Moscow, ID man who killed pregnant wife sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison

A man who killed his pregnant teacher wife was sentenced to 40 years in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years a week ago. The sentence runs as follows - 15 years fixed for 2 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 5 to 25 years for a single count of 1st degree arson. Parks plead guilty to the charges last spring. He was sentenced in Latah County Superior Court Tuesday, August 3.

Parks strangled Sarah in June 2009 in their Moscow, ID apartment. After she was murdered, along with her 5 months old fetus, Lilly Ann, Parks set the place on fire to cover up the evidence.

Sarah Parks’ family sat in the same room as the man who killed their beloved sister and daughter. Wearing buttons with her picture, they took the stand to reinforce why he needs to be locked up. Sarah’s sister told the court Silas was someone they had welcomed into their hearts, family, and home. She says she didn’t know there was such evil in the world. Sarah’s mother also took the stand to read dozens of letters from devastated students.

Towards the end of the 4 hour sentencing, Park himself took the stand. He said, “[I] failed utterly at my vows as a husband and I’ve failed as a decent human being. The potential in me to explode is scary. I can hardly believe what I’ve done...I love Sarah, I still love Sarah more than life itself. I deserve whatever this court decides to give...I have no desire but to atone for my unforgivable act."

After the sentencing, the victim's mother, Laura Allen, said that "We're very thankful the justice system has followed through."

Naughty teacher's husband caught peeping on inmates at jail - wife sentenced to 4 to 20 for sex abuse of boy

(Original Post 10-28-09)
A suspected voyeur in the Ada County (Idaho) Sheriff's Department is charged with sending inappropriate photos of female inmates to his wife. The wife is a former Meridian, ID teacher who was convicted of having sex with a 13 year old boy.

Forty year old Shawn Beach is charged with 2 counts of video voyeurism and faces 5 years in prison. He took the photos with his cell phone camera while working behind the monitors at the jail. Shawn then sent these photos to his wife Ashley. During the investigation into her "affair" with a 13 year old male student, forensic investigators found the photos of the inmates.

"They are images of the back side of an inmate that is nude and the other one inmate is sitting on a bench may or may have not have their pants down...Took images of that for no good reason and sent them outside of the organization. That alone led to his termination," said Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney. Beach had worked as jail support staff for 18 years.

Meridian Police Lieutenant Tracy Basterrechea said that even though photos, not videos were involved, the case still falls under the video voyeurism law. "She was in the state of undress. She didn't know the image was being transmitted from one cell phone to another."

According to Sheriff Raney, "Whether or not Shawn's actions will ultimately cause him to be convicted of a crime or not, this former employee violated the trust and values that the other 620 members of this organization live by every day. That's not acceptable here."

Shawn's 37 year old wife Ashley plead guilty to lewd conduct with a minor under 16 a week ago today, and faces up to life in prison. Prosecutors, however, are seeking a 20 year sentence with parole eligibility in 7 years. She was caught in the bushes with a 13 year old boy on September 17, and investigators later found that she had a sexual relationship with her victim for 6 months. She'll be sentenced December 22 by 4th District Judge Ronald Wilper.

(Update 12-30-09) Ashley Beach was sentenced to 4 to 20 years in prison yesterday by 4th District Judge Ronald Wilper. Besides the "relationship" with the 13 year old boy, Ashley also admitted inapropriate, though nonsexual, relationships with 5 other kids, including a girl who she took drinking at 2:30 AM.

Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Jean Fisher said that Ashley "was a woman who lost her way. It shows that there are other things going on that are out of control." Judge Wilper said that the now convicted sex offender would not be able to be a hands-on mother anymore. "You are going to be a mother who won't know her children other than visiting days. On the other hand ... you are still alive."

Ashley said to Judge Wilper that "I was thankful I was caught, because it was a train wreck I couldn't stop on my own."

Philly date-rapist sentenced to 10 to 20 years, gets 15 to life in Idaho case

WOLF IN BOYFRIEND'S CLOTHING

This is yet another post which highlights the dangers of sexual predators on the Web, even though they may appear to be nice, charming, and suitable. Not all predators target underage victims or strangers, and all women are potential victims.
The below story, is taken from the Philadelphia Enquirer in its entirety. (10-13-07)

Marsalis gets 10 to 20 years in date-rape cases
By Dwight Ott

Inquirer Staff Writer

Before a courtroom filled with women who had accused of him of plying them with drink and deceit, and then raping them, Jeffrey Marsalis was sentenced yesterday to the maximum, and given a lifetime label intended to warn potential victims.
Common Pleas Court Judge Steven R. Geroff sentenced Marsalis, 34, to 10 to 20 years in prison, and added that once released from prison, he would have to report under Megan's Law to let others know the threat that he poses.

