Statutory Rapist Attorney, 59, Gets Probation in Plea Deal
A statutory rapist attorney in Tennessee has (We'd say "alleged," but since he just pleaded guilty, we'll drop the niceties.)
Kent Lowery Booher, an attorney who practiced criminal and (shudder) juvenile law, pleaded guilty to statutory rape of a 14-year-old victim earlier this week, reports Knoxville, Tennessee's WBIR-TV. The plea seems like quite a step down from the initial charges, which included charges for producing child pornography.
The deal calls for a three-year probation term for the 59-year-old, plus a minimum of 10 years on the sex offender registration list after that ends.
Disturbing Details
Last year, the Knoxville News Sentinel obtained court records detailing Booher's crimes. According to those records, police, acting on a tip that Booher was paying an underage girl for sex, interviewed the girl, who claimed that Booher had paid her for sex several times. She also told investigators that he had asked to videotape a sex act and claimed to have videotaped sex with other women using a hidden video card in his house.
During the searches, police seized a "bottle of Zyrexin sexual enhancer," seven guns, videotapes, hard drives, floppy discs and an array of other computer items, the News Sentinel reports.
Hell of a Plea Deal
Booher was originally charged with three counts of having sex with the underage girl, one count of using a minor to "participate in the production of material which included the minor engaging in sexual activity or simulated sexual activity," and soliciting the girl through another person.
In the end, he copped a plea to single statutory rape count and got no jail time -- only probation.
In case you're wondering, Tennessee's Board of Professional Responsibility "publicly censured Booher" last year, according to the News Sentinel. But that discipline stemmed from a matter unrelated to the statutory rape allegation; Booher's law license was neither revoked nor suspended.
A second person indicted in the statutory rape case, 36-year-old Malina Nanette Akin, was charged with promoting or permitting a minor to participate in the production of pornography; her trial ended in a mistrial last month. According to last year's reports, Akin does not appear to be related to the victim.
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