Why a Washington corrections officer got 20 months in prison for sexually assaulting 4 women

SEATTLE — A former Washington corrections officer who sexually assaulted four inmates on the metropolis of Forks jail in 2019 is out of jail after finishing roughly 13 months of his 20-month sentence.

John Grey’s jail sentence sparked outrage and drew criticism from members of the general public, sufferer advocates and legal justice consultants who mentioned he ought to have acquired extra jail time for his crimes. 

“I feel it sends a horrible message,” mentioned Dr. Craig Hemmens, a Washington State College legal justice professor who’s studied nationwide penalties for corrections officers who commit intercourse crimes. “I used to be shocked, very, very stunned, to see such a low sentence for what seemed to be serial misconduct – serial sexual assault.” 

Grey, who was convicted of two felony and two misdemeanor counts of custodial sexual misconduct in December 2020, was launched from an Oregon corrections facility in late March, based on the Washington State Division of Corrections. He was set free of jail early as a result of he gathered “earned launch time” – sentence discount credit which might be, by Washington law, awarded to all incarcerated individuals who take part in jail applications or present good conduct throughout their time behind bars.

Hemmens and different consultants questioned why a person who preyed upon susceptible ladies whereas holding authority over them didn’t face harder penalties – suspecting the guard confronted lighter penalties due to the legislation enforcement occupation he held. 

“I don’t assume [the sentence is] applicable,” mentioned Brenda Smith, an American College legislation professor and a former member of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, who helped create the requirements for governmental response to sexual victimization circumstances in custodial settings. “He violated a number of ladies who’re beneath his care and custody. The actual fact is, if these offenses occurred outdoors of a custodial setting, this sentence would have most likely been increased.” 

Grey, who was the topic of a number of KING 5 investigations this yr, couldn’t be reached for remark. An lawyer representing him in a federal lawsuit didn’t reply an electronic mail looking for a response for this story, and he beforehand denied KING 5’s requests for interviews. 

In keeping with Clallam County courtroom information, Grey had sexual activity with two ladies and sexual contact along with his different victims, together with Jennifer Holmes, who mentioned the guard pressured her to the touch his crotch whereas she was alone with him within the jail library. 

“I don’t assume he received sufficient time as a result of he used his energy as a spot of making the most of individuals,” mentioned Holmes. “[He used] his job as a method to get ladies to do what he wished.” 

Police investigators additionally discovered Grey paid bail for 2 of the 4 ladies after he sexually assaulted them.

Michele Devlin, chief legal deputy prosecutor on the Clallam County Prosecutor’s Workplace, beneficial the 20-month sentence as a part of Grey’s plea deal. She mentioned she supplied him a deal after contemplating his 4 victims had been in several emotional states and had various skills to testify. 

“I’ve completely no regrets. I did my job. I met with each certainly one of my survivors. I took under consideration their emotional well-being and what I had accessible to me, and that is what we ended up with,” she mentioned. “I might have tried to push them over the sting, however I didn’t assume that was applicable.”

If the case went to trial and Grey was convicted of all his authentic felony fees beneath the usual sentencing vary, he might have confronted as much as 5 years in jail, based on courtroom information. Devlin mentioned she would have additionally requested the choose impose the next sentence than what was typical. 

However the size of Grey’s jail sentence wasn’t solely within the prosecutor’s arms. It was pushed by a decades-old choice by the Washington state Legislature to set lighter penalties for sexual assault circumstances involving corrections officers in contrast with penalties for essentially the most severe rape circumstances involving civilian offenders. 

“It’s not the conduct itself. It’s the best way the case was charged that drove the result,” mentioned David Smith, a Seattle-based lawyer and former prosecutor who reviewed particulars of Grey’s legal case at KING 5’s request. 

Devlin’s choice to cost the previous guard with custodial sexual misconduct –  a criminal offense supposed to carry corrections officers to account in circumstances of sexual abuse – considerably influenced the penalties Grey acquired beneath the state’s sentencing guidelines. 

In Washington, sentences for grownup felony crimes are decided by a system that takes under consideration the “seriousness level” of the offense and the legal report of the offender. Judges rating defendants by their historical past – assigning increased scores to offenders with prior convictions. Then, they seek the advice of a grid of sentencing ranges which might be calculated primarily based on these two components. 

After the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Workplace accomplished their investigation into the sexual assaults involving three of Grey’s 4 victims, detectives decided that they had possible trigger to arrest him on a number of first- and second-degree counts of custodial sexual misconduct. For first-time offenders, the usual sentencing vary for one felony conviction of the crime can vary from six to 12 months in jail. 

However, courtroom information present, detectives thought additionally they had the proof to cost Grey with a considerably extra severe crime: two counts of second-degree rape. The crime is a category A felony and for first-time offenders, a conviction of 1 rely usually carries a jail sentence of six-and-a-half to eight-and-a-half years. 

