A judge sentenced a former Davenport mobile home resident to three life sentences in prison on Monday.
55-year-old Melvin Thomas Lucier will serve three life sentences without parole on three counts of sexual abuse in the second degree.
Police arrested Lucier in 2014 when a parent reported possible sexual abuse of his children who lived in the Patriot Mobile Home Park in west Davenport, Iowa. The complaint stated the three children were two, four and six years old. A total of at least six children were allegedly molested, assaulted, photographed and videotaped by registered sex offenders who lived at the mobile home park.
Melvin Lucier, 55, was arrested and charged along with nine other men and women. Lucier faced at least seven counts, in connection with three cases, charging him with sexual abuse as well as violations of the sex offender registry requirements. After two days of deliberation, a jury found Lucier guilty of second-degree sexual abuse, and the verdict was delivered Thursday, July 16, 2015, in Scott County Court. His sentencing was set for September.
Michael Walton, Scott County State's Attorney, said all of the people involved in the case have been arrested, charged and sentenced, with only one pending sentencing.
Some of the women arrested were the childrens' mothers who knowingly allowed them to stay with registered sex offenders; sometimes overnight.
A full list of the people arrested and charged, with their statuses is below:
- Melvin Thomas Lucier – 3 counts sex abuse 2nd - Three life sentences without possibility of parole (one case pending)
- James Faler – 5 counts sexual exploitation of a child (federal case) life sentence plus 50 years, without possibility of parole
- Thomas Jenkins – 2 counts sex abuse 2nd - 50 years (two twenty five year sentences, consecutive)
- David Conger – 2 counts failure to comply with sex offender registry, 1 count Theft 2nd - 15 years (three five year sentences consecutive)
- Sherry Oats – 5 counts child endangerment - 13 years (a five year and four two year sentences consecutive)
- Sarah McConnell – 2 counts child endangerment -10 years (two five year sentences, consecutive)
- Jenni Jenkins – 3 counts child endangerment - 6 years (three two year sentences consecutive)
- Jessica Epping – 1 count child endangerment - 2 years (probation, later revoked and sentenced imposed)
- Andrea Lynn Rodden – 1 count child endangerment -2 years incarceration
- Shaneka Posey – case stayed pending motion to determine competency to stand trial
"It's a no-win for the victims. It affects them for life," said Michael Walton, Scott County Attorney. "These are very young children. in most cases their families have been torn apart, they have been removed from their families or at least in several cases they've been roomed from their parents.