This week’s arrest of two part-time Santa Barbara residents accused of repeated sexual contact with a Santa Barbara area teen girl has stirred up the normally tranquil ski town of Mammoth Lakes.
Dr. Andrew Bourne, a Mammoth Unified School District Board of Education member and vascular surgeon at Mammoth Hospital, was arrested and booked on eight counts of illegally contacting a minor for sexual activity. Joseph T. Walker, 48, described as an international businessman, was also arrested on six counts for this offense, for which he could receive up to five years in prison, and one count of unlawful sex with a minor.
Bourne and Walker each own homes in both Santa Barbara and Mammoth Lakes.
“We are in shock and disbelief about this,” said Rich Boccia, superintendent of the Mammoth Unified School District. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.”
Boccia said the focus of the school district now is on healing the small community, not on urging anyone to come forward with information about either suspect.
“The investigation began in September of 2011 when suspicious emails sent to a teenage female were discovered and reported to the police,” Santa Barbara police Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte said in a statement.
Santa Barbara police officers, with the assistance of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department, served arrest and search warrants Wednesday in Mammoth. Duarte said police obtained the warrants after uncovering more than 1,000 emails sent to the victim, who is now 15.
Both Bourne and Walker were booked into the Mono County Jail with bail set at $1 million each. They will be extradited to Santa Barbara and booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail.
A well-respected member of the Mammoth community and father of two students, Bourne was appointed to the school board in 2009 and has been an active member since, Boccia said.
Bourne stepped down as chief of staff at Mammoth Hospital after a two-year term at the end of 2011, according to Lori Ciccarrelli, community relations director and public information officer for the hospital.
“Mammoth Hospital is saddened to learn the charges and the arrest of its contracted physician, Dr. Andrew Bourne,” Ciccarrelli wrote in a statement. “Our thoughts go out to the victim, all families involved, and to our staff and the community at large.”
She added that the hospital is staffed with enough surgeons to maintain coverage while Bourne is in custody.
— Noozhawk intern Daniel Langhorne can be reached at dlanghorne@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.