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James Barbour convicted of child molestation headlines Scientology religious event.
Mike Rinder: The Most Ethical Group On Earth
http://www.mikerindersblog.org/the-most-ethical-group-on-earth/
Excerpt from Mike:
Daily News: Type casting: Broadway 'Beast' James Barbour pleads guilty to molestation
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...ur-pleads-guilty-molestation-article-1.339719
http://nypost.com/2008/01/04/beast-i-pawed-gal-15/
http://nypost.com/2008/03/01/bway-beast-caged/
New York Times: Broadway Actor Pleads Guilty to Backstage Sex Act With Girl, 15, in 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/nyregion/04actor.html
Fox News: Court Gags Lawyer of Broadway’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Actor James Barbour
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/0...quobeauty-and-beastrsquo-actor-james-barbour/
Excerpt:
The Weekly Vice: Disney Actor James Barbour Blames Child After Fondling Her Sexually
http://www.theweeklyvice.com/2008/01/disney-actor-james-barbour-blames-child.html
Excerpt:
Mike Rinder: The Most Ethical Group On Earth
http://www.mikerindersblog.org/the-most-ethical-group-on-earth/
Excerpt from Mike:
Sources for Wikipedia:James Barbour hasn’t been seen for many years.
Back in the mid 2000's, he was one of the “A-list” musicians who was invited to perform on the Freewinds for MV.
But then he got himself into trouble. Big time.
Here is a summary from his Wikipedia page.In April 2006, Barbour was arrested and charged with having inappropriate relations with a female minor five and half years prior. In the Fall of 2006, he was indicted by a grand jury in New York for said crime. In January 2008, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanour counts of endangering the welfare of a minor in exchange for a lesser sentence of 60 days in jail and three years probation. Also, in accordance with his plea bargain, Barbour made a public allocution to these misdemeanors. He began his sixty-day jail sentence at Rikers Island on February 29, 2008.
Daily News: Type casting: Broadway 'Beast' James Barbour pleads guilty to molestation
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...ur-pleads-guilty-molestation-article-1.339719
New York Post: BEAST: I PAWED GAL, 15Broadway "Beast" James Barbour was unmasked today as a liar - and a child molester.
Barbour, who once played the Beast in "Beauty and the Beast," pleaded guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child - just 13 months after he called his accuser a conniving gold digger.
As his wife and the victim looked on, Barbour quietly admitted in Manhattan Supreme Court that he forced the teen-age girl to touch him.
When Justice Micki Scherer asked Barbour if he was aware of the aspiring actresses age, he replied, "Yes. Fifteen."
Barbour also admitted luring the victim to his apartment by promising to introduce her to theatrical producers - and then engaging in oral sex with her.
It was a humiliating admission by the 41-year-old actor, who in December 2006 said through his attorney that the actress only leveled the charges against him after learning he had inherited a large sum of money.
"She left NYU, she's working in a bakery, she's completely out of money," his lawyer Ronald Fischetti had claimed. "The motivation has to be because he's coming into money, and because he's becoming a Broadway star."
But prosecutors produced a secretly recorded tape in which Barbour referred to himself as "unethical." They also revealed that another woman has come forward accusing Barbour of sexually assaulting her in California when she was just 13.
Now Barbour is set to play a new role - as a jail inmate - when he is sentenced on Feb. 29. He faces 60 days in prison and three years probation.
While Barbour will not have to register as a sex offender, he has to steer clear of all contact with underage kids for three years. One condition of probation is he has to complete a sex offender treatment program and give cops access to his computer files.
Dressed in a gray suit, Barbour admitted first groping the actress in July 2001 in his dressing room at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre where he was performing in "Jane Eyre."
Leaving the courtroom with his wife on his arm, Barbour, who lives in California, said only, "We're just happy to have it behind us."
Barbour's now 21-year-old victim could not be reached for comment.
Barbour initially claimed he was just mentoring the young actress who hails from his hometown - Cherry Hill, N.J. - and who has played bit parts in the stage version of "Les Miserables" and on "The Sopranos."
He insisted he never had sex with the teenager - even though he claimed she was willing.
http://nypost.com/2008/01/04/beast-i-pawed-gal-15/
New York Post: B’WAY BEAST CAGEDNow he’ll be a caged Beast.
