Latest news with #Betrayed
Chicago Tribune
02-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Jury deliberating in sex abuse case against former CPS dean
Cook County prosecutors on Wednesday asked a jury to hold a former Chicago Public Schools dean accountable for allegedly using his position of power to coerce a student into a sexual relationship. One day earlier, jurors began hearing testimony on Tuesday in the case against Brian Crowder, 43, who is facing multiple felony sex charges that allege he had a relationship with the student from around 2013 to 2016. The conduct allegedly took place while her was serving as an associate dean at the Social Justice High School, a part of Little Village Lawndale High School. In their final pitch to the jury at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, the state displayed a smiling photograph of a girl and asked the jury to remember that she was a child. 'She was young. She was vulnerable,' said Assistant State's Attorney Sarah Kofoed. 'The defendant saw that saw a young impressionable girl was looking for love, and he moved in on that.' The Tribune is not naming the woman because she is alleged to be the victim in a sexual assault case. During closing arguments, though, Crowder's attorneys called the relationship a 'friendship' and said the case was a matter of 'he said/she said.' They argued that she sought money from Crowder. 'You're not called upon to decide whether Brian Crowder should be employed at Chicago Public Schools,' attorney Barry Sheppard said. 'Bad judgment doesn't make you a criminal.' The jury began deliberating around 4 p.m. The woman, who is now 26, testified for hours on Tuesday, describing how Crowder first approached her in the school's lunch room when she was around 15 and asked her for her SnapChat username. She was initially confused, she said, but he reassured her he wouldn't add her as a friend. 'That makes sense in my head because he was my school dean,' she testified. But he did connect with her on the app, and began sending her inappropriate messages, she said. They soon developed a relationship. The woman told the jury that Crowder forced her to get abortions when she got pregnant twice. She wept as she watched the closing arguments a day after she testified. 'He wasn't just a teacher. At that point he was the dean of discipline,' Kofoed said, adding that he controlled whether she received punishments at school. 'He controlled the relationship because he was in power.' During the state's rebuttal, Assistant State's Attorney John Sviokla addressed the defense's argument of a financial motivation. 'She looked to be made whole in some capacity,' he said. The case went before a jury as CPS' handling of sexual abuse allegations has been the subject of scrutiny in recent years and as Crowder is also named in a 2024 lawsuit that accuses CPS of failing to protect its students. In 2018, the Chicago Tribune's 'Betrayed' investigation revealed failures in how the nation's fourth largest school district handled allegations of abuse, including neglecting to report accusations to police or child welfare investigators and failing to conduct effective background checks. The civil complaint filed by the woman against Crowder and the school district heavily references the Tribune's investigation and alleges that CPS at the time 'did not track child abuse by its employees or agents in a publicly available format.' The suit also accuses employees at Little Village Lawndale High School of failing to act when an inappropriate relationship between Crowder and the student was noticed by others who 'would joke about how much time was spent alone' between Crowder and the student. At one point, the suit alleges, the student told a teacher about her relationship with Crowder, but the teacher never took steps to report or stop the abuse.
Chicago Tribune
01-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Former CPS dean stands trial accused of sexually abusing a student
While serving as a dean of discipline in the Chicago Public Schools system, Brian Crowder approached a 15-year-old student in the lunch room at a Little Village school and asked her for her SnapChat username, the woman, now an adult, testified on Tuesday. Slightly confused, the woman said she gave him the information for her social media account. That led him to start messaging her, she said, before entering into a relationship with her. Crowder began standing trial this week on charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and other felonies after Cook County prosecutors accused him of engaging in a sexual relationship with a student from around 2013 to 2016 while serving as an associate dean at the Social Justice High School, a part of Little Village Lawndale High School. The case goes before a jury as the handling of sexual abuse allegations by Chicago Public Schools has been the subject of scrutiny in recent years and as Crowder is also named in a 2024 lawsuit that accuses CPS of failing to protect its students. Attorneys opened their cases on Tuesday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building before the former student, now 26, testified for hours, telling jurors that Crowder engaged her in a relationship and then coerced her into having two abortions. The Tribune is not naming the woman because she is alleged to be the victim in a sexual assault case. Growing occasionally emotional, the woman began her testimony by recalling her sophomore year of high school. When Crowder had asked about about her Snapchat, a social media platform in which messages and photos usually disappear after a time, she said she asked him why her wanted her account information. 'He said, it's not like I'm going to add you,' she said. 'That makes sense in my head because he was my school dean.' But he quickly began messaging her photos and telling her he wanted her, she said, adding that they eventually began talking every day and engaging in a sexual relationship. He offered her alcohol, she said, and he would pass her notes during school suspensions, which he was in charge of monitoring. The woman told jurors that Crowder got her pregnant twice and badgered her to get abortions, even though she preferred to continue the pregnancies. 'He said there's no way I could have the baby,' she said. 'He would text me day and night all day to get me to not have this baby because he was going to go to jail and lose his son.' Because she was underage, she could not consent to the abortions herself. Crowder, using false names, signed the consent forms, she said. 'I was just upset and emotional,' she said. 'He was just very relieved.' In 2018, the Chicago Tribune's 'Betrayed' investigation revealed failures in how the nation's fourth largest school district handled allegations of abuse, including neglecting to report accusations to police or child welfare investigators and failing to conduct effective background checks. The civil complaint filed by the woman against Crowder and the school district heavily references the Tribune's investigation and alleges that CPS at the time 'did not track child abuse by its employees or agents in a publicly available format.' The suit also accuses employees at Little Village Lawndale High School of failing to act when an inappropriate relationship between Crowder and the student was noticed by others who 'would joke about how much time was spent alone' between Crowder and the student. At one point, the suit alleges, the student told a teacher about her relationship with Crowder, but the teacher never took steps to report or stop the abuse.
