Civil Rights Leader Sexually Abused Teen Daughter in 1990s
A famed civil rights leader who was present when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated almost exactly 40 years ago has been convicted of sexually abusing his daughter during the 1990s, when she was a teenager.
Yesterday’s conviction by a Virginia jury and 15-year sentence for James Bevel, 71, a minister, showed that he had indeed done wrong. However, it left his daughter, Aaralyn Mills, who is now 29, sad that he is going to prison instead of simply admitting his mistreatment of his daughters when they confronted him several years ago, reports the Washington Post.
“The real objective would have been for my father to just apologize and to work on this with us as a family,” says Mills, whose name was used by the Post with her permission, because the newspaper otherwise doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault.
After a family meeting in 2004, the Post recounts, “the daughters confronted their father, who said he performed sex acts to guide and train them, prosecutors said.” According to Mills, she was 6 when her father began sexually abusing her.
