Published: October 30, 2009 09:44 am      

Amber’s story: ‘You can never give up’

Clinton woman finds peace 22 years after sexual abuse case

Editor’s note: The victim in this story expressed a desire to be identified, and consented to being interviewed and photographed by the Clinton Herald. She is sharing her story with the hope of leading more victims of sexual abuse to step forward and seek justice.



CLINTON — Amber Eggers was 6 years old the first time her mother’s live-in boyfriend raped her. It was her birthday, she recalled in her statement to police, because she was wearing the new pajamas she’d just received as a present.

Eggers, now a 28-year-old Clinton resident, spoke Thursday morning at the Clinton County Courthouse before the sentencing of the man she once called “Daddy.” James C. Bailey, 60, of Clinton, will serve up to 10 years in prison for one count of third-degree sexual abuse.

“When I think of what you did to me, I think of all that I have lost,” Eggers read from a statement addressing Bailey, her voice breaking as she described in graphic detail the sex acts Bailey inflicted upon her.

Eggers almost ran out of time to seek justice for the man she says molested her when she was 5 and raped her numerous times when she was between the ages of 6 and 11. The trial information was filed in mid-June this year, two days before the statute of limitations had run out.

At the age of 9, Eggers told her mother about the abuse. A police report was filed, but it went nowhere because her mother did not believe Eggers’ allegations at the time. After she reached adulthood, Eggers decided to actively pursue the case on her own.

The Clinton Police Department reopened the case early this year after Eggers submitted evidence in the form of counseling sessions and provided a written statement. She then wore a hidden microphone for police and visited Bailey, getting him on the record saying he had sexually abused her as a child.

“For a child to be sexually abused in the home by a stepparent, it’s very common,” said Assistant County Attorney Ross Barlow, who prosecuted the case.

“It’s not unusual at all that we’ll have the biological parent believe the perpetrator over their own child. It happens all the time, way too often. And that’s one reason why children don’t tell about sexual abuse, because they know their parent is going to believe the perpetrator and not them.”

Bailey originally faced three charges of second-degree sexual abuse, Class B felonies that carry 25-year prison terms. In a court appearance last week, he removed his not guilty plea as part of a plea agreement and entered a plea of guilty to one amended third-degree charge of sexual abuse, a Class C felony.

The forcible felony charge, which carries mandatory prison time, is tied to Bailey’s rape of Eggers on her sixth birthday, June 12, 1987.

As part the plea agreement, the court dismissed the two other counts of second-degree sexual abuse. One was dated June 14, 1987, and the other charge ran from 1987 through 1992, when Bailey was in his 30s and 40s.

Bailey eventually will be eligible for parole, but is required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

Barlow said Eggers was prepared to go to trial with the case, but added it was unclear what the outcome would have been. He said Eggers was satisfied with the plea agreement because it guaranteed that Bailey would have to serve prison time and register as a sex offender.

“She was very happy with the idea that she wouldn’t go through the trial process, that we would have a conviction, there’s no chance of him walking away,” said Barlow.

Barlow resisted a July 16 motion to dismiss from Bailey’s attorney, William Vilmont, who claimed the statutes of limitations had run out for the three charges. Judge Charles Pelton denied the motion earlier this month in a written ruling, basing his decision upon “the state’s unusually well-researched, reasoned and written resistance” on the statute of limitations laws regarding sexual abuse.

“Sexual abuse laws, if you go back in time, were very archaic, very old-fashioned, very sexist,” said Barlow. “And over time as we understood sexual abuse better, the dynamics and such, laws were changed. And the statute of limitations, how you can see how it’s been expanded over time, is just an example of that. It shows where we were, how far we’ve come.”

Barlow praised the Clinton Police Department, particularly the detective work done on the case. He also noted Eggers’ persistence as the driving force that pushed her case all the way to a conviction.

“I know there’s more people in my situation that never had justice, or their parents didn’t believe them,” Eggers said in an interview after Bailey’s sentencing Thursday.

Barlow said no other victims have stepped forward and filed charges against Bailey, although it’s common for sexual abuse offenders to have multiple victims.

“With sexual abuse perpetrators, once they go through treatment and they start revealing victims, they show that most perpetrators had many, many victims,” said Barlow. “Sex abuse occurs all the time, every day in this community, and most of it probably goes unreported.”

During her statement in court Thursday, Eggers gave Bailey a Bible and said she would pray for him. She said that, while she had once looked to him as a father figure, she now saw him as “perverted,” “twisted” and “ruthless.” She promised that she would fight against his parole when he became eligible.

Eggers’ family — including her husband, mother and biological father — witnessed Bailey’s sentencing. Eggers’ sister, Joy Peahl, 32, of Clinton, sat with an arm around her younger sibling during Eggers’ statement to the court. Judge Gary McKenrick presided over the sentencing.

Eggers married last year, and acts as a mother to her husband Nolan’s two children from a previous marriage.

She has suffered several health problems, and copes with depression and anxiety, but she said in her statement Thursday that she would leave the courtroom feeling “victorious” rather than like a victim. She watched from a courthouse window as Bailey was led away to the Clinton County Jail after the sentencing.

“I had so much anger for so many years,” said Eggers. “I lost so many jobs and everything over my depression, my anxiety, my fear that I was going to run into him, and I just want to help people.”

She says she would like to start a support group and work to change legislation to better protect children being sexually abused.

“I just want people to know that there is justice out there, that you can never give up,” she said. “Even if you don’t have a day in court, you can have justice by living your life and not letting them control your life. That’s how you can have justice.”