He seemed like a nice enough guy at first, but not Mr. Right, so they split after a couple of months of casual friendship.
Fast forward two years to 2004, and April was sitting on the couch at her home in Carson City, Nev., watching television with her daughters.
“The Montel Williams Show” was on, and the subject of molestation came up and her 8-year-old started crying.
“That’s when everything started,” April said, who asked that her last name not be published to protect the identity of her daughters.
The girl identified James Ernest Hope, now 42, as having molested her two years earlier, April said during a telephone interview Friday.
That was the first of what are now three active cases pending against him, two in Nevada and one in Clallam County.
Hope’s local case has been assigned to Clallam Public Defenders.
“At this point in time these are all allegations and he’s presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Harry Gasnick, director of Clallam Public Defenders, which has been assigned Hope’s case.
Hope can also challenge extradition to Nevada to stand trial for the warrants.
Gasnick said that it hasn’t been proven that Hope is actually the same person cited in the warrants.
In jail now
Hope is in jail on $1 million bail, charged last week in Clallam County Superior Court with first-degree child molestation after he was accused of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl in Sequim.
He was booked with another name but told the judge during his first court appearance that his name was Hope.
His arraignment for the molestation charge, as well as a charge for communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and being a fugitive from justice in another state, is scheduled for Friday.
He has two arrest warrants from Nevada for failing to show up at court hearings in two cases in which he was accused of sexually assaulting young girls, said Carson City Sheriff’s Department Detective Kate Summers.
April and the mother of the Sequim child, who requested that her name not be used to protect the identity of her daughter, believe that they were targeted as single mothers raising young girls.
The mother of the third girl could not be reached by the PDN.
April said they all stay in contact with each other as well as with the Carson City County Sheriff’s Department detectives assigned to the case.
April and Summers also said that Hope has used Internet dating sites to meet women.
“It’s kept me up at night knowing he was out there,” April said.
“I thought he was in California.”
Summers said investigators were relieved to hear that he had been caught.
“That has made us quite happy,” she said.
“I’ve been looking for this guy for some time. . . . I thought he was in Mexico. “
Chase near Sequim
Early Tuesday morning, Hope led a platoon of Clallam County law enforcement officers and a Coast Guard helicopter on a 9½-hour foot chase across Sequim, during which he repeatedly called the girl’s mother, unwittingly helping authorities pin down his location.
“It didn’t dawn on him until morning,” the Sequim mother said.
Hope made it about five miles on his dash here , but he had put a thousand miles between himself and two cases in Nevada.
Hope was charged in 2004 with assaulting April’s girls and was ordered to stand trial in Carson City on four counts of lewdness with a minor under the age of 14 and one count of sexual assault of a child under 14.
The two children were 4 and 6 at the time of the alleged assault.
At the time of his initial arrest, Hope was enrolled and paying his own way through a police academy in the Carson City area, Summers said.
“That’s what alerted us at first,” she said.
“Hey, this guy’s in the academy.”
While awaiting trial and free on $100,000 bail in that case, Hope allegedly assaulted a 10-year-old girl while her mother was in another room, Summers said.