Former Madison County Investigator Sentenced to Probation in Child Molestation Case

Al.com
August 10, 2018

https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2018/08/roland_campos_madison_county_2.html

Roland Campos has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in a child molestation case. Campos is a former Madison County sheriff's investigator.

A former Madison County sheriff's investigator has pleaded guilty in a child molestation case and was sentenced to one year of probation.

Roland Campos, a longtime investigator, resigned after being charged with sexual abuse last year. Campos, 64, pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor sex abuse charge, and prosecutors agreed to dismiss the second charge, which is a felony.

Because Madison County's judges recused from the case, Campos was sentenced by Jackson County Circuit Judge John Graham. Graham sentenced Campos to one year in jail but suspended that sentence for one year of supervised probation, court records show. Campos also is required to register as a sex offender.

One year in the county jail is the maximum sentence for a misdemeanor. The felony, which was dismissed, carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

The case began Aug. 18, 2017 when the 12-year-old victim reported sexual abuse to the guidance counselor at her middle school, police have said. The victim was taken to the National Child Advocacy Center for a forensic interview, in which she said Campos had touched her genitals and breasts, a Huntsville police investigator testified at a hearing last year. The abuse allegedly happened in February.

As the investigation continued, authorities learned the child also had disclosed the sexual abuse allegations to her mother and a local pastor, according to police. The pastor, Michael Walker, of Southside Baptist Church, has been arrested and accused of failing to report to the abuse. Campos attended Walker's church. Walker's case is set for trial later this year.

The mother told police Campos admitted to molesting the victim, according to the investigator's testimony. Further details about the circumstances of the alleged confession weren't revealed in court.

AL.com isn't publishing further details about the abuse to protect the identity of the victim.

The local judges recused because of concerns about the optics of the case. The sheriff's office handed over the investigation to Huntsville police detectives. The Attorney General's office prosecuted the case after the local district attorney's office recused.

Campos was a 10-year employee of the sheriff's office, where he investigated white-collar crimes, like fraud and identity theft. He resigned his position just a few hours after the abuse was reported to police.

Other members of Campos' family have been accused or convicted of sex crimes. His son, also named Roland, was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole in 2014 for sodomizing a 5-year-old girl while he was allegedly dating the victim's mother.

Campos' brother, Russell Leland Campos, was charged with two counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 in 2011. Those charges were dropped in 2014 when the alleged victim in the case was unable to testify due to the "ongoing effects of psychological trauma."