Felon from Maine Sentenced for Transporting Owensboro Girl Across State Lines with Intent to Engage in Sexual Activity

OWENSBORO, KY—Archie M. Whalen, from Hancock County, Maine, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison today by Chief District Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr. for transporting a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.
A federal jury in Owensboro, Kentucky deliberated approximately one hour on July 26, 2012, before finding Whalen, age 46, guilty of all charges.
According to testimony presented during the three-day trial, Whalen took a 13-year-old Owensboro girl from her home on September 26, 2009. A multi-state Amber Alert was issued and within 24 hours, and the minor girl was found with Whalen in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, on September 27, 2009.
Whalen was arrested after a Sturgeon Bay Police officer observed the Maine license plate on the vehicle Whalen was driving and conducted a felony traffic stop. The Sturgeon Bay Police acted after being notified by the FBI in Kentucky to be on the lookout for Whalen’s red Ford Explorer with a Maine license plate. According to the minor girl’s mother, a text message on their shared cell phone helped police identify Whalen. The minor girl and her mother had met Whalen while they briefly lived in Maine earlier that month. After the Amber Alert was issued, employees at a McDonald’s in Breckenridge County alerted their local Sheriff’s office that they believed Whalen and the victim had been in the restaurant around 5:30 a.m. Surveillance video obtained by the Breckenridge County Sheriff’s Office and provided to Daviess County authorities was used to confirm Whalen’s identity and that the missing minor was with him. When Whalen’s Maine plate was run by a police officer in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, although no traffic stop was done, law enforcement authorities in Kentucky were able to confirm that Whalen was in Wisconsin and likely headed in the direction of Sturgeon Bay, where one of Whalen’s family members lived.
Whalen has a prior state felony conviction for second-degree assault in New York and a prior federal conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Marisa J. Ford, and it was investigated by the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Owensboro Resident Agency, with invaluable assistance and cooperation from the Sturgeon Bay Police Department in Wisconsin; the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department in Maine; the Evidence Response Team in the FBI’s Milwaukee Division; and the Office of the Commonwealth Attorney in Daviess County, Kentucky.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.

British woman returns to Pakistani jail with newborn

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A British woman who was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking in Pakistan remains in jail with her child, despite concerns about the baby's welfare.

Khadija Shah, 25, of Birmingham gave birth to her daughter, Malaika, a few weeks ago at a hospital in the city of Rawalpindi, an hour's drive from the capital, and was escorted back to jail with the infant only three days later, to the shock and dismay of her lawyer.

"The baby has had constant diarrhea, and Khadija complained that jail attendants are giving her strong medicine that is lethal for such a young child," Shahzad Akbar, legal counsel for Shah, told CNN.

"She would have been able to look after her child if she was granted bail," he said.

CNN has attempted to reach the jail for comment about the claims, but officials have not yet responded to calls. However, jail officials have said in media reports that the baby is receiving proper care.

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Shah, who denies the charges against her, appeared in court Thursday with her infant daughter.

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Grasping the child, and barely able to speak through tears, she said she didn't want to give up her daughter, despite the conditions in the jail.

"No, I can't give her to anyone, I can't give her up," Shah told CNN before she was returned to her cell. "It's not that bad," she said of the conditions there.

Still, covering her face and hiding her tears, Shah conceded, "I'm worried about her. ..."

In Pakistan's legal system, mothers can keep their children in jail with them while their cases are heard -- a process that can take years.

Shah, arrested on drug charges in May, was allegedly found carrying more than $5 million worth of heroin before boarding a flight to England from Islamabad.

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She was six months pregnant and traveling with her 5-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter when airport security detained her at Islamabad airport after a "tipoff," according to her lawyer.

"Shah's (older) children were also incarcerated with her until recently, when they were turned over to their grandparents," Akbar said.

Col. Tauqeer, the commander of the Anti Narcotics Force responsible for Shah's arrest, told CNN that Shah was apprehended after spot checking.

"It was routine checking when we found more than 63 kilos of heroin sewn into embroidered cloth in her bag," Tauqeer said.