Investigators believed Grey raped his fourth sufferer, Morgan Lee, whereas he was transporting her on an hours-long drive from Mason County to the Forks Jail in September 2019. On two events in the course of the journey, as Lee’s arms had been handcuffed and her toes had been in shackles, Grey reached beneath her skirt and penetrated her along with his finger, based on legislation enforcement and courtroom information. 

“He pressured this on me. He did this with me utterly helpless, in shackles,” mentioned Lee, 38, of Shelton. “I used to be on the mercy of him – powerless to do something, and I feel that’s how he most well-liked it.”

Regulation enforcement referred Lee’s case to the Clallam County Prosecutor’s Workplace, recommending prosecutors transfer ahead with fees of second-degree rape.  

Devlin, the lead prosecutor, mentioned she thought of the state’s rape statutes for every of the sexual assaults however opted to go one other route with the case. 

“A prosecutor has an moral obligation to not cost something they don’t imagine they’ll show past an inexpensive doubt,” she mentioned. “So, after I reviewed all of the proof, I made a decision that custodial sexual misconduct within the first diploma was the extra correct cost.” 

Some legal justice consultants who reviewed the information of Grey’s legal case mentioned they disagree with the prosecutor’s choice to not pursue rape fees. They mentioned charging second-degree rape would have made an vital assertion in regards to the seriousness of the misconduct.

“It’s apparent {that a} totally different cost might have been introduced,” mentioned David Smith, the Seattle lawyer and former prosecutor who reviewed Lee’s case. “Prosecutors generally must take principal positions – even if you happen to run the chance that you’re going to get somebody acquitted – since you’re not prepared to let him plead responsible to some lesser offense.” 

Devlin mentioned she doesn’t recall the particular components that led her to say no to file second-degree rape fees as a result of a number of years have handed since she prosecuted the case. 

Brenda Smith, who offers nationwide coaching on sexual victimization behind bars in her function as director for the Washington, D.C.-based Project on Addressing Prison Rape, mentioned it’s frequent for circumstances involving sexual misconduct in prisons to have decrease penalties. 

“And one of many causes that they’ve these penalties is due to their incapability to get prosecutors to cost these increased offenses,” she mentioned.  

Prosecutors nationwide have traditionally discovered that custodial sexual abuse is troublesome to show beneath rape statutes due to sufferer credibility issues from juries and questions over consent.  

It’s why the state Legislature created the crime of custodial sexual misconduct in 1999. The brand new crime was seen as a software to make it easier for prosecutors to get convictions in these kinds of circumstances, based on a former lawmaker and a former lawyer who had been concerned in creating the first- and second-degree statutes.  

The legislation criminalized all sexual contact and intercourse involving correctional officers in custodial settings, together with conditions the place inmates and guards claimed to have consensual relationships or quid professional quo preparations. 

“The query actually rotated two phrases – consent and management,” mentioned Bernard Ryan, who labored on the laws whereas he was the senior counsel for the Washington State Senate Democratic Caucus within the late ‘90s. “And the argument was, in fact, that the inmates had no management over the scenario, and subsequently, that they had no capability to make a significant consent.”

When the Legislature unanimously voted to go the bill, they made the crime a Class C felony and assigned it a seriousness degree of 5 – the identical degree because the crime of rape in the third degree however six ranges decrease than the seriousness degree they assigned to second-degree rape. 

Rape within the second diploma is a criminal offense that happens when the perpetrator makes use of or threatens bodily drive throughout sexual activity. It will probably additionally embody other situations, similar to when the sufferer is bodily helpless or mentally incapacitated; when the sufferer has a developmental incapacity and the perpetrator has supervisory authority over them; when the sufferer is a affected person and the perpetrator is a well being care supplier; or when the sufferer is a resident of a psychological well being or chemical dependency facility and the perpetrator is a supervisor. 

There’s no report of why the state Legislature determined to make the penalties for custodial sexual misconduct much less extreme. Officers who performed a job in setting the severity of the crime mentioned they couldn’t recall specifics of the dialogue that led to their 1999 choice. 

“We put a lesser worth on sexual misconduct dedicated on ladies who’re incarcerated than ladies who weren’t incarcerated, and that doesn’t appear proper,” mentioned Hemmens, the WSU legal justice professor. “I feel I needs to be punished each bit as severely or extra so than within the free world.”

Hemmens isn’t the one one calling for legislative modifications. 

Delvin, the Clallam County prosecutor in Grey’s case, mentioned she made one of the best choices accessible to get justice for the 4 survivors. However she added that the sentencing choices in these circumstances are “irritating.” 

“I feel having any person in that type of energy that’s committing these sorts of crimes, that it needs to be taken extra significantly by our Legislature,” she mentioned. “I feel it needs to be an elevated degree of seriousness … It needs to be handled extra like rape within the second diploma.” 

Adam Kline, a former Washington state senator (D-Seattle) who co-sponsored the 1999 invoice, mentioned the legislature has a historical past of accelerating seriousness ranges of some crimes in response to public outcry. However mentioned longer sentences aren’t all the time the precise answer.

“We have achieved that, and generally to good impact, however generally that is a mistake,” he mentioned. “We can not have each crime go grow to be increasingly more severe.” 

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