PORT ANGELES — Deanna Marie Wilson has been sentenced to 5½ years in prison for possessing and sending sexually explicit photos of a teenage boy and having sexual contact with a dog.
Wilson, 42, of Port Angeles was sentenced Wednesday in Clallam County Superior Court.
She pleaded guilty May 23 to first- and second-degree possessing depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and first-degree animal cruelty with sexual contact.
“I am truly sorry for what I have done and the people I have hurt,” Wilson said in an hourlong sentencing hearing.
Port Angeles police said Wilson took pictures of herself performing a sexual act on a 15-year-old boy and sent an image of the boy’s genitals to one of his friends after providing alcohol to a group of minors at her home in October 2016.
A forensic search of Wilson’s iPhone revealed images of Wilson engaging in sexual contact with her pet dog on two occasions last year, police said.
After hearing statements from the prosecution, defense, Wilson and her family, Superior Court Judge Christopher Melly imposed a 66-month sentence as recommended by Chief Criminal Deputy Michele Devlin.
“The facts of this case are disturbing, and that is a minor word to use,” Devlin said in her opening remarks.
Based on her lack of criminal history, Wilson faced a standard sentencing range of 57 months to 75 months for the overriding charge in the concurrent sentence.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed one count of third-degree child rape, three counts of animal cruelty and one count of furnishing liquor to minors.
Orders preventing Wilson from having contact with her two teenage daughters can be altered by a family court, Melly said.
Devlin reviewed a 3½-page statement that Wilson drafted for the state Department of Corrections’ pre-sentencing investigation.
“What I find disturbing in this all-capital-letters [statement] is absolutely no acceptance of responsibility,” Devlin said.
Wilson said the boy claimed to be the “new legal age” of 16, according to her statement.
Devlin pointed out that Wilson confessed to knowing “how she gets around the boys.”
The victim refused to help the prosecution.
“Unfortunately, we had a young man who was ‘Hey, I got a cougar,’ ” Devlin said. “But then we also have the adult who took advantage of that.”
In her statement, Wilson said she was “stupid with alcohol” and did not remember most of her encounter with the boy.
She denied that she provided alcohol to the teen or invited him into her room.
“I’m not into young people,” Wilson told Melly. “I’ve always dated men older than me.”
Friends and family members described Wilson as a victim of abuse beginning at the age of 3.
Wilson ended an abusive marriage in recent years and was on a spiral of self-destruction in the months prior to her arrest, friends and family said.
Devlin said it was “tragic” that Wilson was abused.
“But I know people currently now working in powerful positions who were abused as children who didn’t go on to abuse their dog, their children and minors,” Devlin said, “using it as a reason, as a ‘this is why I did it.’ ”
Defense attorney John Black said Wilson suffered a traumatic brain injury a few years ago.
He asked Melly to consider that Dr. Kenneth Muscatel, a respected Seattle psychiatrist, met with Wilson on three occasions and concluded that she was a “very troubled young woman.”
“He was perplexed,” Black said of Muscatel, who has evaluated many Clallam County defendants. “This is a very unusual case.”
Black bemoaned the fact that there was no Sex Offender Sentencing Alternative, or SOSA, available in Wilson’s case.
“It’s just a huge mess, your honor, and I feel for this young woman,” Black said.
“I especially feel for the family because the Legislature doesn’t provide any relief for my client.”
Chris Walker said she met Wilson through Wilson’s house cleaning business about three years ago.
“From my perspective, Deanna is not a criminal,” Walker said. “She’s a victim. She’s a victim of abuse from a husband for years.”
Walker said she had seen a “tremendous change” in Wilson’s mentality during her incarceration.
“But she needs therapy,” Walker said. “She need some deep therapy.”
Wilson told Melly that she had read more 40 self-help books during the nine months she has been in jail.
“She’s got a long life ahead of her,” Walker said. “And putting her in prison is not the solution.”
Devlin agreed that Wilson needed therapy.
“And she’s going to get it when she gets out of prison,” Devlin said.
Devlin said the most disturbing part of the case was that Wilson did not intervene when her parents disowned Wilson’s daughters.
“It came out in statements here that they are somehow complicit in your being caught, your being charged,” Melly told Wilson. “Quite honestly, I find it shocking that the girls are being set forth as somehow responsible for your actions.
“One thing I haven’t heard is that you had the inability to determine right from wrong,” Melly added.
“So my operating assumption is you knew the difference between right and wrong, and you chose the wrong path.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.