LITTLE ROCK — A 31-year-old Benton man said Wednesday that the abuse he endured as a teenager from David Kent Pierce, a one-time Benton church choir director, haunts him less than the abuses Piercecommitted in the 10 years that elapsed before he spoke out. And he believes Pierce will abuse again.
“I can tell you without a doubt he is an unremorseful, unrepentant monster,” the man told the Arkansas Parole Board.
Pierce, 59, is up for parole for the third time since he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with 10 years suspended, on Aug. 28, 2009, after pleading guilty to four counts of sexual indecency with a child.
Pierce, who was fired fromBenton’s First Baptist Church in April 2009 after leading the choir for 29 years, originally faced 54 counts concerning four former choirboys.
The man who addressed the board Wednesday - the only victim to speak at the hearing set aside specificallyfor victims - wasn’t one of the boys whose abuse led to Pierce being charged. That’s because the statute of limitations had expired by the time the man stepped forward at age 27.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, as a matter of policy,doesn’t disclose the names of child abuse victims.
“Even though I didn’t know what I was going to say, I knew I couldn’t pass up another opportunity to say what I felt,” the man told the board. “In the last four years,I passed up too many of those opportunities. The only reason I want David to stay in prison is when he gets out he will do it again.”
Board Chairman John Felts said the board can’t deny or grant Pierce parole because the charges for which he was convicted aren’t among those, such as murder and rape, over which the board has such discretion. The board can only defer parole in Pierce’s case. It already has done that twice.
In January 2010, the board deferred a decision on Pierce while he completed a sexual offender treatment program, said Rhonda Sharp, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Community Correction. The board deferred again in November “to consider additional information,” she said.
The Benton victim, who has undergone some counseling and has taken antidepressants, told the board that he understood the board’s predicament.
“I’ve been wracking my mind for you guys to find some great way to defer parole, some great reason. ... I don’t have a good reason. I don’t have a good way for you guys to defer his parole,” he said.
“I know he’s already been through the treatment program, for whatever that’s worth. And I know that David sitting in front of a counselor, sitting in front of an officer, in front of a corrections officer, I know that he can say the right things.
“David is no different than a con man. And I know that he not only tells these lies, he believes them. That’s the only way he’s been able to do this for 30 years.”
Felts said Pierce has been classified as a Level 3 sex offender, which means he has a high risk of offending again. It is one step below the most dangerous classification, Level 4, which classifies an offender as a sexual predator.The board is to formally vote on Pierce’s parole Jan. 26. The vote will be released Jan. 31.
“You’re right,” Felts said. “You don’t fix those people. You can give them the information and just hope to God they take it and have someone they can open up to.”
Authorities who investigated Pierce described two decades of abuse of an unknown number of teenage boys, whom Pierce “groomed” when they were young. As they grew older, he would introduce them to various sexual situations, such as looking at pornography and talking about sex. At puberty, Pierce would start asking the boys to expose their genitals so he could take measurements, which he called “charting,” investigators reported. In somecases, Pierce and the youths would fondle themselves in front of one another, investigators said.
The man told the board that he met with the church pastor, another church official and Pierce in regard to the abuse. At the meeting, Piercedidn’t deny what he did to the youths, explaining it as a “rough patch in his life,” the man said. Pierce also never acknowledged how the abuse affected the man or any of his other victims. At one point, Pierce invited him to lunch and gave him a copy of a onepage devotional on forgiveness, the man said.
“I don’t want David to stay in prison because I want revenge, or that I want vengeance on him,” the man said. “Nothing will ever happen to David for me to feel like justice was served. Prison time, somebody takes care of business. Even if that happens, it won’t make me feel like justice was served. I’m OK with that.
“The only reason that I want David to stay in prison is because I know when he gets out, it’s going to happen again. I missed my opportunity. I was 27 when I spoke out.
“The thought of that 10 years in between and how many dozens of boys he abused, some days it’s too much to live with.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/05/2012