Bekken gets jail time

COEUR d'ALENE — Joseph Bekken, the fired and humiliated North Idaho College financial aid director, was ordered to immediately begin serving 107 days of local jail time.

Bekken, 37, got caught earlier this year in a money-for-sex sting. He pleaded guilty in 1st District Court in Kootenai County to the felony counts of attempted misuse of public funds and using a computer in a scheme to defraud.

During his sentencing Monday, he told District Court Judge Lansing Haynes he is a sex addict who has been getting help recently. He offered a tearful apology to the community, the college, students and his family.

"I took my power and used it for my own selfish gains," Bekken said.

Law enforcement and prosecutors said Bekken sought sex with students in exchange for money to pay for school. There has been no evidence he ever had sex with a student.

He faced a maximum of seven and a half years in prison and fines up to $52,500. As part of his plea deal, prosecutors dropped felony charges of burglary, attempting to procure a prostitute and bribery.

Bekken's defense attorney, Sean Walsh of Coeur d'Alene, said his client hasn't made excuses, but instead has worked to repair some of the damage his actions caused.

"You see complete acceptance of responsibility," Walsh told Haynes.

Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Jedediah Whitaker told the court Bekken should receive prison, and called sex-addiction an excuse.

"I see criminal thinking when I see this case," Whitaker said.

Bekken abused power and public trust, he said.

"I do not see this as a probation case," he said.

Bekken was given three years of supervised probation, and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $2,400 in restitution. He was given credit for 13 days jail time he already served.

His case was investigated by the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, along with NIC and the FBI.

Investigators created a fictitious student they called Sheryl Roberts and began engaging Bekken online, after he had placed an ad in the casual encounters section of Craigslist.

Bekken eventually requested that $587 from an NIC Foundation scholarship account, which he controlled, be transferred into a student account created for the fictitious student. He showed up on Feb. 2 to an apartment complex on Julia Street to meet the woman police created, only to find law enforcement waiting.

"This was a very unfortunate, isolated incident, but I couldn't be prouder of the way it was handled by the college's employees and administration," NIC President Joe Dunlap said.