By: Associated Press//September 2, 2014//
OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction and prison sentence of a 47-year-old Maine resident for transporting a 13-year-old Owensboro, Ky., girl across state lines to engage in sexual activity.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday let stand the 30-year sentence for Archie M. Whalen of Hancock County, Maine.
A jury convicted Whalen on July 26, 2012, of taking the girl in 2009 from her home in western Kentucky to Sturgeon Bay, Wis. The girl was found a day after an Amber Alert was issued.
Officials said Whalen met the girl when she and her mother lived briefly in Maine.
Whalen is currently serving his sentence at United States Penitentiary Marion in southern Illinois.