Corvallis man convicted of child sex abuse

When Charles Carrington went to a Corvallis neighborhood park on a Thursday morning last July, he thought he was going to meet a 15-year-old boy named Jason Cervenka.

He did meet a young man on a skateboard who answered to the name of “Jason,” but the meeting did not go as planned.

Like a number of men who have made arrangements online to meet juveniles for sex, Carrington had been duped. “Jason” was really 21 years old and his name was Eric Sorby — Reserve Deputy Sorby of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, who was part of a sting set up by Corvallis police.

Carrington, 54, was arrested and charged with attempted sodomy. Multiple charges of encouraging child sex abuse were added when police found child pornography at his home.

In March, Carrington pleaded no contest to one charge each of attempted sodomy and encouraging child sex abuse. He was sentenced to jail time served, which was two days, and 24 months of supervised probation and almost $3,000 in fines. He cannot have any contact, either direct or indirect, with anyone under the age of 18, and he cannot use the Internet.

Despite his plea, Carrington continues to dispute law enforcement’s version of events, and says he had no sexual intentions when he agreed to meet “Jason.”

The sting operation that caught Carrington came about in an unusual way. A child sex abuse victim, a psychologist and law enforcement officers from Philomath, Corvallis and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office all played a part.

In a bad spot

When Chris Carson first met Charles Carrington, he thought he was a very nice, generous man. Carson was in a bad spot. He’d been through a rough time — he was experiencing chronic headaches, and there had been a series of deaths in his family, including both of his parents. He went into a depression and was hospitalized briefly. Then he found himself in the spring of 2006, sleeping in his truck, showering at a homeless shelter and working at Staples in Corvallis.

Carson’s counselor at the time, Dr. Susan South at Good Samaritan Mental Health Services, told him she had another client who might be able to help him out. That client was Charles Carrington.

Both men were gay. Carrington was 53 and Carson was 40. Carrington had his own financial troubles at the time. He had back problems and was on leave from his job at the Department of Human Services, where he took applications for the Oregon Trail program.

After getting permission from both men, South put them in contact with each other. Carrington offered Carson a place to stay until he could find something permanent.

“He seemed like a nice guy,” Carson said. “It’s like, this guy is a generous man, he’s so caring and just a wonderful person. He let a complete stranger stay on his couch.”

But soon Carson became uncomfortable about some of Carrington’s behavior. Carson said he made many sexual comments, some of them about young boys. Carrington also told him he’d had sex with a 16-year-old boy. He offered to show Carson his collection of pornography, which Carson said he was not interested in.

After about a month, Carrington had to move to a less-expensive apartment. Carson moved in with a friend from work who lived in Philomath. But he said Carrington’s comments about young boys rankled.

“It kept eating at me and eating at me and eating at me,” Carson said.

So he decided to go online and find out if his instincts about Carrington were correct.

“That’s when I decided to open up that fictitious e-mail, posing as 15-year-old Jason Cervenka,” he said.

He picked the name “Cervenka” from one of his favorite punk-rock bands. “Jason” was just a common boys’ name. Carson sent an e-mail to an address listed on Carrington’s card, which he had given to Carson. The front of the card said “Hugs Club” and showed two pictures of naked men. The back said, “This card is a compliment to you. I think your (sic) really Handsome! I’m Charles aka DrLove.”

In his e-mails, “Jason” said he had found the card outside a bar. He said he was not sure about his sexual preference but thought he liked boys and was looking for someone who could understand him. Carrington, who said he had attended a theological seminary, told “Jason” he would help him learn about his sexuality. In “Jason’s” second e-mail he told Carrington he was 15 years old.

Carrington responded by sending dozens of sexually explicit messages and photos.

“Some of the e-mails I had to stop,” Carson said, “because I was physically nauseated. I started crying, I couldn’t read anymore because I was thinking, Why is he writing this to a 15-year-old? I started bawling because I was molested myself.”

Carson said he was 6 or 7 years old when he was sexually abused.

“So it kind of hit home,” he said.

Police get involved

Four days later, on June 8, Carson called Philomath police. He told them his story and showed them the e-mails. Carson continued his correspondence with Carrington, writing 36 messages to Carrington’s 85. Two weeks later he was contacted by detective Mark Posler of the Corvallis Police Department.

