A former lieutenant with the Washington State Patrol was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison today for sexually abusing two relatives.
Judge Robert Lewis sentenced Kenneth S. Garrison to the maximum penalty for his crimes, which is a minimum of 130 months but up to life in prison. After serving just less than 11 years behind bars, Garrison’s release will be decided by the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board.
He pleaded guilty last month to first-degree child molestation, first-degree incest and possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Garrison, 52, was most recently the lieutenant responsible for supervising troopers who patrol the Southwest Washington district, which is headquartered in Vancouver. When the sex abuse allegation surfaced in December 2013, Garrison resigned from the State Patrol. A month later he retired from his position as a lieutenant colonel in the Washington Army National Guard.
In exchange for his guilty plea, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Camara Banfield dropped charges of another count of first-degree incest, second-degree incest, second-degree rape and eight counts of possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The child pornography was found on Garrison’s phone when he was arrested, Banfield said.
Friday’s prison sentence is punishment not for only local sex crimes but also for crimes that occurred in Cowlitz County nearly 15 years ago.
When detectives began investigating the sex abuse allegations in 2013, the Cowlitz County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office reviewed a 2001 case in which Garrison was accused of touching the private parts of a 6-year-old relative while the child was sleeping, according to court papers.
Garrison was charged with the crime in Cowlitz County more than 10 years ago, but the charge was later dismissed.
The 2001 allegation against Garrison led to an internal investigation by the Washington State Patrol that ended in Garrison’s termination, according to personnel records requested by The Columbian. Garrison was fired in 2003 and then decertified as a peace officer, State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins has said.
In an internal investigation, the burden of proof is lesser than in a criminal court case. Garrison’s supervisor at the time reviewed the 2001 allegation and determined that there was enough proof that the sex abuse happened, Calkins said.
However, when Garrison appealed his termination, an arbitrator ruled in his favor, awarded him some back pay and ordered him back to work, according to his personnel records. He returned to duty with the State Patrol in 2008 and remained with the agency until his resignation in December 2013, when the new sex abuse allegations surfaced, Calkins said.
Investigators began investigating Garrison in 2013 when a different relative alleged that Garrison had sexually abused her over the course of seven years.
Detectives arrested Garrison in January 2014 at the Rodeway Inn and Suites in Gresham, Ore., on suspicion of sexually assaulting a relative between 2006 and 2013 in Clark County.
Prosecution of the Cowlitz County case was handed over to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for efficiency purposes, Banfield said. The first-degree child molestation conviction was related to the older case, according to court papers.
The victims in both cases were in the courtroom for Friday’s sentencing and the victim in the Cowlitz County case spoke to the judge, ultimately saying that she and her parents forgave Garrison for the damage he caused.
“Ken, you did not just take away my innocence, you damaged my childhood, you destroyed and caused so much pain to my family,” the victim said. “Even worse, you sat back while the rest of the family defended you and made me look like the liar.
“What Ken Garrison did to me is something that no young girl should have to go through, and it is something that no father and mother should have to go through with their daughter,” she said. “I’m here today to finally receive closure for this 14-year-long heartache. … From this day forward, I am free and will no longer be weighed down by this horrible situation.”
When given the opportunity, Garrison did not speak at today’s hearing.
Though Banfield and Garrison’s attorney Shon Bogar had come to a negotiated plea agreement that recommended 10 years behind bars, Lewis implemented the maximum sentence, adding nearly a year to Garrison’s sentence, including the possibility for life in prison.
Lewis said his sentence was not due to devastation to parents or embarrassment to law enforcement, but was on behalf of “the two young women who were here today and the thousands of children who are subjected to sexual abuse to feed the child pornography industry in this country and throughout the world.”
The sentence includes a lifetime no-contact order with the two victims and a requirement that Garrison register as a sex offender until he is otherwise notified by the court.
