Judge imposes prison sentence for sex offender

by Ralph Bartholdt Staff Writer
| August 17, 2018 1:00 AM

COEUR d’ALENE — A Coeur d’Alene judge sent a 29-year-old Coeur d’Alene man to prison for molesting a 13-year-old girl.

At a retained jurisdiction hearing Thursday, First District Judge John Mitchell sentenced Jeremy V. Guzman to a fixed four-year prison term with a maximum 21 years behind bars for one count of lewd conduct with a minor.

When he ordered to retain jurisdiction at Guzman’s December sentencing, Mitchell allowed Guzman to attend a rider program in which he would undergo treatment, and be assessed for probation. At the time Guzman’s psychosexual evaluation showed he was at a moderate risk to reoffend.

But despite returning to court Thursday with a clean prison record, including being a model patient, Guzman did not follow through on Mitchell’s orders to be re-evaluated, so Mitchell imposed the sentence.

“(A doctor’s report) said you were a moderate risk,” Mitchell said. “To me that’s entirely too big.”

Without a new evaluation, the judge said he did not know if Guzman could re-enter society on probation.

“I have zero insight as to the degree of risk you would pose to the public,” Mitchell said.

Guzman was convicted in October of fondling the teenager, sometimes for several hours at a time, over a period of several months beginning in January 2017. He was charged with four counts of lewd conduct with a child under the age of 16. Guzman pleaded guilty to one of the counts and the remaining charges were dismissed at the request of prosecutors.

“Don’t be surprised if you come back and I impose your prison sentence,” Mitchell told Guzman at sentencing in December. “Probation might not be an option when you come back.”

According to police, Guzman initially started fondling the child over her clothing but as weeks and months passed, the abuse elevated to genital contact despite efforts by the victim to make Guzman stop.

The victim pleaded with Guzman via text messages to “stop molesting me,” but the abuse continued until the child reported the incidents to a relative.