Former Gresham pastor gets 12 years for abusing family member

By Garrett Andrews
Bulletin
April 30, 2018

http://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/6205906-151/former-gresham-pastor-gets-12-years-for-abusing

James Worley

Former Gresham pastor James Daniel “Jamie” Worley was sentenced to 12½ years in prison Monday in Deschutes County Circuit Court for sexually abusing a family member when he lived in Bend in the early 2000s, when his victim was between age 5 and 7.

Worley’s recent trial lasted four weeks before a jury returned guilty verdicts on March 14.

The drama on Monday came down to whether Judge Beth M. Bagley would choose to run three 75-month sentences concurrently — as the defense had asked — or consecutively, as the prosecution asked.

Bagley said that despite an expert witness who testified Worley represented a low level of risk to the community, the pain he caused his victim needed to be addressed in her sentence.

“We as a society say child sexual abuse is intolerable,” she said.

Bagley ultimately gave Worley two consecutive 75-month sentences, with the third to run concurrently.

Worley, 45, was additionally given 10 years post-prison supervision during which the only children he may spend time with are his own.

He also now owes about $20,000 as a result of this case. He was ordered Monday to pay $12,000 in compensation to his victim for the therapy she’ll undertake as a result of the abuse.

Plus, Worley still owes more than $8,000 to the company that operates the GPS monitoring ankle bracelet he wore while on pretrial release. Prosecutor Brandi Shroyer said that over two years, Worley made no payments to the Circuit Court’s GPS monitoring vendor.

The allegations against Worley were first made in late 2012. He was indicted by a Deschutes County grand jury in 2014 based on those accusations, and he was arrested at his home in Gresham. The trial was delayed by a trial with the same victim in Tillamook County, where he and the victim had also once lived. A jury there ultimately found him not guilty of several charges and deadlocked on others.

His first Deschutes County indictment included accusations from a second family member. But, in a surprise to his defense team, all charges related to that alleged victim were dropped days before Worley’s trial began Feb. 22.

The prosecution announced Monday it would not retry Worley for the eight charges on which the jury was deadlocked.

Defense attorney Richard Cohen said the defense is appealing the verdict.

In a brief statement in court, Worley apologized to all of his children for “any harm I have caused by my actions.”

Worley’s victim, now a teenager, read a victim impact statement in court. She said as a result of Worley’s abuse she has difficulty interacting with customers where she works, as well as maintaining romantic relationships. She said the smell of Worley’s brand of cologne “makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.”

She said she often wakes up “worried Jamie will be back in my bedroom.”

“I hope he could see inside my head and the chaos that he’s caused,” she said.

Worley’s trial concluded with a dramatic verdict reading following four days of deliberations. The gallery reacted with shock; Worley’s mother, Connie, was sentenced to a night in jail for pointing at and calling out to the judge.

Connie Worley was not among the many friends and relatives of both Worley and his victim in attendance Monday.

While Worley was on pretrial release, the prosecutor’s office received tips about him from citizens, it was reported in court Monday.

In one instance he was said to have been performing a baptism where children were present.

While none of the tips ultimately rose to the level of a violation, Shroyer argued that Worley is a natural “boundary-pusher.”

“It was always on the edge with Mr. Worley,” Shroyer said.

“He was always willing to push to see what he could get away with.”