Justice late but it’s finally over

Justice is not always swift.

But for the family of Jamey Trotter and numerous others who have

been prey to convicted child molester and killer James Lee Crummel

for more than 40 years, it certainly must be sweet.

We learned last week that Crummel, who once lived in the Newport

Crest condominium complex, has been sentenced to pay the ultimate

price for his crimes. The sentencing of Crummel provides a postscript

to a painful and ugly saga in the history of Newport-Mesa that began

25 years ago when Trotter, a 13-year-old, blond-haired Costa Mesa

boy, was taken from his mother, brother and friends in 1979, never to

be seen again.

Crummel, in what can only be seen as a cruel attempt at irony, is

the one who led police to Trotter’s charred remains in a wooded area

off Ortega Highway in 1990.

The man who had a rap sheet a mile long, went on to live in

relative obscurity, molesting more innocent children and teens along

the way.

Throughout his adult life, Crummel, who is now 60, has been

convicted of sex-related crimes against children dating back to 1962

and spanning four states.

He was convicted of kidnapping and molesting a teenager in Los

Angeles; of abducting, molesting and using a tree limb to try and

beat to death a 13-year-old boy in Wisconsin; and of molesting a

10-year-old boy at a Halloween party in Costa Mesa 1982. And there

were more in Missouri.

In 1983, Crummel was convicted of killing a 9-year-old boy in

Arizona, but that conviction was overturned, and he was set free

after a plea bargain.

Then, along came Megan’s Law and the world got a little bit safer

for children.

That law made it possible for local authorities to identify

convicted child molesters and pedophiles and make the community aware

of their presence.

In Crummel’s case, his neighbors didn’t exactly welcome him with

open arms when police distributed fliers about him in the Newport

Crest community in 1997.

Once news got out that he was living in the condominium with

psychiatrist Burnell Forgey, he became the target of daily and

nightly protesters, who demanded that he pack up and go. One of those

protesters was one Darleen Savoji, whose two sons accused Crummel of

trying to lure them into the condo.

Crummel refused to budge and hunkered down in the condo for what

appeared to be a long, drawn-out standoff until he was arrested by

San Bernardino Sheriff’s deputies on suspicion of molesting three

teenagers in Big Bear.

Forgey was also arrested and convicted of molestation charges and

died in 2001.

But it’s all over now.

Crummel is thankfully forever incarcerated and headed for death

row. And we take a special bit of pride knowing that it was those

residents in the Newport Crest community who helped nudge him along

the way toward justice.