Tri-Cities man who repeatedly recorded naked young girl on his phone sentenced to prison
A Kennewick man was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for videoing a naked child and now faces separate charges of child molestation.
James Patrick Wertman, 53, gained the trust of a young girl and then repeatedly set up a phone to photograph and video her in the bathtub and shower, including his molestation of her, according to federal court documents.
The child’s parents and grandmother were left devastated that they failed to see that she was being preyed upon, and the child has been struggling in therapy with the affects of being molested, according to a court document filed by the Eastern Washington District U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. Judge Stanley Bastian sentenced Wertman in the Richland U.S. Courthouse to prison and then federal supervision for the rest of his life. Wertman also must pay victim restitution of about $19,000.
Bastian said that his sentence was intended to reflect the seriousness of Wertman’s crime, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Gregoire asked for a 23-year sentence and Wertman’s attorney, Colin Prince of Spokane asked for 17 years.
“Mr. Wertman understands that his offense is egregious and that he cannot do anything to lessen the pain or anger he caused,” Prince said in a court document.
His client did not distribute or share the recordings he made, Prince said in his request to limit the sentence to 17 years. A longer sentence could mean he spends the rest of his life in prison, he said.
But prosecutors argued that Wertman photographed and recorded the child for three years and only stopped when the child’s mother discovered what he was doing.
The woman discovered about 200 photos of nude children on an iPad, including about 20 photos of her child, according to court documents.
She contacted police, who found the videos.
The gravity of Wertman’s crimes “is not easily overstated,” said Gregoire in the federal government’s sentencing request.
Child’s family devastated
“Please don’t give him the chance to do this to anyone else,” the girl’s mother told the judge in court documents.
The child’s counselor said the girl may need access to therapy for many years.
And her mother was left believing she is incompetent and incapable of protecting her own child, after she thought she was doing everything right to protect her, according to Gregoire.
“She now lives in a state of constant fear and worry,” said Gregoire.
The child’s father said that Wertman had been “grooming” or psychologically manipulating the girl as the abuse escalated.
“She will feel shame. She will feel pain. She will feel betrayal. .... She will feel alone,” he wrote in a letter to the judge.
The child’s grandmother said it “will be a lifetime before we will know the damage ... caused to her and how it will affect her in years to come,” according to a court document.
“Child abuse devastates entire families and the community,” said U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref after the sentencing last week.
Both Waldref and Robert Hammer, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations in the Pacific Northwest, said child exploitation cases are a priority for their offices.
Washington court case
Wertman next faces two counts of first-degree child molestation with aggravating circumstances in Benton County Superior Court. He agreed in 2022 to plead guilty, according to federal prosecutors.
Benton County prosecutors previously agreed to recommend a prison term of not more than 22 1/2 years to be served at the same time as the federal sentence.
The federal case was investigated by the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which includes detectives from the Kennewick and Richland police departments and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
The case was pursued as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, and was prosecuted by Laurel Holland, deputy prosecuting attorney for Benton County, as well as Gregoire.
