compiled by Patrick H. Moore
So what do you do if you are married to a twice-convicted child molester and he (and possibly you) decide you want to begin manufacturing child pornography? Keep in mind that in order to manufacture child pornography, you’ve got to procure the children and then makes video of adults doing horrible things to them.
What you do is you set yourself up in the Day Care business and that’s exactly what Bailey Joe Mills, 33, and his wife Elizabeth Holland Mills, 35 (who describes herself alternately as a happily married mother and an exotic dancer), did. They rented a home on Nicole Drive, outside Sanford in Harnett County, NC, advertised that they were in the Day Care business, and went to work luring, molesting and photographing victim children ranging in age from 1 to 14.
Five people have been arrested in all. Bailey Joe pleaded guilty in August and Ms. Exotica Elizabeth pleaded guilty this week. They both reportedly face up 30 years in prison which is not all that unreasonable if the charges are true, which they appear to be considering that Bailey Joe and Elizabeth have both pleaded out.
Andrew Kinney writes for the News Observer:
Detective Brad Byrd of the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office says there is “no evidence” that the house was run as a day care. Still, the Sheriff’s Office says the man at the center of the case, Bailey Joe Mills, 33, “portrayed himself to be” a tutor, mentor and baby sitter.
Mills, a former Raleigh resident, has been convicted at least twice before of sex crimes involving children, according to criminal records.
Here’s how the authorities broke the case:
Back in early January, according to the Sheriff’s office, they discovered that Bailey Joe was exchanging highly suspect Facebook messages with a 12-year-old girl regarding payment for sex. When questioned by investigators, the child explained that she “was shown homemade pornography at Mills’ home,” and that there was another girl present.
This led to a search of the Day Care center where “videos and photos of men and a woman sexually assaulting multiple children” were found.
Elizabeth’s landlord, Siegrun Collins, who is shocked by what has transpired, stated that the perverse couple had been renting the three-bedroom house for about 18 months when they were arrested.
Collins also said that she had never seen any evidence that the couple was running a day care center. Nor had she ever suspected that they might hurt children. She states that she checked in every few weeks and that she rarely saw other children there with the exception of the couple’s two sons.
Collins described Bailey Mills as “down-to-earth and chatty.” Like many a fine “mentor”, he was unemployed. Elizabeth may have actually worked as an exotic dancer; in any event, according to Collins, she paid the $750 monthly rent herself.
Bailey Mills was arrested Jan. 5, and Elizabeth Mills was arrested Jan. 10.
The three other individuals arrested are Rashawn Rodriguez Drake Jackson, 20, Jordan Everett Busse, 29, and Tommy Keith Wall, 50.
Elizabeth and Bailey Joe, along with Jackson and Wall, are described as the folks who did the actual molesting. Busse is believed to have been involved in procuring the children.
Bailey Mills is charged with first-degree rape of a child, first-degree sexual exploitation of a child, statutory rape of a child, first-degree statutory sex offense and taking indecent liberties with a child.
Elizabeth Mills is charged with second-degree sexual exploitation of a child, first-degree statutory sex offense with a child and taking indecent liberties with a child, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Bailey Joe’s history of predatory sexual offenses against children includes the following:
In March of 1997, at the age of 16, he pleaded guilty to molesting a 4-year-old girl at Shelley Lake in North Raleigh. With the prosecution on board, he received a light sentence of three years’ of probation, reportedly because he had no previous record. He was ordered to have no contact with children younger than 13 and to refrain from hanging out in parks and at playgrounds. In addition, he was ordered to undergo psychological treatment and participate in a sex-offender program.
Two years later, Mills was convicted on two counts of assault on a female. The charges were triggered by allegations that he inappropriately touched a 14 and a 16-year-old girl. These were not technically sex offenses.
One year later, he was convicted of taking felony indecent liberties with an 11-year-old child whom he met at a flea market. This led to him being placed on the state’s sex-offender registry, which calls for 30-year registrations for “sexually violent offenses.”
Bailey Joe apparently took advantage of a loophole which allows folks on the sex-offender registry to petition to be removed from the list after 10 years, based on the belief (clearly false in this case) that after 10 years sex offenders no longer pose a threat to the public safety.
This is obviously a troubling standard. It’s well known that the urge to molest children, like any other addiction, is not something that completely vanishes from the psyche of the assailant after time and treatment. This is why we have 12-step programs that many individuals partake of till they’re old and grey.
Sigurd Collins, the Mills’ landlord, struggles to believe that Elizabeth Mills could have played a role in sexual offenses against children.
“She was a really sweet woman – she was fantastic with her boys,” she said.
Yet Sigurd too is accepting the horrible truth:
“Kids, especially that age – that’s what makes me mad – the babies. It shows again you can trust nobody.”
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“It shows again you can trust nobody.” That’s probably an overstatement but the fact remains that it’s incredibly difficult to identify pedophiles and child molesters based on casual (or even close) acquaintanceship.