Our prosecuting attorney in Clark county was Jeff McCarty. He looked like a kind, reasonable man, yet, he seemed unable or un-inclined to differentiate the dolphins from the tuna in his net. I suppose that distinction SHOULD have been made by the police at the time of Jace arrest, but I somehow understand how the police can be so hardened to a point of inability to see their own weaknesses. Police are forced to deal with some truly horrible criminals and their acts. It’s enough to create an uber sense of urgency, mistrust, and conviction – like a football player on the field – nothing and no one will get in their way. I cut the police this slack as I believe it takes that intensity to do what they are required to do in some cases, and I am sure it is hard to take off that face and the end of the day.

But I do NOT cut a prosecutor such slack, and the prosecutors in WA state are all involved in these stings – directly! I mean quite literally they are at the crime scenes in some cases and certainly conferred with before, during, and after each operation. The judges too are involved and they themselves set what will, or will not, be allowed in terms of defense, evidence, and what it takes to acquire a conviction.

Jeff McCarty saw me, sitting there watching my son, and all court proceedings, at every hearing. Per Mr. Thayer, Mr McCarty agreed that Jace case was defensible and wanted to come to an agreement – but his bosses wouldn’t let him I was told.

There was also a second attorney, Jonathon Young, brought in after Jaces conviction, to repudiate our claims of procedural misconduct by the ICAC task force. I had found a sheet of the ICAC manual, floating around the internet, that stated LE is nto allowed to use adult dating sites for these proactive stings. He stated that what I had dug up was only a suggested addition to the manual and that it was never actually adopted into the final version. Of course we have absolutely no way of knowing if that is true or not.

After Jace sentencing, Mr McCarty nodded to me as he walked out of the court room. He did not seem smug, so my feeling is that he meant he had gone easy on us. I only stared back – the irony of someone congratulating you on a ‘short’ sentence, for something unintended and that didn’t happen, was too much for me to respond to.