Jury will hear audiotapes of Pike, alleged victim

A Whitley County Circuit Court Jury will be permitted to hear taped-recorded conversations next week between a former Corbin band director and the boy he allegedly sodomized while on a band trip to Williamsburg nearly four years ago, and a telephone conversation Pike had with the boy’s mother.
After listening to the taped conversation in his chambers between Thomas Ray Pike II and the boy’s mother, Judge Paul Braden ruled Tuesday that the tapes would be admissible during Thomas Pike’s trial, which is scheduled to start Jan. 23.
Pike, 43, of Jenkins, is charged with six counts of third-degree sodomy and six counts of first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor.
Prosecutors said the allegations all involve the same victim, who was the son of Pike’s former girlfriend, and all occurred in Williamsburg. The victim isn’t from the area.
Prosecutors said they know the dates of the incidents because they occurred while Pike was in Williamsburg for band recitals or competitions.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble said he feels the tapes are incriminating.
In the taped conversation with the victim’s mother, Trimble said Pike can be heard at one point on the tape saying that he didn’t believe he was a pedophile, but was merely gay.
In another part of the conversation, Pike tells the woman that he has quit his job and that he won’t be around children, Trimble said.
Pike’s lawyer, Whitesburg attorney Daniel Dotson, had requested that the jury not be allowed to hear the tapes, and noted that Pike can be heard denying the allegations in parts of the tape.
Trimble said the mother called Pike after learning about the allegations in an attempt to get information.
“This was actually done in the commonwealth attorney’s office in Letcher County,” Trimble noted.
Braden also ruled Tuesday that he would allow a photograph of Pike to be introduced that shows a birthmark that the victim claimed to have seen on Pike.
Pike is also facing trial on a 60-count indictment in Pike County relating to allegations made by the same victim, court officials said Tuesday.
Whitley County jurors will be permitted to hear some of the facts concerning that case and about an alleged September 2002 incident in Corbin that Pike had with the alleged victim in this case, if the facts show that the incidents are all intertwined, Braden ruled.
Last year Pike rejected a plea offer that called for him to serve 50 years in prison.
Pike previously served as Corbin High School band director for one year, and worked at the Corbin Middle School for six years. He was working in Pike County at the time the allegations in this case occurred.