Release of molester infuriates parents
They saw new case as chance to put child molester away for good
09:04 AM CDT on Friday, June 4, 2004
Hope turned to outrage as parents of children molested by David Wayne Jones learned Thursday that he was set free after a judge dismissed a sexual abuse charge against him that could have sent him back to prison for the rest of his life.
A judge dismissed the November 2001 indictment that alleged that Mr. Jones, thought to be Dallas' most prolific child molester, had committed aggravated sexual assault against a child in the early 1990s.The judge said prosecutors had taken too long to bring the case to trial.
Parents of the more than 40 children Mr. Jones has admitted to molesting at an East Dallas YMCA camp in the early 1990s say the setback is another example of how the criminal justice system has failed them since Mr. Jones was first arrested more than 13 years ago.
That the charge was dismissed on a prosecutorial misstep after the alleged victim was finally willing to come forward makes it that much more frustrating, said the mother of one of the children who were molested.
"It matters, and it still matters," she said. "To find a young man who is willing to come forward like that is unusual. It takes a lot of courage and character ... you just keep hoping they'll do something right."
Bad feelings began, parents say, almost immediately after Mr. Jones was arrested in spring 1991. The mother of two boys who attended the camp said prosecutors and police did not do their homework before a plea bargain was offered. As a result, police and prosecutors were caught off guard when Mr. Jones revealed that he had molested more than 40 boys after authorities had agreed to give him the equivalent of one 15-year prison sentence.
"He wrote 40 names," the woman said. "No one said, 'Wow, this is not what I was led to believe.' "
Others said they were not consulted about that original plea deal until it had been drawn up. They say they were then told that their only choice was whether to be a part of the court agreement or not.
Some hoped for satisfaction in a lawsuit against the YMCA, but instead had to endure public and bitterly defended civil trials. Although there were other settlements in lawsuits, the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas was found grossly negligent in only one case involving two victims. But the plaintiffs' $250,000 award was only a fraction of what attorneys had sought.
YMCA board member Rex Aymond, who still serves on the board, said in a recent interview that he understands the "anger and hurt" that victims and their families still feel but that the board had no role in the outcome of the criminal case. The aggressive defense of the lawsuits – including efforts by attorneys to play down the abuse that occurred on the YMCA property – was done with attorneys representing the organization's insurance company, he said.
"We were as in the dark as everybody," he said.
And after Mr. Jones went to prison to serve his sentence, parents say, police investigators did not seem interested when new outcries about abuses were made as children progressed in their therapy.
Lt. Bill Walsh, who led the police investigation and still oversees the department's child exploitation division, said he remains satisfied with the way the case turned out because Mr. Jones' original prison sentence stood up to appeals and no child had to testify.
He noted that other high-profile child-abuse cases across the country – such as the McMartin Preschool case in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and several others in the mid 1980s – failed to win convictions or were overturned on appeal.
"Cases with multiple victims usually don't turn out that well," Lt. Walsh said in a recent interview. "In retrospect, we got the guy incarcerated and the kids didn't have to testify. I don't know that he got such a sweet deal – he did 13 years flat."
The case was the largest and most complex child sex abuse case in the city's history, and was unusual in that it was Mr. Jones' statements to police that led them to approach the boys to corroborate his statements.
Lynne Corsi, a co-founder of the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center where many of the children underwent counseling, said she thought at the time that investigators should not have expected all of the information to come out quickly. "They don't walk in the door and spill their guts, especially when you hit them with it before they're ready to tell," she said.
She also noted that such cases usually move through the investigation process slowly, even when a plea bargain is involved. "You don't just shut the door early and say 'That's all we got,' because that's not all you got."
Ms. Corsi said she and her staff at the center took seriously every new detail that came out in therapy. Her staff filed written reports on every new allegation and forwarded them to police, she said.
Lt. Walsh, who was also instrumental in the creation of the child advocacy center in 1991, said detectives worked cautiously and wanted to make sure that all of the cases that were filed could stand up to legal challenges. He said later allegations presented problems because they involved children who had previously denied that abuse had occurred or had said the offenses were limited to fondling.
