PORT ANGELES — A former Quillayute Valley School District paraeducator who pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of second-degree child rape could serve up to 20 years in prison — or more — after she is sentenced April 21.
Tammy Ann Leask, 40, had one sexual assault charge against a minor age 12-14 and a count of distributing drugs — the panic-disorder medication Xanax — to a minor dropped in return for her plea before Clallam County Superior Court Judge Simon Barnhart.
The plea agreement recommended by Matthew Roberson, criminal deputy prosecuting attorney, and Port Angeles lawyer Stan Myers, representing the Forks resident, asks Barnhart to sentence her to a minimum of 17½ years. Barnhart can impose up to 20 years.
The state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board will decide when Leask is released after she serves the sentence imposed by Barnhart.
The board could decide she spends the rest of her life in prison, the maximum term for second-degree rape of a child.
Rather than make her own statement on the charges Wednesday, Leask agreed to have Barnhart review the probable cause statement that led to the rape and drug charges as a basis to set her sentence.
In the probable cause statement, Leask admits she assaulted the seventh-grader.
The rapes occurred between Nov. 1 and Jan. 11, according to the amended criminal information.
The sentence against Leask, the mother of three, will include lifetime community supervision and no contact with minors younger than 16.
Roberson is not recommending that the prohibition include banning her from having contact with her children.
“As a general matter, in my experience, so long as an offender didn’t abuse their own children, exceptions to the prohibition on contact with minors as a condition of sentence or community custody are carved out for contact with biological children,” Roberson said Wednesday in a text message.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@ peninsuladailynews.com.