A former Mississippi Coast paramedic James Walley has been found guilty of sexually assaulting patients in the back of ambulances.
Thanks to the bravery of one nurse, at least one rape was discovered when she decided to do a rape kit on one of the women who had complained, the Sun Herald reported.
That rape kit, along with a second one demanded by another victim, was what helped uncover Walley’s crimes.
James Walley was accused of assaulting victims in 2018 and 2019 in an ambulance while he was working as a paramedic. https://t.co/87E1ok8fTU
— Action News 5 (@WMCActionNews5) June 21, 2022
Walley, who is 57-years-old, originally pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual battery and two counts of touching a child in May.
The paramedic nearly got away with his crimes until two victims demanded rape kits.
The ambulance driver said to do a rape kit after one woman complained, and a nurse followed through.
“And the nurse said, ‘I’m gonna do it,’ even though she had pressure not to do it. She did it anyway,” Jackson County District attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said, who prosecuted the case.
That rape kit revealed that Walley’s semen was inside the victim.
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It was later discovered that others had been abused by Walley.
In 2018, Walley even raped a pregnant woman. She lost her baby.
Another victim had attempted suicide and was raped while being transported to Jackson County hospital.
McIlrath praised the sheriff’s department and medical staff for their actions that led to the discovery of these crimes.
“And I also want to be clear that our Jackson County Sheriff’s Department did a phenomenal job investigating, and they did believe, and so I’m really proud of what happened at the hospital and in our Sheriff’s Department,” she said.
“It’s just so unbelievable that that could happen,” McIlrath added.
He was “brazen and bold and arrogant and out of control,” she continued.
After being found guilty of such horrific crimes, Judge Robert Krebs sentenced Walley to decades in prison on Monday.
Krebs sentenced him to serve a total of 40 years in the state penitentiary. Walley will have no chance for parole. He will also be charged with fines of $1,000 for each charge along with lab fees and payments to crime victims funds.
Walley apologized for his crimes in court on Monday, but that did not sway Krebs.
The former paramedic is also married and a father of four, but Krebs showed no leniency.
Walley cried when it came to the charges of molesting the two young children.
“Well you deserve tears, too, and you didn’t get it from him,” the judge told the women victims in the courtroom.
