GRANTS PASS, Ore.- On April 29th, a man was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of sexually abusing a little girl in a Grants Pass YMCA pool.
68-year-old Rex McCurdy faced Judge Brandon Thueson after being found guilty by a jury for two counts of sex abuse. Amanda McGeorge of the District Attorney’s Office told Judge Thueson McCurdy has previous convictions in three California counties for sex-crime related charges. This brought McGeorge and the DA’s Office to ask the judge to sentence McCurdy to life in prison under Statute 137.719. NBC5 previously reported that Grants Pass police said McCurdy was able to get into the YMCA due to restrictions that were put in place during Covid, which made McCurdy’s sex offender status inaccessible during his background check for his membership.
McCurdy’s Lawyer, Clayton Lance, asked the judge for 75 months. He said it is the court’s job to find the proper sentencing for the crime committed. He also said, in the context of the case, McCurdy’s previous convictions are incredibly old.
“Here’s what the state’s asking for: the state is asking you to give him a sentence that’s equivalent to an intentional murder in Oregon with aggravators,” Lance said to Judge Thueson.
Lance also renewed a request for a mistrial, which the judge did deny. In the end, Judge Thueson sentenced McCurdy to life in prison without parole, saying McCurdy is one of the nightmares that keep parents up at night.
“He goes to the pool for the purpose of window-shopping and worse. I firmly believe that based on what I saw and McCurdy’s statements,” Judge Thueson said, “While this specific abuse is not the worst abuse we’ve ever seen, it is haunting in the efforts and deliberate actions of Mr. McCurdy to find a child that he can then abuse.”
McGeorge says McCurdy has a criminal history of over thirty years, with both sexual and non-sexual crimes involving people of all ages. She says if our children can’t be safe in pools, where can they be?
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