In addition to child-porn possession allegations, the tutor is charged with inducing the girl to send him nude photos-an alleged crime called "performance by child," according to court documents. "It's someone who was placed in a position to do a job and that job did not include developing inappropriate relationships with students that were in his care." "We entrust our educators with the care of all children, and that includes 17-year-olds," Assistant District Attorney Patrick Stanton told the Houston Chronicle. According to court records (PDF), the tutor gave police his phone and unlocked it for them, and nude images of the girl were allegedly recovered. The Somerdale, N.J., woman whose adoption agency placed her with Mancuso told the Congressional panel that in-home checks were then voluntary on Mancuso's part.Ĭlick here for more news from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.Leiva posted $20,000 bond last week, and a local judge issued a no-contact order between the girl and the tutor. He also faces a state sentence for child rape and incest when he leaves federal prison.Īccording to the 2006 Congressional hearing, a social worker sent Russian officials a report after the adoption describing Mancuso's home as warm and loving, all based on a phone interview. Mancuso, who lived in Plum, is serving a 15-year federal sentence for child pornography.
He then repeatedly raped and sexually abused Masha on camera, sometimes during trips to Disney World. Mancuso, an engineer in his mid-40s, had sought to adopt a girl between the ages of 4 and 6, explaining that he wanted to make up for his strained relationship with his teenage daughter, according to the Congressional hearing transcript. "You can imagine the kind of experiences that she's been through leaves some scars,'' he said. He declined to discuss how his client is doing or whether she is in school or working. Some of those cases have ended with judgments, but Moore did not know if any victims have been able to collect.
Some of them are policemen, firefighters.''Ībout a dozen lawsuits have been filed under the 2006 law, but Moore is the first to seek class-action certification, so that his client does not have to endure serial litigation. "If you get down into the court files, and start reading about the images that these people were downloading and viewing for their pleasure, it's frightening and depressing,'' said Leighton Moore, an Atlanta lawyer who represents the young woman. She is notified each time the list grows. More than 2,300 people have been indicted by the Justice Department for viewing Masha's images alone. On any given day, that could include the man standing behind her in line at the grocery store, the lawsuit said. continue to take sadistic pleasure in viewing and distributing graphic visual depiction of her pain and degradation,'' the lawsuit said. "Scarred by years of brutal exploitation, she must now also bear the humiliating knowledge that untold numbers of men. The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported on the lawsuit Tuesday. They come from towns across the U.S., including Stonington, Conn. All of the named defendants are in prison for exploiting her. Her class-action lawsuit, filed Friday in Philadelphia under the name Jane Doe, targets doctors and other professionals like Mancuso who have assets that could be seized.