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Wednesday, January 10, 2001



‘Mililani Rapist’
draws life in prison,
9 times over

It took three trials
to convict 40-year-old
James Allen Thompson


By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

A former prison guard received nine life sentences today in Circuit Court for a series of rapes and abductions in Mililani.

It took three trials to convict 40-year-old James Allen Thompson, who was called the "Mililani rapist," of the crimes that occurred in 1997. His first two trials ended with hung juries.

A victim and two family members gave statements in support of extended and consecutive sentences for Thompson this morning.

The victim described her transformation from a loving and trusting young girl to a lonely teen who can't even feel safe in her own home and feels so dirty she thinks no one will ever care for her.

"Now I'm so lost I don't know what to do. I cry myself to sleep and sometimes I wake up crying," she told Circuit Court Judge Dexter Del Rosario. "I guess I was wrong to think that people were good, that they won't hurt me."


By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
In Circuit Judge Del Rosario's courtroom this morning,
convicted 'Mililani Rapist' James Thompson
waits for sentencing.



Thompson was convicted of 18 counts of sexual assault and two counts of kidnapping in connection with raping three girls at knifepoint and attacks on two others.

"This is the end of a chapter, but not the book and story," said August Clark, father of a victim who was 14 at the time of the attack. "We've been scarred for life. We've been scarred for generations to come."

Clark and Scott Parsons, father of another 14-year-old victim, told of ongoing problems their daughters have faced since the attacks, ranging from fear of strangers, to alcohol abuse, to suicidal tendencies.

Parsons, a captain with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department in California, said he had to remove all alcohol and his guns from the home, after he learned from a counselor that his daughter had taken his service revolver and considered using it on herself.

"I do ask that another girl doesn't want to take her life because of his life," he said.

Del Rosario granted the request for extended sentences when he gave Thompson life in prison instead of 20 years on the most serious counts, but Del Rosario denied the request that the life sentences be served consecutively.

Thompson also received 11 lesser sentences ranging from one to 10 years. All the sentences are to be served concurrently.

Although prosecutor Rom Trader was disappointed in the decision to deny consecutive sentences, he said he planned to convince the paroling authority to set Thompson's minimum sentence "so high that it virtually assures that he can never walk out of there alive."

"We want to make sure the community is protected from Mr. Thompson," he said.

Now that Thompson is sentenced, Trader said he hopes the families finally can have some closure after waiting through two mistrials. "I think this has gone a long way for those people to put this behind them."



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