"I believe you are a menace to the women who you meet on the Internet or in any manner - even at a long distance," Geroff said. "What you were was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Your lifestyle was a fantasy, but what happened to your victims was reality."

Wearing a buzz cut and displaying blue eyes that swept the room, Marsalis pleaded no contest during yesterday's hearing to an unlawful imprisonment charge that merited him an additional 10 to 12 months in jail.

Nearly a dozen women sat in three rows, one of them in a wheelchair, clutching tissues and watching the proceedings with red-eyed attention. They smiled for the first time on hearing the judge's ruling.

"Thank God," said one.

Marsalis - who had been charged with assaulting seven women between 2003 to 2005 - was convicted in June of sexually assaulting two women. The trial lasted three weeks and was filled with accounts of his using the Web dating site Match.com to pose as an astronaut, a doctor, and even a secret agent to lure women.

Before the sentencing, psychologist Barry Zakireh testified that Marsalis met the criteria of a sexual offender and qualified for restrictions imposed by Megan's Law, including leafleting neighborhoods and posting alerts on the Internet.

Kevin E. Hexstall, a lawyer for Marsalis, said of the Megan's Law decision: "I believe it is punitive because it does not allow my client a subsequent review. . . . It doesn't allow for reevaluation."

Marsalis was convicted of sexual assault, not rape, Hexstall said. Under the law, rape involves force, and sexual assault involves a classification where force does not have to be proven.

"I think the commonwealth has fallen short of its burden of proof," Hexstall said.

Zakireh testified that in some cases, Marsalis wore surgical scrubs and carried medical books as part of his ruse.

But Hexstall argued that since Marsalis had been a nursing student at the Hahnemann nursing school, that was to be expected.

Hexstall felt his client was guilty of nothing more than masquerading while his intoxicated clients agreed to consensual sex. (Note - there is no such thing as consensual sex when the woman is drunk, sleeping, or drugged. All sex when intoxicated is considered to be assaultive.)

One woman, a dietitian, testified that she met Marsalis on Match.com.

They agreed to meet in person in central Philadelphia. He told her he was a doctor and a former flight surgeon, and flashed a badge to spirit them to the head of the line outside bars.

But the woman said that after a drink or two, her vision blurred, she began to feel woozy, she developed a pounding headache, and she became so uncoordinated that she tripped and fell.

She said she hung on to Marsalis, who assured her he was an emergency-room doctor and knew what to do. She said that despite her protestations, she was raped, but did not remember the incident until the next day.

Marsalis still faces sexual-assault charges in Idaho.

This is the textbook definition of a psychopath - one who cares only for his own sexual pleasure and perversion. This "man" should not be spending 10 to 20 years, but 30 to 60 years in prison. In Pennsylvania, the legal difference between sexual assault and rape is use of force in rape vs. lack of force in sexual assault, but the victims called it what it is - rape. Sexual predation occurs with frightening regularity, and just like those who prey on children, not all of them fit the stereotypical mold.

Philly Daily News Coverage of Marsalis Sentencing

(Update 10-19-07)

Marsalis will be extradited to Blaine County, Idaho, where he faces charges of raping a 21-year old Sun Valley woman back in 2005. Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas expect Marsalis to be brought back to Idaho around the 1st of the year, with a trial scheduled for the spring. Marsalis waived extradition as a Blaine County bond condition.

Sexual predator to face Blaine County rape charge

(Update 7-11-09) Ten days ago, Marsalis was sentenced to the maximum term - life imprisonment, for the rape of a 21 year old woman that he met at a Sun Valley, ID ski resort where they were both employed. Marsalis was found guilty in April by a jury of 10 women and 2 men of plying the 21 year old victim with alcohol, then raping her when she was too drunk to refuse.

The sentencing, like the trial and conviction, took place at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, ID. The judge who presided over the trial, Judge Daniel Hurlbutt Jr., said that he took into consideration the Pennsylvania rape victims before handing the life sentence down.

Hurlbutt stated, "It is clear the victim was harmed by your actions. This was a manner of grooming the victim. Without question, you did take off your clothes and you did have sexual intercourse with her."

Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas stated that Marsalis was not a typical date rapist, and that Marsalis used the same grooming tactics against the Idaho victim as he did against the Philadelphia victims.

"If the old adage is true- where there's smoke, there's fire, then Mr. Marsalis is an inferno."

The victim impact statement reads as follows.

