Judge Denies Raping Boy, 13, at Conference

An Alabama state judge pleaded innocent today to charges he repeatedly raped another judge’s grandson during a conference on court services for children.

Circuit Court Judge Jimmy Dean Sloan was released on a personal recognizance pledge of $70,000 in collateral after being arraigned on seven felony counts in Providence Superior Court. He had been free on $10,000 personal recognizance since a special weekend arraignment on a single charge following his July 12 arrest.

Sloan stood silently during the proceeding and declined to talk to reporters.

Sloan, 42, of Anniston, Ala., is charged with three counts of first-degree child sexual assault, one count of second-degree child sexual assault and three counts of violating Rhode Island’s law against oral sex and sodomy.

All Felony Counts

All of the counts are felonies, and the first-degree sex-assault charges carry possible life sentences.

Sloan took a paid leave of absence from his $70,400 post after being charged with assaulting the 13-year-old boy in a Providence hotel room July 11 during the annual conference of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

The organization suspended Sloan, who is married and has two children, from its board of trustees following his arrest.

State police originally charged Sloan with one count of child-sexual assault.

The boy told police he had asked Sloan how to operate the hotel television, and that the judge invited him into his room to show him. In the room, Sloan allegedly forced the boy to engage in sex.

State police documents filed with the court say Sloan acknowledged inviting the boy into his room but denied any sexual contact with him.

The state police affidavit also said Sloan tried to persuade investigators to drop the charges, and urged them to ask the victim’s grandmother to consider lodging only a misdemeanor complaint.