Yesterday was a very difficult day. After months of fighting we arrived at the day of sentencing. I sat in the courtroom for four hours while case after case went through. At one point I worried I was going to pass out. I sat ram rod straight and don’t think I moved much more than blinking my eyes. It was horrific to go through. My heart goes out to everyone in this situation.
I watched as our lawyer walked over to the prosecuting attorney, saw him sit down and converse over what was obviously the fate of my son. Saw the prosecutors head swing side to side, and the look of worry on Jace attorneys face when he realized they were still not going to let Jace go.
Our Attorney, Mr. Thayer, spoke long and compellingly to the judge about all the reasons why the case should be dismissed. The judge, in his usual ‘I don’t care’ manner said, ‘I’ve already made up my mind but go ahead’. Just as in the trial, the judge did not care that the police acted with disregard to the law and their own rules. He did not believe that police impersonating another online without a warrant, subpoena, or website approval was a violation of the law or the terms of use defined by Craigslist. Thus we lost our motion to dismiss. Of course, we do believe this, and will be filing our civil suit in Oregon within the next month.
When it came time to sentence Jace the Judge spoke about how he had this case on his mind for quite a while. This is one of the reasons I believe it is good to string along your cases in court. Be it for a good or bad reason, Jace case was on the Judge mind. This personalized Jace. It is easier to rule on a number that crosses your desk, than on a name, face, and history. It is my belief that dragging this out was to Jace benefit.
The judge reiterated that he believed not a single word my son said. But he also said he did not think Jace would re-offend. The prosecutor and Mr. Thayer argued that without previous criminal history, this was two distinct acts, which would up Jace sentence by about two years. The judge did agree that the communication and attempted rape were one offense. Anyone out there with no priors should not go to sentencing with anything but a zero offender score. This is used to determine the standard range for the offense. Jace range was 55 to 76 months. The prosecution said he was OK with using the low end of that range.
Then Mr Thayer brought up our mitigating factors: Age, Victimless, Police initiated, Lacking maturity to fully understand consequences, ADHD history. We had an outside expert evaluate and report on Jace mental maturity. It basically said that with his youthful age at the time of the incident, on top of his ADHD which causes poor choices, Jace was operating on a level years behind his age of 20. It was also reiterated repeatedly that young minds, especially male, do not mature until around age 25.
In the end the judge quoted three key pieces that determined Jace sentence. One – Dr. Stanulis ADHD and maturity evaluation of Jace. Two – the fact that the Navy discharged Jace for his ADHD history, and 3 – the character reference letter from Jace best friend Simon, AKA the Pig, where Simon says “He can be pretty stupid sometimes”.
The judge put the three of these together and determined that Jace deserved a lighter sentence and a second chance.
Jace received 18 months in prison.
I did not hear after that as my brain went wonky but I believe he also has a few years probation and the lifetime registration. He does already have 6 months in, and will receive up to 10% off for good behavior. While he will not be home for the holidays this year, he should be home early next fall.
I am preparing myself to be ready to head up to Shelton, WA on Dec 16th to be near him. I may lose my job, or live in less than ideal circumstances for the next year, but he and I will get through this together. And I will continue to blog our journey. Next big event is Dec 10th when my poster goes up in Clark County Washington asking if they PREY ON INNOCENT PEOPLE!!
The Lady Justice Myth 
Despite the Motion having been dismissed, which would have been the ultimate outcome, it was a relief that a lesser sentence than might have been was imposed. Without a doubt, you will continue to fight atrocities such as this, as well as fully support and be present in your Son’s life.
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Really happy my character reference was able to help!
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My heart really breaks for Jace and you. This is so wrong and so unfair. They clearly know that he is not a predator or a risk to anyone. Jace does not deserve to be in prison. He has not harmed anyone. Nor is he a risk for harming anyone. They know that, but they just don’t care because they have too much pride to admit that they are wrong for what they have done. So, they just continue to do more wrong, in an effort to cover up the fact that they are just straight up wrong.
The only victims in all this have been Jace and his loved ones.
Tell Jace to hold his head up high and be proud of who he is. He is not what he has been labeled to be. This label does not define who he is and it never will. It has merely been assigned to him by reckless and irresponsible people who have too much pride to admit that they are just wrong about this. The truth will never change or go away. They will forever be wrong, and future generations will look down on them for how reckless, irresponsible, and malicious they were in doing things like this, in the name of “doing their jobs.”
It’s amazing to see how such highly educated people can lack so much in common sense, and it’s even more disappointing and disturbing to realize how many heartless people who just don’t care about anybody else but themselves we have working in our system/government. These people are supposed to be people we all trust. The lives of many are in their hands, and they can do so much damage when they don’t do their jobs correctly. Because of this, we really should require mental health testing before placing people in these positions. At the very least, they should all be screened for narcissism and psychopathy. I know that sounds horrible, but it’s a really harsh and sad reality. We do have some of these people working in our system. People like this tend to seek positions where they have power over others because they enjoy that power. It’s time we start accepting that reality and start doing something about it.
Their jobs are to protect people. They have protected absolutely no one in all this, yet they stand proud as if they have done their job. They have too much pride to admit that they are wrong. They did not catch a predator. They have not made the community safer by locking this person up. They have not protected one single child from this person. They have even admitted that he is not a predator. He was not preying on children. If anything they were the ones trying to put the idea of sex with a minor in his head. They are the horrible, disgusting people for doing that to vulnerable young men.
