Crummel’s Housemate Is Targeted

NEWPORT BEACH — The campaign to drive convicted child molester James Lee Crummel out of the city expanded Monday, as neighbors demanded the eviction as well of the 79-year-old man who shares his house with Crummel.

Irate residents who have been gathering each evening at Crummel’s doorstep to protest his presence took their signs to the building where psychiatrist Burnell Forgey, Crummel’s roommate and employer, has his offices. The dozen protesters stopped workers and patients entering the medical offices on Avocado Avenue to criticize the psychiatrist for housing Crummel and to say that Forgey is himself unwelcome in the community.

“We want [Forgey] out, along with his houseboy, Crummel,” said Lori Martin, who held a banner reading “Save the Children.” “Crummel is free, and our kids are in prison in their homes; we’re afraid to let them out.”

Protesters handed out California Medical Board complaint forms, filled in with text questioning Forgey’s “judgment and ability” to care for patients.

Forgey’s daughter-in-law, Madelynn Forgey, who with her husband owns the condominium where the two men live, said Crummel has been served with a 30-day eviction notice, but that her father-in-law has no plans to move.

“He is a family member, and that is a private family matter,” she said. “We’ve tried to be receptive to the neighbors’ concerns regarding Mr. Crummel and have done legally everything we can do at this point to get him to leave.”

Madelynn Forgey said she did not know what the protesters “think they will accomplish by making me and my husband--our family--a victim in this too.”

Neighbors have been upset since police distributed flyers detailing the criminal history of the 53-year-old Crummel. He is the third Orange County sex offender whose whereabouts have been publicized under Megan’s Law, which allows police to warn communities about offenders living in their midst.

The Michigan native is listed as a “high-risk offender” by the California Department of Justice. He has been convicted of sex crimes in four states dating back to the 1960s. In the last week, his name has also surfaced in investigations of three separate California child abductions, but he has not been named a suspect in any those cases.

On Monday, Army officials released court martial documents detailing Crummel’s crimes against children while he was a 17-year-old soldier serving at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri.

The documents, dated July 1962, describe charges of sexual assaults on three boys and a girl. Crummel, found guilty, was sentenced to 10 years’ hard labor and dishonorable discharge, but the prison term was reduced by a military judge who cited Crummel’s youth and “a character disorder.”

The military records show that:

* On July 27, 1961, a 14-year-old boy and a 12-year-old friend were walking to a bus stop after a visit to the Army base theater when Crummel approached them. He asked them about a nearby swimming pool and, when they walked near some woods, grabbed each in a headlock. He used a belt to bind them and forced them to engage in sex acts with him and each other. He threatened that they would “see God” if they told anyone.

* On Feb. 10, 1962, Crummel was riding a bus with the 15-year-old son of a fellow soldier. Crummel lured the boy to a vacant trailer where he pointed “what appeared to be a .22 pistol” at the boy and forced him to perform sex acts.

* On Feb. 17, 1962, Crummel lured a 9-year-old girl to the woods near the base, hit her on the head and forced her to partially disrobe. He threatened her with further harm before letting her go.

The records also show that Crummel attended only eight years of school while growing up in Kalamazoo, Mich., dropping out after “having difficulty with a school chum” who derided Crummel’s mother.

His father died at age 42, when Crummel was 14.

Crummel worked as a stock boy, a tavern janitor and a strawberry picker, according to the military records.

Martin and other protesters Monday pledged to continue their campaign to push Crummel out, citing “his danger to everyone.” They cited his 1983 conviction in Tucson for strangling a 9-year-old boy, a conviction later overturned and, on plea bargain, reduced to kidnapping.

“Crummel should not be allowed in our community or any community,” said Sandra Bishop, a local resident who took off work to join the protest. “He shouldn’t be allowed to see the light of day.”