PORT TOWNSEND — Rex Whipple, former Chimacum High School principal found guilty on Oct. 13 of possessing images taken secretly of his 15-year-old stepdaughter, was sentenced to six months in Jefferson County Jail Wednesday.
“I believe three years would have been a more appropriate sentence,” said Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Juelie Dalzell.
Whipple, 46, has been held in Jefferson County jail in Port Hadlock since he was found guilty Oct. 13 of nine counts of possessing depictions of a minor in sexually explicit conduct.
Those charges are related to still and video images of Whipple’s former stepdaughter in various stages of undress that were discovered on Whipple’s Chimacum School District-issued laptop computer.
The images were taken between October 2005 and March 2006 through a window from outside the Port Ludlow home Whipple shared then with the stepdaughter, then 15, and his former wife.
Whipple’s trial was without a jury.
His case was argued before Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Craddock, who sentenced him Wednesday.
The sentence range of each charge is between zero and 360 days in jail, and unless the crime was extremely violent, which it was not, the sentence ranges cannot be stacked, said Dalzell.
Dalzell had requested an exceptional sentence, but Verser denied the request because she had filed the request only minutes before the trial began on Oct. 2.
Verser said that would have biased the defense.
Dalzell said she spoke with the girl, now 16, who was in the courtroom during the sentencing.
She reported that the girl said, “He only got six months?”
Whipple’s defense attorney Alton McFadden doesn’t agree with the sentence either.
“I don’t think my client is guilty, and so I don’t think any sentence is fair,” McFadden said.
Verser sentenced Whipple to the term recommended by the defense.
McFadden filed a notice of appeal Wednesday in Superior Court.
