By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Attorneys this morning set a date of June 8 for the sentencing of former softball coach Todd D. Phelps, convicted last week of rape of a teenage team member.
Todd D. Phelps
Phelps, 52, did not come up from the jail for the brief hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.
The former log truck driver from Pe Ell faces as much as six years in prison after a jury found him guilty of third-degree rape and second-degree sexual misconduct.
The sentencing did not take place right away because the offense is a sex crime necessitating a “pre-trial sentencing investigation” to be conducted by the state Department of Corrections, according to Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead.
Halstead and Deputy Prosecutor Debra Eurich handled the case together. Phelps is represented by Centralia defense attorney Don Blair.
Phelps also has a case pending in Lewis County District Court related to allegedly violating a no contact order regarding the now-17-year-old-year-old girl.
•••
For background, read “Pe Ell rape trial: Guilty as charged” from Friday April 27, 2012, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Just stating my opinion.
Oh Please. Narrow minded of Bugsy to come to a conclusion based on how you post?
For one thing it seems pretty obvious you lack the ability to reason or understand the process of reasoning just by that one little comment. Then if you add up all your little comments there is reason enough to believe you have a serious inability to reason. Which is one of the major flaws attributed to Phelps, his family and many supporters. That being said, if you are not connected to Todd in some way, so be it and you are likely just a dumb ass, a criminal that still has unresolved issues of why you were found guilty, or bored trying to jerk everyone’s chain. I have lost interest in anything you have to say at this point. From here on out maybe you can get someone else to respond to your drivel but I am done.
hearme roar… did you get that?
hearme roar…Nothing confusing about my response. Her details of the rape never changed.
Justice, so your reasoning is that the defendant is a liar and his witnesses were lying liars. So what makes them liars but not the victim? Is the victim incapable of telling a compelling, but untrue story?
Doesknow, I wasn’t aware I had to know someone involved in the case to comment here.
“Hear me roar”, just because you think your father/brother/son/fellow church member didn’t do the rape part, well, that doesn’t mean a thing. You were not on the jury (thankfully) who had to sit there for almost 2 weeks listening to the FACTS as presented to them (by both sides), as well as all the fabricated stories as presented to them (by only one side).
While the story of one side NEVER wavered and CONSISTENTLY remained the same day in and day out, the story from the other side, along with the stories from all the “witnesses”, constantly changed, or they contradicted each other.
The jury then took BOTH sides stories into consideration, and they came up with the only possible verdict: guilty on all counts as charged, as well as the special count of using his position of trust to perpetuate his crimes. This means that the jury decided that he DID do wrong, and that he DID rape this young girl.
Ergo, it doesn’t matter a bit what you think he did or didn’t do. According to a jury of his peers, he is guilty, and will be punished accordingly.
As for you thinking that he did some things wrong (but not the rape part), perhaps you could enlighten us with your vast knowledge of what he did (or didn’t) do. After all, you know everything, right?
hearme roar Nothing confusing about my response. She never changed the details of the rape.
OK Justice, ya got me. I just wanted a few facts from your perspective. I thought we were trying to have a debate over facts vs emotion. Sounds like you’re a little to close to the situation to do that.
hearme roar… I will say it once more, if you do not know anyone in this case you know nothing about anything. Don’t judge the young lady who has alot of healing to do, because she was raped by Todd Phelps and a jury of twelve found him guilty and I have to believe they knew much more that you think you know!!!!!!!
Is there going to be a call for mistrial or appeal from the convicted?
It’s gonna take some serious scratch.Better start with some serious church bake sales and raffles.
I imagine the lawyer fee alone from this trial was anywhere from $ 15,000- $20,000. Then there’s gonna be the fine yet to come plus paying court costs of the trial which the convicted are levied
with and I believe possible restitution to the victim plus paying cost of any counseling she may need and the crime victims witness fund which a convicted defendant has to contribute to.Whew, with all that plus incarceration I’m glad Todd thought it was all worth the risk.
Doesknow, I don’t know the parties involved, but are you admitting the story did change? That was a confusing response.
If you say I am blowing up the site then go read my posts. I am not freaking posting them again. I’ll give you a little hint that my reasoning is in line with hockalugie and churchsucks if you are to lazy to go look just like you are too f-ing lazy to type out and articulate your reasoning.
Churchsucks, did the co-worker or the student testify to those facts?
Doesknow, every successful prosecutor/attorney who thinks he has a weak case influences their client to embellish. Its part of the cat and mouse game between the prosecution and defense. Not that this happened for sure but it happens a lot.
hearme roar…You do not know what you are talking about!!! Her details of the rape did not change once. How would you know that if you don’t know anyone involved.
Bugsy I never said I had any addtional evidence. I just don’t agree with most posters here. Its pretty narrow-minded to label me a friend of the jailbird just because I don’t buy the validity of the evidence presented.
Ms Hear ME Roar,
I think you have roared enough. Put out your “evidence” or just keep quiet.
Your posts are truly fit for a Jail Bird… How was that visit today?
hearme roar… coerced by whom?
ALL THERE IS TO GO ON CONCERNING “THE RAPE” IS HER STORY, WHICH HAS CHANGED MORE THAN ONCE.
And why must I know the defendant if I disagree with you. I don’t think there was a rape.
Like I said before, doesknow, he did some things wrong, but I think the rape charge was coerced.
Does know, Justice has been blowing up this site since the beginning. I want to hear his/her list of facts.
So, Justice, give me a list of your “facts”. It’ll save a lot of time if I can read them all together. Convince me I’m all hot air.
hearme roar… Facts came at trial. In law circumstantial evidence weighs just as great as physical evidence. That is the instructions given to the jury. They have all of the evidence to look at and it was overwhelming. They agreed, all 12 of them. He was found guilty!!! Get your head out of the sand. You could suffocate down there.
