Former Lockheed Engineer Convicted of Child Molestation

A former engineer at Lockheed-Martin has been convicted of sexually assaulting two young children on multiple occasions over several years, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office said.

Tracy Bothel King, 59, was found guilty by a Cobb County jury of three counts of child molestation on Thursday. The jury only took 40 minutes to deliberate, the District Attorney’s Office said.

King sexually assaulted a girl who was around five years old inside a home in Marietta in 1997 and 1998, then sexually assaulted another five-year-old at a residence in Acworth between 2008 and 2010. King was arrested for these crimes in 2012. A third victim testified that King sexually assaulted her when she was a little girl, but the statute of limitations had expired in her case.

All victims testified in court and gave similar accounts of King’s assaults on them. Each victim said that King pleaded with them, or threatened them, and told them not to tell anyone about what was happening because he could get in trouble. Each defendant blamed herself for not speaking out and stopping the abuse, the District Attorney’s Office said.

“If this is all a huge conspiracy to get him in trouble, why would they say that?” ADA Hannah Palmquist told jurors. “Place the guilt and the blame where it belongs – on Tracy King.”

Following King’s conviction, he was taken into custody. He will remain incarcerated at the Cobb County jail until a Feb. 23 sentencing hearing, where he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count of child molestation, according to the District Attorney’s Office said.