Finley man, 86, sentenced to life for molesting young girl

A teen girl who was threatened to keep quiet about her sexual abuse for years said she was exhausted when she finally told her best friend in late 2014.

Her molester took away her life, taught her the wrong things and led her to dislike people.

On Wednesday, the girl told a judge it was time for her to take away the rest of Eugene L. Standfill’s life for his actions.

Standfill, 86, was sentenced in Benton County Superior Court to life in prison with a minimum term of 17  1/2 years.

State law gave Judge Vic VanderSchoor no discretion with the sentence since Standfill was convicted of first-degree child molestation, in addition to four other sex crimes.

That means Standfill will be 103 before a state board could consider his potential release.

However, the Finley man is hopeful he will get out before then.

Defense attorney Jim Egan notified the court that Standfill plans to appeal his convictions, which also include third-degree child molestation, second-degree rape of a child, first-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and sexual exploitation of a minor.

A jury in February was unable to reach a verdict on a sixth charge of child rape. That charge was dismissed Wednesday.

The girl, whose statement was read to the court by Deputy Prosecutor Anita Petra, said she’d like to know why Standfill repeatedly molested her when he knew it was wrong.

“After countless times I told you I didn’t want to, you still did it anyways,” she said. “I would say I hate you, but I don’t want to be mean, so I will say I extremely dislike you. I think you deserve jail for the rest of your life.”

Kennewick police were immediately notified after the girl revealed the ongoing sexual assault to her friend. She said she tried to tell relatives earlier, but had been called a liar and punished, according to a presentencing report.

Standfill had no criminal history until this case.

He reportedly molested and raped the girl for more than a decade, though the girl told investigators she had no memories of her earlier grade-school days.

She was identified in pictures on Standfill’s digital camera showing a little girl exposing herself. Standfill took pictures of the naked girl over the years so he “could look at them whenever he wanted,” the report said.

The girl told investigators that whenever she refused his advances, Standfill said bad luck would be coming her way for not behaving. He also used a large horse whip and would hit the girl on the back or on her butt until she complied, she reported.

Standfill would throw money at the girl expecting her to do sexual things. Once, he gave her $20 so he could grope her, but she left the money behind, court documents show.

“When he was found guilty, I felt relieved and 50 percent happy. The other 50 percent scared,” the girl told the court. “I am scared because I am afraid he was going to hire someone to hurt me or randomly show up at my house and shoot me, because he threatened me before I told anyone about it.”

Standfill denies that anything happened with the victim and told corrections officials he “was railroaded.” He claims the pictures were already on the camera when he bought it years ago in Oregon at a truck stop.

During his arrest in December 2014, Standfill said he was going to file a lawsuit and would win because sheriff’s deputies had no evidence.

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Finley man, 86, sentenced to life for molesting young girl."