Still, they stand proud of the illusion they have created of protecting children, when in reality they have protected not one child. They lie to the public by coming up with nonsense things like, “This person could have eventually hurt a child.” The fact that someone is easily manipulated by sickos who play with their minds, certainly does not make them a risk for harming anyone. If anything it shows how vulnerable they are, which is complete opposite from being a predator. A sex addict may also fall for something like this because of their desperate need for sex. However, if law enforcement is going to be conducting sex stings like this on adult sites, is it not their jobs to be educated about what kinds of people visit adult sites like this?? It is very reckless, irresponsible, and just stupid to label all people on adult sites as sex addicts or predators who will just take anything they can get just because they are on an adult site. I know for a fact that there are people on there who don’t have much sex experience at all, if any. How could they be sex addicts if they don’t have sex? Isn’t this something these experts (carrying out sex sting operations) who are supposed to know what they are doing should certainly know about? They very obviously don’t or they simply don’t care. They’ll just label them all to be what they need them to be, to serve their own selfish purpose. This is why I say they should all be required to pass mental health testing.
What they have done here is all about protecting their pride and making it look like they are doing their job. We all expect for people in positions like this, especially when they are so highly educated, to know so much more and have much more comprehension about the reality of how things really are. After all, it is their jobs to know these things. It is mind blowing to find out that some, indeed, are very naive about some realities. It’s either that or, even worse, they are purposely coming up with creative lies to manipulate and get away with what they are doing because they are sick people who enjoy doing things like that to others and getting away with it.
Predators who prey on children do not go onto adult sites looking for children. I also have never heard of young teens going onto adult sites looking to hook up and have sex with adults (no money involved). If this does happen, it has to be very rare. Why would predators looking for minors go looking for minors on adult sites? And why are police looking for these predators who prey on children on adult sites? It’s certainly lack of common sense, or even worse, they just don’t care. They just want what they want, and they will create it if they have to.
Something that really stands out is what you said about Jace’s response to when he was told he was in the hot seat and his disbelief about it. If anything this shows his innocence. However, I’m sure they used that against him because it hurts their pride to be wrong and accept the fact that he really was just clueless and not the predator with too much pride (like them) that they were hoping he was.
As a mother of two young men, I most certainly understand this response. It makes complete sense to me. He was a 20 year old with no bad intentions. They couldn’t accept this because it would mean that they were wrong about him, and this would hurt their pride because it shows that they have done poor police work. It would mean that they have not done their job. So, I’m sure they instead used it against him to make him what they needed him to be. This actually shows their own lack of maturity.
The fact that the judge said that he did not believe anything Jace said tells me that. That really stands out because it was the police who lied, yet the judge believed them. We know for a fact that they lied about Jace failing the lie detector test because Jace indeed passed a real one later with flying colors. His responses in that interview with the officer who did the lie detector test made complete sense. It was what was coming out of the officer’s mouth that did not make sense, but because we’re supposed to trust police, we shouldn’t doubt them, even when they make no sense and are clearly abusing their power. Police are supposed to lie to get the real truth out of suspects. That’s the excuse they will use and completely ignore the fact that they were just wrong. So, the result now is: Oh well, he’s not a predator after all, like we thought he was, so let’s just lock him up for less time.
And they stand proud claiming to have done their jobs. How fucked up is that?? This is what the people we are putting our trust in are doing. (Please excuse my language. I’m expressing how incredibly disturbed I am by this)
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I still cannot understand why he was just not giving probation, we honestly feel for Jace and yourself. I believe if the will and determination is th are which it sure is, this needs to be brought to the attention of decision makers.
As it stands it be registry will be very tough and it’s something that should continue to be fought against, to be semi abolished or get people in these stings off it. The money trail, someday somehow we pray is exposed along with the elimination of these stings as they are done. Your blog is inspiring and we can only express gratitude for allowing us to be part of it. Prayers
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The problem is that we have way too many people working in our system who have too much pride to accept, much less admit to the fact that they could just simply be wrong.
Facts: Excessive pride and fear of being wrong is at the top of the list for narcissism. It’s also number one on the list of the seven deadly sins. People with excess pride who cannot even acknowledge that they could be wrong are far lost in evil, especially when they are willing to hurt others over it, and many even get pleasure out of it. This is evil.
Fact: Someone either is or is not a predator. There is no in between. There are clear indications and behaviors that show someone is a predator and a risk and danger to others. Lack of empathy is the biggest one. They have very domninant personalities. They manipulate and lie to get what they want, and they don’t feel bad about it. These signs are clearly present.
Someone either has a personality type to be a predator and is one or they are not. To claim that someone who does not have any indications of being a predator can suddenly become one is absolutely ridiculous! This is the outrageous lie people in our system are using to protect their pride and keep others convinced that there is no possible way they could just be wrong about someone they’ve decided to label a predator. It’s insane!
This kind information can easily be found, and much of it is common sense. There is absolutely no reason for why people who work in our system, especially those who are highly educated, would not know these facts.
It’s their excessive pride that gets in the way. This is why these things are happening, and this is why it would be especially important to carefully screen people who we are placing in these positions. It is very critical to have people with healthy minds working in these positions. We need to start demanding that and sharing our stories as perfect examples for why there needs to be a push and demand for this.
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Please send my support to Jace. I’m so sorry. This seems really freaking excessive.
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