Todd Phelps listens to his attorney Don Blair after his sentence is imposed in Lewis County Superior Court.
Updated at 5:37 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Calling the case a meeting of a perfect predator and the perfect victim, Judge Nelson Hunt sentenced former Pe Ell girls’ softball coach Todd Phelps to the maximum prison time possible for the rape of a 16-year-old team member.
“It took you more than four months, but you got what you wanted Mr. Phelps,” Hunt said as he pronounced the sentence today. “I’m glad to see you have the support of family and friends, because you’re going to need it.”
Phelps, 52, was given two days shy of six years in prison.
Cuffed and clad in green and white striped jail garb, the former log truck driver looked back only once at his wife and two daughters seated behind him, and that was as he was led out of the Lewis County Superior Court room.
Phelps was convicted by a jury at the end of April of third-degree rape and second-degree sexual misconduct.
Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead today asked for the maximum sentence. Centralia defense attorney Don Blair asked for 10 months.
In a trial that extended into eight days, prosecutors described how Phelps gradually seduced a girl already troubled with low self esteem and depression and ultimately had sex with her that was clearly against her wishes. The jury took only a little more than four hours to find him guilty as charged.
The victim and her mother both addressed the court today before Phelps’ sentence was imposed.
The victim’s mother blasted Phelps, calling him sick, twisted and out of control for persuading her and her husband to trust them yet robbing their child of her innocence.
“You told our daughter she would be worth going to jail for,” she said. “Well, you got your wish. How do you feel now?”
The now 17-year-old girl described how she trusted him like a kind of super hero, who had her convinced her parents didn’t love her and then left her feeling like less than dirt.
“I never understood the word alone until I was balled up on the floor at Melody and Ben’s house, knowing I could never tell a soul,” she said.
Though her voice broke and she stifled sobs, the teenager continued, telling how she finally stood up and told, “before you could suck the life from me, like a spider to a smaller helpless bug.”
Phelps was forced to quit his job coaching the Pe Ell High School girls softball team in April of last year as he was investigated for violating school boundary policies, including texting the girl who was a team member, being alone with her and a kiss he said was on the forehead.
He was arrested in October in connection with an early April incident in which he had the teen to come by his house and asked her to take off her pants so he could see self-inflicted cuts on her legs.
A month later a charge of third-degree rape was added in connection with a July encounter with the girl at his brother’s Pe Ell home.
Deputy Prosecutor Halstead today reminded the judge the jury found aggravating factors, that Phelps used his position of trust with a particularly vulnerable victim, meaning he could be sentenced above the standard sentencing range.
“Clearly (the victim) has lost something she can never get back,” Halstead said. “And the community of Pe Ell has been torn apart.”
“He’s not safe in the community and not of an age he can be rehabilitated,” Halstead told the judge.
Defense attorney Blair said he understood the jury found the aggravating factors, but the standard range for the crime is six to 12 months.
He asked the judge to keep in mind the testimonials from supporters which had been placed in the court file.
“Todd is 52 years old and has never (before) been charged with a crime,” Blair said.
Phelps chose not to address the court.
For the second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, a gross misdemeanor, Phelps was given the maximum of 364 days.
For the third-degree rape, a felony, he was given four years plus 364 days. The judge allowed one day for community supervision.
The judge said the two sentences should be served consecutively.
After he announced the sentence, Judge Hunt explained that when a maximum sentence is requested, he asks himself if it is the worst he’s seen of the particular crime in question.
“The answer is a resounding yes,” Hunt said.
The judge signed the orders, including Phelps’ notice of intent to appeal.
•••
For background, read:
• “Former Pe Ell coach faces charge of third-degree rape of teenage student” from Tuesday November 29, 2011, here
• “Pe Ell coach rape trial set for next week, judge denies request to dismiss charges” from Wednesday March 21, 2012, here
• “Trial opens for former Pe Ell coach accused of sex crimes with teen” from Wednesday April 18, 2012, here
• “Pe Ell rape trial: Girl tells of kissing” from Friday April 20, 2012, here
• “Pe Ell rape trial: Teen testifies about alleged rape” from Saturday April 21, 2012, here
• “Pe Ell rape trial: Teen answers questions from defense attorney” from Tuesday April 24, 2012, here
• “Pe Ell rape trial: Family provides alibis for former coach” from Thursday April 26, 2012, here
• “Pe Ell rape trial: Guilty as charged” from Friday April 27, 2012, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
The opinions on here are astonishing to me. Do any of you know the facts of the case? I can tell you for a positive they didn’t come out in court. This poor victim and his family are still suffering. While the alden daughters are off ruining their own and others lives still. What a sad world we live in. Prayers for all involved. He and his need support in upcoming appeals. While, her family needs it for her mental state hopefully she figured out what pills caused her to believe dreams as reality.
