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

SEATTLE — A former Washington corrections officer who sexually assaulted 4 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, 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, in accordance with the Washington State Division of Corrections.  

“I don’t suppose he received sufficient time as a result of he used his energy as a spot of making the most of folks,” mentioned Jennifer Holmes, one of many 4 ladies he sexually assaulted. “[He used] his job as a option to get ladies to do what he wished.”

He was let loose of jail early as a result of he accrued “earned launch time” – sentence discount credit which might be, by Washington legislation, awarded to all incarcerated individuals who take part in jail packages or present good conduct throughout their time behind bars. 

However even earlier than his early launch, Grey’s 20-month jail sentence extensively drew criticism from members of the general public, sufferer advocates and legal justice consultants who thought he ought to have confronted an extended sentence. 

“I believe 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 shocked, to see such a low sentence for what gave the impression to be serial misconduct – serial sexual assault.”

Hemmens and different consultants questioned why a person who preyed upon weak 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 suppose [the sentence is] acceptable,” mentioned Brenda Smith, an American College legislation professor and a former member of the Nationwide Jail Rape Elimination Fee, who helped create the requirements for governmental response to sexual victimization instances in custodial settings. “The actual fact is, if these offenses occurred outdoors of a custodial setting, this sentence would have in all probability been greater.” 

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 searching for a response for this story, and he beforehand denied KING 5’s requests for interviews. 

In accordance with Clallam County court docket data, Grey had sexual activity with two ladies and sexual contact along with his different victims, together with Holmes, who mentioned the guard pressured her to the touch his crotch whereas she was alone with him within the jail library. 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, really useful the 20-month sentence as a part of Grey’s plea deal. She mentioned she provided him a deal after contemplating his 4 victims had been in several emotional states and had various talents to testify. 

“I’ve completely no regrets. I did my job. I met with each one in every 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 suppose that was acceptable.”

If the case went to trial and Grey was convicted of all his unique felony prices underneath the state’s customary sentencing vary, he might have confronted as much as 5 years in jail, in accordance with court docket data. Devlin mentioned she would have additionally requested the decide 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 determination by the Washington State Legislature to set lighter penalties for sexual assault instances involving corrections officers in contrast with penalties for essentially the most severe rape instances involving civilian offenders. 

“It’s not the conduct itself. It’s the best way the case was charged that drove the end 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 determination to cost the previous guard with custodial sexual misconduct –  a criminal offense supposed to carry corrections officers to account in instances of sexual abuse – considerably influenced the penalties Grey acquired underneath the state’s sentencing tips. 

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

After the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Workplace accomplished their investigation into the sexual assaults involving three of Grey’s 4 victims, detectives decided they’d 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, court docket data 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 sometimes 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 ft had been in shackles, Grey reached underneath her skirt and penetrated her along with his finger, in accordance with legislation enforcement and court docket data. 

“He pressured this on me. He did this with me fully helpless, in shackles,” mentioned Lee, 38, of Shelton. “I used to be on the mercy of him – powerless to do something, and I believe 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 prices of second-degree rape.  

Devlin, the lead prosecutor, mentioned she thought-about charging 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 consider they’ll show past an inexpensive doubt,” she mentioned. “So, once 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 details of Grey’s legal case mentioned they disagree with the prosecutor’s determination to not pursue rape prices. They mentioned charging second-degree rape would have made an necessary assertion in regards to the seriousness of the misconduct.

“It’s apparent {that a} completely different cost might have been introduced,” mentioned David Smith, the Seattle lawyer and former prosecutor who reviewed Lee’s case. “Prosecutors typically must take principal positions – even for those who 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 precise elements that led her to say no to file second-degree rape prices as a result of a number of years have handed since she prosecuted the case. 

Brenda Smith, who supplies nationwide coaching on sexual victimization behind bars in her function as director for the Washington, D.C.-based Venture on Addressing Jail Rape, mentioned it’s widespread for corrections officers to face few or low penalties after partaking in sexual misconduct. 

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

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

It’s why the Washington state Legislature created the crime of custodial sexual misconduct in 1999. The brand new crime was seen as a software to make it simpler for prosecutors to get convictions in these varieties of instances, in accordance with 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 state of affairs, and subsequently, they’d no capability to make a significant consent.”

When the Legislature unanimously voted to cross the invoice, they made the crime a Class C felony and assigned it a seriousness stage of 5 – the identical stage because the crime of rape within the third diploma however six ranges decrease than the seriousness stage 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 pressure throughout sexual activity. It could actually additionally embrace different conditions, 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 document 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 determination. 

“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 believe it ought 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 added that the sentencing choices in custodial misconduct instances are “irritating.” 

She mentioned she thinks state lawmakers ought to improve the seriousness stage of the crime.

“I believe having any person in that form of energy that’s committing these sorts of crimes, that it ought to be taken extra critically by our Legislature,” she mentioned. “It ought to be handled extra like rape within the second diploma.” 

Adam Kline, one of many former Washington state senators who co-sponsored the 1999 invoice, mentioned the state Legislature has a historical past of accelerating the seriousness ranges of some crimes in response to public outcry.

“We have achieved that, and typically to good impact,” mentioned Kline, a Democrat who represented South Seattle for 18 years. “However typically, it is a mistake.”

Stating the potential for overcrowding of the state’s jails and prisons and the hazard of over-punishing of the individuals who dwell in them, Kline mentioned longer sentences aren’t at all times the correct answer.  

“We can’t have each crime go turn into an increasing number of severe,” he mentioned.  

Corrections officer in Clallam County stored job for many years, regardless of violations

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