HILLSBORO, Ore.- On March 7, 2019, Ryan Christopher Mutchler was sentenced to 60 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to one count of Second-Degree Online Sexual Corruption of a Child. Judge Charles Bailey issued the sentence. The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Allison Brown and investigated by Beaverton Police Detective Chad Opitz.

The 31-year-old defendant was a youth pastor at Mountain Park Church and a band teacher at Aloha High School. The charges involve a 14-year-old child he met at a church camp in the summer of 2018. He befriended the child and began communicating with her. His text messages were sexual in nature and he suggested meeting up with the child to engage in sexual activities.

The child’s parents became concerned after noticing several red flags. They spoke with the child and immediately contacted police to report the defendant. Detective Chad Opitz pretended to be the child in online conversations with the defendant. Mutchler then unknowingly sent sexually explicit messages to the undercover detective. He was arrested in September of 2018.

The child’s parents were present in court and made emotional victim impact statements. The Court commended them for noticing the red flags and intervening before this defendant was able to physically meet with the child. The DA’s Office shares these sentiments.

“While the contact this defendant had with this child is significant and will undoubtedly affect her for a very long time, this child’s parents’ attentiveness and swift action prevented further abuse to this child,” Brown said.

In addition to his jail sentence, Judge Bailey sentenced the defendant to five years supervised probation, ordered him to undergo child sex offender treatment and required him to register as a sex offender.

HILLSBORO, Ore.- On March 7, 2019, Judge Oscar Garcia sentenced Scott Edward Moore to 48 months in prison. Moore pleaded guilty to three counts of First-Degree Aggravated Theft in January of 2019 after investigators determined he stole tens of thousands from his employer, an area church. The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney William Stabler.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office first began investigating Moore in March of 2018 after leaders at the Village Baptist Church in Beaverton contacted them to report a possible case of fraud involving church credit cards.

As investigators began looking into the case, the church hired an outside forensics accounting firm to review their finances. They discovered Moore, who served as the church’s Operations Manager for several years before moving to Texas, had used three different church credit cards to make personal purchases.

Moore admitted to the fraudulent purchases. We would like to acknowledge the work of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office on this case.

Moore will be transferred to the Oregon Department of Corrections to begin serving his sentence.

HILLSBORO, Ore.- On March 6, 2019, Judge Oscar Garcia sentenced Daniel James Campbell to 400 months in prison. Campbell pleaded guilty to two counts of First-Degree Sodomy and one count of First-Degree Sex Abuse earlier this week. Deputy District Attorney Andy Pulver prosecuted the case against Campbell.

Campbell’s close friend sexually abused the victim when she was 11-years-old. Campbell was involved in the prosecution of his friend and even provided a victim impact statement at sentencing in which he described the friend as a “monster” who caused the victim to lose her innocence.

In 2016 Campbell himself began abusing the then 13-year-old victim. The abuse began with fondling and inappropriate touching but escalated severely over the years.

In 2018, the victim reported the abuse to her mother who then confronted Campbell with the allegations. Campbell denied the allegations and convinced the victim to recant. The victim did so and the police were not notified.

Just a few months later the victim called a suicide hotline to report she was considering harming herself. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office spoke with her, but Campbell again convinced the victim to recant her story.

In October of 2018, the victim once again was ready to come forward, this time determined to prove she was not making up the allegations. When Campbell abused her again, she took steps to preserve photographic and DNA evidence—evidence which would prove crucial in Campbell’s conviction.

After that incident of abuse, Campbell told the victim he planned to rape her a few days later. This proved to be her breaking point. She reported the abuse to a friend and the friend’s mother, who then immediately called Beaverton Police. Detectives arranged a staged phone call between the victim and Campbell in which Campbell admitted to buying condoms in anticipation of the planned rape.

Detectives then executed a search warrant. They recovered the DNA evidence and the photographic evidence that Campbell had abused her.

We would like to acknowledge the Beaverton Police Department and Detective Mike Purdy for their work on this case.

Campbell has been transferred to the Oregon Department of Corrections to begin serving his sentence.