M’hap out in da’ yard playin’ wit dem dowg’s dress’ad awl un white.
DOC does not send people to prison housing based on being “unrepentent” or for going to trial. Where people are placed is determined by their custody level, their time, gang affiliation, known enemies and/or physical needs. Most of the people in prison are “unrepentent”. DOC is completely void of any concern about how someones “feels” or second guessing any motivation. Everything done in DOC is based on very specific measurable criteria and policy.
Quoting, here:
Coyote Ridge Corrections Center is a medium security prison located in Connell, Washington. Inmates held here typically have more than five years up to life to serve. Attached to the main facility is the minimum-security “camp”, where inmates must have four years or less on their sentences. The camp buildings look more like those of an average community college, complete with landscaping. Inmates sleep in dormitories and grow some of their own food in a small garden on the grounds. Some inmates are allowed to go off-site to work in highly-supervised jobs (including the traditional litter-cleanup).
Considering that he falls in the ‘four years or less’ camp, I’m not sure how this is a true hardship for him. Hard that he doesn’t get to see his family as much, sure. But compared to right here in Lewis County proper? Could be much much rougher on him.
Or it might just be where they send people like him? From what I was able to read, that place is pretty well full of molesters of perverts….
I see Todd has been transfered over to Coyote Ridge, north of the Tri Cities. That’s going to be rough for people wanting to visit him.
I wonder if this is blow back from his taking the case to trial ( which was his legal right), and making the girl testify in open court,while he stayed mum,( as was his right).
This might be the D.O.C’.S way of being hard on him for his unrepentant stance in this case, post conviction.
But there is one major difference, this young girl didn’t agree to have sex at sixteen. She was raped. Not that that consent of a child under sixteen is somehow justifiable. That is a big big difference here. I don’t think you are understanding 75 and that is scary because you are implying she wanted it. Probably the same thoughts entered Phelp’s mind and that’s why he didn’t think he needed to stop when she was saying no, several times.
In my opinion, Mary Kay Letourneau was not punished nearly as harshly as she should have been and this is due to the double-standard BS that a woman can not rape a man. She sexually molested and took advantage of a 12 or 13 year old BOY and she’s a disgusting child molester just like Phelps. What difference does it make if they got married later? What 40 year-old woman can get turned on by a pubescent young boy? A sick one. Trust me, that bitch is crazy. She was already married with four children when she committed the crimes. There is obviously something very, very wrong with her mentally.
Hey, it’s not with out precident. Mary K. Leturneu and that 40 something year old married junior high teacher, from I think Kirkland, who did a hand full of years in the pen after being involved with that 15 year old girl. After she became of age they ended up getting married around 2001, despite the strong objections of her parents and councilor. It would be interesting to see if either couple are still together.
Don’t say it’s never happened. It would seem Mr. Phelps own family think that was the girls motive for filing the criminal complaint. Mrs. Phelps might want to take up pilates and the Victoria Principal ageless skin program.
She might have some competition in a few years.
that’s just plain gross “75” and ill informed and mean. But I am not sure if that was your intention so maybe someone else can explain it to you….. Unless you are PHelps with computer privileges already… Yikes
Now that he is a bonafide state prisoner, his bad boy stock is through the roof. Women and young girls love bad boy inmates.Combined with his face time he got on tv, i’ll bet he gets loads of letters and marriage proposals.
He’ll probably join Aryan Nations prison gang and come out all inked up with prison swastika and lightning bolt ss tattoo’s, with a long braided chin muff and piercings.
And after that…..any body remember Luke and Laura?
That’s right.
Thank you yomma for the compliment …..I wear that hat with PRIDE and feel it is better than being a CHIMO.
Happy camper, you are bitch. We’re solving a lot aren’t we?
Yomama – yeah, Sharyn is so biased, she even posted your comment, you stupid cow. Why don’t you quit while you’re ahead and STFU? Maybe your fellow parishoners at New Harvest give a shit what you have to say, but nobody here seems to. People like you are the reason I quit attending church two decades ago.
Yomma……your a moron!
I wonder why the site admin is posting in the site? That’s sort of a conflict of interest. Oh well, WHO GIVES A SHIT now right?
She is a twisted sypathetic easily fooled idiot too.
I have no doubt, you are wrong.
And what’s wrong with expletives?!?!? 🙂
I fuckin’ love ’em!
