Judge refuses to reduce punishment for man convicted of raping child
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IDAHO FALLS — After asking for a reduced sentence, a 51-year-old man will spend decades behind bars after being convicted of raping a child.
Perry Thompson was sentenced by District Judge Dane Watkins Jr. to 23 to 25 years in prison. He was convicted of felony rape of a victim who is 16 or 17 and the perpetrator is three or more years older than the victim.
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According to Idaho Criminal Rule 35, defendants can motion within 120 days of the entry of the judgment to correct a sentence that they believe has been imposed in an illegal manner or to reduce a sentence, and the court may correct or reduce the sentence.
After motioning for a reduction in his sentence, Thompson’s request was denied by Watkins, according to court filings.
Thompson was already a convicted sex offender, according to the National Sex Offender Registry, after being convicted of “illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance” out of Marion, Ohio, in 2009. Court documents state this charge is the equivalent of possession of child pornography.
For the Idaho conviction, he will be required to pay over $50,000 in fines.
Case background
On March 29, 2024, a woman told the Idaho Falls Police Department that she had been sexually assaulted by four men, starting when she was 7 years old.
The case was investigated and presented to the Bonneville County Prosecutor’s Office, but they “declined to pursue charges due to lack of evidence.” The same victim reported another sexual assault again in 2019, this time regarding Thompson. The case was investigated, and police said it was “unfounded.”
On April 2, 2024, an Idaho Falls Police officer contacted the victim, who said she did not like police officers and would rather speak to a counselor. The officer then scheduled a forensic interview at the Idaho Falls Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Center for April 8.
During the interview, the victim then stated she was sexually abused by Thompson beginning in 2013.
The officer later conducted a full criminal history check on Thompson, which showed he was also arrested in 2009 for being a sex offender and having unlawful access to school children. The case was later dismissed.
The victim told the interviewer that Thompson had raped her multiple times until 2021. She continued to detail the abuse from Thompson, alleging he and his wife had “medicated her against her will.”
The victim states that Thompson “forced her to take medication for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia,” but that she was never diagnosed with any mental health issues. She told the interviewer she had attempted to make a police report about the abuse, but it was not investigated.
After the interview, the victim spoke with the officer and provided him with pages from a diary she had kept, detailing written testimonials about the abuse.
On April 15, the officer met with Thompson’s wife, who said she did not have any first-hand knowledge of the abuse, and did not witness anything between the victim and Thompson. On April 24, the officer met with the victim to conduct a “confrontation call” with Thompson.
Thompson admitted to sexually assaulting the victim when she was 15 or 16 years old, saying, “I was confused on a lot of it. It was you coming to me and say, ‘If I do this, I’ll let you do this.’ And yeah, it was manipulation on both ends.”
Thompson allegedly continued to blame the victim for the sexual assault, saying he told her it “needed to stop.”
The victim reminded Thompson she was a minor, to which he responded, “There were times when I said, ‘We need to stop this. We need to not do this.’ How many times did I say that? And you would still come to me.”
Later, Thompson apologized to the victim, but continues to blamed her for the assaults.
“I admit I’ve done wrong. I should have stopped it way before,” Thompson said in the recorded conversation. “I was trying to tell you how many times this needs to stop.”
Toward the end of the conversation, Thompson says he hopes “this doesn’t get me in trouble but, ya know, yeah, I have done some wrong things, but a lot of it I feel I was manipulated too.”
A warrant was issued for Thompson’s arrest on May 3, and he was booked into the Bonneville County Jail on May 8, where a bond was set at $150,000 but was later reduced to $75,000. A no-contact order was issued for the victim.