Marshals pick up 3 for child sex abuse

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The US Marshals said it’s been a busy week. So far, they’ve arrested three men for alleged sex crimes, all involving young children.

Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson with the Child Advocacy Center said they are three of nine people indicted for similar crimes from the March grand jury.

"The number of reported cases keeps coming up," Patterson said.

Officials said as soon as the indictments were processed, the three men were picked up.

Wallace Waldrop is charged with sodomy and sex abuse of a child less than 12 years old. Richard Horton is accused of two counts of sodomy, and Edward McCall is charged with sex abuse of a child less than 12 years old.

“All of the victims in this case were well known to the suspects, either known as family friends or neighbors,” Patterson said.

 Officials said these cases are high priority.

The sheriff’s office said with cases involving young children, they call in the U.S. Marshals to make the arrests often before the person is aware they are wanted.

"We try to use our resources available to us, and the Marshals service is a great resource available to us. And, they are experienced and trained in serving these higher risk type warrants," said Joe Mahoney with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office.

Patterson said the Marshals allow them to get these cases to trial as soon as possible.

"It’s very difficult if you are in the third grade, and you have a trial in adult court hanging over your head. You really need to be able to get that over and move on"

A member of the US Marshals task force said there is another suspect facing similar charges on the way to Mobile, and they expect to make two more arrests in the next couple of days.

The Child Advocacy Center said the fact that they are seeing more reports of sexual abuse could actually be a good thing because it means more victims are coming forward.