Former “Beauty and the Beast” star James Barbour faces two months in jail after confessing in graphic language yesterday to sex with a starry-eyed, 15-year-old actress wannabe – including one tawdry grope session in his Broadway dressing room a half-hour before curtain.
Barbour’s pretty wife, Dana, looked pale and tense yesterday as she sat through his racy, misdemeanor confession in Manhattan Supreme Court.
But the green-eyed, 6-foot-4 musical-theater actor rendered his monologue with a breezy, almost cheerful crispness.
“I took her back to my dressing room” at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on West 47th Street, Barbour told the judge, describing a June 2001 incident when he was 35 – 20 years older than the girl he later claimed to be “mentoring.”
At the time, Barbour – perhaps already in his waistcoat – was about to go onstage as the dashing Edward Rochester in the commercial flop “Jane Eyre.”
The girl – now a 22-year-old successful stage and TV actor – had been brought to the theater by her trusting parents, who wound up waiting outside the door while their daughter was groped.
“I placed my hand – I mean her hand,” Barbour continued, flubbing his line, “on my p- – -s and my hand on her v- – – -a.”
“On her what?” asked the court stenographer, leaning in to hear him.
“On her v- – – -a,” he repeated helpfully, projecting more clearly.
Barbour next admitted to a second romp with the girl, this one a month later in his West 98th Street apartment.
“We engaged in oral sexual conduct. I knew she was 15,” he said.
Barbour admitted that his behavior endangered the girl’s welfare. The Los Angeles resident will remain free pending his Feb. 29 sentencing to 60 days in jail and three years on probation.
With good behavior, he’ll serve just 38 days, said his lawyer, Ronald Fischetti.
Then follows three years’ probation, during which he must attend sex-offender treatment and inform any directors or producers he works with, in writing, that he has engaged in sexual conduct with a 15-year-old.
He won’t have to put that last bit in his Playbill bios.
“I’m just happy to have this behind me,” Barbour said as he left the courtroom.
While his victim’s star has risen – she’s had recurring bit roles on “The Sopranos” and played minor parts in two Broadway plays – Barbour has been working primarily at a small reparatory theater in Sarasota, Fla.
Lead prosecutor Maxine Rosenthal has repeatedly criticized Barbour’s defense team for harassing the victim – including threatening to publish her name in Variety so he could better research her sexual history. He’d also laid his furry mitts on a previous teen, she claimed, although that case, involving a 13-year-old, is too old to prosecute.
Barbour had countered that the girl came on to him and only came forward with the accusations on the brink of the five-year statute of limitations – after hearing that he’d inherited money upon the death of his mother.
http://nypost.com/2008/03/01/bway-beast-caged/
EDITED TO ADD:The Beast of Broadway went off to jail yesterday in true beastly manner – making his young sex victim cry by trashing her as a fame-greedy Lolita.
“That’s not true!” the now-22-year-old victim screamed at one point during an emotional hearing, at which musical-theater actor James Barbour – who once played the Beast on Broadway in “Beauty and the Beast” – was sentenced to two months behind bars.
The victim – whose name is being withheld due to the nature of the crime – rose in tears from her seat in Manhattan Supreme Court after Barbour’s defense lawyer began lashing out against her to the judge, claiming the then-15-year-old had thrown herself sexually at the then-35-year-old star.
Having twice seduced him, she then continued, for years, to beg him for advice and letters of recommendation, claimed the lawyer, Ronald Fischetti.
“He coached her, helped her,” the lawyer said. “He did all these things.”
“That’s not true!” the young woman protested. The judge quickly reminded the distraught victim to stay in her seat. “Sorry! Sorry!” she answered, sobbing.
The victim is now a successful television and stage actor. But she was just a starry-eyed 15-year-old wannabe back in 2001, when Barbour admittedly enjoyed a consensual pre-theater groping session with her in his Broadway dressing room as her parents waited outside, assuming she was being “mentored.”
He was starring at the time in the commercial flop “Jane Eyre” at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
One month later, he admittedly engaged in “oral sexual conduct” with her at his West 98th Street apartment. Now 42, he was 20 years her senior.
“I struggled with complete lack of self-esteem and panic attacks,” the petite and pretty young woman told the judge yesterday, reading from a victim-impact statement she held with trembling hands.
