Local man gets prison sentence

By JESSICA KELLER — ARGUS OBSERVER
Thursday, September 27, 2007 2:02 PM PDT

VALE — A 23-year-old Fruitland man was sentenced to prison Tuesday in Malheur County Circuit Court, after he violated his probation for the fourth time.

William Scott Schlager, 23, Fruitland, will spend at least 60 months in an Oregon correctional facility after his probation was revoked by Judge J. Burdette Pratt in Malheur County Circuit Court.

Schlager, 23, was originally charged by indictment Dec. 22, 2005, of first degree rape, first degree sodomy and kidnapping his then-girlfriend, who was 19 at the time.

In April 2006, Schlager pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping in the first degree and was furnished with a probationary sentence under a plea agreement with the Malheur County District Attorney’s Office.

Under the plea agreement, Schlager was put on probation for five years and required to complete sex offender and batterer intervention treatment programs, Malheur County Assistant District Attorney Erin Landis said.

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In the original plea agreement, a provision was made, stating, if Schlager’s probation was revoked for any reason, he could be sentenced to 60 months in prison.

Since his original plea agreement in 2006, Schlager has been in the Malheur County Circuit Court four times for violating probation in July 2006, August 2006, January 2007 and August 2007.

The August probation violation — which sparked the decision by the judge Tuesday — was based on a report filed by Malheur County Community Corrections Aug. 30 asserting Schlager violated four provisons of his probation. He was arraigned at Malheur County Circuit Court Sept. 6.

The probation violation alleged Schlager failed to attend his Lifeways sex offender treatment program, failed to follow his sex offender treatment program directives, failed to follow his probation officer’s directives and he was terminated from his sex offender program because of his absence and inability to follow a directive, Landis said.

Also, Landis said, Schlager was apprehended on the Oregon coast Aug. 29 by the Lincoln City Police Department at a local casino.

Landis said Schlager had apparently violated his program contract by engaging in a relationship with an 18-year-old girl, whom he was found with in Lincoln City. Landis said, according to Schlager’s sex offender treatment contract, he would not engage in any intimate relationships prior to reaching a certain point in his treatment. The directive from his probation officer followed those same lines, Landis said.

“Mr. Schlager had been given a number of chances, first by the district attorney’s office and then by the court,” Landis said. “The court just made it clear yesterday at the sentencing, he had used his chances up, so to speak.”

Although the district attorney’s office had asked the judge previously to revoke Schlager’s probation in March — but was denied — Landis said this time he thinks Pratt took into account all of Schlager’s previous violations.

“Whether or not the district attorney’s office is satisfied, it’s based on the judge’s discretion,” Landis said.

Landis said he thought yesterday’s sentencing was appropriate simply because Schlager was given so many chances to comply with his probation.

“He was definitely given a chance in our office, and in the court system,” Landis said, adding Schlager, through his subsequent actions, “made it obvious he wasn’t going to comply, and he wasn’t going to be able to comply.”

Landis said when the district attorney’s office made the first plea agreement with Schlager in 2006, it agreed to a probationary sentence primarily because of Schlager’s young age and the fact he had no criminal record up to that point.

“When we gave it to him, we didn’t think we’d have this degree of problems with him,” Landis said.

After Schlager was sentenced Tuesday, he was remanded to custody so he could be processed and begin serving his sentence in one of Oregon’s prisons.

Landis said after Schlager serves his time in prison, he will face three years of monitored post-prison supervision, and he will likely be required to complete the programs he was initially ordered to complete in his first probation. Landis said, although Schlager’s probation conditions requires him to complete sex offender treatment program, Schlager is not considered a sex offender and will not have to register as one in the future because he only pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping in 2006.