Nigger Ex-teacher pleads to lesser sexual misconduct counts

http://www.kentucky.com/454/story/259544.html

Sat, Dec. 15, 2007

Ex-teacher pleads to lesser sex counts

FACED FELONY CHARGES OF ABUSING 3 MALES IN '70S, '80S

Charles Little could get up to a year in prison.A well-known retired

Lexington music teacher who was facing three felony counts of third-degree

sodomy accepted a plea agreement yesterday, giving up his right to fight the

accusations of three men who say he sexually abused them more than 20 years

ago.

Charles F. Little Jr., 58, entered an Alford plea -- meaning he was not

admitting guilt, but acknowledging there was enough evidence to find him

guilty if he went to trial -- to three counts of sexual misconduct. The

amended charge is a misdemeanor that carries a penalty of six to 12 months

in prison.

Prosecutors recommended six months for each charge; however, the judge

cannot sentence Little to more than one year in jail. The judge could also

give Little probation. Fayette Circuit Judge Kim Bunnell postponed Little's

sentencing until Feb. 8.

Before entering his plea, Little was soft-spoken and stumbled through some

of Bunnell's questions, often asking her to repeat herself. He apologized to

her and said, "My mind's everywhere right now."

The judge explained that the misdemeanor charge would allow Little to avoid

registering as a sex offender. Still, Bunnell requested that Little undergo

a sex offender evaluation. She said that could assist her as she thinks

about his sentence.

"I don't like to set people up for failure; I like to set people up to

succeed," Bunnell told Little. "I don't know you. I don't know what's going

on. I know we have some very serious allegations here. We'll do anything we

need to do to assist you and to make sure we don't find ourselves in this

situation again."

Initially, the retired music teacher faced accusations from one accuser:

Robert H. Burnett II, who said he was abused from 1984 through 1985. Police

charged Little in January 2005 with using a minor in a sexual performance

and with third-degree sodomy.

A month after Little was arrested, police charged William A. Goatley, who

was accused of having sex with Burnett while Little watched. The grand jury

dismissed charges against Goatley, 45, of Louisville. Burnett, who is now

38, is serving a sentence for first-degree sodomy; he was convicted of

sexually abusing a boy under 12 years old.

Little, who retired from Lexington Traditional Magnet School in June 2001

with 30 years of service, was working as a part-time band and orchestra

teacher at The Academy at Lexington, which is now Booker T. Washington

Academy, at the time of his arrest. He has not returned to work.

Little and his attorney, Jim Lowry, declined comment yesterday.

Burnett's mother, Mary Nealy, was distraught after yesterday's hearing. With

tears streaming down her face, she said words could not describe her pain.

"It's hard; it's heavy," she said. "I'm a Christian woman, so, by faith, I

can forgive Charles. But he will have his day when he stands before God."

Little's two other accusers came forward days after his arrest. Both were

incarcerated at the time they talked to police -- one at the Fayette County

jail, the other at North Point Training Center in Burgin. Little didn't face

charges from those allegations until both men testified before the grand

jury in February.

The Herald-Leader does not normally identify alleged victims of sexual

abuse. Because he was convicted of sexual abuse, Burnett has been named in

previous articles. All three men said they were molested by Little when they

were teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s.

News that Little accepted a plea agreement to a lesser charge did not sit

well with his accusers, said Lexington attorney Gayle Slaughter, who has

been monitoring the case. She said she got messages from the victims,

wanting to know what they could do.

"These victims are tore up; it's a slap in their face," she said.

She compared yesterday's outcome to the case of Ron Berry, founder of a

now-defunct youth jobs program called Micro-City Government. Berry was

convicted in 2000 of 12 counts of third-degree sodomy involving former

Micro-City program participants. He completed a three-year sentence in 2005.

Slaughter said "this is worse than the Berry case."

Slaughter said Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson has "established a pattern

of showing indifference to the sexual molestation of black children."

Larson dismissed Slaughter's comments, saying "she doesn't know what she's

talking about."

"That kind of a comment from her doesn't surprise me," he said.

"Unfortunately, she doesn't have a clue."

The only similarities Larson said he could see in the Little case and

Berry's is that he got a conviction in each case. Larson tried Berry three

times (the first two ended in mistrials).

Larson said negotiations for the plea agreement came after Bunnell made two

key rulings in the case: She overturned the defense's request to have three

separate trials; and she ruled in favor of a defense motion to suppress

evidence obtained by investigators through a search warrant.

Bunnell overruled the defense's motion to separate the trials because each

case had similarities, such as the ages of the accusers and the

circumstances of the abuse they described.

Bunnell said the search warrant affidavit was defective and lacked

"sufficient probable cause" because investigators omitted necessary dates

and time frames. Police had seized several items in Little's apartment on

Cambridge Drive and in his storage locker, including 10 video cassettes, two

computers and other software, an adult CD/ROM collection and four

pornographic DVDs, court documents show.

Larson said the charges were amended to three counts of sexual misconduct

because, after that evidence was thrown out, what remained was "not super

strong." In part, he said, the deal happened because prosecutors were

dealing with "extremely old cases," and the accusers had criminal records.

"The question is, 'What's the jury going to do?'" Larson said. "We have to

consider all of those things. We're pleased that he pled guilty, and that

this case is finally behind us."