A retired Marine Corps captain was sentenced today in Los Angeles to 210 years in federal prison for the violent sexually abuse of young girls in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Michael Pepe “destroyed or permanently damaged seven young lives,” U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer said. “He has absolutely no remorse.”
Pepe, 60, was prosecuted under a federal law meant to punish people who engage in child sex tourism. He was convicted in May 2008, but sentencing was postponed after defense allegations arose that an interpreter was having an affair with the government’s case agent and evidence could have been tainted as a result.
“He went to Cambodia because it was easy to molest little girls there,” Fischer said. “He raped and tortured them … while maintaining the facade of being interested in the education of Cambodian children.”
Such lengthy sentences are rare in federal court. But Fischer said that in imposing the maximum 30-year stretch for each of Pepe’s seven felony convictions, to run consecutively, the penalty was deserved.
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“Despite the sincere efforts of defense counsel, the court finds no justification that would allow Mr. Pepe ever to be released from prison,” the judge said.
Fischer also awarded restitution of $247,000 to the organizations Agape International Missions and Hagar International, which house and cared for the victims.
According to prosecutors, Pepe receives $4,000 per month from the U.S. Department of Defense for his military retirement and disability compensation. The judge indicated she would order that those payments be garnished to pay the restitution.
“As far as I’m concerned, every last dime of it should go to the children,” Fischer said.
Pepe, whose U.S. address was listed as Oxnard, was working part-time as a professor at a Cambodian university when he was arrested by the Cambodian National Police in June 2006.
The investigation into Pepe began when a victim reported that she and several other children had been abused by the man. During a search of his Phnom Penh villa, police found three female victims, aged 9, 10 and 11, as well as hundreds of pornographic images, various drugs, children’s clothes, and rope and cloth strips, which victims said Pepe used to bind and gag them, according to court filings.
Further investigation in Cambodia located additional minor victims, ranging from 10 to 14 years of age.
Cambodian police arrested Pepe in 2006 and he was extradited to the United States the following year.
All seven of Pepe’s victims testified at his trial.
In arguing for a 15-year sentence, Deputy Federal Public Defender Charles Brown said Pepe’s life will be in jeopardy when he is moved from the downtown federal lockup to prison.
“I don’t know how long he will survive, knowing these allegations,” Brown said, adding that his client has a history of mental illness. “These are the acts of someone who’s sick.”
Pepe, chained at the ankles, wrists and waist, stood impassively during the hour long hearing in the nearly empty courtroom.
In a brief statement, Pepe said he had spent 20 years in the Marine Corps and suffered from organic brain damage and “psychotic effects” from withdrawal from psychiatric medication.
As for the victims, Pepe offered an apology, of sorts, to “the girls, if you believe that I have harmed you. I … wish you good luck in the future.”
Fischer said she would recommend that Pepe be sent to a federal prison that has a sex offender management program.
