PORT ANGELES — A 30-year-old Port Angeles man has been convicted of molesting an 8-year-old girl he was babysitting.
Donald William Kingsley used his position of trust to commit the crime at the child’s home last August, Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brian Coughenour ruled at the end of a two-day bench trial Tuesday.
Kingsley was found not guilty of first-degree child rape on a charge stemming from the Aug. 24 incident.
He faces a standard sentencing range of 51 months to 68 months and up to three years probation after being convicted of first-degree child molestation.
The finding that Kingsley used his position of trust to facilitate the crime will allow prosecutors to request a longer prison term and enable a judge to deviate from the presumptive sentencing range, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Sarah Woolman said.
Coughenour said he found reasonable doubt that Kingsley committed a rape, citing discrepancies in the girl’s statements and a lack of physical evidence.
“I can find beyond a reasonable doubt that molestation occurred,” Coughenour said in making his second ruling.
“I also find that the defendant gained access to the child because of this special trust relationship with the family and the parents.”
Woolman said she would consider the results of a pre-sentencing investigation and consult with the victim’s family before making a sentencing recommendation.
Woolman, the trial attorney, credited the 8-year-old for being brave enough to testify.
“From our standpoint, this was a very, very difficult case to try, especially when we’re involving a victim so young having to take the stand,” Woolman said in a Wednesday interview.
“I give a lot of credit to the young victim.”
The girl was found competent to testify last week.
Port Angeles police arrested Kingsley after the victim’s father confronted Kingsley about the allegations while wearing a police wire.
In his testimony, Kingsley said he felt threatened and intimidated by the girl’s father before he admitted to touching the child inappropriately.
“I felt pressured into saying that,” said Kingsley, who waived his right to a jury trial. “I know that he’s done karate and owns a gun.
“He wanted me to tell him that it happened, so at that point I proceeded to make up a story,” Kingsley said.
Kingsley testified that he was given free room and board at the victim’s two-story house in west Port Angeles in exchange for babysitting the victim and three of her siblings.
On direct examination, Kingsley repeatedly denied that he had touched the girl inappropriately.
Port Angeles Police Officer Erik Smith conducted a forensic interview with the child at Healthy Families of Clallam County. An audio recording of that interview was admitted at trial.
“In the forensic interview, [the victim] made it very clear that there was touching in her private areas,” Coughenour said. “I find that she was molested.”
The state’s witnesses included Smith, the victim, her parents and one of her siblings. Kingsley was the only witness to testify for the defense, according to a transcript.
Coughenour found that Kingsley had no reason to be in fear of the girl’s father during their police-wired colloquy on Sept. 7.
“This was a conversation between two long-time friends,” Coughenour said.
Defense attorney John Hayden of Clallam Public Defender said the testimony left a “whole big pile of ambiguity.”
“There is precious little to show anything happened here,” Hayden said, noting a lack of medical testimony to prove the rape allegation.
Hayden concluded that the state’s arguments were not clear, cogent and convincing, a lower standard than proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Kingsley will be sentenced after the state Department of Corrections completes a pre-sentencing investigation.
A review hearing is scheduled for Feb. 23.
Kingsley will be required to register as a sex offender at sentencing.
He is being held in the Clallam County jail without bail.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brian Coughenour offers his decision after Tuesday’s final arguments in the case of Donald William Kingsley. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)