If Yomama isn’t a relative of Todd’s, bitch probably attends that joke of a “church” that supported the rapist over the victim – New Harvest, or whatever it calls itself these days.
“Innocent man” my ass. Who’s stupid here? Get this: NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THAT MORON PHELPS HAD NOT ENGAGED IN AN INAPPORPRIATE RELATIONSHIP WITH A MINOR FEMALE! Why didn’t he just stay the fuck away from her? What is wrong with him. Why would some 50+ year old guy be logging into a little girl’s Facebook and obssessively texting her? A smart man would have gotten as far away from her as he possibly could. Not Todd. If she was that wily and seductive, he should have had brains enough to be home with his family instead pf pursuing the “pussy” as you call it. The guy doesn’t have the education or training to counsel anybody. He did it because he had an ulterior motive which was proven in a court of law. Todd Phelps is a predator, a pervert and a disgusting piece of shit.
So off to Shelton he goes for medical and mental evaluation……wonder what kind of mental attributes they’ll find? Wish I could read that report!!!
Well going by the fact the only people who testified on his behalf were his imediate family, and he only managed at most a dozen supporters in the court room, half who were again, family. I am left to conclude there are only a handful of people who supported him. If, in fact you did not post as Sue Shore in the past, then it leaves me also to conclude, the majority of his supporters are without the ability state their case in ways that do not use vulgarity or simple minded vindictivness.
What’s done is done. The obvious observation is why would some one who is completly innocent fear being cross examined? Seems he would have been chomping at the bit to get on the stand to clarify those incriminating statements that people testified to him making to them.
If he did go on the chain today, I hope he remembered to kiester some good trade items to take along. Fellow inmates traded jail meds( sedatives or methadone), smuggled tobbacco or weed,sequestered in a cut off finger from a nitrile glove, tied off at the end. Very popular items.
There is no doubt in my mind you did post as Sue Shore.
And so begins the adventures of “Phelpsy in Prison!” Episode 1: How to pick up the powdered soap! Episode 2: Shampoo as a lubricant? Episode 3: My butt hurts….
Thank God he’s locked away. I thought the same thing about his lawyer and didn’t even attend the trial. When the paper reported his lawyer said to the judge, “I don’t even know if he has a speeding ticket.” What decent lawyer doesn’t even know if his client has a speeding ticket or not for Christ sake….
Lewis County Jail Roster says Todd was transfered to the big house today 🙂
LOL, who the hell is Sue Shore? You freaking idiots think there is only one or few people that back Phelps!! Get over yourself. This is the first place I have posted. Idiots.
Hey, those were some entertaining posts. Always good to hear from the poster who was known as ” Sue Shore ” last fall on the KCPQ 13 comment board. Sure does exhibit the same venomus expletive laced diatribes as “Sue” did last fall. I suppose the financial side of this case has just become apparent to the convicted’s next of kin. Hence the expletive laced diatribes.
When a accused person’s own attorney states in front of a jury during opening statements,they themselves, cannot come up with a plausible explanation, as to why some one is making allegations about their client. Save some broad general theory, that the person is just seeking attention. You just know, the jury is going to find the way they did.
Ohhhh so said for you, yomamma. Just let it go. You don’t need to get anymore negative attention from this site. Let it go dear, just let it go and look into the light. The light of truth, lol lol lol…. you crack me up Justice.
Ha ha ha I would never be caught dead in a church like that and never foolish enough to drink the Koolaid. Just keep it up, flapping your jowls and revealing yourself. We all love it. You have been getting into the big girl thesaurus tonight… kudos to you. She will sleep just fine, its your Montley crew that will be tormented because no doubt you will all hook yourself up with another sociopath and be fooled again. It hurts when that happens. So sad for you…not…
Justice, I need to watch my language, but you are an ignorant, angry witch that might need some special medication. Maybe you banged one to many tamborines at the NH church, perhaps drank the good koolaid or just have a major ax to grind. You just froth from your canine jowls to jump at the chance to pontificate how wonderful you are. How much you are going to love away the hurt from the attention grabbing tramp who got away with it. Did you ever think she told anyone what really happened? I just bet there are a few select confides that know the truth and we will just wait to see how well they sleep at night for how long. You are a bitch. Just deal with it.
