Ex-Clerk Gets 2 Years for Coerced Court Sex; Ex-Guard Gets 30 Years for Cuffed Inmate Rape
A former court clerk magistrate in Massachusetts was sentenced yesterday to two years in federal prison for coercing two women facing prostitution charges into courthouse sex.
James Burke, 43, also lost his $84,000-a-year job at Chelsea District Court after his arrest last year, the Boston Globe reported.
One of the victims told the judge at sentencing yesterday that Burke stalked her repeatedly after she was arrested on a prostitution charge, then sexually assaulted her while she was at the courthouse last year. She said he forced her into downstairs room and sat on her, threatening that she would remain in jail if she didn’t comply, the newspaper recounts.
“I absolutely did not consent to this action,’’ she testified at sentencing. “The brutality of it was shocking to me. Even though I had worked on the streets on occasion, nothing compared to the humiliation and powerlessness that I felt.’’
Burke allegedly coerced another victim into performing oral sex, in exchange for a promise that her prostitution case would be dismissed, and then reneged.
Attorney Robert Sheketoff represented Burke. He told the judge his client initially sought out prostitutes on the street, but that later “the courthouse became a safe haven to do what he did.” Shekotoff also said the two victims “bear some responsibility, too,” the Globe reports.
Also in the news this week were two other sentencings of individuals formerly responsible for upholding the law who were found guilty of abusing their positions to seek or obtain sex from those over whom they had authority.
In Florida, a former Broward County Sheriff’s deputy working as a corrections officer was sentenced to 30 years after being convicted of kidnapping and two counts of sexual battery by a person in authority.
His victim testified at trial that he dropped off two other women he was transporting from one jail to another, took her to a remote location and, while she was still handcuffed, forced her to perform oral sex and then raped her, reports the Sun-Sentinel.
Although the case pitted her word against his, DNA evidence supported her account and Charles Edward Floyd was convicted several months ago.
“He was an officer and I was what they considered a criminal. It was very difficult to come forward,” she told the Sun-Sentinel as she left the courthouse after his conviction. “I didn’t think anybody was going to believe me. But I won, I stood up for myself.”
Floyd, who is now 40, turned down a pre-trial plea offer that would have required him to accept a five-year sentence, followed by 20 years of probation.
His lawyer, Bob Nichols, told the judge the victim “did not appear traumatized after the event” and urged the judge to look at Floyd’s lifetime of community servce rather than focusing solely on the single worst day of his life.
Meanwhile, in Oregon, a 58-year-old deputy district attorney got 30 days in a plea bargain after he was accused of using his official position to attempt to obtain sex.
Rand Overton is also barred from working as a government lawyer for two years.
He admittedly made a comment, over the telephone, concerning underwear to a woman from whom he was attempting to get child support, after she appeared in court wearing what he described as a “rather revealing dress.”
