EVERETT — A convicted rapist’s attempts to regain freedom by fraud has added roughly two years to his time behind bars.
Eugene Brian Garvie, 49, once was a respected wrestling referee in Lake Stevens. Now an inmate in the state prison system, he appeared Wednesday in Snohomish County Superior Court for sentencing on his latest felony.
The defendant, who is known as Brian Garvie, pleaded guilty earlier this month to first-degree perjury. He admitted filing false legal documents in an attempt to overturn a sex crimes conviction that already had him serving 13 years to life.
Garvie pleaded guilty in 2007 to child rape and sexual exploitation of a minor. He confessed to police that he’d been trading drugs and alcohol for sex with teenage boys. A search of his home turned up video documenting the sex crimes.
Despite his guilty pleas, Garvie almost immediately began clamoring that he was innocent.
From prison, he brought legal action attacking the credibility of his victims, police and prosecutors.
He filed a petition with the state Court of Appeals seeking freedom. His family also engaged in a public-relations campaign that portrayed Garvie’s case as a miscarriage of justice, and the man’s accusers as scheming criminals.
That went on until late 2015, when Snohomish County prosecutors revealed Garvie’s secret: the rapist and his father, Ralph Garvie, 71, had been communicating with one of the victims in the 2007 case. Prison emails and other records documented how the pair tried to buy the young man’s cooperation.
They wanted him to recant his accusations against the rapist.
Instead, the elder Garvie found himself facing felony charges along with his inmate son.
Deputy prosecutor Halley Hupp on Wednesday described how the reality of the situation finally sunk in for Brian Garvie.
Not long ago, the defendant admitted to his father that he’d committed the offenses that had sent him to prison in the first place, Hupp said.
Under a plea agreement in this case, Brian Garvie abandoned his attempt to overturn his 2007 conviction. His father, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to attempted tampering with a witness, a misdemeanor. Prosecutors don’t intend to seek jail time for the elder Garvie.
Everett attorney Mark Mestel said Brian Garvie went to prison a decade ago without fully grasping his legal options. The longtime defense lawyer told Judge George Bowden that is no longer the case.
“He’s come to the realization that he needs to deal with these issues,” Mestel said.
Brian Garvie now expects to remain locked up until he can convince the state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board to set him free.
The perjury conviction almost certainly means he won’t be seen as a candidate for release for years, the judge was told.
Brian Garvie had nothing to say before Bowden announced the perjury sentence.
The judge ordered the time to be served after the years Garvie owes for the sex crimes.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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