“When I finally told my parents, and they realized how he had manipulated them in order to get to me, they were crushed and hurt beyond words.”
New York Times: Broadway Actor Pleads Guilty to Backstage Sex Act With Girl, 15, in 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/nyregion/04actor.html
EDITED AGAIN TO ADD:Correction Appended
A Broadway actor admitted on Thursday that in 2001 he seduced a 15-year-old girl who visited him backstage, and agreed as part of a plea bargain to reveal that admission to anybody he works for in film, television or theater for up to the next three years.
The actor, James Barbour, was accused of having criminal sexual contact with a high school student who was an aspiring actress when she attended a performance of “Jane Eyre” in June 2001.
The student’s drama teacher arranged for her to visit the Brooks Atkinson Theater with her parents. Mr. Barbour told Justice Micki A. Scherer of State Supreme Court in Manhattan that the girl visited him in his dressing room before the final curtain call and that he fondled her, knowing that she was only 15 years old.
He also told the judge that he had oral sex with the girl in his apartment the next month. She did not come forward with her account for several years.
Under the negotiated deal, Mr. Barbour, 41, pleaded guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, both misdemeanors, in exchange for a promise that he would be sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years’ probation.
Mr. Barbour’s lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, said his client accepted the deal because if a jury had convicted him of the original felony sex charges against him he would have been forced to register as a sex offender, “which basically would have ended his career.”
His lawyer said that the prosecutor’s agreement to a misdemeanor plea showed the weaknesses of its case. But Mr. Barbour had to agree to a lengthy series of conditions of probation that are very similar to those that apply to convicted sex offenders.
While he is on probation, he must inform the manager, producer or assistant director of any theatrical, film or television project he works in that he has been convicted of endangering the welfare of a child, “having engaged in oral sexual conduct and sexual contact with a 15-year-old child.”
And he has to get permission from the court or his probation officer to participate in shows employing child actors or to give backstage tours to children.
He must also attend sex-offender treatment and cannot visit playgrounds, arcades, amusement parks, school grounds or Internet chat rooms frequented by children without permission from his probation officer.
In a signed statement to the police in April 2006, Mr. Barbour said that he was just acting as a mentor to the girl, that he had done no more than touch her knees and kiss her and that he thought that she was 16.
But in court on Thursday when asked by Justice Scherer, “Were you aware of her exact age?” Mr. Barbour replied, “Yes.”
“What was that age?” Justice Scherer pressed.
“Fifteen,” he replied.
At least one Broadway veteran said on Thursday that Mr. Barbour, who played the Beast in “Beauty and the Beast” for about one year, might find himself less marketable for family-friendly shows for awhile.
“I think if he did a show with adults, he might be entitled to a second chance,” said Emanuel Azenberg, a Broadway producer. “‘Sweeney Todd,’ O.K. But even then I certainly wouldn’t put it in the bio.”
Saying on Thursday that those conditions could turn out to be “a big price to pay,” Mr. Azenberg said producers might be concerned about the moral and legal liability involved in casting an actor convicted of endangering a child.
Producers could be wary of financial and artistic repercussions, he said, because casting directors would feel obliged to reveal Mr. Barbour’s conviction to the parents of any children who might audition for a show, “and then your casting choices would be compromised.”
But Jay Binder, a casting director who said he had begun Mr. Barbour’s career by casting him in “Beauty and the Beast,” said he would make decisions based on talent.
“James Barbour is a first-rate Broadway leading man,” Mr. Binder said. “If he were the actor that the entire creative staff agreed upon, there would be no professional reason not to hire James Barbour.”
Mr. Fischetti said he expected his client, who will be sentenced next month, to be out of jail in time to perform in “A Tale of Two Cities” if it comes to New York. Mr. Barbour played Sidney Carton during a pre-Broadway tryout in Florida last year. The producers of the show declined to comment on Thursday.
He said Mr. Barbour was recently married in a civil ceremony — his wife accompanied him to court on Thursday — and was planning a formal wedding in Hawaii. Mr. Fischetti said the woman Mr. Barbour was convicted of endangering is now an actress.
Campbell Robertson contributed reporting.
