Longtime Central Valley musician charged with child molestation
Longtime Central Valley musician and Turlock resident James Boyington faces multiple charges of allegedly sexually abusing three children.
Known as “Jimbo,” Boyington has been a member of several notable valley bands for more than two decades including winners of Modesto Area Music Association awards.
Boyington, 44, is charged with two counts of sexual acts against a child under the age of 10 and three counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14.
According to court records the crimes allegedly occurred from 2012 to December 2019.
A parent who discovered the alleged abuse reported it to police on July 30, said Turlock Police Sgt. Mike Parmley.
“Due to the severity of the allegations, the circumstances involving incident, and the length of time the crimes had been occurring, patrol officers requested the assistance of the Turlock Police Investigative Division,” according to a statement released by Parmley. “To prevent any future injury to the victims it was crucial to locate and apprehend James Boyington.”
Parmley said Boyington was located driving toward his home, pulled over and arrested.
Boyington has been in custody since his July 30 arrest with a bail of $1.95 million.
Boyington was married to Victoria Boyington, but they are now separated and in the process of divorce. She is also a prominent Central Valley musician and creator of the California Women’s Music Festival. Founded in Modesto in 2014, the festival (originally called the Northern California Women’s Music Festival) was held annually in the region until 2017 and brought in headliners like Paula Cole and Lita Ford.
The couple also played together in the band Callbox. James Boyington played bass and the Warr guitar, a specialized 14-string guitar that plays both bass and melodic notes.
Members of Boyington’s current band, The Venting Machine, issued a statement on Facebook Tuesday about what they called “unfathomable information that has recently come to light regarding our bass player.”
The statement went on to say, “We ourselves, are barely able to process all of this. Even when you think you know someone, you never truly know what’s going on inside that person’s head. With this being said, this person is no longer our bass player. ... Our hearts go out to those involved, and to those that will forever be affected by this.”
Boyington has been part of the area’s metal scene since the 1990s, first through his band Carcinogen, which went on to become Depswa, a group that toured the world and played at Ozzfest after he was no longer a regular member. Over the years he played with the bands Monkey Knife Fight, Thr3efold (which won a MAMA Award for best hard rock band in 2005) and Callbox (which won a MAMA Award for best power-punk-pop band in 2017.
Mike Vanek, a longtime valley metal promoter with his 209Productions promotions company, called Boyington’s arrest “the worst thing to ever happen to the Central Valley music scene.”
“Since the news broke the members of our scene have banded together to denounce this person from our community and ideas are flowing to try to raise funds for those affected or a local community organization,” he said.
Boyington was arraigned on the charges last month and is scheduled to return to court Nov. 5.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 2:24 PM.
