http://www.stardem.com/news/local_news/article_03d13657-c001-554c-91b0-8a93fac29020.html
Crime Sensei gets 10 years in prison
Posted: Thursday, October 20, 2011 1:00 am | Updated: 6:51 am, Thu Oct 20, 2011.
By M.J. NEUBERGER Staff Writer | 2 comments
CENTREVILLE A former Kent Island martial arts instructor pleaded guilty Wednesday to sex abuse of a minor and was given a 25-year sentence with all but 10 years suspended.
Justin Ray Dutcher, 25, formerly of 902 Auckland Way, Chester, pleaded guilty to one count of having sex with a 15-year-old student in exchange for the prosecution dropping a second charge of sex abuse and other less serious charges. Since he was the victim's teacher and had custodial care of her at the time of the April 24, 2010, offense, his actions were considered sex abuse of a minor under the state's criminal code.
After hearing pleas for a heavier sentence from the victim and her parents and requests for less severe punishment from Dutcher and his attorney, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ross applied the maximum penalty as well as the upper end of the state's recommended guidelines for actual time to be served.
Ross set Dutcher's probation period for five years after completion of his sentence and ordered him to have no contact with the victim "or any minor." He is to remain on the state's sex offender registry.
Replying to questions from Ross with a brief, "Yes, sir," Dutcher said he understood he was waiving his right to a jury trial and to a pre-sentencing investigation prior to having to face what Ross told him could be the maximum penalty.
"I didn't understand why it had to happen to me," the victim told Ross in her impact statement. "It didn't just affect me. It affected my parents, my friends," she said. Dutcher's punishment should reflect that "he affected everybody," she said.
According to the statement of facts submitted in the case, the victim met Dutcher in March 2010 when he began teaching at the Kent Island Martial Arts Center in Chester and she became one of his jiu jitsu students. On April 24, she and her parents accompanied Dutcher to a martial arts tournament in Richmond, Va., and then her parents returned to Kent Island, leaving their daughter to watch a black belt competition and be driven back home by Dutcher.
On their return trip, according to the statement, Dutcher stopped at his Chester home and engaged in intercourse and other sexual acts with the victim and then dropped her off at her family's home.
The family reported the sexual assault of their daughter to the Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office on Jan. 18. In a Feb. 1 forensic interview with the Department of Social Services, the victim provided detailed information about Dutcher's home and what had occurred there, the statement said.
Deputies served a search warrant and interviewed Dutcher on Feb. 10, when he denied the allegations. In an interview with a state's attorney investigator the next day, Dutcher confessed to having sex with the victim.
After being charged, Dutcher was released on bond. He did not appear as scheduled for an Aug. 22 trial, was arrested by border police at Dulles Airport as he returned from a trip to Turkey on Sept. 19 and has since been held at the Queen Anne's County Detention Center.
"What he did was wrong. I don't care if my daughter threw herself at him," the victim's father told Ross, adding that the maximum penalty would not be enough.
The victim's mother said her daughter insisted on searching the grocery store parking lot for fear of running into Dutcher when he was out on bond. "Something's wrong with him. Keep him as long as you can," she said.
Deputy State's Attorney Christine Dulla said Dutcher had exploited a position of trust.
Before being sentenced, Dutcher apologized to the victim and her family.
"Whether it was voluntary" or not, Dutcher said, "I never should have gotten in that situation in the first place."
He said he had a wife and a month-old son, his second child, who he had not been able to hold in his arms.
Defense Attorney Daniel Rosendale submitted a psychological evaluation that he said demonstrated that, while Dutcher is "a narcissist," he's not a predator.
"This is more about the perfect storm lining up," Rosendale said. "There was some flirting that occurred" and Dutcher had "way too much access" to the victim, he said.
There is no indication Dutcher had been involved in other sexual misconduct with minors, Rosendale said, adding, "had this occurred 6 or 8 months later we might not be here" because the same statute would not have applied.
"That doesn't mean it's OK," Rosendale said. Dutcher "exercised terrible, terrible judgment" and "poor restraint" but has taken responsibility for his actions, Rosendale said. "He wants to get through the punishment and get treatment."
Ross said that, although the defense psychological report concluded that Dutcher "didn't stalk young women," the victim had been a target.
"You were working in an environment where there were a lot of children in your care," Ross said. Dutcher's actions were "methodical" and "manipulative," he added.
"What makes it so heinous is we're talking about a very vulnerable age for children," Ross said. "That's why it's illegal," even if consensual. "I view it as non-consensual," Ross said.
