Elderly Child Molester Sentenced to Life in Prison

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Source: District Attorney of Santa Barbara County

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley announced today that Robert Charles Hawley, age 84, of Santa Barbara, California was sentenced by the Honorable Brian E. Hill to 92 years to life in state prison.

On March 25, 2019, a Santa Barbara jury found Robert Charles Hawley, age 84, guilty of nine counts of child molestation and sexual assault committed on three family members.

The jury also found true the special allegation that Hawley had committed sex crimes against multiple victims.

The successful prosecution of this serial pedophile was the result of the actions by several civilians, starting with the Good Samaritan who called 911 when she observed the defendant engaging in inappropriate touching of a young girl in a local supermarket. She provided the authorities with a description of the subjects as well as a license plate of an associated vehicle.  During the course of her thorough investigation, Santa Barbara Police Department Detective Megan Harrison uncovered multiple additional women who had been sexually victimized by the defendant and three of these women bravely testified at his trial.

The prosecution team read victim impact statements from two of the victims that expressed the amount of damage that Hawley caused each of them individually as well betraying the family as a whole.  District Attorney Dudley stated, “This is an example of a case where citizens were willing to come forward and report suspicious behavior to law enforcement, and the excellent investigation by members of the Santa Barbara Police Department resulting in a predator against women and children being held accountable for unthinkable crimes”.

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Luvaduck
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Jul 18, 2019 08:59 AM
Elderly Child Molester Sentenced to Life in Prison

It's not a penalty at his age and stage: He gets easy, free medical care and room and board and access to a library and TV and a/c. Probably better than he would've had at home. A better judgement would have been house arrest and an ankle monitor. He could get meals-on-wheels and be in charge of paying his own medical/dental, a.c., cable, etc or doing w/o as so many of our elderly do.

a-1576450790
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Jul 18, 2019 10:30 AM
Elderly Child Molester Sentenced to Life in Prison

But in such a case our publicity seeking DA would not have had her moment of vengeance to sate her crowd. It's the same thing that is driving Dudley to seek the death penalty in the Golden State Killer case. That defendant is being prosecuted in many jurisdictions which have the resources to obtain the death sentences (for what it is worth) and Santa Barbara could have just let them proceed. Instead our taxpayers will be paying for extraordinary expenses (defense lawyers, experts, investigation), extraordinary court time, extraordinary security costs when this guy is in our jail, and so forth. Almost certainly Dudley will eventually let this go but how many bucks will we have spent?

a-1576450790
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Jul 18, 2019 08:55 AM
Elderly Child Molester Sentenced to Life in Prison

84 year old people should not be using resources of our very expensive prison system. There must be more cost effective methods of removing this person from the community.

aragorn
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Jul 18, 2019 11:34 AM
Elderly Child Molester Sentenced to Life in Prison

OK. Put them on unknown/uncharted island(s) and let them survive on their own. All pedophiles. Just a one way trip to get them there, and a one way trip back for the crew of the ship to return back. That is cost effective.

aragorn
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Jul 18, 2019 07:04 AM
Elderly Child Molester Sentenced to Life in Prison

Robert Charles Hawley, 84 years of age serving 92 years to life in state prison for being a serial pedophile. That is an automatic death sentence. Justice has been served.

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