Santa Barbara Courthouse
In a brief hearing underscored by statements from the victim’s parents, Joe Walker of Mammoth Lakes was sentenced to five years in prison and the requirement to register as a sex offender for life.
Walker faced 21 counts of sex-related offenses involving a Santa Barbara girl who was 14 and 15 during the crimes. Walker entered guilty pleas to five counts including unlawful contact with a child with the intent to commit a sex crime, two counts of lewd acts upon a child of 15, oral copulation and conspiracy to commit a crime. Court documents described instances over two years in which Walker engaged in sexual intercourse with the teenager and encouraged his friend, Dr. Andrew Bourne to do the same. Bourne also faced charges in this case, and he took his own life at the end of January.
Santa Barbara Deputy District Attorney Mary Barron said that after a brief sentencing hearing, Walker was remanded into custody of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff for transportation to the Department of Corrections. She said he was sentenced pursuant to the plea bargain.
Barron also said that she read statements from the victim’s mother and father at the hearing. The court has withheld names of the victim and parents. The mother’s two-page statement to Walker said, “You are a user and abuser. Your narcissistic indulgence in yourself, without giving a second thought to the remorse you bring to others around you, is perverted and cruel. My daughter begged you to stop. To go away. To leave her alone. She told you that no one should have to endure what you did to her. You didn’t stop,” read the mother’s statement.
The father’s brief statement said in part, “You took something that was not yours to take. Something you can never give back. You have brought pain, shame, heartache, and embarrassment to my family. You deceived us.” His statement ended by saying, “You have violated my family and we will never forgive you.”
The civil suit filed by the family against Walker and the estate of Bourne is still pending in Santa Barbara Court.
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A lot of us reading this have known girls that have been violated. They are damaged for life in almost every facet of their existence. Walker will likely get his in prison. He and Dr. Bourne can hang out together in a subterranean local with very warm weather. To those of you on the Meagan’s law site, I hope you make a trip there someday as well.
Maybe Joe can get a job with the TSA.
http://www.infowars.com/congresswoman-tsa-hiring-pedophiles-to-conduct-pat-downs/
Jenny B- I like you 🙂
That’s nice that the girl’s mom is “now spending almost everyday at her side”. Maybe if she would have spent a little time at her side instead of letting her hang out with a couple of old guys none of this would have happened, at least to her daughter.
I know I’m going to get chastised, but those letters smack of “civil suit” to me. Too bad, the kid never had a chance with a family of manipulators like that.
Yep
JeanGenie do you not get that these men were “FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY” do you not get that when you have friends you TRUST them !
Poor judge of character, probably further clouded by a type of star worship. Tan good looks and money don’t hurt either. Friends or flatterers?
I am sending best wishes to this family and especially to the victim. I, especially, wish for a return of peaceful days and nights, resolution of grief, and the strength to see each other through the ramifications of this horrific crime.
Justice is hard. You don’t know what is enough and if any sentence given will provide satisfaction.
You are in my thoughts and heart.
Wow, after reading that letter from the parents I feel even stronger that 5 yrs isn’t nearly enough, not even close.
I should have grabbed Joe’s front brake as I rode past him a few weeks ago while on a bike ride.
Luckily in prison he WILL be a marked man and like the letter to Joe states ” you are a child molester and in our society it doesn’t get any lower”. In prison society its a death sentence. Joe was a halfway decent runner but where he is going he can only run so far. Sweet dreams Joe!
Mother nature .. I think what Benett is saying that comments were not posted because there were posts, not only yours that were out of hand.
The same thing happened with myself and a couple other posters in a heated exchange with another poster here. A couple posters got out of hand, the posts were not posted .. end of story.
So what do the curious minds want to know exactly? What dirty deeds do the Gazelles want to know?
Hi Bennett,
Are you saying my post went beyond the” limit of decency and productive communication and made assumptions that evidence had not yet proved”?
Or are you saying you did not recall my post because you batch erased it without reading it being overwhelmed at the time?
A Gazelle doesn’t have to wait in debate and think 3 months to see if the Lion is dangerous to its community’s health…
Curious minds want to know…
MotherNature
I really don’t know. I have posted your comments. End of story.
