Busted

[Ignoto]

Astronaut's son arrested on sex tourism charges in San Francisco

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The son of Mercury astronaut Walter Schirra has been arrested on child sex tourism charges, federal authorities said Monday.

 

Walter Schirra, 54, was arrested at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday morning just before he was to board a flight to Thailand where he allegedly intended to solicit sex from underage boys, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department.

 

Federal agents searched Schirra's luggage and found photos of shirtless boys, large quantities of candy and prescription drugs and other aides designed to boost sexual pleasure. They also found 15 to 20 images of child pornography on his home computer, ICE officials said.

 

Schirra, a property manager, was the first person from the San Francisco Bay area and the ninth nationally to face federal charges under the PROTECT Act, legislation signed into law in April 2003 to crack down on sex tourism.

 

Schirra, who is in federal custody, appeared in court in San Francisco on Monday morning, but he has not yet entered a plea. He was expected to appear in court later this week. It was unclear if he has obtained an attorney.

 

Schirra's father, also named Walter, was one of the seven original Mercury astronauts in the country's first space program.

[Guest icon513]

Sounds like the evidence is pretty weak, unless they've got something more on him. Having a small number of illegal images is one thing, but I think it would be difficult to prove what one "intends" to do.

[buckguy]

Most likely they have other information from Thai law enforcement. There was a provision in a trade treaty signed in the mid-90s that basically leveraged Thai law enforcement attention to sex and and trafficking with minors, in exchange for speedy extradition and other measures from the US. Many European countries have similar treaty provisions. These have been used in a variety of high profile cases with expats and with accused figures in their home countries. Both Chuan governments were very supportive of this (Chuan seemed to care about the issue personally), the govts in between Chuans administrations less so. Follow-through would seem to be consistent with the various social order campaigns of the Thaksin govt. Given the character of the Bush administration, they'd probably rather take credit for this than attribute it to a Clinton-era law.