Tapp sentenced for rape

COEUR d’ALENE — A First District Judge has seen enough of Taylor N. Tapp.

Tapp, 21, whose criminal record includes a grand theft and three felony burglary convictions, probation violations and misdemeanor drug and alcohol convictions was sentenced Wednesday to 2 1/2 to five years in prison for rape.

According to police, Tapp and his 16-year-old girlfriend were sleeping in his van Feb. 9 in the parking lot of Super 1 Foods in Coeur d’Alene when police made contact with the couple.

Tapp, a tall and lanky man with black hair and horn-rimmed glasses, allegedly told officers he and the teenager were engaged in a sexual relationship.

He was charged with rape and pleaded guilty in March to an amended count of felony injury to a child, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

At Tapp’s sentencing, District Judge Cynthia K.C. Meyer listened to the defendant as he stood in his orange jailhouse jumper, his feet shackled, enjoining the judge to give him another chance at probation.

When he was through, Meyer told the defendant that his previous convictions hurt others, deprived them of property and his probation violations showed a lack of respect for the court.

“I go back to your record, and every one of your probation violations are new charges,” Meyer said. “And the charges are not insignificant.”

He was convicted for burglary when he was on probation for grand theft, and continued with more convictions for a series of additional burglaries, while on subsequently-ordered probation.

“You keep offending, over and over and over,” Meyer said.

She had no choice, the judge said, but to consider a prison term for additional probation violations, and the latest rape charge.

“At 20 years old, you are not allowed to have a relationship with a 16-year-old, and you know that,” Meyer told Tapp.

She ordered a 2 ½ to five year prison term, imposing the sentence on the burglary and theft convictions for which Tapp was serving probation, and ordered all the sentences run concurrently.

“You need a time out,” Meyer said. “And society needs a time out from you.”