PORTLAND, Ore.—John Joseph Wallace, Jr., 35, of Madras,
Oregon, was sentenced today to 72 months in prison and life term of supervised
release for the repeated sexual abuse of a minor.
According to court documents, the government’s investigation
of Wallace began in January 2018, when Warm Springs Tribal Police officers
responded to Wallace’s home on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Officers
were responding to a report that Wallace had abused a young girl. The minor
victim and her mother, who contacted police to report Wallace’s crimes, are
both Warm Springs tribal members.
An investigation later revealed that Wallace, over a period
of years, had repeatedly abused the child by touching her breasts, buttocks,
and genitals, both over and under her clothing. Wallace used his cell phone to
communicate with the child and facilitate multiple incidents of abuse at his
home on the reservation and on a separate occasion in Madras.
On January 3, 2019, Wallace pleaded guilty in federal court
to three counts of abusive sexual contact with a minor. In a related state
court matter, Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Annette C. Hillman found
Wallace guilty of attempted sexual abuse in the first degree and official
misconduct in the first degree. Wallace will be sentence in state court on
April 12, 2019.
This case was investigated by FBI Portland’s Safe Trails
Task Force, the Warm Springs Tribal Police Department, and the Oregon Department
of Justice. It was prosecuted federally by Paul T. Maloney, Assistant U.S.
Attorney for the District of Oregon.
The Safe Trails Task Force (STTF) unites FBI and other
federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies in a collaborative
effort to combat the growth of crime in Indian Country. STTF allows
participating agencies to combine limited resources and increase investigative
coordination in Indian Country to target violent crime, drugs, gangs, and
gaming violations.
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