Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 18, 1994 TAG: 9402180061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE LENGTH: Medium
James Hollis Kimrey pleaded "no contest" Thursday to two charges of sexual battery. The girls were 12 and 13 at the time he abused them.
Kimrey, 48, paid a $1,000 fine.
Under a plea bargain, Kimrey will serve one year of probation, with a two-year suspended sentence hanging over his head. Circuit Judge George Honts promised to throw Kimrey in jail if he gets in trouble in the next year.
The charges date back to a time when Kimrey was the minister at Cave Rock Church of the Brethren and a successor church.
Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Hagan said four woman told investigators that Kimrey molested them when they were girls. Hagan said authorities decided to prosecute two of the cases and negotiated the plea after consulting the victims.
Because of the length of time since the crimes, he said, it would have been a difficult case to prosecute.
Hagan gave this summary of the two crimes of which Kimrey was convicted:
In the fall of 1975, he disrobed a 13-year-old girl who was baby-sitting his two-year-old child. He rubbed her breasts, buttocks and genitals.
In the spring of 1976, a 12-year-old church member received an obscene phone call. Moments later, Kimrey called and talked to the girl's mother, who told him her daughter had been upset by an obscene caller. Kimrey volunteered to counsel the girl. He drove her to his house, where he took her clothes off and fondled her.
Kimrey had a criminal record before he became a minister, and got in trouble again after he left the Botetourt church in the late 1970s. He broke into two restaurants in Rockbridge County and stole $500. He was caught and sentenced to a year in jail and nine years' probation. He broke out of jail, got caught again and was sentenced to an extra year for escape.
He was released from prison in 1985. He was living in Northern Virginia when he was arrested on the sexual assault charges.
His attorney, Thomas Blaylock, said Kimrey recently remarried and "his life is in great shape."
Kimrey does not admit the crimes, but decided to take the plea bargain because "it's just Russian roulette" to take such a case to a jury, Blaylock said.
Outside the courthouse, Kimrey said, "I just want to say: When somebody waits 18 years to accuse you of a crime, it's impossible to defend yourself."
But one of his victims, who was 13 at the time, said Kimrey caved in because the evidence against him was too much. "He knows in his heart he's guilty. I do."
by CNB