| For Immediate Release Case # 08NF3349
June 30, 2009 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
LOS ANGELES SHERIFF’S DEPUTY CONVICTED OF MOLESTING 15-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER OF TERMINALLY ILL FRIEND IN HOSPITAL
FULLERTON – A deputy for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was convicted today of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, the daughter of a friend, while her father was in the hospital. James Joseph Doyle, 45, Long Beach, pleaded guilty to the court to one misdemeanor count of lewd acts on a 15-year-old child. He was sentenced to one year in jail, three years of formal probation, and lifetime sex offender registration. The charge, which was filed in October 2008 as a felony, was reduced to a misdemeanor by the court over the objection of the People.
On June 20, 2008, Doyle offered to take 15-year-old Jane Doe and her sister to get something to eat while their father, a friend of Doyle’s, was is the hospital being treated for a terminal illness. While the defendant was driving the two girls home, Jane Doe, who was riding in the front passenger seat, complained that her shoulder was hurting. Doyle reached over, began to massage the victim’s back, and then placed his hand under Jane Doe’s shirt and grabbed her breast.
Approximately one week later, Jane Doe told her mother about the sexual assault after her mother saw text messages between Jane Doe and a friend discussing the incident. Jane Doe and her mother did not immediately contact police because they did not want to be distracted during the last days of Jane Doe’s father’s life. After the victim’s father died, Jane Doe contacted Brea Police on Sept. 16, 2008, to report the sexual assault.
Deputy District Attorney Mark Sacks of the Sexual Assault Unit prosecuted this case.
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