April 12, 2004
After pleading
guilty December 9 to sexual abuse of a minor child, federal parolee Joshua
White, 28, Bonners Ferry, will serve up to 15 years in the Idaho State
Penitentiary before he is returned to federal custody to serve an additional two
years for violating his parole.
White was charged July 7 with lewd conduct with a minor child under the age of 16 for incidents that allegedly occurred with his live-in girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter between June 21 and July 5, 2003, after an anonymous caller reported possible child abuse July 5, 2003. In the course of the ensuing investigation, White confessed that he might have committed inappropriate acts with the girl, saying he’d been intoxicated and couldn’t really remember.
Following his guilty plea, a sexual evaluation was ordered, delaying sentencing until April 8, 2004, when White appeared before Judge James Michaud and was sentenced to seven to 15 years in prison. During sentencing, Michaud noted that White had been in prison before, and that protection of society was served by a prison sentence.
Boundary County Prosecutor Jack Douglas concurred, and called the sentencing decision a good one.
“The best thing about this case is that this result was reached without having to put the five-year-old victim through the additional torture of testifying at trial,” Douglas said.
Before the sentencing date, Douglas contacted White’s federal probation officer, who confirmed that White would be taken from Idaho custody at the completion of his term to serve an additional two years in federal custody.