(Full disclosure: Dallas Libertarian Examiner has written several articles in the past about Joey Dauben's support for Libertarian Party candidates and causes. This article is written in the conviction that libertarians should never cover up the transgressions of other libertarians.)
In final sentencing today of former Ellis County publisher and Libertarian Party supporter Joey Dauben a 13th District Court judge in Corsicana ordered his three 10-year sentences to be served consecutively rather than concurrently, meaning he won't be eligible for parole for 15 years.
The Corsicana Daily Sun reported earlier that Dauben had been given three ten-year sentences on three counts of sexual assault of a child and ten years' probation for indecency with a child.
The decision was handed down on January 14 in a trial stemming from charges of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 2007.
Dauben, an iconoclastic publisher, first caught the attention of the Dallas Libertarian Examiner in February 2011 when he expressed his desire to recruit Libertarian Party candidates for local offices throughout the 16-county Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, "from JP and constable to county judge or sheriff."
Dauben, who at the time was engaged in publishing several small town newspapers, websites and blogs in Ellis County under his Freedom of the Press Group operation, stirred strong emotions from both supporters and opponents with his muckraking style, political activism, and his willingness to take on powerful political interests in the county.
In a profile article Dauben was quoted as calling himself "a liberty-loving Republican" and "a pro-life Libertarian." In a subsequent interview, however, he placed himself more in Rand Paul's camp than in Ron Paul's, thereby positioning himself much farther right of most libertarians in the freedom movement.
Before his arrest Dauben had filed for nomination by the Libertarian Party for the 23rd Texas Senatorial District.
Ironically, on several occasions Dauben relentlessly pursued people in his newspapers and blogs whom he accused of being pedophiles, child abusers and child sexual molesters, and claimed to be instrumental in shutting down a halfway house in 2009 after accusing the director of making unwanted sexual advances toward the teenage offenders.
While some may find the sentence, the maximum the judge could have ordered, as extreme considering that the victim, now a 20-year-old adult, testified in court that "he participated willingly in the sex acts" at the time, the District Attorney's office was intent on" sending a message."
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