"I have no doubt that if he wasn't in jail he would be victimizing other women. He took advantage of my body while I was unconscious. I don't need to know what he did to me to know that what he did was wrong....It continues to affect my life today. I had no idea what a monster he would turn out to be. I hope that he will be put away for so long that he will never be able to hurt another woman."

Marsalis will be parole eligible in 15 years.

Former Boise, ID teacher gets 6 months in jail, 10 years probation for sex with student

Michelle Farley, a married mother of a 5 year old boy, was sentenced to up to 6 months in jail, a $2000 fine, and sex offender treatment and registration for having a relationship with a 17 year old boy while she taught philosophy at Boise, ID's Borah High School. The jail term may be shortened once Farley completes a "thinking errors" course at the Ada County Jail, where she is scheduled to be held. Fourth District Judge Timothy Hansen accepted Farley's plea agreement Friday.

The sentence also includes 10 years probation, a prohibition on being near school property, which is why attorney Chuck Peterson wanted a sentence that would allow Farley to take her 5 year old son to kindergarten this fall.

"I want to apologize to (the teen) and his family for the embarrassment and hurt I caused. It hurts me that I have hurt so many people because what I did was so wrong."

Ada County prosecutors say [the victim] was in Farley's psychology class in the 2008/2009 school year when the two began their sexual relationship. Court records say the boy told police he had as many as 15 sexual encounters with Farley between May and Oct. 30.

Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Fafa Alidjani told Hansen that Farley displayed "classic grooming behavior," giving him attention and gifts before the relationship got sexual.

Alidjani also said the teen suffered humiliation once news of Farley's arrest got out, since many students knew who he was - including students at other schools who watched sporting events he participated in.

But Peterson said the teen turned 18 in October and was a willing participant in the relationship.
"She was attracted to a younger man," Peterson said. "It is not a case of sexual abuse of an adolescent."

Peterson also said that the teen sought out the relationship to become "a legend," "but he didn't become a legend. He became a pariah," Peterson said. "He brought the whole thing down on his head." He also showed her psychosexual evaluation showed that she was a low risk to reoffend.

However, Judge Hansen explained that the victim was too young to make informed decisions on sex with adults. Hansen also made sure that Farley recognized she was a sex offender.

"I want to emphasize for the record, ma'am, you are a sexual offender," Hansen said. "You will be a sex offender under Idaho law."

Predator who tried to lure woman using free Ipod sentenced to 15 years with 7 1/2 to serve

A sexual offender who attempted to rape a woman using a Craiglist listing for a free Ipod was sentenced to 15 years with 7 ½ to serve in Idaho’s Fourth District Court in Boise November 19. Stephen Newman, 33, was convicted of the attempted rape of Gretchen Hellar, then 28 this July.

[Hellar] responded to the ad in July 2007 but became suspicious when Newman told her to go to a porta potty at McDevitt Park off Eagle Road after dark to claim the iPod. She alerted police when she noticed a vehicle in the park. Police came and questioned Newman. They found a stocking cap, knife, bb gun, gloves and other items to tie someone up. Prosecutors called her actions heroic.

During the trial, a computer forensic expert found simulated rape videos on Newman's laptop, and some videos including himself.

Prosecutor Shelley Armstrong stated that the rape videos foreshadowed the luring incident, and that Newman wanted to rape a real victim. Before sentencing, Newman apologized for letting his sexual fantasies get out of control.

“I would just like deeply apologize to everybody that I hurt. I know that I have problem with sexual addiction and fantasies and that lead to this issue, and I'm anxious to get help," he said in front of an audience including his parents. The presiding judge was Fourth District Court Judge Mike Wetherell.

Husband sentenced to 10 years in Idaho for attemped strangulation, choking of wife

A Nampa, ID man was sentenced to 10 years in prison with 5 to serve for beating, choking, setting their marital bed on fire and dousing his then wife with lighter fluid. Michael Eugene Hart, 29, was sentenced by Judge Gordon Petrie Monday, November 10 for the charges of arson and attempted strangulation for the attack on Jessica Holmes, who was able to flee her attacker with her two kids.

Alleged Idaho rapist killed by victim after attack

Foreman has been found guilty of 19 criminal charges in Kootenai County since 1989. He has been convicted of battery three times, aggravated assault three times, resisting or obstructing officers three times, contempt of court twice, driving without privileges four times, drunken driving twice, disturbing the peace, reckless driving, bail jumping and various traffic violations.

In 1991, Foreman was found guilty of aggravated assault in a case where a woman said he hit her repeatedly and threw her against a hot stove. When she escaped in her vehicle, Foreman chased her in his pickup truck and rammed her car at a stop sign.