'70s Musician Faces New Sex Charges

(CNN) -- A musician who played in the 1970s pop music group KC & the Sunshine Band will be in court Friday to face an indictment on 16 sex charges involving "multiple male juveniles," an Ohio prosecutor said.

Richard Finch was arrested last month in Licking County, Ohio, after a 17-year-old boy said he had sexual contact with him. Investigators said they were looking into other possible victims.

A grand jury indictment this month charges Finch with 10 counts of sexual imposition. Assistant prosecutor Tracy Van Winkle said the charges involve having sex with someone when it is harmful to them.

Finch also faces three counts of compelling prostitution involving offering money to minors for sex, Van Winkle said. Two counts involve asking a minor to engage in sex, and one count is a charge of sexual contact with a minor, she said.

A teenager said he had sexual contact with Finch at Finch's house in Newark, Ohio, the Licking County Sheriff's Office said in a statement after the arrest.

During an interview with detectives, Finch "disclosed that he did in fact have sexual contact with the juvenile, along with multiple other male teenage juveniles as well ranging from ages 13 to 17," the office said.

A pretrial hearing will be held Friday. Finch is in the Licking County jail; no trial date has been set, she said.

A statement from Finch and his lawyer was posted on his website soon after his arrest: "They would like to remind everyone that these are just allegations and that Mr. Finch is presumed innocent."

A more recent posting asking fans to donate to his legal defense fund said Finch had to cancel his plans for "an impending tour" and "a catastrophic economic hardship has taken their place."

"Those revenue generating possibilities are now gone, and as of this time, Mr. Finch's attorneys are in the early stages of their investigation," it said.

Finch played bass and drums with KC & the Sunshine Band. The group is known for hits such as "That's the Way (I Like It)," "Get Down Tonight" and "I'm Your Boogie Man." He co-wrote many of the band's biggest hits with Harry Wayne "KC" Casey. He left the band in 1980.

Casey disputed that Finch co-founded the band, saying that he started it in 1973 and Finch joined a year later. However, singles from the band's first album, "Do It Good," were released in 1973 and feature Finch.

Horribly Sad..

Quarter of men in South Africa admit rape, survey finds

One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.

Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.

South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.

The study into rape and HIV, by the country's Medical Research Council (MRC), asked men to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device to guarantee anonymity. The method appears to have produced some unusually frank responses.

Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: "We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."

Jewkes and her colleagues interviewed a representative sample of 1,738 men in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.

The study, which had British funding, also found that men who are physically violent towards women are twice as likely to be HIV-positive. They are also more likely to pay for sex and to not use condoms.

Any woman raped by a man over the age of 25 has a one in four chance of her attacker being HIV-positive.

One in 10 men said they had been forced to have sex with another man. Many find it difficult to report such attacks to the police in subcultures where the concept of homosexuality is taboo.

South Africa's government has been repeatedly criticised for failing to address the crisis. Only 7% of reported rapes are estimated to lead to a conviction. Jewkes said: "There's been a lot of concern about the way the criminal justice system works, because it's still woeful."

Before his election as president, Jacob Zuma stood trial for the rape of a family friend. His supporters demonstrated at the court house, verbally attacked his accuser and sang "burn the bitch, burn the bitch". Zuma was eventually acquitted.

Jewkes added: "The social space for debating these gender issues is now smaller than it was a few years ago. We need our government to show political leadership in changing attitudes. We need South African men, from the top to the grassroots, to take responsibility."

Anti-rape campaigners said the shocking figures demonstrated the need for reform. Dean Peacock, co-director of the Sonke Gender Justice project, said: "We need to make sure the criminal justice system is held to account. We have lots of discussion in this country, but not enough action is taken to ensure that perpetrators will face consequences."

Zuma, a polygamist, was criticised for emphasising his Zulu tribal identity and singing militant songs during this year's election campaign. He made comments that outraged anti-Aids and gender campaigners.

Peacock added: "We're at a complicated moment in South African history with revived traditionalism and there's a danger of gender transformation being lost.

"We hear men saying, 'If Jacob Zuma can have many wives, I can have many girlfriends.' The hyper-masculine rhetoric of the Zuma campaign is going to set back our work in challenging the old model of masculinity."

Carrie Shelver, an activist with People Opposing Women Abuse, said: "Generally there's a deficit of understanding and commitment to women's rights by the leadership of this country. It's simply not on people's agenda."

A report published by the trade union Solidarity earlier this month said that one child is raped in South Africa every three minutes, with 88% of rapes going unreported. It found that levels of child abuse in South Africa are increasing rapidly.

Teacher Sentenced for Sex With Students

(June 4) - A former music teacher in Michigan accused of having sex with two students was sentenced to nine months in jail on Wednesday.

Police say 42-year-old Ranee Proper had sex with boys ages 16 and 17. She was originally charged with five counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a student.

In a deal with prosecutors, Proper pleaded guilty last month to second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

On Wednesday, Oakland County Circuit Judge Edward Sosnick sentenced her to five years' probation. She will spend the first nine months of the sentence in jail.

