Post by WaTcHeR on Feb 3, 2006 12:56:39 GMT -5
Officer Billy Ray White
03/2006 - Former Louisville Metro officer Billy Ray White was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in prison for raping a woman in front of her 9-month-old daughter.
After finding the former officer, Billy Ray White, guilty in the rape of Mary Shannon Franklin on Jan. 3, 2004, a Jefferson Circuit Court jury could have recommended up to 45 years in prison.
White will be up for parole in about 8 ½ years. He is not eligible for probation.
The jury of six men and six women also found White guilty of intimidating a participant in a legal process, tampering with a witness, tampering with public records, tampering with physical evidence and official misconduct.
White showed no emotion as he was sentenced. He glanced briefly toward his wife, Amiee, as he was led out of the courtroom.
Amiee White, who testified she was with her husband the night of the rape, nearly fainted after the verdict was announced after 1 a.m. yesterday. She did not react to his sentencing yesterday afternoon.
Because White was a police officer, he will be housed away from Jefferson County, and possibly outside of Kentucky, said Circuit Judge Thomas Wine.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Carol Cobb said she was satisfied with the outcome and hopeful that Franklin would be able to move on with her life.
"If she had never reported it, it would have been a perfect crime," Cobb told reporters yesterday.
Franklin is being named because she filed a civil lawsuit against White and the police department last year. That case is pending.
Prosecutors said White preyed on women while he was an officer, promising them jobs or special treatment in court cases to have sex with them. But when Franklin declined his advances, White went to her home, slammed her into a door and raped her, the prosecution said.
Defense attorney Steve Schroering told jurors that there was no physical evidence showing White had been in Franklin's apartment, that she had no injuries and that no one heard anything that night.
But Cobb said that White wore a condom during the rape to prevent evidence of the attack, and that the closet door had been broken.
The charges of tampering with public records and official misconduct involve a different case. As a patrol officer on June 20, 2003, White charged Nada Divine with theft at a Wal-Mart on Dixie Highway. Divine told police that White later called her and said he could take care of the case.
After meeting with him and having sex, Divine testified, she went to court and found her case wasn't on the docket.