"In a lot of ways, 25 years isn't enough," Ross said, adding he hoped the 15-year-old would leave the court Wednesday no longer feeling like a victim.
Crime Sensei gets 10 years in prison
Posted: Thursday, October 20, 2011 1:00 am | Updated: 6:51 am, Thu Oct 20, 2011.
By M.J. NEUBERGER Staff Writer | 2 comments
CENTREVILLE A former Kent Island martial arts instructor pleaded guilty Wednesday to sex abuse of a minor and was given a 25-year sentence with all but 10 years suspended.
Justin Ray Dutcher, 25, formerly of 902 Auckland Way, Chester, pleaded guilty to one count of having sex with a 15-year-old student in exchange for the prosecution dropping a second charge of sex abuse and other less serious charges. Since he was the victim's teacher and had custodial care of her at the time of the April 24, 2010, offense, his actions were considered sex abuse of a minor under the state's criminal code.
After hearing pleas for a heavier sentence from the victim and her parents and requests for less severe punishment from Dutcher and his attorney, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ross applied the maximum penalty as well as the upper end of the state's recommended guidelines for actual time to be served.
Ross set Dutcher's probation period for five years after completion of his sentence and ordered him to have no contact with the victim "or any minor." He is to remain on the state's sex offender registry.
Replying to questions from Ross with a brief, "Yes, sir," Dutcher said he understood he was waiving his right to a jury trial and to a pre-sentencing investigation prior to having to face what Ross told him could be the maximum penalty.
"I didn't understand why it had to happen to me," the victim told Ross in her impact statement. "It didn't just affect me. It affected my parents, my friends," she said. Dutcher's punishment should reflect that "he affected everybody," she said.
According to the statement of facts submitted in the case, the victim met Dutcher in March 2010 when he began teaching at the Kent Island Martial Arts Center in Chester and she became one of his jiu jitsu students. On April 24, she and her parents accompanied Dutcher to a martial arts tournament in Richmond, Va., and then her parents returned to Kent Island, leaving their daughter to watch a black belt competition and be driven back home by Dutcher.
On their return trip, according to the statement, Dutcher stopped at his Chester home and engaged in intercourse and other sexual acts with the victim and then dropped her off at her family's home.
The family reported the sexual assault of their daughter to the Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office on Jan. 18. In a Feb. 1 forensic interview with the Department of Social Services, the victim provided detailed information about Dutcher's home and what had occurred there, the statement said.
Deputies served a search warrant and interviewed Dutcher on Feb. 10, when he denied the allegations. In an interview with a state's attorney investigator the next day, Dutcher confessed to having sex with the victim.
After being charged, Dutcher was released on bond. He did not appear as scheduled for an Aug. 22 trial, was arrested by border police at Dulles Airport as he returned from a trip to Turkey on Sept. 19 and has since been held at the Queen Anne's County Detention Center.
"What he did was wrong. I don't care if my daughter threw herself at him," the victim's father told Ross, adding that the maximum penalty would not be enough.
The victim's mother said her daughter insisted on searching the grocery store parking lot for fear of running into Dutcher when he was out on bond. "Something's wrong with him. Keep him as long as you can," she said.
Deputy State's Attorney Christine Dulla said Dutcher had exploited a position of trust.
Before being sentenced, Dutcher apologized to the victim and her family.
"Whether it was voluntary" or not, Dutcher said, "I never should have gotten in that situation in the first place."
He said he had a wife and a month-old son, his second child, who he had not been able to hold in his arms.
Defense Attorney Daniel Rosendale submitted a psychological evaluation that he said demonstrated that, while Dutcher is "a narcissist," he's not a predator.
"This is more about the perfect storm lining up," Rosendale said. "There was some flirting that occurred" and Dutcher had "way too much access" to the victim, he said.
There is no indication Dutcher had been involved in other sexual misconduct with minors, Rosendale said, adding, "had this occurred 6 or 8 months later we might not be here" because the same statute would not have applied.
"That doesn't mean it's OK," Rosendale said. Dutcher "exercised terrible, terrible judgment" and "poor restraint" but has taken responsibility for his actions, Rosendale said. "He wants to get through the punishment and get treatment."
Ross said that, although the defense psychological report concluded that Dutcher "didn't stalk young women," the victim had been a target.
"You were working in an environment where there were a lot of children in your care," Ross said. Dutcher's actions were "methodical" and "manipulative," he added.
"What makes it so heinous is we're talking about a very vulnerable age for children," Ross said. "That's why it's illegal," even if consensual. "I view it as non-consensual," Ross said.
