A former Air Force particular agent was sentenced to 10 years in jail Monday after he pleaded responsible to a baby intercourse crime that occurred at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
Joshua Carl Harrod, 44, of Spanaway, Washington, who additionally later served as a National Guard recruiter, labored for the Air Drive Workplace of Particular Investigations when he sexually molested a baby left in his care over a seven-month interval in his house on the bottom, according to a Monday news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. District Choose Benjamin Settle stated Harrod’s crimes had been “sadistic” and “indescribably merciless,” in accordance with a press launch from the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, Western District of Washington. Harrod pleaded responsible to enticement of a minor, the information launch stated.
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Harrod, in accordance with authorities, sexually molested the kid between October 2017 and April 2018 at his residence. A December sentencing memo from the U.S. lawyer’s workplace detailed that he was residing on the time in a trailer in Vacation Park, a campground situated at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
The minor sufferer was between the ages of seven and eight years outdated and would go to him on weekends, when Harrod would coerce the kid “to have interaction in sexual acts,” the sentencing memo particulars.
He left the Air Drive in 2018 and went on to serve within the Army Nationwide Guard.
“Harrod separated from the Air Drive in 2018 and, previous to his arrest on this case, served as a recruiter for the Military Nationwide Guard in Lakewood, Washington,” the U.S. lawyer’s workplace stated.
He was charged in July 2021 following a grand jury indictment with 5 counts of sexual abuse of a kid underneath the age of 12, according to a news release at the time. He pleaded responsible in October 2023.
The FBI, the Air Drive Workplace of Particular Investigations, Joint Base Lewis-McChord navy police, native police and the Washington State Patrol all contributed to the investigation.
Harrod additionally pleaded responsible to creating a false assertion to a authorities company for efforts to falsify cellphone data associated to proof within the case, the information launch stated.
The December sentencing memo said that Harrod forwarded a message to a household legislation lawyer claiming to be from the kid’s mom stating, “I do not know why you retain preventing me I am going to have [the victim] say no matter it takes so that you can by no means be capable of see the women ever once more.”
Brokers investigating Harrod stated he falsified the message in addition to a cellphone invoice to make it seem the message got here from the kid’s mom.
“Harrod fabricated it by sending himself the message from his work cellphone, and altering the contact data in his cellphone to make it seem it got here from [the minor victim’s] mom,” the memo particulars.
Along with the 10-year sentence, Settle additionally ordered lifetime supervised launch after Harrod’s jail time period.
“The results of many crimes earlier than me don’t have the impression that this one does,” Settle stated within the information launch. “Victims of those crimes carry with them a life sentence.”
Harrod’s sentencing comes amid different investigations into navy recruiters.
In November, Military.com reported that the Marine Corps is investigating a gunnery sergeant who wrote a self-published “memoir” detailing a relationship with a younger potential recruit whereas he labored in a recruiting workplace in Texas.
The Marine revealed the story of what he described as “a scandalous romantic relationship” with a “younger lady … who wished to affix [the military]” in October.
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