Ha Ha Ha…. the ship has gone down yomama… ha ha ha ha…. cry, whine, pine, gnash your teeth because it’s over. You can call the victim names and make up lame attempts to discredit her. You only make yourself look pathetic and smaller than we already know you are. It’s over. He lost. No one believes your bigots speech about women. We all know from experience you are the ignorant one. NO MORE SILENCE. ITS ALL OVER HA AHA AHA HA HA HA HA
Use your brain, you should check the microwave that you earned because someone else worked for it for you for LEAKS. Radiation poison is a strong argument for the load of crap that just spewed off your keyboard. OMFG
Dream on Yomamma you didn’t earn crap on your own. We are all successful because of each other. You counted on or earned what you have because of someone else. I know shit and have seen plenty of shit like you and I also know good things in life and what you spew is nothing good.
None of us are foolish enough to think everyone who believes in Phelps is related. But we all know what it takes to support him. The other posters are right. You are exposed and the good people of Pe Ell will avoid you and scorn you. Keep calling yourselves out.
“exposed” Just what am I exposed to besides exposure to standing by silently and watching a manipulating tramp fool the legal system.
thank god your are all exposed!!!!
make me sick, go choke yourself. You are living in a fantasy world. You know how I earned my nice things? You don’t know shit. I could live under a bridge for all you know. And ONCE again, you all think people who support Todd are related to him. You really think there are not more people out here other than his relations that know this is crap? You idiots.
Yomama n big momma…….your trying awfully hard to confince here…please don’t bother…Todd had his chance to clear his name….he didn’t….he had his day in court…to speak his side….he did not….I seen the girls day in court….she spoke clear n had clarity in her answers. Its obviousness your a family member to Todd and the sting of his actions have not fully digested for you and the rest of the family. Court is over…the verdict is set……you need to get the bitterness out so the healing can begin…..go a head and vent….get it all out so the community can move forward. Venting is fine but the bad language doesnt get your point across any better…just makes you look as desperate as Todd. Cant you find a better level than what he has shown?
Sharyn, it’s not that some people have strong feelings about this case…. it’s more like there are some really sick trolls out there just doing what they can to spin people up. Those are the same “people” who still believe that Phelpsy is innocent, and are still hornswoggled by him….
Those who supported Phelpsy during his trial could never once come up with alibis or excuses that matched, and they aren’t happy about that. they are also not happy that the judge and jury didn’t see through the fog and realize that Phelpsy is the greatest man since….. well, since EVER…. and declare him innocent. Heck, why not just appoint him “EMPEROR FOR LIFE”???
Sheesh….
Choke on your defeat!
I shall watch my language. Since we are hoping that Todd get’s killed in prison, lets’s go for hoping that the NEXT victim of HERS responds to one of the 1000 WHINING threats of suicide and tells her to please DO IT. Do the world a favor and cut a damn artery next time. PLEASE
you are disgusting Yomomma and I bet your man is disgusted with your
nasty dried up personality. Legal team in election year..
what a grandiose delusion. You need therapy. When she decides to
have nice things in life it will because she deserves them, not for
the reason you earned yours. Projecting little tramp you… look up
the term.
Of course some of you have really strong feelings on this. But ratchet the language down a notch please.
You stupid fucker. The jury was sold on emotion of a psycho tramp crying on cue and well coached by her legal team of go getters in an election year And cases like these are typically tried on emotion. This manipulative little actress was well coached. Hope you are all around to keep watching what she does. She will fuck with some one else watch out if she doesn’t get her way. You better buy her a nice house, car and marry her or you’ll be fucked too.
Yomama… you are the crazy nut job for believing a rapist…. You say the whole knocked up thing because you are an idiot. The ultimate weapon is telling the truth and you and your fantasies about blinding following a rapist are over…. When people look at you they will know how dumb you are and gullible. The victims family is not pitied but your’s is because you will keep breeding criminal after criminal and they cannot fool us anymore. You all are exposed. You’re F***ed
Ha ha Big Momma… you’re a big fat idiot. The only psycho is Todd and he is the only one going to an institution. She is going to be fine because we will all love her the way she needs to get her out of this shit. You see, she is not the first to deal with this abuse from this town. All of us have been sending our secret support to the family and you will not f****ing win. NEVER F****ING WIN!!!! Choke on your defeat B****
Go big mama! With you all the way. A big lesson for all in Pe ell. Don’t help nut jobs who are prone to fatal attraction behaviors. All the bullshit about her being weak and taken advantage of is pure shit. The spoiled crazy little bitch did not get what she wanted and she used the ultimate weapon to get revenge. Most of the crazy whores in the town landed their men in much the same manner. Pretty sure half of these dumb fuckers making comments here were knocked up at their wedding and around or real close to the age of 16. Oh wait, but she’s a child!! You stupid bastards. Right on. An innocent man went to jail because the power of the pussy is known well at 16. Fuck you all. Go big mama!