This ex-Tri-City lawyer was supposed to help the vulnerable. He’s charged with child molestation

A former Tri-City lawyer who was a personal advocate for foster kids and a review judge for the state’s social services agency is accused of molesting a grade-school boy.

The new case against Jerry J. Davis is the second one in a year involving the alleged sexual abuse of young boys.

Davis, 52, was charged in Thurston County Superior Court in January with having several images of child pornography on his laptop.

The allegations in Olympia also involved giving nighttime cold medicine to two boys so he could molest them while they were passed out.

Davis was not charged with those crimes after telling investigators that another person had access to his cellphone and may have written those messages.

However, he plead guilty last month to first-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Now, Davis is charged in Benton County Superior Court with first-degree child molestation and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Both charges include aggravating circumstances that he used a position of trust to commit the crimes and should have known the victim was particularly vulnerable and incapable of resistance because of his young age, court documents state.

A warrant was issued Thursday for Davis’ arrest when the case was filed. He turned himself in later that night and was booked on $100,000 bail.

Davis appeared in Benton County court on Friday afternoon and pleaded innocent. His trial is set for Dec. 10.

Bail remains at $100,000, though his court-appointed attorney may ask for a reduction at a hearing next week.

Davis has been licensed to practice law in Washington state since December 2002.

The Washington State Bar Association’s website shows he remains on active status. The only disciplinary action on Davis’ record was a reprimand in 2006 for trust-account irregularities.

Documents in the Benton County case say the molestation and exploitation happened sometime between January 2015 and January 2018.

Davis used to work for a Richland family law firm. At some point in 2017 he moved to Olympia.

He now reportedly lives in Spokane. His mailing address listed with the State Bar is for a box at a postal service center.

His LinkedIn profile says he was a review judge for Washington Department of Social and Health Services.

Those hearings would include administrative law appeals for cases involving Child Protective Services, Adult Protective Services and other social service agencies that serve vulnerable clients.

Davis was fired from that job in March.

“He was dismissed after we followed our usual employment termination process after learning of those charges,” Norah West, a DSHS spokeswoman, told iFiberOne NewsRadio earlier this month.

The public LinkedIn profile also says he was an advisory board member with South Sound YMCA, and had been “attempting to help the faith community and the state come together to ensure all foster kids have safe homes in Thurston County.”

Deputy Prosecutor Diana Ruff alleges that while living in Richland, Davis and an unidentified male friend would sexually assault a boy.

The boy later told police that he had pretended to be asleep and would start moving around so the men would think he was waking up and they would leave, court documents said.

Then in January 2018, a CPS investigator was contacted by a tipster who’d been chatting on an online dating website with an Olympia man when he became concerned by some messages from a man who called himself “JJD.”

“JJD” allegedly said he molests kids after giving them Nyquil, and wanted the man to participate with him, court documents said.

Police seized Davis’ laptop computer and found several images of suspected child pornography. Medical professionals helped investigators determine that at least two of the pictures featured three nude boys who were between the ages of 8 and 17.

Davis’ sentencing in Thurston County is scheduled Nov. 19.