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Jock Boyer

The Impossible Redemption of Jonathan Boyer


steve friedman

Boyer rode with the best of the Euro packs (center). (Winston S. Boyer)

Seaside, California, police officers arrested Boyer on May 16, 2002, after a 17-year-old girl told them the cyclist had molested her from 1997 to 2000. She was barely 12 when it started. On September 12, 2002, he pled guilty to seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts upon a child, and three counts of penetration by a foreign object or genital penetration on a person younger than 16. He said he was remorseful. On November 19, he was sentenced to 20 years in state prison, a sentence that was immediately stayed, then he was put on probation for five years, and sent to the Monterey County jail for a year. At the sentencing, state superior court judge Gary E. Meyer noted that Boyer posed little threat to the girl or to others and that he was a good candidate for rehabilitation. Those are the facts. He slept in a dorm with 60 other men. Breakfast was served at 4 a.m. He read 50 books, including the complete works of Christian evangelist Philip Yancey. He was released on July 7, 2003, after serving eight months. In 2006, at age 51, he won the solo enduro division of the Race Across America. His probation ended November 7, 2007. Those are facts, too.

In some states, a 16-year-old who fondles his 14-year-old girlfriend is guilty of a crime, just as guilty in strict legal terms as someone who stalks playgrounds, snatching and raping children. If you can accept that when it comes to sex offenses, even child molesting, there is a moral spectrum of heinousness, then should we try to put Boyer's crime--and Boyer--in some sort of context? Boyer thinks we should. "It's too bad all those [criminal] charges get put in the same box," he says. "The fact is they're so varied, the charges. . . they go from one end to the other. . . .you do have predators out there, the perverts, you do have people who are bent on molesting countless kids and who have issues with children. Then you have others who have overstepped certain boundaries and get put in the same. . . uh. . . same sort of description."

What exactly did Boyer do? According to court records, he twice "puts [his] hand inside of Jane Doe's pants and touches Jane Doe's vagina," and "digitally penetrates Jane Doe's vagina" a total of eight times. Once, during the act, he spoke French.

Boyer refuses to discuss the specifics of the crimes. His friends say his public silence is to protect the girl, now a young woman.

Lars Frazer is a photographer based in Austin, Texas. He has known Boyer for 20 years, and says the cyclist "became best friends with a 13-year-old girl who fell deeply in love with him. She had a high level of maturity and he showed poor judgment. When Jock said, 'This is not appropriate, it's not appropriate for us to have this level of friendship,' she lashed out," and the police were notified.

"Knowing what I know," says Frazer, "he shouldn't have spent a day in jail. He's not a predator. I have two daughters, six and three-and-a-half, and there's no question I would let them spend time alone with Jock. They know who he is, and they love him."

David Frost, a friend of Boyer's for 30 years, who works as a deputy district attorney in Monterey County, says, "I purposefully didn't read the files and I don't want to. I'm sure it'll never happen again. It's not something anyone will have to worry about. He's got a very strong character."

Others aren't quite as sympathetic.

In a precise and careful e-mail, Monterey chief assistant district attorney Terry Spitz said, after reviewing the file, "We are prohibited by the state bar ethics code from charging a crime based on a hunch or suspicion. We must have probable cause to believe the defendant actually engaged in the conduct charged. Of course, Boyer admitted to...engaging in such conduct."