Maryland man sentenced for having sex with 15-year-old girl when he was 33

A Washington County man was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in the Washington County Detention Center after pleading guilty earlier this year to two sex offenses for having intercourse with a 15-year-old girl he met at a car show.

The girl's mother found out about the inappropriate relationship after checking the teen's cellphone, including her Facebook Messenger conversations, Deputy State's Attorney Sarah Mollett-Gaumer said during an April plea hearing in Washington County Circuit Court. The mother periodically checks the teen's cellphone, but the girl said she wasn't expecting her mom to check that app's conversations and she hadn't deleted the entire conversation thread with the man.

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Judge Andrew F. Wilkinson sentenced Brent Thomas Chaney, 35, of the Sharpsburg area, to 14 years incarceration, suspending all but 18 months.

Addressing the judge before his sentence was issued, Chaney said he was "terribly sorry. I take responsibility for my actions. I know it was wrong and I'm sorry."

Wilkinson said he'd read the pre-sentence investigation and a behavioral health analysis and told Chaney he was concerned that even as of this spring Chaney "continued to grossly minimize your own actions." Wilkinson said he understood that Chaney was sorry and realized he did wrong, but that he seems to continue to minimize that his role was "100% of the problem."

Explaining that all four sentencing factors apply to "one degree or another" in Chaney's case, Wilkinson said the most important factors in this instance were punishment and deterrence. The other two are rehabilitation and public safety.

Wilkinson said Chaney deserves punishment and advised the defendant to use his punishment time to "think hard about never doing this sort of thing at all."

Chaney was not incarcerated while awaiting sentence and has no credit for time served.

After his incarceration, Chaney will be on supervised probation for five years.

Wilkinson said Chaney is to register as a Tier II sex offender, which means he is to be on the registry for 25 years.

Defense attorney David Pembroke had said during the hearing that Chaney had registered as a Tier III sex offender.

Tier III means an offender is registered for life, according to the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services website.

Chaney also is to have no contact with the victim or her parents and no contact with an unrelated minor without adult supervision, Wilkinson said.

Earlier plea deal and sentencing requests

Chaney pleaded guilty in April to two counts of third-degree sex offense for having intercourse with the girl in September 2021 when she was 15. Chaney was 33 at the time.

Other charges, including several related to sexual solicitation of a minor and child pornography, were dropped as part of the plea deal.

The sentencing hearing was delayed so a pre-sentence investigation, including a psychosexual evaluation, could be done.

On Thursday, Mollett-Gaumer again recommended 14 years incarceration with all but 18 months suspended and to be served at the local jail. By serving his time in the local jail, Mollett-Gaumer said Chaney would still be able to see his children, whereas if he went to a state prison he could end up anywhere in the state.

The prosecutor cited the pre-sentencing investigation and a Maryland Department of Health evaluation, saying Chaney continued to make statements that he didn't know the girl's age. Mollett-Gaumer said that seems impractical given Chaney was previously acquainted with the girl's family and her mother.

Pembroke asked Wilkinson to consider a suspended sentence with an appropriate supervised probationary period that included treatment.

He said Chaney was "remorseful and extremely sorry for his actions."

Pembroke noted that Chaney previously pleaded so the participants did not have go through a trial.

Broad details of the investigation

Hagerstown Police responded to the girl's home on Sept. 25, 2021, when the mother said she'd found messages that morning on her daughter's phone about the teen having sexual relations with an older man they knew through mutual friends.

The daughter told a police officer she had deleted most of the messages with Chaney on Facebook Messenger, but not all of them.

Police obtained a search warrant for information from the girl's Facebook account and found Messenger conversations between the girl and Chaney of both casual and sexual natures, according to charging documents.

In one thread from Sept. 20, 2021, Chaney advises the girl to "ensure her mom takes sleeping pills, so that she falls asleep" and the girl can sneak out for their meeting the next night, according to charging documents.

Wilkinson said Thursday he read the girl's victim impact statement more than once.

He told the girl during the sentencing hearing that "none of this was her fault. She didn't do anything wrong."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Washington County man sentenced for having sex with 15-year-old girl