By Talia Buford
Journal Staff Writer
WARWICK — A Superior Court judge sentenced James E. Cook Friday to what amounts to life plus seven years for the 22 crimes from first-degree sexual assault to identity theft and drug possession to bestiality he was convicted of in March.
During the seven-day trial, prosecutors produced videotaped evidence of Cook, 47, performing sexual acts on two unconscious teenagers on separate occasions. Cook had also videotaped a sexual encounter that he orchestrated between a 17-year-old boy and a friend’s dog. His niece testified that Cook had sold drugs to her, and the state produced records and witnesses that showed Cook had used the identity of three other people to buy drugs on the Internet.
But it was Cook’s boldness that most bothered Judge Edward C. Clifton. Cook committed the crimes in 2008, while he was on home confinement after pleading guilty to previous identity theft charges that led to his disbarment.
“You didn’t get it then,” Clifton said in Kent County Superior Court. “You didn’t get the message that your conduct would lead you to the position you are in, and you went out and did these despicable crimes.”
Calling Cook “slick,” “sly” and “wicked,” Clifton sentenced Cook to life for 12 counts of first-degree sexual assault. While he is serving the life sentence, he will also be serving a 10-year sentence for felony conspiracy. He would be eligible for parole after serving 10 years at the Adult Correctional Institutions. If he is paroled from his life sentence, Cook would then begin serving 7 years of a 20-year sentence for abominable or detestable crimes against nature, or bestiality. At the same time, he would be serving a 5-year sentence for the identity fraud charges.
Cook also received concurrent 5-year suspended sentences, with 5 years of probation for each of the three counts of possessing drugs with the intent to deliver them. Cook was also ordered to register as a sex offender upon his release, and undergo sex-offender counseling. He is forbidden from contacting any of his sexual-assault victims, and will not be permitted to loiter near children or anywhere children congregate, such as public swimming pools or ice skating rinks.
He still faces federal child pornography charges stemming from other videotapes police officers found in his home.
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said the punishment was appropriate and “as stringent as [Cook’s] crimes are heinous.”
“We’ve been in this awhile and this defendant was as depraved, and his acts are as sickening as anything I’ve ever seen.”
In a statement to the court, Cook said he’s begun sex-offender treatment and regretted what he’d done. His attorney, Robert Craven, said Cook will file an appeal, but that the sentence came as no surprise.
“I heard a few sighs,” his attorney Robert Craven said. “I think there was some part of him that expected it.”
From: http://www.projo.com/news/content/COOK_SENTENCING_06-05-10_4HIOQHV_v9.15a85b7.html
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