Victim’s rights key focus in abuse case
Woman who pleaded guilty in sex crime was never officially arrested or indicted
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Sunday, January 20, 2008 1:59 AM PST
VALE - Speaking in Malheur County Circuit Court Tuesday, Janis Ribeiro, formerly of Ontario, cried as she apologized to the victims she sexually abused and their families, stating she “took complete responsibility” for her actions and was the “only one to be blamed.”
Ribeiro, 49, pleaded guilty to two counts of second degree sex abuse, class C felonies, for having sexual intercourse and/or oral sex with two area 15-year-old boys.
Ribeiro, who is spending 60 days at the Malheur County Jail, 30 of those as part of the work release program, recently completed a 90-day sex offender treatment program at the Sante Center for Healing, north of Dallas, Texas.
Her sentence also includes three years supervised probation and completion of an aftercare treatment program.
According to the Malheur County District Attorney’s information report, in the first count of second degree sex abuse, between April 26 and May 15 of last year, Ribeiro “did unlawfully and knowingly subject a juvenile male to sexual intercourse, the said juvenile not consenting thereto as a matter of law.”
The second count states, between May 12 to May 19, 2007, Ribeiro “did unlawfully and knowingly subject a second male juvenile to deviate sexual intercourse...”
The Ontario Police Department began investigating the case in early June 2007, after it was notified by the parents of one of the juveniles and separately by an adult acquaintance of the second juvenile.
Through police interviews, the two youths eventually admitted they had some sort of sexual contact with Ribeiro. According to police reports, the incidents revolved around initial conversations via the Internet where arrangements to meet were cemented between the two victims and Ribeiro.
In one case, Ribeiro and the victim made contact and twice arranged for a late-night meeting. Ribeiro picked the victim up outside his residence in her SUV and then proceeded to drive to a location in Ontario, where it was dark, and they engaged in sexual acts.
The second victim also told police, according to the reports, after chatting online earlier in the day, Ribeiro picked him up and drove to a location in Ontario at night and performed a sexual act.
Police also retrieved online messages, sexual in nature, exchanged between Ribeiro and one of the victims from a computer.
Police also searched Ribeiro’s residence and retrieved a number of items, including a computer and modem and photographs.
Strange case
Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said this case is somewhat unusual because Ribeiro was never officially arrested and indicted by a grand jury. Norris said after the investigation concluded, and the police reports were formally submitted for review Aug. 3, the district attorney’s office carefully considered how to proceed against Ribeiro, who either could have been formally charged through a grand jury indictment or through a district attorney’s information report submitted to the state. The problem with those options, however, were both would require the victims to testify openly in court, drawing attention to them and extending the legal process, which their families wished to avoid. Also, Norris said, he did not see the merit of formally charging her through means requiring the victims’ testimony and a formal arrest being made, when she would have likely posted bail anyway and been free to go.
Instead, the district attorney’s office and her attorney worked out a pact, although there was no formal release agreement, allowing Ribeiro to remain free in the months between the end of the investigation and early October, when Ribeiro went into her sex offender treatment. Ribeiro also waived her grand jury hearing and signed a statement allowing prosecution to move forward without the victims’ having to testify.
Norris said he believes Ribeiro either lived in Burns or John Day between August and early October, and he notified the district attorney’s offices of both counties of the situation and told them law enforcement officials could take action if she was seen with teenage boys. He said he was very aware of the possibility Ribeiro could engage in further inappropriate contact or communication with teenage boys while she was free, but he could not guarantee that would not happen if she was out on bail. He said, in fact, Ribeiro did attend a high school football game in the area before starting treatment in October, and her attorney warned her she would go to jail if she did not stop that behavior.
“I felt the community’s safety needs were met,” Norris said of the plea agreement and added his office tried to weigh the harm to the victims with the benefits of a formal judicial process.
Norris said one of the key motivations behind the plea agreement was to protect the victims’ privacy and expose them to as little embarrassment and publicity as possible and to speed up the process for everybody. The route taken, consequently, allowed for Ribeiro’s arraignment, plea hearing and sentencing to take place on the same day.
“I made a conscious decision, but I wanted to do my best that it was going to make it in and out of the news as soon as possible,” he said. Norris said, despite comments to the contrary during Ribeiro’s court hearing last week, the victims’ parents were aware of the plea agreement and the terms, because his office had several conversations with them throughout the process. He also said, the plea agreement did not include a shorter or reduced sentence, but he understood the victims’ families distress.
“I absolutely understand the victims’ standpoint,” he said, asking how can a value be placed on a jail sentence that adequately reflects the victims’ pain?
He said, unfortunately, the state only gives so much money for incarceration and that it rarely leads to sentencing deemed severe enough.
“The DAs go lobby for tools to punish people, and they tell us there’s not enough money, and not much changes,” Norris said. While some people think otherwise, Norris said, this type of situation is painful to everybody involved.
“This is something very traumatic to young men,” Norris said. He added, culturally, people may “laugh and giggle” about situations involving boys and older women and think girls are more likely to be traumatized by such things, but that isn’t true.
“Young men are equally affected,” he said.
Norris said in his experience as a district attorney, it is more difficult to get boys to talk about what happened than girls, and it is much harder to get them treated, and frequently they become very angry young men. Girls may become very angry or turn to drug addiction as a way to cope, Norris said.