Not true hearme roar I have stated several facts on several posts. When judging cases that involve one person’s word against another’s there are plenty of fact to lean on in this case. You do understand that it is legitimate to have the justice system impart judgement when it is one side against the other and there is not witness or DNA.
So do you think that Scott Peterson was innocent of killing his wife Lacey Peterson. There was no DNA or eye witness in that case that he killed her. It is taking several pieces and putting together a puzzle.
What rapist goes out in the open and rapes someone in front of everyone? What she said about not knowing what to do afterwards and being confused is very legitimate and happens a lot to women. Many woman don’t rush into ER rooms and get a rape kit administered when their rapist was a close friend or family member. It just doesn’t happen.
I don’t know if you have been watching too much CSI or what the deal is. You just blow hot air… you say which version 3, 4, etc but you never tell the fact or how the stories were different. Everything he did and the facts are that he is a liar and was grooming her. that is based on his behavior alone. Now when you have to judge who is telling the truth when it is one person’s word against the other, you don’t believe the liar. It is that simple.
Justice, if you didn’t think she was raped” just because she said so”, where is your proof? Where are YOUR facts?
Justice, you don’t have any facts supporting your arguement either. Only her story (what are we up to version 3,4 or 5?) and his story. I’ll give you all 2700 texts or whatever there was, none proved there was SEXUAL contact. No witnesses, no blood, no DNA.
hearme roar…. How is it that you know what really happened? Were you there? Are You getting information from the so called wrongly accused? Did you listen to the testimony at the trial? Do you have some inside knowledge that no one else has? Then why in the world did you not come forward and help out poor Todd? You may have a hard time convincing all those he violated. They had no witnesses either!!!!!!!!
I think he must have scorned her before he was told to leave her alone by a co-worker.
No wait it must of been afterwards when he told that same co-worker that his life would be over if anyone found the texts and he was so worried he told a student he would be dead if the texts were found. It had to be after that…. definitely after that.
Hey…. if he scorned her why did he keep text’ing her. Was he just trying to rub it in that he didn’t want her? That’s kind of mean if she was suicidal like he said.
Hey….. I think he’s a liar. What he said doesn’t match at all and he is a 52 year old adult man…. at least he is supposed to be.
Ya hearme roar…. did he scorn her before he sent her the song declaring that he couldn’t live without her or after?
No wait…. did he scorn her before his wife got him a new cell phone or afterwards when he was borrowing her girlfriend’s phones to text her?
Or did he scorn her before his daughter witnessed him kissing her on the couch one morning or was it afterwards when that same daughter was so freaked out she telling others how much it disturbed her?
Please enlighten us…..
lol…. so how exactly did he scorn her…. this ought to be good……
There you go again hearme roar…. you never back statements up with any logic or facts. None of us ever thought she was raped just because she said so except for maybe her close friends or family.
Just like we don’t believe he didn’t rape her just because he said so. Come on and back up all that talk with a little more than bullshit….
Just because a female says rape, doesn’t mean it really happened. Somebody give that girl a Best Actress award!
Like you said, no witnesses, Justice. Hell hath no fury like woman scorned, no matter her age.
Stuff like television and microwaves serve as management tools in larger county jails where you have many different ethnic groups in a small area. I think without those things there would be a lot more fighting. I remember on weekends guards would bring in movies or taped boxing matches from home to play on the vcr, and everybody would throw in some of there commissary, like popcorn or chips, everybody could partake in.
It still sucked to be in jail, but it helped everybody get along.
I shouldn’t say all witnesses. I think his spouse and daughter did not help him.
AMEN BUSTY!
Chain gangs were outlawed by federal law years ago. Probably only wishful thinking of some people.
Seriously Hearne roar, on what facts are u basing your opinion besides no DNA, spy camera, or eye witness to the sex. I have pointed out already that just a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, doesn’t mean it didn’t make a sound.
Not one of his witnesses helped him they actually hurt him.
I JOPE THIS CHILD MOLESTER BECOMES SOMEONES BITCH IN PRISON,!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hearme Roar, you are a complete idiot! It’s retards like you who get on a jury panel and set free evil people, Wake Up! He was found GUILTY!
I think John McCroskey did away with the “niceties” at the Lewis County Jail (and brought in MREs left over from the Gulf War) back in the late 90’s because he had a problem with people who’d commit crimes and purposely get caught so they could winter in the slammer like it was a poor man’s Club Med. He instituted chain gangs, too, just so the inmates wouldn’t get too bored staring at their cell walls.
He might have done some things he shouldn’t have, but I still believe there was no sexual contact between the two.
@mpmorgan
L.C. jail sounds like a bad place to do time. At least Pierce Co. had the stuff I asked about. Made things tolerable to be able to watch May Berry RFD while eating Ra men noodles and a frosted honey bun from the vending machine, both heated in the microwave,and drinking a 20 oz. Coke with crushed ice from the beverage vending dispenser. That was thankfully a long time ago.
Prison is different then jail. He will find out what rape is when someone does him in prison. That don’t happen in L.C.
There are no such luxury item in LC Jail. Your options are read, sleep, or pace in circles.
Nothing quite like breathing recirculated air ( farts ) and group showers with other men. At least he’ll get plenty of practice playing Spades. Do they have TV in the Lewis County Jail? Vending machines? Microwave? If not that is definitely what you would call hard time.
Well im sure he’ll atleast loose weight on that Jail food diet!!
Especially for the rapist that is on ice in the county lockup!! Hope he’s enjoying his stay.
It’s gonna be a long month for some.