United States v. Koegel

777 F. Supp. 2d 1014, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40613, 2011 WL 1441851
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedApril 11, 2011
DocketCriminal Case 4:10cr115
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 777 F. Supp. 2d 1014 (United States v. Koegel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Koegel, 777 F. Supp. 2d 1014, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40613, 2011 WL 1441851 (E.D. Va. 2011).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

HENRY COKE MORGAN, JR., Senior District Judge.

This matter is before the Court following a bench trial held on March 16 and 17, 2011 on the Government’s charges against the defendant, James Richard Koegel (“Defendant”), for one (1) count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2241(c) (Count One); six (6) counts of receipt of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2) (Counts Two through Seven); two (2) counts of possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5) (Counts Eight and Nine); and one (1) count of possession of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1466A (Count Ten). At the conclusion of the presentation of evidence, Count Six was dismissed by the Court upon a motion by the Government. As stated at the conclusion of trial and for the reasons contained herein, the Court FINDS the Defendant NOT GUILTY on Count One for aggravated sexual abuse of a child and instead FINDS the Defendant GUILTY of the lesser included offense of abusive sexual contact, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2244(a)(5). The Court also FINDS the Defendant GUILTY on Counts Two through Five and Seven through Ten. These findings of fact and conclusions of law were prepared in order to explain the Court’s reasoning in this matter.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

Pursuant to a protective order entered on November 3, 2010, for the purposes of this opinion, the minor in this case will be referred to as “Jane Doe” or “Jane” and the minor’s family will be referred to as “the W family.” Doc. 14. This matter concerns the events that occurred at the W family’s townhouse on February 13 and 14, 2010. At that time, the W family lived in a townhouse located within the Fort Eustis, Virginia military post. The United States government has exclusive jurisdiction over matters taking place on the post.

As of February 14, 2010, the Defendant was an active member of the United States Army stationed at Fort Eustis. Prior to February 13, 2010, the Defendant lived with his wife, Leigh Koegel, in an apartment in Yorktown, Virginia. The couple met over the internet and married on June *1017 16, 2008 in North Carolina when the Defendant was stationed at Fort Bragg. They moved into an apartment in Yorktown on August 6, 2008 when the Defendant was assigned to Fort Eustis, and they lived there until February 13, 2010. At the apartment in Yorktown, the couple had access to the internet and both the Defendant and Leigh Koegel owned their own desktop computers. Leigh testified at trial that, while at the apartment, the Defendant showed her a video containing child pornography on his desktop computer and that the Defendant used a file sharing program called uTorrent to download the pornography. Leigh was concerned and she looked at some child predator websites, but she did not report this event to the authorities.

Meanwhile, at Fort Eustis, the Defendant served as a mechanic in the same unit as Jane Doe’s father. Jane Doe’s father was at Fort Eustis for almost three years, and he and the Defendant became close friends while they were with the unit. When the two were reassigned to Afghanistan, Jane’s father invited the Defendant to stay with him and his family at their townhouse located on the post.

The Defendant accepted the invitation and, in anticipation of the move, the Defendant and Leigh rented a storage unit at Stor Moore where he stored some of his computer equipment (among other items). The Defendant and Leigh planned to stay at the W family’s townhouse until the Defendant left for Afghanistan at which time Leigh would move back with her family in Massachusetts. On February 13, 2010, the Defendant and Leigh moved into a spare room in the W family’s townhouse. Among the other items brought to the W family’s townhouse, the Defendant took a box containing his desktop computer from the Yorktown apartment. At the time the Defendant and Leigh moved in, Jane Doe, Jane’s mother and father, and Jane’s brother were living in the townhouse.

On February 14, 2010, the W family, Leigh, and the Defendant spent most of the day playing together with NERFtm toys. Later in the afternoon, the Defendant took Jane Doe into the spare room where he and Leigh had been staying and played games with Jane on his computer. Jane was six years old at the time. Jane testified at trial that she went back downstairs with the Defendant to play with the NERF toys, and then they both went back upstairs to the spare room alone. Jane testified that once they were alone in the room, the Defendant kissed her on the shoulder, pinched her breasts under her shirt, and touched her vagina under her underwear. Jane testified that the Defendant touched her on the inside and the outside of her “pee pee,” meaning her vagina.

While this was happening, Leigh Koegel was downstairs with Jane’s mother and father. Leigh was concerned about leaving the Defendant alone in a room with Jane and went to the spare room to check on them. When she entered the room, the Defendant left and went downstairs. Once Jane and Leigh were alone in the room, Jane told Leigh that she was scared of the Defendant and that the Defendant had touched her around her breasts and vagina. Jane did not specify or demonstrate where the Defendant had touched her, but she told Leigh that she asked the Defendant to stop and that when the Defendant touched her, it hurt.

Leigh sent Jane downstairs to inform her parents, but when they did not react as she expected, Leigh took Jane, Jane’s mother, and Jane’s father upstairs into the master bedroom. Leigh told the Defendant to wait downstairs and that it was not a big deal. Leigh then told Jane’s parents what Jane had told her. Jane’s *1018 mother immediately pulled Jane into the master bathroom and Jane told her that the Defendant had touched her breasts and vagina. Jane also demonstrated how the Defendant touched her but she did not specify that the Defendant touched the inside of her vagina. After they left the bathroom, Jane’s father asked Jane where the Defendant had touched her. Jane pointed to her vagina and her chest area. At this time, Jane did not state to either parent that the Defendant touched the inside of her vagina. Jane’s father went downstairs to question the Defendant. At this point, the Defendant denied touching Jane. Jane’s father did not believe the Defendant and called his squad leader and the military police.

Agents from the United States Criminal Investigation Division (“CID”) and the military police responded to the call. Jane told a military police supervisor that the Defendant kissed her shoulder, touched her breasts, and touched her inside her underwear. Again, Jane did not specify that the Defendant touched the inside of her vagina. Both Jane’s father and Leigh Koegel gave the military police and CID permission to search the house and seize evidence they uncovered.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Doe v. Boland (In re Boland)
596 B.R. 532 (Sixth Circuit, 2019)
In re Boland
Sixth Circuit, 2019
United States v. Eychaner
326 F. Supp. 3d 76 (E.D. Virginia, 2018)
United States v. Storm
915 F. Supp. 2d 1196 (D. Oregon, 2012)
United States v. John Terrell
700 F.3d 755 (Fifth Circuit, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
777 F. Supp. 2d 1014, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40613, 2011 WL 1441851, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-koegel-vaed-2011.