Conviction Overturned

Conviction overturned in exploitation case involving Camas girl

VANCOUVER, Wash. The Court of Appeals on Tuesday tossed out convictions for a Pierce County man who in 2006 was found guilty of sexually exploiting a Camas teenager he'd met online.

In a 2-1 ruling, the appellate court found Sadlers right to an open, public trial was denied when a Pierce County Superior Court judge called attorneys into a jury room to hear a motion made during jury selection rather than staying in the courtroom.

Calling attorneys into a space not typically accessible to the public was the same as expressly excluding the public, Judge David Armstrong wrote.

Also, Sadlers constitutional protection against illegal police searches may have been violated, Armstrong wrote. Acting on a tip from the Clark County Sheriffs Office, officers from the Pierce County Sheriffs Office went to Sadler's home in 2004 and found the girl. But a detective entered Sadler's home a second time, before a search warrant had been issued, and saw evidence that was then cited in support of a warrant.

The Court of Appeals said the trial court has to have a hearing on whether the search warrant, in light of the detectives second trip inside the home, was valid. If it was, the state can retry Sadler, Armstrong wrote.

At trial, Sadler admitted he and the girl had sex but said it was consensual. He said she had claimed to be 19 and had showed him a birth certificate and state identification card.

Sadler picked up the girl, who was 14 at the time, from her Camas foster home. The girl, however, did not testify despite a material witness warrant. She could not be located for the trial.

The jury acquitted Sadler, who was 48 at the time of trial, on charges of rape and kidnapping but convicted him of sexual exploitation for taking photographs of the girl that he e-mailed to friends.

Dante