Benett Kessler
MotherNature – your post was fine. No reason for it to have been sensored.
Blame it on an election year
Walker deserves to rot the words spoken by his attorney show a man whose only remorse is he got caught, after what he did to this girl and leading Dr Bourne into..
SB News Press had this section in their article ….”His attorney, Samuel Eaton, said following the readings that he respects the letters and the court had just heard the anguish of parents. But he characterized what transpired between the victim and Ms. Doe as a consensual relationship in which they were each getting something they weren’t getting elsewhere.
Mr. Walker has continued to receive emails from Ms. Doe expressing compassion, including on Sunday for his birthday and as recently as Thursday, said Mr. Eaton.
Rather than being a pedophile, Mr. Walker is a man who through his own devices fell into a forbidden love, closing his eyes to the situation that eventually horrified even himself, Mr. Eaton said.
Mr. Walker was honest with law enforcement and took responsibility for the charges, he pointed out.
Before handing down the sentence, Judge Eskin said everyone can embrace the parents’ anguish and anger in the situation, but acknowledged that unlike others, Mr. Walker has taken responsibility.
In addition to the prison time, Mr. Walker must pay restitution and register as a sex offender. Ms. Doe and her family are also seeking damages against Mr. Walker and against Dr. Bourne’s estate in a civil lawsuit.
Having been out of jail on $750,000 bail since January, Mr. Walker was taken back into custody at the conclusion of the morning hearing.
Ms. Barron commented that justice was served in a sense, but it’s hard to say whether Ms. Doe will ever recover.
The factual basis of Mr. Walker’s plea states he encouraged Dr. Bourne and the victim to have a sexual relationship. Among the 11 sexual encounters in which Mr. Walker was charged, he is alleged to have had intercourse with the victim at Dr. Bourne’s Mammoth Lakes home while the doctor was out of the country.
Dr. Bourne told detectives that Mr. Walker encouraged him to have a physical relationship with the teen, possibly an attempt by Mr. Walker to “mask” his own relationship with the girl, according to court documents filed by the prosecution.
Dr. Bourne reportedly told Santa Barbara Police Detective Jaycee Hunter that he would tell Mr. Walker about the sexual interactions.
The girl reported that Mr. Walker began urging her to have sex with the doctor in the summer of 2010 and told her, “Once you’ve been with (Dr. Bourne) then I won’t be alone in this,” according to the court filing….”
Marcus…..Agree that Walker should pay dearly for what he did…but let’s not try to take some,or any of the blame off Dr.Bourn for HIS PART in this fiasco.Dr.Bourn was a grown man,and his own fault,no one elses,for his involvement with a 13 or 14 year old girl…A grown,apparently responsible man can’t be “talked into” a relationship with an under-age girl….and then “forced” to reveal the details of the interactions to Walker….IMO, both of these “men” made statements to try to minimize their responsibility into what they did…
Hey Bennett,
You got this letter from Me in March and refused to share it.
Don’t you think it’s time to post it now, verbatim?
“Sexual abuse is a family disease.
If they got caught in their late 40’s, probability suggests that this is not the first time.
Other abused children are guaranteed to be present in our community.
The shame they carry will affect them for a lifetime.
How we care for the entire family of abuse is of utmost importance to a strong, healthy community.
Shame is not the way to heal from this terrible circumstance.
It is an uncomfortable topic that must be addressed.
If the Justice system works, it should take them off the street but if the entire system works it should protect and improve the health of our community through education and awareness, not shame and silence.
We shall see on Thursday…”
And Bennett, please let the entire community whom you serve, know the journalistic principal you held sacred when you censored this post?
Thanks,
Mother Nature
I do not recall your post, but I do recall that comments on the original Bourne/ Walker story and those that followed went beyond the limit of decency and productive communication and made assumptions that evidence had not yet proved. The situation is very different now. Benett Kessler
Jake….He’ll be back…….in Mammoth Lakes,and probably …well,never mind…
Rot in jail Joe, and please never ever come back to Mammoth.
Maybe Walker will find someone more his age in prison.
LOL Trouble .. yeah but now what he wants. Sad though what a waste of it all, for everyone involved. So now hopefully some closure to it.