An 82-year-old Hereford man convicted last Friday of molesting a young female relative in 2005 and 2006 was arraigned Monday afternoon for allegedly raping a different girl nearly 18 years ago.
Edward Lee Thomas appeared with his attorney Roger Contreras via a video hookup from the Cochise County jail for arraignment of one count of sexual assault of a minor in 2002. He was ordered to stand trial in Cochise County Superior Court on July 14.
Thomas has been in the jail since March 13 when a jury returned guilty verdicts for three counts of sexual contact for touching the genitals of a 10-year-old girl in 2005 and 2006. That victim, who is now 24, was the state’s key witness, but the alleged victim in the new indictment was one of two other women who testified as prosecution witnesses.
The purpose of the other women’s testimony was to demonstrate Thomas has “a predisposition” for sexual misconduct involving young girls. But the jurors in that trial were not informed that a county grand jury had indicted Thomas on Feb. 27 for allegedly having sexual intercourse with the now 33-year-old when she was a child.
There is no statute of limitations in Arizona for prosecuting sexual abuse of children.
According to the woman’s testimony during last week’s trial, Thomas inappropriately touched her in 2002. She recorded a brief phone call with Thomas in January 2003 during which she approaches the subject of sex and then gave the tape to her mother.
Court records show Thomas was indicted in February 2003 for one count of sexual abuse occurring in November 2002, but the case was dismissed in 2004 at the request of the Cochise County Attorney’s Office, which noted “insufficient evidence to ensure a reasonable probability of conviction.”
The indictment in 2003 made no reference to Thomas committing sexual intercourse against the girl. Nor did she disclose that type of alleged conduct during her recent testimony.
Thomas came under investigation again in 2007 when the Cochise County Sheriff’s office received a report about the 2005-2006 abuse involving another girl in the family. However, the girl’s mother was against prosecuting Thomas and the case went inactive after critical evidence was inadvertently destroyed.
Then in 2009, the same detective who worked the 2007 case spoke with Thomas about the molestation while interviewing him in an unrelated matter. Despite getting what prosecutors described as “a confession” from Thomas, the case sat dormant again until the victim inquired about the case in November 2018.
The Arizona Daily Independent has confirmed Thomas was offered a pre-trial plea deal in the 2005-2006 case which would have resulted in a sentence of four months in jail. Instead, Thomas faces a minimum 10-year in prison for each of the three convictions when Dickerson formally imposes sentence on April 13.
It’s unclear whether Thomas will be transferred to the custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections after sentencing, or if Dickerson will issue a writ to keep him in jail pending resolution of the new case.