Crummel Says He Is Not Guilty of Molestation

As former Newport Beach neighbors watched in disgust, repeat child molester James Lee Crummel pleaded not guilty in a video arraignment Monday to 15 felony charges that he molested three teenage boys at his home in Big Bear nine years ago.

Crummel sat impassively in a green jumpsuit--a color marking him as a molester and ensuring that he is kept away from the general jail population--as San Bernardino County Municipal Court Commissioner Arthur E. Knuckey read the lengthy charges against him.

Crummel, 53, whose criminal record was plastered by police throughout his Newport Crest neighborhood under Megan’s Law, is being held on $500,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court on June 10.

Six women from Crummel’s Newport neighborhood picketed at the San Bernardino courthouse before the arraignment, waving signs that read, “Danger. High-Risk Sex Offender,” and “Stop Child Molesters.”

Crummel, who has also used the name Jimmy Lee Savage, was previously charged with the same crimes that led to his current arrest. Prosecutors relied on a law that extended the statute of limitations for certain sex crimes. But a judge threw out the case in late 1995 on constitutional grounds, said San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. Denise Trager-Dvorak.

New state legislation gave prosecutors six months to refile all the cases thrown out under the flawed law, but Crummel’s case may still face legal challenges, Trager-Dvorak said.

The 15-count felony complaint differs only slightly from the one filed two years ago. Records from that case reveal that Crummel molested one troubled youth over a months-long period while the youth lived with his uncle and Crummel in Big Bear.

The two other teens were molested once each, also at Crummel’s home, according to court documents. In the cases of all three teens, who ranged in age from 15 to 17, Crummel gave them alcohol and marijuana before he performed sex acts that included oral copulation and attempted sodomy, records state. He also photographed one youth naked, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.

Law enforcement did not know of the alleged molestations until August 1995, when they served a search warrant on Crummel’s Big Bear home during an investigation of a missing 9-year-old boy.

During the search, detectives located “hundreds if not thousands of photographs,” including some of one teen molestation victim, records state.

No one was been arrested in connection with the disappearance of the boy, J.D. Phillips, but officials say Crummel remains one of several suspects. He is also being investigated in the case of James “Jamie” Trotter, of Orange County, who disappeared in 1979. Crummel found Trotter’s bones 11 years later and reported them to authorities.

Crummel has been convicted of sex crimes against children in four states dating to the 1960s, according to police and court records. He was also convicted of the murder of a 9-year-old boy in Arizona in 1983, but the judge ruled that his lawyer was ineffective and granted a new trial. He pleaded guilty in 1987 to kidnapping.