"In a lot of ways, 25 years isn't enough," Ross said, adding he hoped the 15-year-old would leave the court Wednesday no longer feeling like a victim.
http://edgewater.patch.com/articles/testimony-sheds-light-on-martial-arts-instructors-relationship-with-teen-student
(link not active, page not found on original server: archive of article shown here below)
Testimony Sheds Light on Martial Arts Instructor's Relationship With Teen Student
Authorities on Tuesday testified that the owner of Edgewater's P.R.I.D.E. martial arts studio had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.
By D. Frank Smith
Email the author
June 29, 2011
The owner-operator of an Edgewater martial arts studio had a sexual relationship with his 15-year-old female former student that soon turned into a “game,” according to testimony on Tuesday.
The first details in the state’s case against Justin Ray Dutcher, 25, of Chester, were disclosed Tuesday at the Centreville courthouse during testimony with the lead detective in the case and a state’s attorney investigator.
The female was Dutcher's student at Kent Island Martial Arts, where he was employed at the time.
Dutcher has 15 criminal charges filed against him, including two counts of sexual abuse of a minor, two counts each of third- and fourth-degree sexual offense, two counts of second-degree assault, two counts of contributing to the condition of child/delinquent, unnatural or perverted practice, and possession of marijuana and paraphernalia.
Dutcher is considered innocent until proven guilty.
During Tuesday's pre-trial hearing, testimony from Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Detective Lopez shed light on what allegedly transpired between Dutcher and his 15-year-old student in the spring of 2010 that led to the charges of sexual abuse being filed in February of this year.
According to the detective’s testimony, the teen initially had a crush on Dutcher, but their relationship escalated into being sexual in nature after frequent meetings. The detective said that the victim ultimately told authorities that she felt threatened by Dutcher and what he might do to her family if she ever told her parents of their relationship.
Detective Lopez testified that Dutcher made hiding their relationship from the public a “game,” according to text messages sent between the two.
The testimony indicated that, at first, there were other students at the martial arts studio. But they began leaving his tutelage, until soon it was only Dutcher and the teen having one-on-one practice sessions.
The pair exchanged texts and emails frequently about their sport. But their relationship turned sexual following a martial arts tournament in Virginia, in which the teen’s parents had entrusted Dutcher to drive her home afterwards. Instead, Dutcher drove her to his residence on Auckland Way in Chester and had sex with her, Lopez testified.
According to Lopez’s testimony, the teen indicated they had sexual encounters on more than one occasion, and during these meetings, Dutcher sprayed cologne on the teen, so that when she returned home, she smelled like him. Lopez said the teen’s mother later corroborated this information.
The texting became so frequent that the teen’s phone was seized by faculty at her school, and her mother was called to retrieve it. The mother then discovered incriminating text messages from Dutcher, indicating that he was in love with her daughter, and revealing information on their “game.”
As more explicit information on the sexual nature of their relationship was laid bare for the courtroom on Tuesday, the teen’s mother began sobbing, her hands unable to steady themselves to reach for a tissue. Meanwhile, Dutcher appeared to express no emotion while sitting next to his attorney, Daniel Rosendale.
After interviews with the victim in February, the Sheriff’s office executed a search warrant at Dutcher’s house, in front of his wife and infant child. Authorities seized several iPhones, iPods, a computer, cologne bottles, drug paraphernalia, DNA from a couch, and a pair of Dutcher’s pajama pants. The next day, Dutcher was brought in to the Queen Anne County Sheriff's office for questioning and denied allegations that he had raped the girl.
The state attorney’s office assigned one of their investigators, Robert Penny, a former state police officer, to seek an interview with Dutcher outside the authorities, to “set the record straight.” Dutcher voluntarily agreed to meet with Penny and talk about the incident.
Penny testified Tuesday that Dutcher admitted to having sexual relations with the teen, indicating it only happened once, but that it was not rape. Penny said he believed that it was a consentual relationship.
“I could tell that this wasn’t rape, but he had to tell me what the real details were,” Penny said.
Penny and Dutcher’s interview concluded with the pair agreeing that he could turn himself in on an agreed date, and that Penny would give him some advice on seeking an attorney.
Dutcher’s attorney Daniel Rosendale argued that these agreements were tantamount to inducing a testimony, calling it an interrogation, even though the investigator had explained at length how Dutcher was free leave at any time during their talk.
Rosendale filed two motions before Judge Thomas Ross, one to suppress evidence gathered during the search warrant execution, and another motion to suppress Penny’s testimony.
