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Conviction of Melvin Lucier for child sex abuse held up by appeals court

Nine of 10 defendants in the case were ultimately sentenced to prison.

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- The Iowa Court of Appeals has held up three convictions handed down against a man serving three life sentences for a multitude of sexual abuse offenses that happened in a Davenport mobile home park.

Three additional convictions were affirmed for Melvin Lucier, who was at the center of a sex abuse scandal in the park that resulted in the conviction of nine abusers.

Police arrested Lucier in 2014 when a parent reported possible sexual abuse of his children who lived in the Patriot Mobile Home Park on the city's west side. 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.

Lucier, 56, was charged along with nine other men and women.  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.  He was subsequently sentenced to three life sentences.

Others convicted and sentenced noted in a release from Scott County Attorney Mike Walton's office include:

  • 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) (affirmed on appeal)
  • 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

 

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