TACOMA — A 69-year-old Lower Elwha Klallam tribal member and longtime Elwha Tribal Council member has been sentenced in U.S. District Court to 34 years in prison for nine federal crimes related to the sexual abuse of minors, Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman announced in a news release.
Joseph Anthony Turrey, 69, of Port Angeles was convicted of six counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of abusive sexual contact in March 2023 following a seven-day jury trial.
“You demonstrated a wantonness, a cruelty, and mercilessness … No restitution can give (your victims) back what was stolen from them,” U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle told Turrey at the sentencing hearing Monday.
Settle said Turrey had shown no sign of remorse, the release stated.
According to a second superseding indictment filed Nov. 2, 2022, in federal court in Tacoma, Turrey was accused of abusing two children younger than 12 between August 2008 and August 2016. The girls were 6 and 7 years old when the sexual assaults began, according to a March 2023 press release.
The assaults occurred on the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation and tribal trust land of the Chehalis Tribe in Thurston County, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. That triggered the federal intervention.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Police.
The National Park Service assisted because the agency had a child forensic interviewer in the area at the time.
Turrey served as a fisheries enforcement officer for the Hoh Tribe from 1993 to 1994, according to the current Hoh Tribal police chief, John Suggs. In the DOJ press release, Turrey was erroneously identified as a former Hoh police chief.
Suggs said fisheries enforcement officers, or “fish cops,” often refer to themselves as “police chief.” The Hoh Tribe has had an actual police chief only since August 2020, Suggs said.
Turrey went on to serve as a police officer for the Lower Elwah Tribe and also served on the Tribal Council.
Turrey received an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Peninsula College in 1998. He has been a Lower Elwha Tribal Council member since June 2000.
He was a 1971 graduate of Port Angeles High School. He served in the U.S. Army from 1972 to 1992, including in the Special Forces.
In her statement to the court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristine Foerster said Turrey “held positions of power while exploiting children.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Foerster, Will Dreher and Jonas Lerman.
________
Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at brian.gawley@soundpublishing.com.
