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April 27, 2005
Conviction of school counselor is overturned
St. Louis' top prosecutor said Tuesday she will try to build a new case against James Beine after the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the conviction of the former school counselor who had been accused of exposing himself to three students at the city elementary school where he worked.
"I'm disappointed and frustrated by it," said Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce. "In my opinion, Mr. Beine has had a long career of abusing children. In my opinion, he's dangerous."
Joyce said her office has received at least 36 complaints alleging sexual abuse by Beine, a former Roman Catholic priest, but that the statute of limitations has expired for "virtually all." She said she would decide today whether there is anything more she could prosecute.
It was the second major legal victory in about four months for Beine, most recently of Highland, whose federal conviction on a charge of possessing child pornography was reversed by an appeals court in December.
Three students at Patrick Henry Elementary School, just north of downtown, said Beine exposed his genitals during the 2000-2001 school year as he urinated in a bathroom. He was indicted in 2002 and convicted by a jury in 2003 of four counts of sexual misconduct involving a child by indecent exposure. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Missouri Supreme Court judges all agreed Tuesday that there was insufficient evidence to convict Beine on one of the charges; a four-judge majority said there was not enough for the others, either.
The majority called the statute under which he was charged "patently unconstitutional" and so broadly written it could punish innocent conduct. Although a child may "suffer affront or alarm from witnessing such exposure, that alone can not make the exposure criminal," Senior Judge Charles B. Blackmar wrote. "If that were the case, no person ever would be able to use a public restroom."
Stephen Welby, one of Beine's lawyers, said, "It's a great day for him and his family."
The opinion orders the lower court to enter a judgment of acquittal and says Beine cannot be retried on those charges.
Three other Supreme Court judges said the law was constitutional and found sufficient evidence for conviction involving two of the boys.
Although Blackmar cited the "notorious unreliability of jailhouse snitches," Judge Laura Denvir Stith wrote in the partial dissent that a fellow inmate in the Madison County jail, William Longwell, had testified that Beine admitted knowingly exposing himself and said Beine told him he was "drawn to" the children.
Beine, who changed his name to Mar James, was removed from the ministry in 1977, amid allegations of sexual abuse. He then formed his own church.
He and the archdiocese were sued at least eight times in the 1990s over allegations of sexual abuse. Two of the cases were settled for a combined $110,000. Barbara Dorris, a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement, "It's now up to school and Catholic officials to aggressively reach out to others who Beine hurt and urge them to file criminal charges."
Beine, the St. Louis Public Schools, which employed him as a counselor, and school officials still face a lawsuit filed on behalf of two of boys, seeking more than $2 million.
He was convicted in 2003 in federal court in St. Louis of possession of child pornography, sentenced to 57 months and fined $10,000. But a federal appeals court overturned the conviction, saying St. Louis police detectives violated his rights by seizing compact discs without a search warrant.
Federal prosecutors in Illinois had filed separate child porn charges relating to material on Beine's home computer but dismissed the case the same month that Beine was sentenced on the other federal charges and convicted of indecent exposure.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Massey in East St. Louis declined to comment on whether the Illinois case might be revived.
Missouri corrections officials said late Tuesday they had not yet received any release papers for Beine, who was in prison at Farmington.
Supreme Court Judges Ronnie L. White, Michael A. Wolff and Richard B. Teitelman joined in Blackmar's decision for the majority. Judges William Ray Price Jr. and Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. agreed with Stith in the minority.
Posted by Nealus at April 27, 2005 01:13 PM
