful, familiar chord. In the last 14 years, four Kingston police officers have been accused -- two convicted -- of sexually abusing teenagers.
In 1994, former police chief Alan Ballinger, 47, was sentenced to three life terms in prison after he was convicted of raping two teenage friends of his daughter.
In 1993, police officer Robert Sarson, 28, was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison for raping a 15-year-old girl. The victim was an overnight guest of Sarson's stepdaughter;she had been drinking in a hot tub with him before he raped her.
In 1993, Sergeant James Schilling, 41, was placed on paid administrative leave during an investigation of claims that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl. He was cleared of the charges and reinstated.
In 1989, former police chief Kenneth Cram was accused by his stepdaughter of sexually abusing her. Cram died after the accusations were leveled and was never indicted.
Olavo DeMacedo, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said there was no common thread linking the series of sexual assaults by public officials in his town.
"It's not indicative of anything in Kingston," he said. "People are people, these things happen in every community."
DeMacedo said he wasn't sure if Cretinon would be removed from office, but said he plans to speak with the town's attorney about how to proceed.
At Cretinon's arraignment yesterday, prosecutors said he and the teen had communicated in an America Online chat room called "men and older men" for about a year before meeting at a beach in Plymouth around 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 24.
The boy's mother and her boyfriend said they found the boy on a beach path looking "somewhat disheveled,' with Cretinon hiding in nearby bushes. Plymouth Assistant District Attorney Christopher Murray said the boy's mother spoke to Cretinon, who told her, "I'm sorry. I did not realize that he was 14 years old."
Murray said the boy had met Cretinon and the older man pulled down his pants and then orally and anally raped him. The teen was examined at a local hospital where medical evidence was found to support his claim, Murray said.
Plymouth police seized two computers from Cretinon, one inside his residence and a second one in a backyard shed covered with trash bags, Murray said.
Cretinon's defense attorney, Robert J. Galibois II, said the teen's encounter with Cretinon was not the first time he had been with an older man. He said the teen told Plymouth police "he sought the companionship of older men on a number of occasions," and he said the teen was not "lured" into meeting with Cretinon.
Cretinon wore a bulletproof vest into the courthouse yesterday. Fearing for his safety, court officials did not bring him into the building until all other detainees had their day in court and had been removed from the building. His bail was set at $10,000 cash.
He was also ordered to stay away from the victim and to have no contact with children under the age of 16. He will also be required to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet. He is due back in court on Oct. 22.
Jim Farrell, who owns a public relations company and has lived in Kingston for 25 years, said despite the news stories about the town's public officials, Kingston is a typical South Shore town. "Unfortunately, it's had its share of bad publicity," he said.

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