WAILUKU (AP) — A California chiropractor charged with sexually assaulting a woman while visiting Maui to conduct holistic health seminars has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. ADVERTISING WAILUKU (AP) — A California chiropractor charged with sexually assaulting a
WAILUKU (AP) — A California chiropractor charged with sexually assaulting a woman while visiting Maui to conduct holistic health seminars has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Ward Larry Joiner, of Roseville, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading no contest to second-degree sexual assault and third-degree sexual assault. A charge of first-degree violation of privacy had been dropped as part of a plea deal, The Maui News reported (http://bit.ly/1WfdYeH).
First Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Robert Rivera said the 64-year-old Joiner had used alcohol to incapacitate a business associate, who he sexually assaulted twice while on Maui in September 2011. He had used his cellphone to take pictures during the first sexual assault, Rivera said.
“He didn’t want to just sexually assault and rape the victim. He wanted to memorialize it,” Rivera said.
John Wilkinson, Joiner’s attorney, framed the relationship between his client and the victim as “flirtatious.” But he also acknowledged that the woman did not give her consent to Joiner’s advances.
“But he did believe that, at least implicitly, she wanted what he was doing,” Wilkinson said. “There was a level of confusion on his part.”
In court Tuesday, Joiner apologized and sought forgiveness from the victim.
“I’m so sorry from the bottom of my heart and hope someday she will find it in her heart to forgive me,” he said. “This has never happened in the past and will never happen again in the future.”
