Woman sentenced for grooming, raping young teen in Richland during pandemic
A 24-year-old woman admitted last week to grooming a teenage boy during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Allison M. Moses was 18 and living Richland when she took advantage of a 13-year-old boy in the summer of 2020. Six years later, attorneys say she has changed, including having her own child and is expecting another.
So two years after filing charges, Benton County prosecutors agreed to recommend Moses serve just one month in jail in exchange for pleading guilty to the sexual assault.
But Judge David Petersen said during a recent hearing that he struggled with going along with that recommendation.
He said her silence during her sentencing hearing was as troubling as a state Department of Corrections investigation, which found she “doesn’t give a crap” about what she did.
“I am going to follow the agreement knowing that the victim participated in the discussions,” he said before finally agreeing to the sentence at 30 days. “I will be pissed at myself for following this agreement.”
His decision came followed an emotional plea from the victim’s mother. She said in a statement that her son has struggled to recover from the emotional damage from the assault.
The boy’s mom said in her statement she knew something was wrong when her son became moody.
“She not only took his innocence, ... she took away his trust in the world,” the boy’s mother wrote to the judge. “(He) did nothing wrong in these circumstances.”
Benton County Deputy Prosecutor Anita Petra said the plea agreement means the boy won’t need to testify, and that Moses must still register as a sex offender.
Moses’ defense attorney Nicholas Blount said she was young when the crime happened and was under the influence of drugs.
Moses pleaded guilty in late March to fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. The assault charge, a gross misdemeanor, carried the possibility of up to a year in jail.
Grooming and sexual abuse
Moses’ grooming of the teen allegedly started when they were staying at the same home in 2020 and was discovered by the boy’s mother when she found sexually explicit messages.
He later told a forensic interviewer that they had sex several times.
While the crime took place in 2020, charges weren’t filed until 2024. A trial was scheduled for April 9 before she pleaded guilty.