Cambodia Expats Online: Forum | News | Information | Blog

Phnom Penh, Cambodia News: The sex-crimes conviction of Michael J. Pepe, who is also the chief suspect in an unsolved double murder in the Mojave Desert, has been reversed.

After Pepe was convicted on federal charges of raping seven little girls in Cambodia, an investigation by L.A. Weekly linked him to the unsolved 1986 murders of two campers in remote Saline Valley, California.

Although the L.A. Weekly story sparked a renewed homicide investigation, Pepe has never been charged with the decades-old murders.

The latest twist in the ongoing saga came on July 11, 2018, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Pepe’s conviction on the sex crimes charges. Pepe’s victims were 10 to 12 years old when he allegedly drugged, bound and raped them in Cambodia.

In 2008, a federal court jury in Los Angeles found Pepe guilty of seven counts under a federal statute applicable to any U.S. citizen “who travels in foreign commerce, and engages in any illicit sexual...

Full story on LA WEEKLY.



More details about retired US Marines captain Michael Joseph Pepe's life in Cambodia as a part-time professor at Pannasastra University before he was arrested in Phnom Penh in 2006, convicted in the US in 2008, and then sentenced to 210 years in 2014 can be read here at the Phnom Penh Post and Cambodia Daily.

fax wrote:

When they were trying to arrest him here in 2006 he tried to crash through a police barrier and crashed and got caught up in barbed wire.

John Bingham wrote: ↑Thu Aug 09, 2018 12:09 pm When they were trying to arrest him here in 2006 he tried to crash through a police barrier and crashed and got caught up in barbed wire.

He was channeling The Cooler King (Steve McQueen) in The Great Escape.

If you're wondering why his conviction was overturned, here's the gist:


http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/o ... -50095.pdf

We hold that a conviction under § 2423(c), when based
on a defendant’s travel in foreign commerce, requires proof
that the illicit sexual conduct occurred while the defendant
was traveling. If, as Pepe maintains, he relocated to
Cambodia in March 2003, then the statute does not apply to
him.

The government appears to dispute Pepe’s claim that he
had resettled in Cambodia, citing among other things Pepe’s
post-arrest letters to the U.S. ambassador and various family
members expressing his intent to register his Cambodian
marriage and return to the United States with his wife.
Because the jury was not properly instructed on the travel
element, we vacate Pepe’s convictions and sentence. On
remand, should the government elect to retry him, it will
need to prove that he was still traveling when he committed
illicit sexual conduct.

Cam Nivag wrote: ↑Thu Aug 09, 2018 12:46 pm If you're wondering why his conviction was overturned, here's the gist:


http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/o ... -50095.pdf

We hold that a conviction under § 2423(c), when based
on a defendant’s travel in foreign commerce, requires proof
that the illicit sexual conduct occurred while the defendant
was traveling. If, as Pepe maintains, he relocated to
Cambodia in March 2003, then the statute does not apply to
him.

The government appears to dispute Pepe’s claim that he
had resettled in Cambodia, citing among other things Pepe’s
post-arrest letters to the U.S. ambassador and various family
members expressing his intent to register his Cambodian
marriage and return to the United States with his wife.
Because the jury was not properly instructed on the travel
element, we vacate Pepe’s convictions and sentence. On
remand, should the government elect to retry him, it will
need to prove that he was still traveling when he committed
illicit sexual conduct.

Does that mean that Americans can only be convicted in the USA for child sex crimes committed in Cambodia if they were on a tourist visa?

prahocalypse now wrote: ↑Thu Aug 09, 2018 1:12 pm
Does that mean that Americans can only be convicted in the USA for child sex crimes committed in Cambodia if they were on a tourist visa?

At the time, the statute required "traveling" as an element of the crime. I believe the statute has since been amended and travel is no longer required.

Wow. What a fk up.
The decision was reversed on a technicality. So what happens next ? He gets to go free, struck off the child sex offenders list, can work with kids, can travel without notification ?

They can arrest him in Siem Reap again in a year or two.