Feds: Uncle Eyed Missing Girl For Sex Ring

(CBS/ AP)  A 14-year-old witness told investigators a missing Vermont girl's uncle brought the girl to his home to initiate her into a child sex ring, federal officials said in an affidavit released Wednesday.

The 14-year-old told authorities she helped Michael Jacques, the missing girl's uncle, take the 12-year-old to Jacques' Randolph home on June 25 to be initiated into the ring. The 12-year-old has not been seen since then.

The 14-year-old girl, a relative of Jacques, said she understood that as part of the initiation, the 12-year-old "would have sex with adult males," according to the affidavit in U.S. District Court.

The girl said she and the 12-year-old watched television for a while before Jacques told her to leave and took the girl upstairs. The witness said she left the house with her boyfriend and did not see the girl again.

The 14-year-old said she herself had been sexually assaulted by Jacques, 42, since she was 9.

On Monday, Jacques, 42, was arraigned on an aggravated sexual assault charge involving a different girl, who is quoted in court papers as saying Jacques told her he would be her trainer in a "program for sex."

The girl said she had met three men in the program, including Jacques, and that she was told two other girls also were in the program. "The first who does it lives and the second gets her throat cut," she told police, according to an affidavit filed in court Monday.

Jacques dropped Brooke off at a convenience store on June 25, and surveillance video shows they left in separate directions. She had told family members she was going to meet a friend and visit a hospitalized relative of the friend but police believe that was a lie.

Jacques has 1993 convictions for kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault. Prosecutors argued against bail, saying he posed a threat to the accuser and had violated probation.

Earlier this week, the former stepfather of Brooke Bennet was arrested and authorities said Tuesday he would be charged with obstructing justice for destroying evidence.

Neither the FBI nor the head of state police discussed what evidence Ray Gagnon is alleged to have destroyed or whether that evidence was part of the investigation into Brooke Bennett's disappearance or unrelated sexual assault accusations against him.

Gagnon had been scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on a sexual assault charge involving a minor but the arraignment was canceled as federal authorities took over. At an afternoon news conference, state police head Col. James Baker said that case was still being investigated and the charge could be refiled.

Brooke's father, James Bennett, who identified Gagnon as Brooke's stepfather, told CBS Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith on Tuesday, "I don't know what to think. There's been so much information out there, so many stories. All I can hope is that she's okay."

Bennett, who appeared via satellite link on The Early Show along side Brooke's emotional mother and sister, said the police were not giving them any more information than they were releasing to the media. "It's frustrating, but I understand why they can't give us the details."

[lisann326]

Our family called social services in every town my brother lived in. All we knew is that he didn''t have his daughter in school and hoped the social worker could get the rest. We just thought it was suspicious that he wasn''t sending his daughter to school. He said it was because he had hooked up with the Mennonite Church, well by the time she was 12 someone finally (a neighbor) took her to the police to say he had been sexually abusing her. She had told the Mennonite''s they didn''t do anything, she had told a neighbor in TN and she wouldn''t let her daughter come over and they moved but she didn''t say anything. She didn''t trust the social worker because they would just stop by and say he needed to get her into school or it would be a $500 fine. In MO social workers stopped by, Ohio, TN, NV and OR finally took her out of the home. I think orphanages should be put back in play and stop the foster care system. It doesn''t work, it is horrible. The kids are taken out of school for everything because the families only work from 8 to 5. Ask any of them, it is a foster care business, six to a room or at least 3. If someone wants to adopt then let them go into the orphanage and adopt a child. There is no stability in the foster care system and the social workers are so busy running around from house to house they can''t get anything accomplished. The kids act up they can move they don''t have to be accountable or to learn to get a long. It is a horrible ridiculous system.

[Meg003]

Ronbow502000

Things must be very different where you live. In my county the kids only hope is for the police to arrest the abuser-I agree it is almost always family or "friend". The social workers are a total waste of breath. Nothing but dripping blood gets their attention, and even then, they may not show up for weeks. And by then the wound is closed and there is "no evidence of abuse".

[ronbow502000]

You know what really bothers me about this whole thing, besides just the pure horror of this family breathing the same air I do? WE spend millions to pay fat cops eating donuts to go online and pretend to be gorgeous 15, 16 or 17 year old girls, always one year below the legal age in whatever state they are targeting, in the hope of catching a retarded or developmentally disabled individual who would have almost NO chance of meeting a real human, while over 90% of the *** abuse that is done is within a family unit in one form or the other. I work with social workers, who are grossly underpaid and monitor several hundred cases at a time and bring more people to justice for these crimes than all of those stupid "sting" operations combined. If we would fund more of these workers, and gave them more investigative power, we would do far better to help prevent this ***. Of course, ten cops running down a nineteen year old unemployed farmhand who thought he was meeting a 15 year old is far more entertaining to the masses.

[ronbow502000]

Chill people! the killer is her fricking UNCLE. Her "protector" step father is the one who gave the pervert uncle her password to her mail so he could contact her. these are not random people picking girls off the streets, these are the "families" I see in my job as a school counselor every day. doesn''t anyone wonder how this 14 year old girl was being used in a *** ring since she was NINE managed to not get found out by her loving parents. we are such a low class dirthead country i really wonder. now, that being said, some sort of a conspiracy death penalty would be just fine, but because the girl was KILLED! If you allow the death penalty for anything other than murder you open up a can of worms that will have far more unintended consequences than benefits, ie: a 19 year old being executed for having *** with his 15 year old fiance, a situation where a guy really DID NOT KNOW the girl''s age and did not ask for an I.D, but worst of all, you be be making it very useful to kill the victim. when they passed a death penalty for kidnapping or child molestation it virtually guarantees that the victim would never see the light of day. you keep the death penalty in reserve so that you can use it when someone is trying to get rid of a witness so it will serve as a deterrent. can''t you knee jerk idiots see that! Do I have to explain EVERYTHING to you?

[ronbow502000]

Chill people! the killer is her fricking UNCLE. Her "protector" step father is the one who gave the pervert uncle her password to her mail so he could contact her. these are not random people picking girls off the streets, these are the "families" I see in my job as a school counselor every day. doesn''t anyone wonder how this 14 year old girl was being used in a *** ring since she was NINE managed to not get found out by her loving parents. we are such a low class dirthead country i really wonder. now, that being said, some sort of a conspiracy death penalty would be just fine, but because the girl was KILLED! If you allow the death penalty for anything other than murder you open up a can of worms that will have far more unintended consequences than benefits, ie: a 19 year old being executed for having *** with his 15 year old fiance, a situation where a guy really DID NOT KNOW the girl''s age and did not ask for an I.D, but worst of all, you be be making it very useful to kill the victim. when they passed a death penalty for kidnapping or child molestation it virtually guarantees that the victim would never see the light of day. you keep the death penalty in reserve so that you can use it when someone is trying to get rid of a witness so it will serve as a deterrent. can''t you knee jerk idiots see that! Do I have to explain EVERYTHING to you?

[gunnerdd517]

kill him!

[gunnerdd517]

kill him!

[Election2008]

lol white men are so cwaziee, whenever I see a white women hanging off their arm like a slave I laugh and think to myself, "I wonder when he''s gonna snap" lmfao

[smurfcrusher]

...the previous note was addressed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

[smurfcrusher]

Now it sounds like Brooke Bennett''s lifeless body has been found in VT, according to a breaking news headline.

Child rapists around the country thank you for your Conservative views.