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http://www.newsmax.com/us/broadway_actor_plea/2008/01/03/61508.html
Actor Pleads Guilty in Sex Touching Case
Thursday, January 3, 2008
NEW YORK -- A Broadway actor accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl
at a theater and in his home pleaded guilty Thursday to two misdemeanor
counts of endangering the welfare of a minor.
James Barbour, 41, pleaded guilty in exchange for 60 days in jail and three
years probation when he is sentenced Feb. 29. Because the counts are
misdemeanors, he will not have to register as a sex offender.
Despite guilty pleas to endangering a child, Barbour admitted to the court _
at the prosecutor's insistence _ many of the sexual specifics of which he
was originally accused.
Barbour, who played the beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," was
starring on Broadway in "Jane Eyre" in June 2001 when a high school drama
teacher arranged for the girl _ an aspiring actress _ and her parents to see
the musical.
The actor admitted that when the girl came backstage alone to see him after
the show on the last weekend of its run, he began touching her sexually.
The next month, the teen visited Barbour at his Upper West Side apartment
where another instance of sexual touching occurred, the actor told the
court. He said he knew the girl was 15.
Barbour's lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti, said his client pleaded guilty so he
could put this case behind him and get on with his career.
"By pleading guilty to misdemeanors, he doesn't have to register (as a sex
offender), and that's important," the lawyer said. "He wouldn't have been
able to travel without reporting, and he wouldn't have been able to work
with children."
Fischetti blamed the girl for Barbour's troubles and questioned her motives,
saying, "She initiated both of these sexual encounters and then waited five
years before filing a complaint against him."
Meanwhile, Fischetti has a case before the state Court of Appeals, New
York's highest tribunal, seeking permission to publish the victim's name in
ads that ask men to report whether she ever filed false sex abuse charges
against them.
The judge had barred Fischetti from running such ads or setting up a
telephone hot line to receive calls about her.
Actor Pleads Guilty in Sex Touching Case
Thursday, January 3, 2008
NEW YORK -- A Broadway actor accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl
at a theater and in his home pleaded guilty Thursday to two misdemeanor
counts of endangering the welfare of a minor.
James Barbour, 41, pleaded guilty in exchange for 60 days in jail and three
years probation when he is sentenced Feb. 29. Because the counts are
misdemeanors, he will not have to register as a sex offender.
Despite guilty pleas to endangering a child, Barbour admitted to the court _
at the prosecutor's insistence _ many of the sexual specifics of which he
was originally accused.
Barbour, who played the beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," was
starring on Broadway in "Jane Eyre" in June 2001 when a high school drama
teacher arranged for the girl _ an aspiring actress _ and her parents to see
the musical.
The actor admitted that when the girl came backstage alone to see him after
the show on the last weekend of its run, he began touching her sexually.
The next month, the teen visited Barbour at his Upper West Side apartment
where another instance of sexual touching occurred, the actor told the
court. He said he knew the girl was 15.
Barbour's lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti, said his client pleaded guilty so he
could put this case behind him and get on with his career.
"By pleading guilty to misdemeanors, he doesn't have to register (as a sex
offender), and that's important," the lawyer said. "He wouldn't have been
able to travel without reporting, and he wouldn't have been able to work
with children."
Fischetti blamed the girl for Barbour's troubles and questioned her motives,
saying, "She initiated both of these sexual encounters and then waited five
years before filing a complaint against him."
Meanwhile, Fischetti has a case before the state Court of Appeals, New
York's highest tribunal, seeking permission to publish the victim's name in
ads that ask men to report whether she ever filed false sex abuse charges
against them.
The judge had barred Fischetti from running such ads or setting up a
telephone hot line to receive calls about her.