Ross denied the search warrant suppression, but took the other matter under advisement, saying he would issue a determination before the jury trial, scheduled for August 22 in Centreville.
(link not active, page not found on original server: archive of article shown here below)
Testimony Sheds Light on Martial Arts Instructor's Relationship With Teen Student
Authorities on Tuesday testified that the owner of Edgewater's P.R.I.D.E. martial arts studio had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.
By D. Frank Smith
Email the author
June 29, 2011
The owner-operator of an Edgewater martial arts studio had a sexual relationship with his 15-year-old female former student that soon turned into a “game,” according to testimony on Tuesday.
The first details in the state’s case against Justin Ray Dutcher, 25, of Chester, were disclosed Tuesday at the Centreville courthouse during testimony with the lead detective in the case and a state’s attorney investigator.
The female was Dutcher's student at Kent Island Martial Arts, where he was employed at the time.
Dutcher has 15 criminal charges filed against him, including two counts of sexual abuse of a minor, two counts each of third- and fourth-degree sexual offense, two counts of second-degree assault, two counts of contributing to the condition of child/delinquent, unnatural or perverted practice, and possession of marijuana and paraphernalia.
Dutcher is considered innocent until proven guilty.
During Tuesday's pre-trial hearing, testimony from Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Detective Lopez shed light on what allegedly transpired between Dutcher and his 15-year-old student in the spring of 2010 that led to the charges of sexual abuse being filed in February of this year.
According to the detective’s testimony, the teen initially had a crush on Dutcher, but their relationship escalated into being sexual in nature after frequent meetings. The detective said that the victim ultimately told authorities that she felt threatened by Dutcher and what he might do to her family if she ever told her parents of their relationship.
Detective Lopez testified that Dutcher made hiding their relationship from the public a “game,” according to text messages sent between the two.
The testimony indicated that, at first, there were other students at the martial arts studio. But they began leaving his tutelage, until soon it was only Dutcher and the teen having one-on-one practice sessions.
The pair exchanged texts and emails frequently about their sport. But their relationship turned sexual following a martial arts tournament in Virginia, in which the teen’s parents had entrusted Dutcher to drive her home afterwards. Instead, Dutcher drove her to his residence on Auckland Way in Chester and had sex with her, Lopez testified.
According to Lopez’s testimony, the teen indicated they had sexual encounters on more than one occasion, and during these meetings, Dutcher sprayed cologne on the teen, so that when she returned home, she smelled like him. Lopez said the teen’s mother later corroborated this information.
The texting became so frequent that the teen’s phone was seized by faculty at her school, and her mother was called to retrieve it. The mother then discovered incriminating text messages from Dutcher, indicating that he was in love with her daughter, and revealing information on their “game.”
As more explicit information on the sexual nature of their relationship was laid bare for the courtroom on Tuesday, the teen’s mother began sobbing, her hands unable to steady themselves to reach for a tissue. Meanwhile, Dutcher appeared to express no emotion while sitting next to his attorney, Daniel Rosendale.
After interviews with the victim in February, the Sheriff’s office executed a search warrant at Dutcher’s house, in front of his wife and infant child. Authorities seized several iPhones, iPods, a computer, cologne bottles, drug paraphernalia, DNA from a couch, and a pair of Dutcher’s pajama pants. The next day, Dutcher was brought in to the Queen Anne County Sheriff's office for questioning and denied allegations that he had raped the girl.
The state attorney’s office assigned one of their investigators, Robert Penny, a former state police officer, to seek an interview with Dutcher outside the authorities, to “set the record straight.” Dutcher voluntarily agreed to meet with Penny and talk about the incident.
Penny testified Tuesday that Dutcher admitted to having sexual relations with the teen, indicating it only happened once, but that it was not rape. Penny said he believed that it was a consentual relationship.
“I could tell that this wasn’t rape, but he had to tell me what the real details were,” Penny said.
Penny and Dutcher’s interview concluded with the pair agreeing that he could turn himself in on an agreed date, and that Penny would give him some advice on seeking an attorney.
Dutcher’s attorney Daniel Rosendale argued that these agreements were tantamount to inducing a testimony, calling it an interrogation, even though the investigator had explained at length how Dutcher was free leave at any time during their talk.
Rosendale filed two motions before Judge Thomas Ross, one to suppress evidence gathered during the search warrant execution, and another motion to suppress Penny’s testimony.
Ross denied the search warrant suppression, but took the other matter under advisement, saying he would issue a determination before the jury trial, scheduled for August 22 in Centreville.