James L. Parker Jr. - U.S. Air Force - Convicted Sex Offender - Indecent Acts With A 10 Year Old Child

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Name: James L. Parker Jr.

Case: United States v. Parker No. ACM 35673

Date Of Conviction: June 20, 2003

Plea: Not Guilty

Charges: Forcible Sodomy Of A Child Under 12

Military Branch: U.S. Airforce

Listed In National Sex Offenders Registry? NO

The appellant was convicted, contrary to his pleas, of indecent acts with a child, AMF, the 10-year-old dependent daughter of another Air Force noncommissioned officer, in violation of Article 134, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 934. He was charged with, but acquitted of, the rape of a second minor, JRH, while at a previous assignment.

He was sentenced by a court consisting of officer members to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for 4 years, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to E-1. The convening authority approved the sentence as adjudged.

The evidence against the appellant consisted of AMF’s testimony at trial, corroborating testimony from her parents, an oral admission the appellant made toAMF’s stepfather indicating how he hates “child molesters” and “he had never done this before” his misconduct with AMF, and a handwritten sworn statement the appellant provided to agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). In his statement, the appellant admitted that he touched AMF’s vagina “to relieve sexual tension.”

He explained that he “had not had sex in 8-10 months” and that he began “rubbing on” AMF – a friend of the appellant’s daughter who was sleeping over at the appellant’s on-base quarters – because she “was there.”

In a second statement to AFOSI, the appellant admitted that in addition to his acts involving AMF, he engaged in various sexual acts with JRH 12 to 15 years earlier, when she was under the age of 16. Most of these acts did not involve intercourse and were outside the statute of limitations, but the appellant admitted he engaged in intercourse with JRH on one occasion; this was the basis of the rape charge on which he was acquitted.

The appellant was convicted of only the indecent acts with AMF. The evidence of his misconduct was solid: AMF’s testimony was clear, compelling, and corroborated by the appellant’s confession. The defense’s efforts to suggest that the appellant was asleepwhen he molested AMF were fatally undermined by his admissions to the AFOSI that he was conscious and knew what he was doing.

A test purporting to show that the appellant was not a pedophile – even assuming such evidence could have passed muster under Daubert – would have made little impact on the case: the appellant was not charged with being a pedophile, nor did the prosecution ever seek to label him as such.

Sentence adjudged 20 June 2003 by GCM convened at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Military Judge: Gregory E. Pavlik. Approved sentence: Bad-conduct discharge, confinement for 4 years, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to E-1