joewalker

Joe Walker of Mammoth Lakes

In the Santa Barbara child sex case that involved two Mammoth men, Dr. Andrew Bourne overshadowed co-defendant Joe Walker in news reports.  With Bourne’s death, Walker stands alone against charges that he contacted a teen girl for sex and committed lewd acts with her.  Walker was scheduled to head back to court Friday.

According to Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley, her office is awaiting Dr. Bourne’s death certificate for official termination of his case. When asked if additional charges would be filed against Walker, DA Dudley said that is “still under consideration.”  Walker is scheduled to appear in Santa Barbara County Superior Court on Friday, Feb. 10, to set the date for his preliminary hearing.

News accounts have quoted Santa Barbara Deputy District Attorney Mary Barron as saying that Walker had met the 14-year-old victim at her school on one occasion.  Barron was also quoted as saying that Walker told a Santa Barbara detective that once the teenager turned 18, “he would want to continue a relationship with her.”

Walker’s attorney, Sam Eaton had told the court that a lot of the prosecutions claims are “innuendo rather than real fact.”  Walker and Bourne were arrested after detectives said they seized over 1,000 emails from the men to the girl. Walker faces one count of committing a lewd act on a child and six counts of contacting a child with intent to commit a sexual crime.

Deputy DA Barron has also been quoted as saying that over the course of the men’s two-year relationship with the girl, now 15, there were “numerous clandestine meetings” in Santa Barbara and Mammoth Lakes to which the girl traveled more than 100 times, according to Barron.

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