A former youth wrestling referee who traded alcohol and drugs for sex with teens will spend at least the next 13 years behind bars.
Eugene Brian Garvie used his position in youth sports to lure teens to his home in 2005 and 2006, sometimes creating a video record of sexual acts.
“You are a sexual predator,” Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne told the Lake Stevens man.
How much time Garvie, 40, will spend in prison will depend on his attitude about treatment and whether he changes his assertion that he’s actually innocent – even though he pleaded guilty to child rape and other charges.
On Tuesday, Garvie told the judge he is innocent and pleaded guilty only because he believed a jury would convict him.
Continuing to maintain innocence will work against Garvie and conceivably could result in a life prison term, deputy prosecutor Mark Roe said.
When he’s freed will depend on a state panel, which first will have to determine that his sexual deviancy is under control and that he’s no longer a danger to the public, Roe said.
The sentence from Wynne was at the high end of the state’s sentencing range.
In May, the prosecutor dropped several charges in exchange for Garvie’s pleading guilty to second-degree child rape, sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of possessing child pornography.
The child rape conviction was key, Roe said, and it means the state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board will examine the case before Garvie is released.
“It was the highest priority for us to get it so there would be indeterminate sentencing and lifelong community custody,” Roe said.
Garvie was charged with having sex with a teenage boy and making a video of the abuse. He had been a youth wrestling referee since 1989, but that ended after police found sexually explicit images on his computer, including recordings of two of his victims performing sexual acts.
His attorney, John Crowley of Seattle, told the judge that “Mr. Garvie has problems he needs to address.” The lawyer said he hopes his client will be incarcerated at the Monroe Prison Complex, where there’s a sexual deviancy program.
Meanwhile, the families of two victims are relieved their sons won’t have to testify, said Bill France, victim advocate in the prosecutor’s office.
One victim, a 15-year-old boy, made it clear that he would not testify, and he was held in custody under a material witness warrant for a time before Garvie pleaded guilty in May.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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