An investigator with the U.S. Coast Guard who sexually assaulted a co-worker’s girlfriend as she slept in her bed was sentenced Friday to four years in prison.
Jonathan Sall, 57, of Poulsbo previously pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court to third-degree rape, residential burglary and indecent liberties without forcible compulsion.
Sall was a civilian employee with the Coast Guard Investigative Service in Seattle and the special agent in charge of the Coast Guard’s Northwest region.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor James Smith asked the judge to sentence Sall to six years in prison, a sentence above the standard range, citing aggravating factors for abuse of trust and violation of privacy.
Clark County sheriff’s deputies were called shortly after 6 a.m. Feb. 17 to a Hazel Dell residence after Sall climbed into the co-worker’s bed and sexually assaulted the co-worker’s girlfriend while the couple slept, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The victim told deputies she awoke about 3 a.m. to Sall inappropriately touching her. She kicked him away and demanded he get out of the couple’s bedroom. The commotion woke up the co-worker, who saw Sall crawling out of the bedroom, the affidavit says.
Sall had been at the couple’s residence for a party. He said he couldn’t remember much of what happened overnight, court records state.
“Did he think I would not wake up as he sexually assaulted me?” the victim asked during an emotional statement to the court. She said Sall violated her in the worst way possible, and she will never be able to erase it from her mind.
“I don’t understand why he did this to me, and I probably never will,” she added.
Her boyfriend also read a statement to the court, in which he stated Sall was his boss, mentor and friend.
“I will never forget that image, the image of Jon hiding at the end of my bed as he got caught,” he said.
Sall investigated the same crimes that he’s now going to prison for, the co-worker said, adding that the irony is difficult to grasp. He said he doesn’t believe this is the first time Sall has done something like this.
Sall’s attorney, Steve Thayer, said his client has never been accused, charged or convicted of any crimes, before this incident. He said he was happily married, raised four children and served 40 years in the U.S. Coast Guard.
There was heavy drinking at the party. “The behavior was mindless and alcohol-driven,” Thayer said. It doesn’t excuse Sall’s behavior, but it is the issue, he added.
Since the offense, Sall has completed alcohol counseling and attended 110 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Thayer said.
Sall began to apologize for his actions, but Judge Gregory Gonzales ordered that he turn to the gallery and say it to the victim.
“I apologize from the bottom of my heart,” he said. “You did nothing to deserve this. This was 100 percent on me.”
Sall told the victim he wishes he could explain why he did it but doesn’t understand it himself. “This is not who I am. I am not this kind of person. It was the alcohol,” he said.
He vowed to never drink again.
Gonzales told Sall that all of his dedicated years of patriotism are gone. “You wasted your entire career,” he said. “You have literally ruined (the victim’s) life. It’s going to be a long time before she recovers from this.”
Still, Gonzales said, he can’t sentence someone based on emotion, and he didn’t believe there was enough evidence to allow for an exceptional sentence. He sentenced Sall to the high end of the standard sentencing range — 48 months.
He also imposed a 25-year no-contact order with the victim.
“I hope you figure out your life in prison,” Gonzales told Sall. “Your actions were horrific.”