Ammon man sentenced for child porn, sex with minor in school parking lot
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IDAHO FALLS — An Ammon man was sentenced Monday for having sex with a minor 16-years-old or younger when he was 18-years-old and for three other sex crimes.
Joseph Stanley Loertscher, 20, was sentenced to 15 years in prison with two years fixed and 13 indeterminate for each charge against him including sexual abuse by soliciting a minor under 16 and two counts of possession of child pornography.
District Judge Dane Watkins chose to retain jurisdiction in the case, meaning Loertscher will complete a rider program. Upon completion of the rider, Watkins will determine whether to place Loertscher on probation or have him complete the prison sentence.
Loertscher had sex with the teenager in the Hillview Elementary School parking lot in April 2016 when he and the victim were in high school. He was later charged after investigators were notified that Loertscher was communicating and exchanging sexually explicit images with teenage girls on the internet. One of the teens was the rape victim.
Court documents show Loertscher had more than 200 sexually explicit photos and videos of teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 16.
During the sentencing hearing, Loertscher’s defense attorney, Rocky Wixom, argued that what his client did was wrong but that high school kids and teenagers are having sex anyway. He recommended that Loertscher serve probation.
Bonneville County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Dewey revealed that when Loertscher and the victim were caught in 2016, prosecutors decided not to charge him after conferring with the victim’s parents even though he was 18.
“We felt like there was a likelihood that he had learned his lesson, that this wasn’t going to happen again and that there weren’t aggravating factors that would make us think that we needed to charge at the point,” Dewey said in his statements. “Then approximately a year later we learn that he has continued contact with that same child. That he has been soliciting juveniles to provide images of themselves. And he has had another juvenile try to meet up with him to engage in sexual acts.”
Dewey said that because Loertscher continued to engage in the same sort of behavior and it escalated, the crimes warranted a stronger punishment than probation.
“I have complied to the fullest of my ability with both pretrial and law enforcement,” Loertscher said in his statements. “Trying to make sure that I don’t scare anybody because my last name is a very rare one and I don’t really like that I’ve tarnished my last name.”
Watkins said a rider was the most appropriate response to the case right now and that Loertscher needed to do more than serve probation.
“I don’t want to place you in the community with an above average risk to minors,” Watkins said.