Mom: Man in sex case 'stalked' boy

Green Valley News

A Sahuarita man who admitted to deputies that he masturbated with a 12-year-old boy as they watched pornographic movies charged into the boy’s home and got into a confrontation after the youngster cut off contact with him, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report.

Click here to read the indictment

William E. “Billy” O’Rourke, manager of the Green Valley Lanes, was “stalking” the boy, the mother told deputies, then began behaving strangely and made suicide threats before the boy stopped talking to him, according to the report.

O’Rourke, 35, flew into a rage and assaulted the boy Oct. 7, and was arrested at his Sahuarita home in November, according to the report. As first reported online Wednesday at www.gvnews.com, O’Rourke was indicted on five felony charges including aggravated assault, “furnishing obscene items to minors” and “public sexual indecency to a minor.” His next hearing is March 17 before Judge Howard Fell in Superior Court. He has continued to work at the bowling alley though his bond release conditions in November ordered him not to have contact with minors. In January, that was amended to no “unsupervised” contact with minors.

In the documents released Friday, O’Rourke told police he saw the boy about three times a week and that he and the boy masturbated about a dozen times at his house. He denied any physical contact with the boy, but said the boy was “possibly wanting to know what it felt like to have a bigger hand” touch him.

In two interviews with the Green Valley News, O’Rourke denied masturbating with the boy, whom he said is “like a son” to him.

In a sheriff’s incident report, the boy’s mother said O’Rourke had often taken the boy to “hockey games out of town that required (the boy) to spend the night at William’s house. ...the relationship between (her son) and William started to get weird and that William had ‘stalked’ (the boy) by waiting outside (her) house.”

She told deputies, “William had also sent several suicide notes to (the boy) over the Internet... That because of these events, (the boy) had stopped hanging around with William, which was why William had returned to her house to get his PlayStation,” according to the report.

O’Rourke told the News the case is “a nonsense issue” and said he was not guilty.

“It’s been a nightmare,” O’Rourke said. “People are talking about it, or heard it. I know it’s not true.”

“I’m trying whatever I can to be as backstage as I can on it, stay out of the view of everybody right now.”

O’Rourke told deputies he struggled with the boy in October after the boy swung at him, and he only grabbed the boy because he seemed hysterical.

He said “he felt as a father figure, he needed to speak to (the boy) and would not leave. He said at no time did he force entry into the room, that (the boy) actually came out and he grabbed” him as the boy was trying to get away.

Witnesses said the boy left an electronic game at home with a relative so that O’Rourke could pick it up, but the defendant “did not accept” the game and insisted on speaking with the boy, pushing past a relative, yelling and entering the house without permission.

Upon discovering the boy had locked his bedroom door, O’Rourke “grabbed a butter knife from the kitchen and attempted to pick the lock on the bedroom door... and was able to gain entry into the bedroom. William grabbed (the boy) by the wrist and struggled with him” until a relative helped free the boy from the grip of the 200-pound O’Rourke.

Two witnesses said the boy was screaming “let go of me” and had tears in his eyes. O’Rourke then took the game and left.

Other witnesses said O’Rourke got into the bedroom only after the boy let his brother and a friend into the bedroom and that O’Rourke pulled him out by the wrist.

O’Rourke said he had known the boy for about a year and hung out with him three days a week. He told deputies that when the boy said he didn’t want to talk to him anymore, he made arrangements to have some of the boy’s property removed from his house.

O’Rourke has been heavily involved in the community. He spent three years as technical coach with a youth bowling club largely made up of Sahuarita High School students, donating lane time and equipment. In January 2008, he was named a “Friend of Sahuarita” by the school board for his work with youths.

Sue Woodward, who helps manage the bowling team, said “nothing out of the ordinary” happened when O’Rourke was around. She declined to say whether she or others connected to the team spoke to O’Rourke about the indictments.

Sahuarita Unified School District Superintendent Jay St. John said the bowling club is not a school team or activity and has no connection with the district. He said Sahuarita High School students participate, a teacher acts as an adviser on her own time, and the district rents its vans to the club. He added that the district has stopped sending disabled students to the alley to work for credit as part of a mainstreaming program.

“We have a couple of concerns,” St. John said. “We need to find out who is involved (in youth bowling teams) and let parents know,” he said earlier this month.

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738