Lummi Tribal Member Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Sexually Molesting Young Children
| U.S. Attorney’s Office February 13, 2013 |
A 42-year-old Whatcom County resident was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 14 years in prison and five years of supervised release for two counts of aggravated sexual abuse, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. DAVID ALLEN JAMES is a Lummi Tribal member and the crimes occurred on Lummi Tribal land, so the case was prosecuted federally. JAMES was indicted in May 2012 and pled guilty in October 2012. At sentencing, U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said, “We have come a long way in recognizing how devastating sexual abuse is to children and how it repeats itself through generations.”
According to records filed in the case, JAMES admitted that between April 2010 and April 2012, he sexually assaulted two young children who were in his care. The children, presently ages 7 and 8, disclosed the abuse and the Lummi Police Department and the FBI investigated.
Speaking to the court, JAMES said he hopes to use his time behind bars to get help to understand why he molested the children. JAMES claims that he too was molested as a child.
Judge Lasnik urged JAMES’ family to take a leadership role in bringing sexual abuse out of the shadows in their community, saying it was “hurting generation after generation of children. Step up and stop this cycle of sexual abuse.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas Brown.