LoudounExtra.com

Bevel Incest Trial Set for April

By Bill Brubaker

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

James L. Bevel.

The trial of James L. Bevel, a leader of the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1960s who has been charged with incest, is scheduled to begin on April 7, according to Loudoun County court records.

Bevel, 70, told some of his daughters that he performed sex acts with them as a way to guide and train them and that they were wrong to think it was inappropriate, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Gigi Lawless said in a court hearing last month.

He was indicted by a Loudoun grand jury in May on one count of unlawfully committing fornication. The indictment followed a complaint to the Leesburg Police Department in September 2005.

Prosecutors have said the incident occurred between Oct. 14, 1992, and Oct. 14, 1994, when his accuser was 13 to 17 years old.

The former confidant of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has declined interview requests. He has been free on $30,000 bond.

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