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Retired Marine Corps captain found guilty in sex case
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More from Breaking NewsA retired Marine Corps captain from Oxnard was convicted Thursday by a federal jury in Los Angeles of traveling to Cambodia to have sex with underage girls, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.
After a three-week trial, Michael Joseph Pepe, 54, was convicted of seven felony counts of engaging in illegal sexual conduct in foreign places, the DOJ reported. He faces up to 210 years in federal prison when he is sentenced in September.
Pepe, who was arrested in June 2007, is the fifth person prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for so-called child sex tourism under the five-year-old PROTECT Act.
During Pepe's trial, six girls testified that he bound, drugged and raped them while he was living in Cambodia. The girls were 9 to 12-years-old at the time of the abuse.
A defense attorney argued the assaults were committed by a prostitute and her boyfriend who had access to Pepe's house, the Associated Press reported.
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