09-05-2025
How a murderer was brought down by a postmark, a phone call and a handful of receipts
The "Betrayed" episode of ABC News' "20/20" limited true crime series "Bad Romance," airing May 9 at 10 p.m. and streaming the next day on Hulu, features a case previously covered in a 2023 episode of "20/20." After a mother and daughter were found fatally stabbed inside their Virginia home in 2007, investigators were struggling to find the clues that would lead them to a suspect. There were no signs of forced entry into the home shared by Angelique Goyena, 35 -- nicknamed Angel -- and her mother, Vonda Goyena, 74. But two weeks later a letter was sent to police from Chicago by someone claiming to have killed the women because Angel rebuffed his advances. "The act of the killing was not enough. Essentially, the killer is reliving it and writing this letter, so that is highly unusual," Norfolk prosecutor Phil Evans, who investigated the case, told "20/20." Another letter taunting detectives was sent to police from Michigan, and detectives didn't have any immediate leads. Everyone who had keys to the house had an alibi, including her fiancé, David Wayne Hoshaw. Once detectives started taking a deeper dive into Hoshaw's romantic life, they discovered a dark past, a clandestine affair and other secrets. It will feature interviews with investigators, the Goyena family and the suspect's own ex-fiancée -- who inadvertently helped authorities crack the case in a police interrogation room. Hoshaw met Angelique Goyena online in 2006 and, six months later, proposed to her. Evans said that detectives interviewed Hoshaw shortly after the Goyenas were murdered and he had what looked like an airtight alibi -- he was attending a Boy Scouts weeklong campout roughly 80 miles away with his 12-year-old son from a previous relationship. Hoshaw seemed to be safe, but investigators and Goyena family members said they were still suspicious. Angel Goyena's sister Yolanda told "20/20" that Hoshaw was uninterested in their wedding planning and was physically and emotionally distant in the months leading up to her death. "Angelique would tell me, out of the clear blue, that he'd have a look on his face, like he was disgusted with her. And that would really bother her," she said. The family would later learn that Hoshaw was seeing another woman at the time, named Amanda. She has asked ABC News not to use her last name. Angelique Goyena's siblings told "20/20" that Hoshaw never attended her funeral service and immediately left town to relocate to Michigan and move in with Amanda. They became engaged. Rick Malbon, a Norfolk detective who investigated the case, told "20/20" that Hoshaw's relationship with Amanda had developed to the point that he was using her name as a password on his computer. In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Amanda told "20/20" correspondent Ryan Smith that Hoshaw explained that his ex-girlfriend had been murdered. He was upset, claimed he had broken up with her and was adamant that he wasn't involved with her death. "He said he was cleared, and he was ready to go start his life, so I believed him," she said. Malbon, however, said Hoshaw's stories and alibis didn't add up. Despite being on a Boy Scouts camp out the night of the murders, it was conceivable that he could have left late that night, committed the murders and returned by morning without anyone noticing his absence, according to Malbon. "David Hoshaw became like an onion in the case. The more you peeled him back, the more strange information came out," Evans said. "We looked at everything that David Hoshaw did, or a lot of things that he did before the homicide and after the homicide," Det. Malbon explained. Detectives would learn of Hoshaw's dark and disturbing history of abuse and deception through his former wives. Investigators followed the paper trail of David's cell phone records and credit card receipts to build a circumstantial case, placing him in the vicinity of the post offices on the exact dates when the two taunting letters had been mailed. Detectives arrested Hoshaw in 2009 after a grand jury indicted him on murder charges. Amanda, who was pregnant with their second child, was in the house when officers handcuffed him and brought him to jail. "I didn't even get time to even process anything. I mean, it was just like I was thrown in an alligator pit and I needed to fight my way out of it, " she said. Amanda would be critical in breaking the case. When Malbon interrogated Hoshaw, David again denied both killing the mother and daughter and later, mailing the letters to police. He was allowed to speak to Amanda alone in the interrogation room; investigators, however, were listening behind a one-way mirror. Hoshaw confessed to Amanda that he killed the Goyenas because he wanted to break up with Angelique, saying then "I got crazy." When Amanda asked about the letters sent to the police, Hoshaw admitted to mailing them. "That was stupid. I was trying to get him off of my back," he said during the recorded conversation. "He said enough to Amanda to strengthen my case. I couldn't wait to come out and call Phil [Evans, the district attorney]," Malbon said. On the strength of the circumstantial case built by investigators, Hoshaw pleaded guilty on Oct. 5, 2010, to two counts of first-degree murder and was immediately sentenced to two life sentences without parole. Amanda conceded she still feels hatred toward her former fiancé for the pain he caused, not just to herself and their children but also to the Goyena family. "He lied about him being in a relationship with Angelique. So he got me into the circle and then he got rid of her, murdered her because basically of me...I'm feeling horrible for them," she said. Yolanda Goyena said the family is still grieving their loss nearly 16 years later, but they will always cherish Angelique and Vonda's spirit. "It's taken me years to get to this place. I just think of them very fondly, my mom's incredible sense of humor. And Angel, just gosh, Angelique was a gift to our family," she said.
Bloomberg
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
How Decades of Foreign Policy Missteps Led the US to Russia's Side: Ret. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman sits down with Bloomberg Businessweek to discuss his new book 'The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine' and weighs in on negotiations with Ukraine and Russia and the second Trump administration. (Source: Bloomberg)