"We wanted these cases to be rock solid," he said.
Eleven years into his prison sentence, Mr. Jones was indicted again after a grown victim came forward with a new and more-serious allegation about what had occurred at the day camp.
But once the indictment was secured, prosecutors now acknowledge, the case languished as they shifted their attention to a series of high-profile trials.
As a result, Mr. Jones was never notified that he faced another criminal charge until 21 months later when he was transferred from prison to a Dallas County jail for a court appearance.
That delay – after more than 11 years in prison – harmed his chances of defending himself, District Judge John Nelms ruled at a hearing Thursday before dismissing the case.
In the end, sentencing guidelines led to Mr. Jones' serving 13 years of the 15-year prison sentence agreed to in the original plea bargain.
Parents of those victims had hoped the new charge would keep him off the streets because if he had been convicted on the first-degree felony aggravated sexual assault charge, Mr. Jones could have faced life in prison.
The mother of the alleged victim in the dismissed case said she is "devastated" by the ruling. But she said her son is taking some solace in that it may have been his accusations that spurred Mr. Jones to have himself surgically castrated in March.
"He does feel that there was some purpose to his case," she said.
E-mail rtharp@dallasnews.com
1989: David Wayne Jones goes to work as a camp counselor at the YMCA in East Dallas.
March 1991: Mr. Jones is arrested after a 7-year-old boy accuses him of fondling him four times between Feb. 20 and March 6 at the boy's home. Mr. Jones begins cooperating with investigators in an intense three-month investigation during which more than 100 children are interviewed. The YMCA fires him.
Summer 1991: Mr. Jones admits sexually abusing at least 40 children between the ages of 4 and 14, with most from ages 7 to 9.
June 14, 1991: Police first divulge the case publicly on the day Mr. Jones pleads guilty to the first of the charges against him and is sentenced to what eventually becomes 17 concurrent 15-year terms for indecency with a child and charges of aggravated sexual abuse on one victim for which he receives 10 years of probation. The maximum sentence for indecency with a child is 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. For aggravated sexual assault of a child, it is life in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Prosecutors and police say they agreed to the plea bargain because victims' parents want the case closed quickly to avoid putting children on the stand. They say they have pursued the strongest cases and that no further charges are planned unless new information surfaces.
Many parents of children who go to the YMCA say that this is the first they have heard of the allegations. Lt. Bill Walsh, head of the Dallas police child exploitation unit, says the sensitive nature of the case led to tight restrictions on information. YMCA officials say police asked them not to contact parents or release information to them because it might taint the investigation.
October 1997: Mr. Jones is about to be released on parole when a last-minute interpretation of his time served, good behavior and work credit prompts the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to say he'll have to remain in prison. Mr. Jones' attorney says the department is succumbing to political pressure.
Sept. 29, 1999: Mr. Jones is released to a Dallas-area halfway house under a 1977 mandatory-release law that was in effect when he was sentenced. He is electronically monitored with an ankle bracelet 24 hours a day.
Oct. 12, 1999: Mr. Jones is jailed and eventually sent back to prison after violating his parole: He is accused of breaking the halfway house's rules regarding sexual behavior when found masturbating in the presence of another adult.
March 1, 2004: Mr. Jones has himself surgically castrated. He later says he has served his time and is capable of controlling his sex drive.
March 5, 2004: Mr. Jones returns to Dallas after serving 13 years related to his original plea agreement to face an unrelated indictment alleging that he sexually assaulted a 5-year-old boy during a field trip in the early 1990s. The boy first reported the incident in 1999, and Mr. Jones was indicted in November 2001.
Thursday: Mr. Jones is released from jail after a district judge throws out the indictment, saying prosecutors waited too long to bring the case to trial. Mr. Jones is expected to remain in a Dallas-area halfway house on parole until 2006.
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/060404dnmetjonesreax.a4ef2.html