HILLSBORO, Ore.- On March 5, 2019, Washington County Judge Janelle Wipper sentenced Jose David Satey-Sanchez to 600 months in prison. Satey-Sanchez was convicted of 13 counts of sexual-abuse related crimes in February of 2019. Of the charges, eight were tried before Judge Wipper and five were tried before a jury. Deputy District Attorney Andy Pulver prosecuted the case.

Law enforcement first began investigating Satey-Sanchez in 2014 when a nine-year-old child made disclosures of abuse to her mother. Her mother didn’t believe the allegations and never reported them to police. However, a teacher overheard the victim talking about the crimes and alerted authorities immediately.

When the victim’s mother refused to make Satey-Sanchez leave the home, authorities were forced to place the girl in foster care.

In 2015 the girl recanted the allegations at the encouragement of her mother and was returned to her mother’s custody. Satey-Sanchez continued to have contact with the child despite orders barring him from doing so. He continued to sexually abuse the victim during this time.

In 2017 Satey-Sanchez subjected the child to rape for the first time. This abuse was immediately reported. Experts at CARES Northwest interviewed her and found her accusations credible. A rape kit was collected and subsequent analysis by the Oregon State Police Forensics Laboratory revealed the presence of Satey-Sanchez’s DNA.

The Washington County District Attorney’s Office would like to acknowledge the work of our partners at the Hillsboro Police Department, the Oregon State Police Forensics Laboratory, and CARES Northwest for their assistance on this challenging case.

Satey-Sanchez will be turned over to the Oregon Department of Corrections to begin serving his sentence.

HILLSBORO, Ore.- On March 6, 2019, Washington County Judge D. Charles Bailey sentenced Merlinda M. Avalos to 151 months in prison. Avalos pleaded guilty to six counts of First-Degree Criminal Mistreatment in January of 2019 based on abuse and neglect toward three young family members. Deputy District Attorney Marie Atwood prosecuted the case against Avalos.

Hillsboro Police began investigating Avalos in April of 2018 after one of the children made disclosures of abuse to a school counselor. Detectives and experts from CARES Northwest interviewed the three children—ages 12, 10 and 9 at the time—and found extensive evidence of ongoing abuse.

Avalos had been caring for the children at the time of the incidents. Investigators found she had abused them in a number of ways. She administered physical beatings, used sleep deprivation as a form of punishment, fed them minimal amounts of food and forced them to use jugs to urinate in rather than giving them access to a proper bathroom.

A school counselor fought back tears as she spoke about the abuse in court. She described the children arriving to school in soiled clothing and the efforts school staff made to address the problem.

After detectives first confronted Avalos with the allegations, an officer spotted Avalos and her husband attempting to destroy evidence at their home. That evidence was later gathered by law enforcement, and corroborated the allegations made by the children.

The Washington County District Attorney’s Office would like to acknowledge the Hillsboro Police Department, CARES Northwest and the Oregon Department of Human Services for their work on this case, as well as Hillsboro School District staff who worked diligently to protect the victims and report suspected abuse.

In addition to her prison time, Avalos was ordered to pay more than $20,000 in compensatory fines to the victims, more than $6,000 in restitution and ordered to have no contact with minors other than her own son when she is released. She will also undergo three years of post-prison supervision.

Avalos will be transferred to the Oregon Department of Corrections to begin serving her sentence.

HILLSBORO, Ore.- On March 4, 2019, Judge Andrew Erwin sentenced John Patrick Gilbreath to five years of probation with credit for time served following his conviction for Unlawful Sexual Penetration in the First Degree.

Gilbreath worked at Partridge House daycare in Beaverton. Following his conviction at trial, he faced a mandatory 25-year minimum prison sentence pursuant to Oregon’s “Jessica’s Law” for sexually abusing a three-year-old child at the daycare. However, the court determined that a 25-year prison sentence would be unconstitutional in Gilbreath’s case because there was not sufficient evidence to prove that Gilbreath’s actions were done with a sexual intent. Gilbreath will be required to register as a sex offender and while he is on probation he will undergo sex offender treatment and be forbidden to have contact with minors.

Oregon’s “Jessica’s Law” is the name used to refer to a law that requires minimum sentences for certain sex crimes against young children. Many states across the nation have similar versions of “Jessica’s Law.” This case highlights the challenges of addressing child sex abuse when often the only evidence of the crime is the statements of a very young child victim.

See our press release on Gilbreath's conviction here.