State lawmakers outraged by the sexual assault of a girl at a Phoenix elementary school last week are vowing to fight back with legislation.
Republican state Sen. Janae Shamp is going after what she calls a failed system for handing out probation to child sex offenders.
"This was not an accident. This was not unpredictable. This was the result of a justice system that has forgotten its first duty: public safety before offender sympathy," Shamp said.
25-year-old Abel Gblah is a convicted sex offender and repeat probation violator. Police say he entered Orangewood Elementary through an unsecured door and assaulted a 10-year-old girl under the guise of being a doctor.
Kayleigh Kozak is a survivor of child sexual abuse and joined lawmakers in calling for reform.
"I stand here today completely shattered by the systematic failures that allowed an innocent little girl to be violated. This is not just about this one man’s heinous acts. It is about the system that failed over and over and over again," Kozak said.
Kozak said this latest case has exposed gaping holes in the legal process.
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The Navajo Nation Department of Criminal Investigations does not have an on-site medical examiner, forcing criminal investigators to take on duties they are not properly trained for and slowing down murdered and missing Indigenous persons investigations. -
The only person ever charged in the unsolved 2021 disappearance of Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay has been sentenced to five years in federal prison. Begay’s case became emblematic of a crisis fueled by disproportionately high rates of violence faced by Native Americans. -
The family of a man mistakenly shot and killed by Phoenix Police is calling on the state’s top law enforcement official to step in after local prosecutors decided to not bring charges. -
For the second time, the Border Security Expo returned to the Phoenix Convention Center this week with vendors offering surveillance systems, drones and a look at what border enforcement could become. -
Arizona ranks ninth in the U.S. for number of incarcerated women. Most are moms, and many have histories of drug addiction, mental illness and physical or sexual abuse. And when it's time to come home — and many will — the work to repair those bonds can feel impossible without support.