Correction: January 10, 2008
An article on Friday about a guilty plea by James Barbour, a Broadway actor, to endangering the welfare of a child for seducing a 15-year-old girl who visited him backstage misstated the length of time he played the Beast in “Beauty and the Beast.” It was about one year, not “about eight.”
Fox News: Court Gags Lawyer of Broadway’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Actor James Barbour
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/0...quobeauty-and-beastrsquo-actor-james-barbour/
Excerpt:
ANOTHER EDIT TO ADD:NEW YORK – A lawyer for a Broadway actor accused of having sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl may not publicize the teen's name in an effort to learn whether she has falsely accused anyone of molesting her, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
The appeals court rejected the attempt by lawyer Ronald P. Fischetti to lift the limited gag order imposed on him by the judge who is overseeing the sex abuse case of actor James Barbour, who played the beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast."
Fischetti told a lower court judge the district attorney's office set up a telephone hot line to receive calls about Barbour and he wanted to do something similar.
"I want to put up a hot line with her (the victim's) name on it (and place it) in the newspapers," Fischetti said. "We believe that this alleged victim has made these false allegations before."
The court upheld the judge's decision not to allow it, saying that Fischetti had shown no good faith basis for suggesting the girl had a history of falsely accusing anyone. It said that without such a showing, the policy interest of having sex crimes victims come forward without fear of exposure "outweighs what would amount to a fishing expedition."
The Weekly Vice: Disney Actor James Barbour Blames Child After Fondling Her Sexually
http://www.theweeklyvice.com/2008/01/disney-actor-james-barbour-blames-child.html
Excerpt:
Another Disney actor, 41 year old James Barbour has crossed all of those lines and more.
James Barbour, the actor who played 'the beast' in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" has plead guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Barbour, who also works as a Broadway actor met the child when she was brought back-stage to meet him following a Broadway production he was starring in. Barbour admitted it was then that he began touching the 15 year old girl sexually.
The sexual touching continued the next month when the girl visited him at his New York apartment. He admitted to the court that he had known that the girl was 15 at the time.
Barbour agreed to the charges in exchange for a reduced sentence. 60 days in jail and three years of probation. Sentencing is currently scheduled for February 29th, 2008.
By pleading guilty to the arrangement, Barbour will not have to register as a sex offender. According to his attorney Ronald P. Fischetti, "By pleading guilty to misdemeanors, he doesn't have to register, and that's important. He wouldn't have been able to travel without reporting, and he wouldn't have been able to work with children."
And Now For The Outrageous Part:
Although Barbour admitted to sexually touching a minor child that he knew was under aged, he blames the child for the entire thing.
His Attorney publicly lashed out at the child, blaming her for Barbour's legal troubles and questioning her motives. Barbour's attorney issued a statement claiming "She initiated both of these sexual encounters and then waited five years before filing a complaint against him".
Barbour, through his attorney took the blame a step further by attempting to publish the minor child's name in newspaper ads in an attempt to solicit responses from other men who might have experienced the same supposed advances from the child.
The Court of Appeal's Judge hearing the case was forced to ban Barbour from running the ads.
The Weekly Vice Reaction:
I'd like to begin my response to this story by asking you a question. How do you feel about a man who sexually gropes a child, blames the child for his actions and then readily admits his confession was offered as the quickest path to get himself back in front of children?
How do these three admitted facts square in the mind of parents who's child may someday become star struck with such actor? How do you feel about the play and movie producers who will showcase this actor to your children in the future?
Undoubtedly, most will be outraged by the very thought that this man will walk out of jail in 60 days and resume an acting career which has catered heavily towards the children he apparently now has his eyes on. But as this story will likely have a short shelf life, how will most parents in the future even know of the man's crimes - as he will not be listed as registered sex offender.
Although the very thought of a 41 year old man molesting a 15 year old girl is repulsive, the real shocker is not so much the slap on the wrist 60 day stay he'll undergo at the county jail.
Yes, the sentence falls ridiculously short of true justice when you consider the obvious lack of personal responsibility that has not been shown by the admitted molester.
The real outrage however is that this man will be completely free to resume all activities with children the moment his 60 day R & R are up. This is a pretty scary thought considering Hollywood has an established track record of returning these tainted actors to duty regardless of public concern about it.
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