By SVERRE BAKKE
The Enterprise
A former Columbia High School music teacher pleaded "guilty" to three sex crimes Monday morning in Klickitat County Superior Court in Goldendale.
Shackled at the wrists and ankles and wearing the black-and-white striped tunic and matching pants and rubber sandals of a Klickitat County jail inmate, Robert Matthew (Rob) Jones, 36, of The Dalles, Ore., entered guilty pleas to two Class C felonies, one count each of third-degree child molestation and voyeurism; and one gross misdemeanor, one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.
A fourth charge -- for voyeurism -- was dismissed by the Klickitat County Prosecuting Attorney's office in exchange for the three guilty pleas, under a plea bargain negotiated by Prosecuting Attorney's office and Jones's attorney, Marc Geller of Hood River.
Jones originally pleaded "not guilty" to the crimes during a March 6 appearance in Superior Court. At that time, a trial date of May 17 was set.
Deputy Prosecutor Craig Juris said the state agreed to the plea bargain "after a lot of negotiations with both the defendant's attorney and a lot of communication with the victims and their families."
"The reality is, with the plea agreement, we get all these convictions and the maximum sentences allowed within the range of the state's sentencing guidelines, without giving anything up. Plus, it eliminates appeal issues," Juris said.
The crimes Jones pleaded guilty to occurred in 2003 and in 2005, while he was teaching at Columbia High School in White Salmon; each of the original four charges involved a different victim.
Jones currently is serving a five-year sentence at a federal prison in Oregon. In April, he pled guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon to one count of using "a means of interstate commerce, the Internet, to persuade, induce or entice an individual who had not attained the age of 18 years...to engage in sexual activity" -- a charge that stemmed from a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe of Jones's criminal use of a White Salmon Valley School District-owned computer between Aug. 1, 2004 and Jan. 15, 2005. When the FBI started its investigation on March 30, 2005, the school district placed Jones on administrative leave. He eventually resigned from CHS effective Aug. 31, 2005.
Jones's guilty pleas Monday were the result of an investigation by the Klickitat County Sheriff's Office, which followed up on information initially developed by federal investigators.
In response to questions posed by Superior Court Judge Tom Reynolds, Jones answered "yes" that he made the pleas freely and that he understood he was giving up certain constitutional rights, including the right to a speedy and public trial, the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, the right to vote, and the right to possess firearms.
Jones also answered "yes" when asked by Reynolds if his reason for pleading guilty was "to take advantage of the offer made to you by the prosecution."
As part of the plea agreement, the Prosecuting Attorney's Office recommended Jones receive the maximum penalties for each crime as provided for by the state's sentencing guidelines.
For child molestation, the Prosecuting Attorney's Office recommended 20 months in prison; for voyeurism, 365 days in the county jail; and for communicating with a minor, 365 days in jail. The state court sentences would run concurrently with Jones's federal sentence.
Upon release from custody, Jones will have to register as a sex offender with the law-enforcement agency of the community in which he plans to live, and submit to 36-48 months of community supervision by federal and Oregon state corrections departments. The recommendations -- based in part on a pre-sentencing report prepared by the U.S Bureau of Prisons -- also included payment of court costs and fees, and restitution to Jones's victims.
Reynolds, however, did not act on the prosecution's sentencing recommendations during Jones's plea hearing. Instead, the judge ordered his own pre-sentencing investigation, to be prepared by the state Department of Corrections by Aug. 21, and set sentencing over to 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 5.
Juris said Reynolds's decision was not unusual for cases involving sex-based crimes.
"He wants the local Department of Corrections to do its own pre-sentencing investigation rather than accept and rely on the federal agency's report," he said. "He wants to be sure that nothing has been missed."
According to Washington State Rules of the Court, "The report of the pre-sentence investigation shall contain the defendant's criminal history and such information about the defendant's characteristics, financial condition, and the circumstances affecting the defendant's behavior as may be relevant in imposing sentence or in the correctional treatment of the defendant, information about the victim, and such other information as may be required by the court."
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