EVERETT — Eugene Brian Garvie stood up in a Snohomish County courtroom in 2007 and pleaded guilty to the rape and sexual exploitation of a teenage boy he’d invited into his home.
Then a referee in youth wrestling competitions, Garvie confessed to detectives that he’d groomed that teen and another boy for sex by supplying them with drugs and alcohol, court records show. Investigators recovered videos and photos documenting the sex acts.
Despite the plea and other evidence memorializing the admissions, the then-convicted sex offender almost immediately began trying to avoid consequences.
“Garvie does not acknowledge the extent of his behaviors or the damage he has done. He repeatedly blamed his victims for his actions,” a state corrections official wrote before the former Lake Stevens man was sentenced to a term of 13 years to life in prison.
Now 49, Garvie has spent the years since pressing appeals. He’s insisted he was the victim of injustice involving detectives, the boys he abused, witnesses, the prosecutor, the judge and even his own defense attorney.
The inmate was scheduled to be back in court Monday to answer new allegations.
Prosecutors last month charged him with two counts of first-degree perjury, bribery and tampering with a witness, all felonies.
The charges all stem from what prosecutors say is Garvie’s long campaign to regain his freedom by coercing the boy he once admitted raping into recanting the accusations, and shifting blame to another of Garvie’s victims.
The scheme allegedly involved payments for a false statement.
The defendant’s father, Ralph Daniel Garvie, 71, of Lake Stevens, is accused of playing an active role. He’s charged, too, with three felony counts alleging perjury, bribery and witness tampering.
The case was built in part because the state Department of Corrections monitors JPay, the email system inmates can use to communicate with people outside prison, deputy prosecutor Halley Hupp said in an affidavit filed along with the Snohomish County Superior Court charges.
The young man Garvie earlier admitted raping, now 24, has struggled with addiction. He’s served time in Washington prisons for auto theft, burglary and weapons offenses. He’s locked up again, facing new charges of stealing a car and crashing it under a semi truck, records show.
Prison officials in 2012 noticed the young man communicating with Ralph Garvie using JPay and letters. It appeared he also was having indirect contact with Ralph Garvie’s convicted sex offender son, who has been serving his time in a prison on Washington’s coast.
“The Department of Corrections became concerned about the content of the JPay emails, and referred those materials to the prosecutor’s office,” Hupp wrote.
The emails, sent in 2012 and 2013, reportedly discuss the young man agreeing to prepare a statement recanting his earlier claims. They also document his demands for payment, Hupp wrote.
Ralph Garvie sent money to the young man’s prison accounts, according to court papers. He also allegedly set up a post office box in Snohomish and forwarded letters, so his son and the younger man could correspond.
Two of Ralph Garvie’s former employees, including a secretary, allegedly have told a sheriff’s detective about assisting in getting payments and gifts to the younger Garvie’s victim while he was behind bars.
“This included a TV, books and Christmas care packages,” Hupp wrote. “In her opinion this was all done to keep (the victim) cooperative and to convince him to complete the statement” needed for the appeal.
Detectives interviewed the young man. He reportedly said he received a letter from his former abuser, offering friendship and financial support. Money was put on his prison accounts and there were later payments in face-to-face meetings with Ralph Garvie, Hupp said.
The man “told police he had a narcotics addiction. He said he was accepting money from the defendants to support his addiction,” the prosecutor wrote. “He said he had no intention of going to court to support their claims that (the younger Garvie) was innocent, and in fact (he) confirmed the sexual assault.”
The man did sign the statement changing his story, as he had allegedly promised the Garvies. That document was filed as an exhibit when the younger Garvie in November 2014 launched his latest legal challenge to his conviction. It provides the basis for the perjury charges.
Police confronted the rapist in prison before charges were filed.
“They sat down with him and told him about this investigation,” Hupp wrote. The defendant reportedly became upset and began yelling about how he’d “once thought about contacting the victim and telling him what to say,” but didn’t follow through.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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