EVERETT — John Patrick O’Brien set the groundwork to commit a crime long before his 10-year-old victim stepped into his optometry office, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Andrew Alsdorf said he didn’t buy O’Brien’s statement that “something just came over him.” O’Brien had installed a Spy Camera app on his smartphone. He also knew he had a sexual attraction to young girls, Alsdorf said.
“It’s just so deeply disturbing that it gives the impression that this is something that will reoccur,” Alsdorf said.
O’Brien, 34, was sentenced Tuesday to 7½ years in prison for molesting the girl and taking pictures of her during an office visit. He had ordered her to remove her clothing during what was supposed to be a routine eye exam. O’Brien pleaded guilty in March. His state optometry license was revoked.
Superior Court Judge George Bowden opted for the maximum sentence allowed by law. That was necessary to protect children, the judge said. He was particularly concerned about O’Brien’s efforts to blame the victim and to think of his actions as illegal but not immoral.
“You’ve been living in a fantasy world perversely believing that children want to have sex with you,” Bowden said.
O’Brien must undergo sexual deviancy treatment and is forbidden from contact with minors. He won’t be eligible for release until he convinces the state’s Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board that he is safe to be out.
O’Brien can rehabilitate in prison, said his attorney, John Crowley, who called the sentence “artificially high.”
“He can’t lie his way through treatment,” Crowley said.
The victim and her family chose not to be in the courtroom Tuesday. O’Brien has been in the county jail since September. His wife left him, taking their three children, the oldest of whom is a 5-year-old girl.
“What I did was inexcusable,” O’Brien said in court Tuesday. “I wish I could go back and not do it.”
He hopes to someday rebuild his relationship with his family.
“My goal is to find out why I did this,” he said. “I don’t want this problem.”
O’Brien had no criminal convictions before the Everett case. He was discharged from the U.S. Army after reports that he sent inappropriate text messages to patients. He also was under investigation for child pornography in another state before moving to Western Washington. His wife told the court that for years he had struggled with a porn addiction.
The state Department of Corrections also had recommended the maximum sentence after interviewing O’Brien and determining he was an extreme danger to the community, court records show. The state report referred to O’Brien’s beliefs as disturbing and delusional.
Bowden, the judge, said he couldn’t think of a more significant abuse of trust involving sexual gratification. He also disagreed with O’Brien’s claim that his wife left him because of media pressure.
“She didn’t need to leave this area,” the judge said. “She needed to leave you.”
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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