Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Choir Director Peter Bailey sentenced

The girl's brother, now 16, testified he suspected something was amiss, went to the church, and saw Bailey on top of the girl, both naked, her body covered in olive oil…

When I read statements like this I get angry. This is a perfect example of misplaced trust. Peter Bailey was a paroled murderer working as a choir director in a small church. How did he get a position working with children? How did he manage to get time alone with a 12-year-old girl at church? Did prison rehabilitate him? Did God forgive him? Did he deserve a second chance? Bailey should have never been released from prison in the first place, now he's likely to die in one.

PeterBaileyHilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara sentenced 52-year-old Peter Bailey to 20 years imprisonment on each of four counts of first-degree attempted sex assault for his attack on the girl in the office of the Hamakua Coast Assembly of God Church on July 22, 2007, to run concurrently with each other. Bailey was the church's choir director; the girl was a choir member. Bailey was originally charged with four counts of first-degree sex assault. A jury returned a conviction on the lesser charges.

Bailey was the choir director at Hamakua Coast Assembly of God Church in Hawaii. It’s a small church with no website.

Bailey had his original murder conviction reduced twice while in prison.

Peter Bailey was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the murder of a 17-year-old girl in 1979, and the paroling authority initially set his minimum sentence at 35 years.

However, a new parole panel in 1990 reduced Bailey's minimum term to 25 years, said Hawai'i Paroling Authority Acting Administrator Max Otani. In 1995, parole officials again reconsidered Bailey's minimum term, and reduced it to 20 years.

And still this murderer got a job at a church. How does this happen?  It easy really, he became a born-again Christian and just like with the idiotic thinking that says one becomes moral when they accept Jesus, the church opened their arms to him thinking that his old life had been washed away in the conversion. Nobody checked out his story. What a shame. A 12-year-old girl suffered for it.  The church should be held accountable.

Bailey has said in court proceedings he became a born-again Christian while in prison, and a parishioner who is familiar with the case said Bailey worked around the church grounds on carpentry and other projects. Bailey also played guitar and sang in the choir.

Church members knew Bailey had been in trouble with the law because he offered testimony about the role religion played in his life when he was involved in drugs and other illegal activities. However, it isn't clear whether the congregation knew he had been convicted of murder.