JUDGE REDUCES CAMP COUNSELOR'S 40-YEAR SENTENCE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 23, 1993                   TAG: 9301230285
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
JUDGE REDUCES CAMP COUNSELOR'S 40-YEAR SENTENCE
A court oversight led Botetourt County Circuit Judge George E. Honts III on Friday to slightly reduce the sentence he imposed the day before on a church camp counselor convicted of molesting nine young girls last summer.
Court paperwork indicated to Honts that John Robert LaFlamme was convicted on nine counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of assault and battery stemming from his fondling of the girls at a church camp in Botetourt last summer where he was a volunteer counselor.
At LaFlamme's sentencing Thursday, Honts sentenced LaFlamme to eight years in prison on the first aggravated sexual battery conviction, and four years each on the remaining eight aggravated sexual battery convictions - a total sentence of 40 years. Honts also gave LaFlamme a year on the assault-and-battery conviction to run concurrently with the 40 years.
However, LaFlamme was only convicted on eight counts of aggravated sexual battery, not nine. So, Honts reduced his sentence to 36 years, subtracting the four years from the additional aggravated sexual battery count.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB