Plea agreement reached in case involving a minor

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005 | 9:48 a.m.

A 62-year-old former church-camp worker pleaded guilty Wednesday to a sexual assault charge for videotaping himself assaulting his then 11-year-old relative in 1998.

As part of the plea agreement reached with prosecutors Harold Shaw will be sentenced to five to 20 years in prison and face lifetime supervision if he is ever released.

Although District Judge Michael Cherry will formally sentence Shaw on Oct. 6, the judge said he would "go along with this punishment."

Cherry does, however, have the authority to sentence Shaw to either 20 years to life in prison or life without the possibility of parole.

Shaw was originally charged with three counts of sexual assault of a minor under 14, one count of lewdness with a minor under 14 and two counts of use of a minor in producing pornography.

In May 2004 it appeared Shaw was going to accept a plea agreement that would have seen him serve a minimum sentence of 27 years to life if he pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault of a minor under 14, one count of attempted sexual assault of a minor and one count of using a minor in the production of pornography.

Shaw ultimately rejected the deal.

Over time those charges were either changed or dismissed and prior to entering the plea agreement on Wednesday he was facing one count each of sexual assault with a minor under 14 years of age, attempted sexual assault with a minor under 14 years of age and use of a minor in producing pornography.

Prosecutor Tom Maurio said the charges were trimmed for several reasons, the biggest being the interests of the victim.

"The victim never knew this happened, she was asleep," Maurio said. "In 1998 she didn't know it happened until we found the videotape and showed her, she had no recollection of it."

The prosecutor said the victim, who doesn't live in Nevada, over the years since the incident has said she didn't want to keep coming back to testify.

Maurio also said some of the initial charges were dropped because they represented multiple acts by Shaw during the same minute and a half tape against the same victim.

He said with the victim and Shaw's age taken into consideration securing the 5 to 20 year sentence made sense for all involved. He stressed there was no guarantee that Shaw would be granted parole after five years and that when he is released he will have life-time supervision as a sex offender.

Shaw's attorney, Robert Draskovich, agreed with the prosecutor.

"This was a very tough, but fair negotiation," Draskovich said. "This is a man who has always accepted responsibility for his crimes and understood he deserved prison time for his actions." Shaw, who has been out of custody on $72,000 bail, will remain as such until sentencing.

Shaw was arrested in February 2004 after a joint task force of federal customs agents and Metro Police officers searched Shaw's home in the 1300 block of Seal Beach on suspicion of child pornography.

The federal search warrant was issued after Shaw's credit card was linked to a Belarus-based Web site called Regpay that charged people's credit cards for access to more than 50 child pornography Web sites worldwide, authorities said.

In Shaw's home, police found a child's bedroom with a video camera set up even though Shaw does not have children, a police report says.

Shaw, who worked at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints summer camp and was a gymnastics coach, also had several photos of young juvenile girls performing gymnastics.

Shaw was the first U.S. citizen arrested in the Las Vegas Valley in what has been touted by federal agents as a major international sting to crack down on sexual predators

No federal charges have been made against Shaw, but the seized videotape and other evidence led to Shaw's arrest.