Last month, police in Muskogee, Oklahoma, arrested two people on complaints of multiple counts of child sexual abuse. Prosecutors accuse William T. F."Frankie" Dugan, 29, and Valerie Ojo, 32, of sexually abusing and exploiting two children, aged 5 and 6. Now, investigators say they believe at leastone of the suspects may have sexually assaulted other children, and they are urging potential victims to come forward.
Court records show that Ojo's husband filed for divorce in January. Prosecutors say it was in that same month that Ojo and Dugan began sexually abusingthe children. They are accused of molesting the children and photographing the two children as they performed sex acts on each other. Police say theabuse and sexual exploitation began in January and continued through late March, when they were arrested.
Both Dugan and Ojo are charged with four counts of child sexual abuse and one count of child sexual exploitation.
Police say both Dugan and Ojo admitted to photographing the children engaged in sex acts.
Investigators say that their interviews with the suspects and with an additional person who came forward claiming abuse, they believe that there may beadditional victims, aged 4 to 21, in multiple states, including Oklahoma, Ohio, and Missouri. They say that after Dugan's arrest, a woman came to policeto report that she had been sexually abused by him when she was only 4 years old. Dugan would have been 10-12 years old himself at the time.
Child sexual abuse is defined in 21 O.S. � 843.5 as "willful or malicioussexual abuse, which includes but is not limited to rape, incest, and lewd or indecent acts or proposals, of a child under eighteen (18) years of ageby another." Child sexual abuse is a felony, and the maximum penalty is life in prison. However, if the child is under the age of 12, conviction bringsa minimum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Child sexual exploitation is included in the same statute governing child abuse and child sexual abuse. It is defined as "willful or malicious sexual exploitation,which includes but is not limited to allowing, permitting, or encouraging a child under eighteen (18) years of age to engage in prostitution or allowing,permitting, encouraging or engaging in the lewd, obscene or pornographic photographing, filming, or depicting of a child under eighteen (18) yearsof age by another." The penalties for child sexual exploitation are the same as those for child sexual abuse: a maximum of life in prison, and if thechild involved is under the age of 12, a minimum of 25 years to life.
Sexual abuse of a child also requires lifetime sex offender registration.