The Anti Narcotics Force "followed procedure," according to Tauqeer, and Shah now faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of the charges against her.

According to the Anti Narcotics Force, 306 people, including foreign nationals, have been convicted in drug-related cases so far in 2012, and 37 tons of drugs have been seized across the country.

"There are no weaknesses in our case," according to Tauqeer, who said Shah had made two prior trips to Islamabad, during which she probably transported drugs to England.

He said she told law enforcement officers that she had no relatives in Pakistan and that she was there on vacation.

"First she said she had no family, then her relatives arrived from Lahore to take the children; then she said she was married, and (it) turned out she was divorced. There are too many discrepancies in her statements," Tauqeer said.

Shah said that she had no knowledge of carrying drugs and that she was given a bag by a friend to take home to England, her lawyer told CNN. He also denies Tauqeer's claims about prior trips and any discrepancies in Shah's story.

Now, as Shah tends to her infant daughter in jail, her other children are in the UK; taken back, her lawyer says, by their grandmother.

But there is little chance Shah will join them anytime soon. A trial awaits her in Pakistan.

Illinois woman accused of killing son, girl as she babysat them

CNN) -- A Chicago-area woman has been charged with killing her 5-year-old son and a 7-year-old girl as she babysat them, allegedly stabbing each dozens of times in a bedroom this week as they pleaded for their lives, authorities say.

Elzbieta Plackowska, 40, of Naperville, Illinois, allegedly told police she instructed her son Justin Plackowska and the girl, Olivia Dworakowski, to kneel and pray before she fatally stabbed them and two dogs at the girl's home on Tuesday evening, Naperville police said.

Plackowska -- charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder -- allegedly gave investigators a number of reasons why she killed the children, the most recent of which was that she was upset with her husband and wanted to cause him pain, according to police.

"She began stabbing her son Justin and told him he was going to heaven tonight," DuPage County prosecutor Bob Berlin told reporters Thursday, citing Plackowska's alleged statements to police. "He pleaded for his life and told her to stop, but she continued stabbing him until he was dead."

Plackowska was being held Thursday without opportunity for bail. If convicted, she would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole.

CNN's attempts to reach lawyer Mike Mara, a DuPage County public defender representing Plackowska, weren't immediately successful.

Police officers found the children's bodies in Olivia's home Tuesday night after Elzbieta Plackowska, covered in blood, arrived at a nearby friend's house and claimed she had been robbed, police said.

The friend called police. Around the same time, Olivia's mother called police to say she had come home from work and couldn't enter the house because there was a strange lock on the door, and that she couldn't find Plackowska or the children, Berlin said.

Officers forced entry into the home and "walked into a scene of unimaginable horror," finding the bodies on the floor of the master bedroom, Berlin said.

Investigators said Plackowska offered several explanations, including that she believed an intruder killed the children, police said. Later, she told police that the children had evil inside them and she needed to drive the devil out, authorities said.

"She ultimately admitted that she had lied to the police in her earlier statements and stated she was angry with her husband," Berlin said.

Plackowska told investigators that she told the children to get ready for bed, and the kids entered the master bedroom, Berlin said. Plackowska said she then went to the kitchen, took two knives, entered the bedroom and told the children to kneel on the floor and pray, according to Berlin.

She told police she stabbed Justin repeatedly, and then stabbed Olivia because Olivia saw her attacking Justin, according to Berlin. She said Olivia, like Justin, pleaded for her life, Berlin said.

Police said Justin was stabbed about 100 times, and Olivia about 50 times.

"She did not express any remorse," Berlin said.

Naperville Police Chief Bob Marshall told reporters that the "senseless taking of the lives of these two children defies logic, and our community is grieving."

In all my years of law enforcement, this is the most gruesome and horrific crime scene that I have seen," Marshall said at the news conference.

Plackowska told police she was upset with her husband in part because he was gone most days, working as a truck driver, and that she felt he didn't treat her as she deserved.

Plackowska is awaiting a November 21 arraignment.