East Wenatchee Man Gets 13 Months In Assault Of Minor Case

A 25-year-old East Wenatchee man will serve 13 months in prison for assault on a 12-year-old girl that he had a sexual relationship with.

Kenneth R. Crisp was sentenced by Douglas County Superior Court Judge Brian Huber Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree assault.

He reached a plea agreement with prosecutors which allowed him to avoid trial on 13 sexual abuse charges he originally faced.

Crisp admitted to sexual contact with the victim in March 2020, but claimed he did not know she was underage.

Under the plea deal, he will serve 18 months under community custody once he's release but will not have to register as a sex offender.

He also has a 10 year no contact order on the victim.

A week after charging him with the 13 original crimes, prosecutors let Crisp use a provision allowed in Washington to plead guilty to a substitute charge.

Under the in re Barr arrangement, an accused person is allowed to plead guilty to a substitute charge that is a legal fiction in order to receive the benefit of a plea bargain.

The 13 original charges against Crisp, including four counts of Rape of a Child, were dropped. He admitted in his plea deal there was significant risk of conviction for the original charges.

Judge Huber's sentence of 13-month with 18 months of community custody reflected what prosecutors had recommended in the plea deal.

Crisp was arrested in September of last year after officers learned of evidence he'd committed sexual crimes with the child in 2020.

Douglas County deputies were contacted by the Idaho State Patrol about Crisp.

The child and her mother had moved to Idaho, and child came forward two years later about being sexually abused there by an adult man.

A detective with the Idaho State Patrol said the child had disclosed two sexual encounters with a man identified as Kenneth Crisp.