The Trial of Stanley Scott Sadler

I know Sadler personally. I have been good friends with him since 1980. I was at his wedding years ago, in fact.

Additionally, I spoke on the phone with the mother of this girl for about 45 minutes.

The mother is convinced that the girl stole her own birth certificate and modified it to get false Washington State ID.

At first, the mother thaought that Sadler was a monster, and said so on the Montel Williams Show.

But her daughter later confessed to her that all of the allegations made by Sadler of being deceived are true—that she had lied to him, gone with him willingly, and had successfully passed herself off as a young-looking 19 year old.

The prosecutor knew all of this, but pressed forward anyway. This is, of course, prosecutorial misconduct—deliberately prosecuting someone you know to be innocent.

This girl is now living in Utah with a 30-something year old man. (She would be like 16 now.)

The FBI has documentation that she is known to pass herself off as being of legal age with older men. This was not permitted as evidence at the trial.

The mother having been told by the girl that the girl had lied to Sadler was not permitted at trial.

The girl had run away from protective custody, and was not present to testify.

There were 40 felony counts against Sadler, and he was exonerated on all counts but one type. The standard of proof for that one type of offense was that a reasonable person would have had no reason to suspect that she was under age.

But if you met someone who looked 16, but showed you ID that they were 19—ID produced by the state, would you doubt their age anymore? Probably not.

The Dept of Corrections personnel he has talked with about his appeal assert that he should never have been taken to trial. The lawyer for his appeal is working pro bono, outraged at Sadler’s being railroaded.

Though it is true that virtually all prisoners assert their innocence, that in nowise negates the innocence of someone who was truly wrongly convicted.

I am confident that the appeal will exonnerate Salder of all charges—and rightfully so.

Both I and Sadler are heartbroken that this girl advertises herself on adult websites in a way that causes her to be abused. (An underage girl with an older man abuses her, even if the older man has no idea that he is harming her.) But this does not translate to Sadler being guilty.

Though it is often a heartless ploy to assert the following, in this case this girl literally asked for what happened—indeed, she advertised for it on sexyads.com.

She needs help. There is no doubt about that. But punishing Sadler for doing something that he had no way to know he was doing is not going to help her.

I am not uncaring about sexual predators. I have a 7 year old daughter myself, and am very concerned for her safety, given the type of world we live in. But Sadler is not one of the people causing me to be apprehensive.

I once knew a Navy Lieutenant who served on the “USS Thorn” - or he said he did. In any case he wore a sailor’s cap and was a really sweet guy.

The thorn and the rose, they make a lovely pair.

I grew up in Everett, Washington in the late 80’s and 90’s. Scott and his Wife moved in next door to me and as a 12 year old computer nerd, I was quick to befriend him due to our mutual interest with computers. He let me borrow hardware, software and video games, we compared notes on programming, and always lent me any of his books on programming, computer graphics, database design. He never held doubt when assisting me with hair brained projects that I might have dreamed up. I picked up the foundation of computing knowledge from that man, and he was extremely patient and kind to a teenage kid learning about computers at the time. To this day I still have a hobby laser project that he gave to me, and I look back fondly to the times when I had so many “aha” moments that were a direct result of his ability to relate to me as a learning person. I hold the highest respect for a man who would take the time and patience required to teach these sort of things to a teenager.

After reading about his recent conviction, not for one second do I believe that he was intent of any kind of malice or harmful conduct to a minor. I am well aware of the alternative sexual needs that people have - Scott was no different than any other human being expressing them self. He was unfortunate in being trapped by a girl who gravitates towards that type of culture and fully and knowingly manipulated him. I feel that he is being punished by taboo, circumstance, and culture clash rather than the actual facts at hand.

I am saddened by the turn of events in his life, and I hope that he will be able to pick up and move on when the opportunity presents itself.

I would like to clarify a couple of points regarding this trial. I was one of the jurors who had to listen to Scott’s testimony, and believe me, convicting him was difficult. He was NOT convicted of any of the sex crimes or rape charges. He was, however, convicted of PHOTOGRAPHING A MINOR for sexual purposes. There is a difference. The law, as it was explained to us, states that a valid attempt to prove the subject is over the age of consent (18 in WA State)via legal document or photo ID must occur AT THE TIME OF PHOTOGRAPHY if any nude or sexually explicit photographs are to be taken. Even if Scott saw a valid ID card over the web cam, which I truly believe he did, it was not present at the time he took all those pictures, and he didn’t have her sign a waiver stating she was over 18. So, that is why we had no options but to find him guilty of the sexual exploitation of a minor charges.

I, too, feel this girl is a train wreck, and hasn’t a snowball’s chance in the hot place of ever having a normal life. He was duped. She’s a liar. But, with that said, he still broke the law, whether he intended to or not. There is not a photographer in this country who doesn’t make a subject produce ID at the time of a photo shoot, especially if it is a sexually explicit photo shoot. Sorry, but in my opinion, that’s just stupid.

I’m sure Scott is a nice guy, and my heart bled for his brave daughter as she got up on that witness stand to testify on his behalf. That about broke my heart, and I cried when she stepped down and he put his hand over his heart and silently told her he loved her. It was sad. But, he broke the law and that sucks.

So, Scott, if you read this…best of luck. It wasn’t an easy decision to reach, and I truly tried to find a way to render a not guilty verdict. It just wasn’t possible. Hopefully, on appeal, they can find a loop hole in the law the way it is written. We didn’t have any loop holes to apply, only the law as it was explained to us.