Monday, January 21, 2013

John Langworthy to Plead Guilty?


Very late word on the street is that John Langworthy will go before a judge on Tuesday morning and plead "guilty" to one or more charges of sexual abuse of a minor! You may recall he exhausted any chance of a plea bargain last month and the case was scheduled to go to trial, so this should mean mandatory prison time.

Watch Keep >> Child Predator John Langworthy to Face Trial

Stay tuned for the latest developments!  The Clarion-Ledger and Clinton TV stations should have coverage tomorrow.

Update:

Clarion-Ledger >> Ex-choir director, minister set to plead guilty to child molestation

Apparently I was mistaken.  It was my understanding that the chance for any plea agreement by Langworthy had expired and that he was going to trial January 28th regardless.  Now I just read that he appeared in court Tuesday morning, entered a guilty plea to 5 of the 8 charges, and the judge gave him a 10-year suspended sentence on each count (a total of 50 years suspended).

He must register as a sex offender.  That's good, but how many people actually check that?

He can't have contact with any of his victims. That means the ones named in the lawsuit. He wasn't in contact with them anyway! What about the victims not named (there were others) and the potential victims out there?  I do not see how this does anything to protect them!

Other than the inconvenience of "supervised probation" for five years and being placed on the sex offender registry this is little more than a slap on the wrist.

Clarion-Ledger >> Victim: 'It's about bringing the darkness to the light.'

WJTV >> Admitted sex offender avoids jail time

Clarion-Ledger >> No prison time for admitted child molester John Langworthy, former Clinton church minister, choir director