PORT ANGELES — A former Forks Police Officer was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.
Erik A. Hanson began serving his time at the Clallam County jail immediately following his Tuesday hearing in Clallam County Superior Court.
He was fired from his position at the Forks Police Department in July after a personnel investigation.
Hanson was the arresting officer in a case in which a 12-year-old girl, who is not identified because of her age and the nature of the charge, was sexually assaulted two years ago, the court documents said.
Her alleged assailant, Casey Shoop, 22, was charged with first-degree child rape, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree assault. Shoop was booked in January 2008 and remains in custody at the Clallam County jail on $100,000 bail.
Patrol neighborhood
Hanson was initially asked to patrol the girl’s neighborhood because she suffered from anxiety, court documents said.
According to the documents, the girl told investigators that Hanson became less professional and that her friends and family became suspicious.
At Hanson’s sentencing hearing, a victim’s advocate read an impact statement written by the girl, who is now 14.
Victim’s statement
“Remember how you always wanted me to be in control?” the statement said.
“But there was no way for me to be in control. I was just a 12-year-old rape victim looking for someone to trust. And you were a 32-year-old small town police officer; you knew I thought I could count on you.
“Erik, you came into my life when I needed someone the most.
“I needed to see that all men aren’t like Casey Shoop, but you showed me the opposite. I didn’t know what to believe when I met you, so I believed everything that you said. But now I have to un-believe it all.
“When I look back to the day I met you, I see that I needed somebody, and you needed to be needed. And since I never had a chance to say it before, goodbye Erik.”
At the hearing, Hanson addressed the court, and offered an apology to the girl.
In addition to the statements at the hearing, Judge Ken Williams was provided with letters from friends and family of Hanson who asked for leniency.
Hanson was arrested in April, charged in Clallam County Superior Court in May with two counts of communication with a minor for immoral purposes — a misdemeanor — and arraigned July 10.
His original conditions of release shortly after his April arrest allowed him to go to Iraq — on what was to be a three-month tour in the National Guard — but he was discharged in early June.
An investigation by the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Investigations Bureau uncovered phone records and e-mail exchanges between Hanson and a 12-year-old girl, according to court documents.
She said she already had a bad experience — and now a police officer was talking the same way.
She told a sheriff’s investigator that Hanson hugged her around the waist and kissed her repeatedly after he returned from military training in Yakima.
She originally reported the incidents in October 2008.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
