Child rape suspect returned to U.S.

An international fugitive and accused child rapist has been returned to the United States from China and will face federal charges in Washington state and Oregon.

Kenneth John Freeman, 45, was returned to this country by deputy U.S. marshals and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, charged with one count of producing child pornography, one count of transporting child pornography and three counts of transporting a minor across state lines.

Mr. Freeman also is charged with three counts of rape of a child in the first degree and one count of bail jumping by authorities in Benton County, Wash.

The U.S. Marshals Service said Mr. Freeman fled the country in March 2006, and later was placed on the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 “Most Wanted” fugitives list and ICE’s “Most Wanted” list. A team of investigators from the various agencies and from the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security tracked him to China.

U.S. Attorney James A. McDevitt in Washington said the international fugitive pursuit ended May 1 when Hong Kong authorities subdued Mr. Freeman, a former deputy sheriff and competitive bodybuilder, as he arrived at the city’s bus depot to begin a holiday trip.

Throughout the pursuit, Mr. McDevitt said agents of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and law-enforcement authorities in Suzhou and Hong Kong were key players on the ground. During those weeks, he said, U.S. marshals and ICE agents monitored Mr. Freeman’s activities, waiting for him to enter Hong Kong, which has maintained extradition treaties with the United States.

In the end, however, Mr. Freeman waived the lengthy extradition process and agreed to be returned to the United States to face the charges against him.

Mr. McDevitt said Mr. Freeman’s wife, Maleka May, was apprehended by U.S. marshals on May 3 when she returned to the United States following her husband’s arrest in Hong Kong. She recently pled guilty to two charges of making false statements to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and U.S. marshals about her husband’s whereabouts.

Mr. McDevitt said she admitted concealing her role in accompanying Mr. Freeman across the Canadian border in March 2006 to catch a flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, to China, where he then traveled to the interior city of Suzhou.

She is scheduled to be sentenced in November in federal court in San Francisco.

Mr. Freeman’s conviction on the pending pornography charges would net him up to 80 years in prison and fines totaling $1 million. Each of the three counts of rape of a child in the first degree carries a penalty of not less than 14 years and up to life imprisonment.