Acquitted Judge Faces New Claims of Child Molesting

A judge acquitted earlier this month of charges of raping another judge’s 13-year-old grandson hopes to return to work Monday, but a prosecutor says he has evidence from other cases that could keep the judge off the bench.

Calhoun County Dist. Atty. Bob Field said Wednesday he has gathered evidence showing that Circuit Judge James Sloan has been involved in at least 10 cases of sexual misconduct with children over the last 20 years.

Sloan denied the allegations.

“The statements we’ve taken are for the most part from actual participants,” Field said. “This is not a situation involving rumor or hearsay. These are people that have had an encounter with Judge Sloan.”

Sloan has been suspended with pay since July, 1985, when he was indicted on charges of raping and sodomizing the 13-year-old grandson of a Mississippi judge during a conference on child abuse in Providence, R.I.

On June 5, Sloan was acquitted on all charges in the case, with jurors saying there wasn’t enough medical evidence of a sexual attack.

Field said he planned to turn over the evidence that he gathered in the course of the Rhode Island trial to the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission early next week.

“I believe the evidence that we have and will be able to show the Judiciary Committee will show a history of this type of activity since he (Sloan) was in his early 20s,” Field said.