The mother of a registered Eugene sex offender’s latest victim spoke out in court Tuesday, saying she hoped he would be removed from the streets for good. She got a guarantee of at least six years.
In December, her 9-year-old was asleep when Ancle Price Reed Jr., 25, crawled through the girl’s window in west Eugene and touched her while she slept. Police used dogs to track Reed to his apartment, where a six-hour search uncovered him in the attic, hiding under insulation.
The attack marks the fourth time in six years that Reed has been convicted of attempting to assault girls in the Eugene area.
In 2002, he was charged with sex abuse, sodomy and statutory rape for incidents involving girls ages 9, 11, 13 and 15. The rape charges stemmed from a relationship with his then 15-year-old girlfriend, with whose family he lived. The other incidents involved attempted abuse of her younger relatives.
Reading a prepared statement at Tuesday’s sentencing, the victim’s mother fought back tears as she described what life has been like for her child since the attack.
“My daughter sleeps in my bed more often and is even afraid to go to the bathroom alone, even at school,” she said. “She’ll run in from playing outside and think someone is watching her. She has lost trust in people.”
Rush Hoag, the public defender assigned to the case, said Reed had a dark past.
The child of an alcoholic mother, he went into foster care at age 8 and cycled through more than 15 homes in eight years.
“It’s pretty clear from the study of all of this that (he) was exposed to at least one abuser and probably more,” Hoag said.
Reed’s first wife left him while he was serving his first prison sentence. He had been married for only a few weeks to his second wife when the December abuse occurred.
Reed has a 2-month-old baby, and a 5-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter from his previous marriage.
On the night of the assault, Reed was at a party next door to the victim’s home and was drinking heavily, Hoag said.
“There are aspects of the night he doesn’t recall,” Hoag said. “This thing has all the earmarks of someone who is operating under the influence of alcohol, quite possibly at a level of alcohol blackout.”
The victim’s mother said Reed had touched her daughter before. The girl asked her mother not to say anything and said she thought it may have been a mistake because he was drinking.
“This little girl didn’t need to be visited by your problems and your past,” Lane County deputy district attorney Erik Hasselman told Reed in front of a packed courtroom.
Reed, slumped in a chair, declined to give a statement.
Lane County Circuit Court Judge Mustafa Kasubhai sentenced Reed to 45 months for the burglary, to be served concurrently with his 75-month sentence for sex abuse, a Measure 11 crime that carries a minimum mandatory sentence.
Reed is not eligible for early release and will spend 10 years in post-prison supervision when he gets out.
As a condition of his release, Kasubhai recommended that Reed not be allowed contact with his victim, her family or any other minors.
“In the state’s opinion, this is the candidate that Measure 11 sought to address,” said Hasselman, who prosecuted Reed’s first sex abuse case in 2002.
“Six years may seem like an eternity to him right now, but he’s still going to be a relatively young man when he gets out, still capable of making the same types of decisions,” Hasselman said. “If Mr. Reed so much as steps out of line on his post-prison supervision, I’m going to be there on behalf of the community to make sure that he is not … unpunished for any other crimes he commits against children.”
"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte
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