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A Silver Lake man will serve less than two years in prison through a plea agreement in a case in which he got twins with intellectual disabilities drunk and then took advantage of them.
James Theodore King, 51, was sentenced by Senior Judge Jerry M. Barr – filling in for Superior Court I Judge David Cates – Thursday on one count of sexual battery, a level 6 felony, to 2-1/2 years in the Indiana Department of Corrections, with the last six months on probation. He will be given 74 days credit for time already served.
During his probation, he also must receive sexual predator counseling. He must have no contact with his victims or anyone with a mental disability or handicap. King must pay the cost of the court matter. He must follow the sexual offender rules during his probation and register as a sex offender.
Another count of sexual battery and two counts of rape were dismissed as part of his plea agreement. Court documents filed Feb. 23, 2016, listed the original charges against King as rape, a level 3 felony; and two counts of sexual battery, a level 6 felony.
At approximately 3:27 a.m. Feb. 20, 2016, Warsaw Police Department officers responded to a report of two missing 32-year-old female twins with intellectual disabilities. During the search, the women’s mother found them in the apartment of a neighbor, King. The twins had gone to his apartment to watch movies without their mother’s consent while she was sleeping. One of the girls informed their mother and an officer that they had been furnished alcohol by King. The twins were given breathalyzer tests, which registered at 0.125 and 0.129 percent. King told the officer he gave the twins root beer, but he had two alcoholic beverages while the girls were at his residence. When a breathalyzer was administered to King with his consent, his results were 0.000 percent.
WPD officer Jordan Foreman spoke with one of the twins, “AA,” who said King carried her into a back room, laid her on the floor and tried to pull her pants down multiple times, but she wouldn’t allow him to and he stopped. She said he carried her to the bathroom and wiped her after she urinated.
The second twin, “BB,” said she also had been carried to the back room and laid on top of a blanket on the floor. BB said after AA fell asleep, King kneeled next to her and pulled down her underwear and pants. She said King tried to have sex with her but she couldn’t say no because she was too drunk. BB said she could not fight or make King stop, and he touched her breasts.
She reported King used his cell phone to take pictures of her genitalia. He then took her into his living room and began to fondle her genitalia under her underwear.
At the Fort Wayne Sexual Assault Treatment Center, a sexual assault evidence kit was collected by a nurse who noted an abrasion on BB’s internal genitalia was consistent with BB’s account of attempted penetration by King.
In King’s cell phone, five photos of BB in a state of nudity were found.
A warrant for King’s arrest was ordered Feb. 23, 2016, with a $100,000 surety bond and $1,000 cash bond. A no-contact order was also issued.
During the sentencing Thursday, defense attorney Richard J. Thonert called King’s wife, Theresa King, as a witness. She said he has had no problems with the law since the 2016 incident and “he is a very devoted man to our Holy Father.” She said they start each day with daily prayer, and he’s been a great example of a father to her children.
Theresa said they have an outreach ministry that serves multiple counties and they are into street evangelism that helps people with their addiction battles. “This has become our life, this is our life,” she said.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brad Voelz asked Theresa if James’ devotion to God was recent or a lifetime one. She said she’s known him for over 30 years and it’s been since day one for him. “We all fall into temptation,” she said.
After she got off the witness stand, Voelz read a letter from the victims’ mother. She said her daughters are 34 now, but mentally are 13. The mother said King is “not a good person” and that while she agreed to the plea deal for him, she hoped the judge would give King the maximum sentence possible and that he needs to register as a sex offender. Her letter said her daughters are afraid of community events because they’re afraid they will see King there.
In his own statement, Voelz said it would not be wrong to see “BB” as a child because she perceives the world as a child and she mentally peaked at 13. In determining which charges to press against King, Voelz said he sought to seek if it was possible to charge him with child molesting because of the circumstances. He added that “disabled people are the most vulnerable victims.”
Voelz said King served the victim alcohol for the first time in her life. He found two disabled adults and got them drunk and then took advantage of them.
“I’m not saying a disabled person or a drunk person can not consent to sex, but when you combine the two, I believe that justifies aggravating circumstances,” Voelz told Barr.
Speaking for his client, Thonert said there were a lot of circumstances in the case which brought both sides to the plea agreement Thursday. He said King has been a law-abiding citizen. The “two young ladies” showed up at his door in pajamas, and while King shouldn’t have done what he did, there are “circumstances” in the case, he said. He asked that his client receive probation and no jail time.
Barr noted that Thonert presented letters of support for King, and that King and his wife have done “lots of good work in the Christian faith.” But one of the problems in his case was that certain actions of King’s are wrong in the eyes of most of the community and there was no excuse for that behavior. Barr said King apologized for his actions but he wasn’t sure if King understood how wrong his actions were.
In regards to a laptop, computer and cell phone involved in the case, Barr granted Thonert’s request for all of them to be destroyed. After the 30-day appeal window is over – though Thonert said King has no plans to appeal – a shotgun King had may be turned over to King’s father as King can not own a firearm as a convicted felon.
