Convicted sex offender placed on probation

COEUR d’ALENE — A 30-year-old convicted sex offender who returned from a prison rehabilitation program without having completed an updated psychosexual evaluation was placed on probation despite a judge’s warning that probation was unlikely in his case.

Zachary J. Hubbard, who was convicted of having sexual contact with an 8-year-old boy, received glowing reports from prison officials following a rider that First District Judge John Mitchell ordered upon sentencing Hubbard to between 15 and 40 years in prison.

Hubbard, of Post Falls, who told the court he wanted to be a school teacher, was convicted of two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct a year ago after an 8-year-old child confided in his school teacher of sexual acts Hubbard had performed on the boy.

Mitchell, who called the case “despicable and disturbing,” allowed Hubbard to attend a one-year prison rehabilitation program and directed Hubbard to have another psychosexual evaluation before being released, to see if probation would be an option.

“I can’t, in good conduct, begin to fathom probation for you, right now,” Mitchell said last year before Hubbard went on his rider.

Hubbard returned from the rider without the mandated report, but Mitchell allowed a month to get the evaluation done.

On Tuesday, after reviewing the latest evaluation, Mitchell ordered Hubbard to be placed on probation despite pleas from the victim’s family, and prosecutors, to keep Hubbard behind bars.

“He’s admitted sexual attraction to children, admitted viewing child pornography … images a normal person can’t stomach, yet he seeks them out,” deputy prosecutor Rebecca Perez said. “I don’t think this rider can change the depth of the deviant interests that the defendant has … the child will have to undergo a lifetime of torment that (Hubbard) abused him.”

Hubbard, who said he had been sexually abused as a child, told the court Tuesday that he complied 100 percent while enrolled in the prison program.

“I opened up to people, which was always hard for me,” Hubbard said. “I know what I did was the most despicable thing someone can do. I hate what I did, but for the first time in my life I can look at myself and feel love instead of hate and shame.”

In reviewing the crime Tuesday in open court, Mitchell said it was a one-time incident and that it appeared Hubbard was a “horribly confused person,” at the time. Mitchell said he thought the court could manage the risk of letting Hubbard out on a 10-year supervised probation.

Hubbard’s probation rules include he continue rehab, mental health counseling, regular urinalysis testing, no contact with juveniles, he undergo parenting classes, submit to random polygraph tests, register as a sex offender, be enrolled in college full time or be fully employed as well as completing 300 hours of community service.