Walker Convicted Of Rape – August 30, 2011
The creepy clearing between the freeway and Community Park softball field where Jane Doe was raped. KLH | Eye
Kevin L. Hoover
Eye Editor
HUMBOLDT – Kevin Scott Walker was found guilty of two forms of sexual assault last week.
A seven-woman, five-man jury found Walker, 38, of Eureka, guilty of forcible rape while acting in concert and forced oral copulation while acting in concert following a July 5, 2010 attack on a 20-year-old woman in the wooded area between the Community Park softball field and U.S. Highway 101.
The woman stumbled out of the wooded area and asked nearby softball players for help. Witnesses said that around her mouth was a still-fresh red handprint from where she had been restrained and kept from screaming as she was assaulted.
Police were called while the ball players went over to the wooded area and immediately located Walker. Police soon arrived and arrested Walker.
On being led to an ambulance, witness Richard Marks said that “he started spitting on the EMT and pissing all over. He started yelling, ‘Don’t you know who my father is? He is going to kill you!’ Then he started chanting loudly, ‘Beelzebub, Beelzebub, Beelzebub, Beelzebub!’”
According to the Times-Standard, Walker was involved in another case of alleged sexual assault in 2008 involving sodomy during an assault with a metal pipe on a man in Trinidad. He later pleaded guilty to the assault charge.
In the Arcata incident, prosecutors said Walker had met victim Jane Doe on the Plaza and arranged to rendezvous with another man in the wooded area to smoke cannabis. But once there, he assaulted her.
Kevin Scott Walker
Walker’s defense had contended that the sex was consensual.
Walker is facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. His sentencing is set for Sept. 21. Regardless, he will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Police Chief Tom Chapman was extremely gratified at the trial outcome. “Walker is a bad guy,” Chapman said. “I truly believe he is a predator and there’s one place for him – in prison.”
He sympathized with Jane Doe, who had to endure painful cross-examination. “Kudos to the victim, who had the courage to testify under some pretty intense cross examination,” Chapman said.
He heaped praise on all those who helped build the case – the citizens who aided the woman following the assault, the officers who investigated it and the District Attorney’s Office for following through and securing a conviction.
“I’m proud of the investigation our officers conducted,” Chapman said. “Also, I appreciate the DA’s efforts in making sure that justice was served. It was a difficult case with difficult witnesses, but they were relentless and went forward when it would have been understandable if they hadn’t. I’ve got to hand it to [Deputy DA] Ben McLaughlin – he did an outstanding job.”
Softball enthusiast Richard Marks, who assisted the victim the night of the attack, was also happy with the verdict.
“I’m just glad that he’s put away for a while,” Marks said. He’s still somewhat rattled by the incident. “It was totally, absolutely bizarre,” he said.
18 years for Cardelli
In other sexual assault conviction news, former Calvary Chapel pastor Dino Cardelli was sentenced to 18 years in prison for serial sexual abuse of a girl whom he had adopted.
He pleaded guilty June 22 to charges of continued sexual abuse of a minor, child molestation, attempting to dissuade a witness and 25 counts of violating a court order forbidding contact with the victim. The sentence was the maximum allowed.
Chapman said Cardelli betrayed the trust inherent in his position, calling it “the most egregious conduct for a person in a position of trust.”
