Jamie Satterfield knoxnews.com-A Harriman lawyer who
paid a 14-year-old girl for sexual encounters he then
videotaped walked away from a Loudon County courtroom
Tuesday with probation.
Kent Booher, 59, struck a deal to plead guilty to lesser
charges of statutory rape. He had been charged with
especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor,
solicitation of a minor and three counts of aggravated
statutory rape.
As part of the plea bargain, Booher received a three-year
probationary sentence and must be listed on the state's Sex
Offender Registry for 13 years. He will pay no fines but was
assessed court costs.
Cortney Dugger, a prosecutor and spokesman for the 9th
Judicial District Attorney General's Office, cited a gag
order issued by Senior Judge Paul Summers in declining to
comment. Summers took over the case after Loudon judges
recused themselves. It is not clear why Summers specifically
barred the DA's office from issuing any "formal press
release" in Booher's case, as the plea agreement states, but
similar gag orders also were issued by Summers in two other
cases involving the same teenage victim.
In a concession to prosecutors, Booher agreed to a sentence
higher than the maximum two-year sentence for statutory
rape. If he runs afoul of the rules of his probation, he
would be ordered to serve his sentence behind bars.
The plea deal came after Booher's alleged partner in the
case, Malina Nanette Akin, 37, of Lenoir City, took her case
to trial last week. A jury deadlocked. The DA's office has
said she will be retried. A status conference is set Oct.
10.
Akin was charged with providing the teenage girl to Booher
for sex. Her relationship to the girl has not been released
by law enforcement. She is identified only with initials in
court records and does not bear Akin's last name. Records
indicate she was also a victim in another case in which a
Loudon County man paid to have sex with her. The defendant
in that case is serving an eight-year sentence.
According to court records, Booher repeatedly paid to have
sex with the girl between December 2012 and May 2013. He
videotaped the liaisons and also ordered the girl to send
him nude photographs.
Records for the Tennessee Board of Professional
Responsibility, which polices lawyers, show Booher's law
license remains intact. As part of the plea agreement,
however, records of his conviction will be sent to the board
for consideration of disciplinary action.
Booher has twice been publicly censured by the board,
including a reprimand issued after he was indicted in the
sex case. Board records state he lied to the board during an
investigation of a complaint about his handling of a probate
case in 2012. He was again censured in July after he lost an
appeal but kept that secret from his client. By the time the
client found out, too much time had elapsed for a challenge
of the appeal to be filed with the Tennessee Supreme Court.