Proper was also ordered to undergo sex offender treatment and not to have unsupervised contact with minors other than relatives.

Proper started working at the school in 2004 and resigned last June during an investigation.

Teens Charged As Adults in Locker Room Sexual Assault Case

(CNN) -- Four teenage boys in Tampa, Florida, were charged as adults Wednesday on allegations of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

Charged with four counts each of sexual battery were Randall John Moye, 14; Raymond A. Price-Murray, 14; Lee Louis Myers, 14; and Diamante J. Roberts, 15. CNN is naming the defendants because they were charged as adults.

Hillsborough County prosecutors allege the four boys raped the 13-year-old victim multiple times over two months with a broomstick and hockey stick.

At a bond and arraignment hearing, the defendants appeared before Hillsborough County Judge Wayne Timmerman to hear the counts against them read in court.

Prosecutor Kimberly Hindman described to the court how two defendants held down the victim while the other two defendants violently sodomized him with the sticks. "The victim screamed and cried, telling them to stop," Hindman said.

The prosecutor said the victim's screams could be heard outside the boys' locker room at Walker Middle School, in southern Tampa, where the alleged assaults took place.

Multiple people witnessed the attacks, but no one reported the incidents, including the victim, Hindman said.

The school began an investigation after a fight that began on the football field and continued until a coach broke it up in the locker room, said the prosecutor. During the fight, the victim said, "I'm tired of them getting on me," Hindman said.

When school officials questioned the defendants, all four admitted in a written statement that they had sexually assaulted the victim.

The defendants "all implicated themselves in a sexual-battery incident," Hindman said.

The victim did not acknowledge the attacks until questioned. School officials contacted authorities, who initially charged the four as minors with sexual assault and false imprisonment.

Several students witnessed the incidents over the two months, said the prosecutor, who added that she could not understand why no one reported the attacks.

The victim made a statement in court, telling the judge how his father was angry and his mother couldn't stop crying when they heard about the attacks.

Defense attorneys told the judge their clients were good students and had never been in trouble before. Attorney Tim Taylor, representing Randall Moye, said his client's family is among the finest in the community.

Taylor presented six character witnesses, including his client's mother, Jeanne Myers, who said her son wants to attend college. The prosecutor asked her about her son's written statement about the attacks. Myers said her son described clowning around in the locker room with a hockey stick. She added that he told her about holding down the victim for a few seconds.

The victim finished the academic year at home instead of returning to school, authorities said.

The judge set bond for each defendant at $15,000, with ankle monitors for all but one, who has left the area. The four boys were taken into custody in court and booked into the adult jail. The judge warned the four to have no contact with one another, the victim or any witnesses in the case.

The defendants could spend up to 120 years in prison if convicted on all four counts.

Police: Man Found Shot to Death Had Sexual Past with Young Girl

More details are being released about the man found dead in Palmer Park Monday. Police say Jon Hazard was facing sexual assault charges and was set to go to trial next week. 11 News has obtained the court affidavit, which details Hazard's alleged sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.

According to the arrest affidavit, a warrant was issued for 43-year-old Hazard after the girl claimed in the summer of 2008 that she had sexual contact with him several times since 2006.

Investigators say the young girl met Hazard back in 2006 when she was friends with his 13 and 10-year-old sons. The affidavit states Hazard made some tapes of the girl and used them to blackmail her into doing other sexual acts.

The girl also claims she met up with Hazard at a hotel in Colorado Springs a few times. After an investigation, Hazard admitted to taking and receiving nude pictures of the girl. When Hazard moved to Grand Junction, she also allegedly visited him there for extended periods of time.

Police have not said whether Hazard's murder had anything to do with the sex assault case.

Hazard's body was found by a park maintenance worker on a trail, near the Marvin J. Urban picnic pavilion in Palmer Park Monday. An autopsy by the El Paso County Coroners Office says Hazard died from multiple gunshot wounds. The manner of death has been ruled a homicide.

Family tells 11 News, Hazard had retired from the U.S. Air Force last year as a Master Sergeant. Hazard had dedicated 24 years to the Air Force. Hazard was divorced from the mother of his two sons.

Police say Hazard was last seen by relatives around 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 31.

Detectives are seeking the assistance of the public in locating a Hazard's missing car. It's a 2009 Hyundai Sonata 4-door sedan, white in color, bearing Colorado License plate 124-RRU. A photo of a similar vehicle can be seen here. Police say they hope releasing this photo may help the public come forward with information.

Anyone with information about the vehicle or this homicide is urged to call the Colorado Springs Police Department at 444-7000, or if they wish to remain anonymous and possibly earn cash reward, they may call Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers at (719) 635-STOP.

Stay with 11 News and KKTV.com for the latest.

Another case of justice in their own hands!

Mom Dated Sex Offender

Mom dated sex offender 4:08
The mother of missing Nevaeh Buchanan, 5, dated a sex offender and failed a polygraph test, claiming she was tired.