Peninsula Daily News and The Daily (Everett) Herald
EDITOR’S NOTE: The charge of which Joshua Larson was convicted has been corrected.
EVERETT — A Port Townsend man acquitted of child sex crimes in Clallam County has been convicted in Snohomish County of molesting a 3-year-old girl and will be transferred to the custody of the state Department of Corrections before returning to Port Townsend to face similar charges.
Joshua David Larson, 41, was convicted Wednesday of one count of first-degree child molestation and faces up to 5½ years in prison when he’s sentenced March 30. He will be required to register as a sex offender.
The Snohomish jury found Larson guilty of molesting a 3-year-old girl during a 2013 Thanksgiving dinner in Stanwood.
It reached its verdict in 90 minutes after a weeklong trial that included testimony from the girl, now 6.
Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Laura Twitchell retried the case following a mistrial in November. Those jurors couldn’t reach a verdict after a couple of days of deliberations.
Twitchell said Larson will be processed into the state prison system after his sentencing and then taken to Jefferson County, where he will stand trial on charges of two counts of first-degree rape of a child and first-degree child molestation.
Larson plans to appeal his conviction, his lawyer said.
In the Jefferson County case, a 7-year-old girl reported Larson molested her in 2012, saying he assaulted her while she visited his then-5-year-old son at the family’s Port
Townsend home.
Jefferson County dismissed the charges in March 2015 “without prejudice,” meaning the charges could be refiled.
At that time, Prosecuting Attorney Michael Haas cited the acquisition of new information as a reason for the dismissal.
The girl in that case and two others who accused Larson of sexually abusing them testified in the Snohomish County trial.
Snohomish Superior Court Judge Anita Farris permitted their testimony for limited purposes, specifically to refute the defendant’s claims that the touching was accidental.
Twitchell pressed to get the testimony in front of jurors to prove that Larson used a common plan in each incident and that the touching was for his sexual gratification.
Jurors were told that Larson was acquitted in a case involving one of the girls.
The admissibility of the other girls’ testimony is expected to be at the heart of Larson’s appeal.
The Jefferson County charges were refiled Oct. 29 and resulted from the Snohomish County case, according to court documents.
Two acquittals
Larson has been acquitted of molestation twice.
He was 24 when he was charged with child molestation after a 5-year-old girl said he abused her. A King County jury acquitted him at the 1998 trial.
In March, a Clallam County jury concluded that Larson wasn’t guilty of molesting a 9-year-old girl in May 2014 at the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center pool.
The girl said Larson touched her while she was playing in the pool.
That allegation came two months after Larson was arrested for investigation of child sex crimes in Snohomish County.
He’d been released from the Everett jail without having to post bail.
In the Snohomish County case, Larson denied touching the girl’s genitals and testified that his hand brushed her clothed buttocks as he lifted her to take a toy away.
Larson told detectives the girl may have made up the story because that’s what her parents wanted to hear.
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Peninsula Daily News Reporter Charlie Bermant and Diana Hefley of The Daily Herald of Everett reported this story. Both are Sound Publishing Inc. newspapers.