Police often get tips about online sexual predators, according to Bill Carroll, who is the Internet Crimes Against Children, ICAC, task force commander at the Oregon Department of Justice.

“They’re going to handle that just like they would any other report of a crime,” Carroll said.

Police will either ask the person reporting the potential crime to allow them use of the Internet name and account, or they can ask the person to continue to engage the suspect. That’s standard operating procedure also for the 46 ICAC task forces around the country, according to Carroll. The Benton County District Attorney’s Office is a partner in Oregon’s ICAC task force.

According to Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Stringer, a defendant can use the defense of entrapment if he is induced by law enforcement to commit a crime that he wasn’t previously disposed to commit. But in this case, Carrington had already demonstrated his inclination toward child sex abuse, particularly in his correspondence with Carson.

Still, so far Carrington had only written e-mails which were the equivalent of phone sex.

“We needed to see some evidence he intended to take a substantial step toward accomplishing a criminal objective,” Stringer said.

Posler and other detectives decided to see if Carrington wanted to meet “Jason” for sex. They asked Carson to set up the meeting at a Corvallis park.

Again, Carrington’s response was eager.

Reserve deputy Sorby, who is now a deputy with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, said detective Mike Wells asked him if he would impersonate “Jason.” Although Sorby is 21, he looks much younger. Sorby was no stranger to police work. He had been a cadet for Corvallis police since the age of 14. He likes detective work so he didn’t mind the assignment at all, although he had to dye his hair blond to match the description Carson had given Carrington.

Sorby went on a skateboard to the park at the intersection of Southwest Fifth Street and B Avenue, where he found Carrington waiting. Detectives Posler, Wells and Karin Stauder, and Lt. Tim Brewer, were all within sight of the meeting. Stauder videotaped the encounter.

Carrington asked Sorby if he was “Jason” and Sorby said he was. Carrington gave him a hug, and they sat down to talk. Sorby told Carrington he was nervous and Carrington took out some marijuana to help calm him. Sorby said it wasn’t safe to smoke marijuana in public, but Carrington seemed unconcerned.

Sorby had a “bust” sign, if he needed detectives to move in suddenly. He was to put both his hands on his head or touch his head with both hands.

“I thought I was going to have to when I couldn’t get him to put (the marijuana) away,” Sorby said.

Finally Carrington complied. He then complimented Sorby on his good looks, said he should be a model and said he wanted to take nude pictures, possibly at Carrington’s home.

Posler and Stauder approached at that point and arrested Carrington. After searching his home and computer, they found child pornography in files labeled “Young” and “younger lovers,” according to Posler’s report. Eleven of the children portrayed in the images were later identified as known victims of child sex abuse by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

‘Not sexually based’

Carrington has disputed Carson’s version of events. After he entered his no-contest plea, he told Judge David Connell that he had no sexual intentions when he went to meet the fictitious “Jason.”

“The only thing I can say, sir, on my behalf,” Carrington told Connell, “is that I’m a very God-fearing man, that I’ve always done things to assist others. And even in the e-mail my intention throughout the entire e-mail process was to assist this person. It was not sexually based in that respect. So, the intention behind meeting this person was just to meet face-to-face. It was not a sexual intention at all.”

In a phone interview with the Gazette-Times, Carrington repeated that his e-mails were not intended to be sexual.

“It was all about spirituality,” he said. “It was not about sex.”

But when the newspaper read to him from the e-mails obtained as part of the police report, Carrington admitted they were clearly sexual.

“In all sincerity, I really don’t remember that,” he said.

Carrington said he had post-traumatic stress disorder and sometimes forgot things. He admitted to having sexually explicit photos, some of which he had taken in a long career as a photographer. Some were of teens, he said.

“Some were naked, consenting people doing their thing,” he said.

Carrington told the GT he had met Carson at South’s suggestion.

“She said, ‘I have a client who would benefit from knowing you,” Carrington said. (South did not return a phone call seeking comment.)

Carrington thought Carson was angry with him for moving to a new place where there was no room for him to stay.

“He thought I was kicking him out,” Carrington said.

After his conviction, Carrington was fired on March 30, according to DHS senior human resources manager Ken McGee.

Carson feels proud of what he did and glad that he might have saved other kids from being victimized like he was.

“I honestly believe, with the breakdown,” Carson said, “and meeting Dr. South and meeting Charles, I honestly believe that I came down at the right time to catch a predator.”