Former tribal cop sentenced to 34 years for sexual abuse of minors
A 69-year-old member of the Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe was sentenced this week to 34 years in prison for sexually abusing children as young as 6 and 7 years old.
Joseph Anthony Turrey of Port Angeles was convicted after a seven-day jury trail earlier this year. He was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma for crimes that occurred on tribal land between 2008 and 2016 involving three victims.
U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle said Turrey had shown no signs of remorse.
“You demonstrated a wantonness, a cruelty, and mercilessness,” Settle said. “No restitution can give [your victims] back what was stolen from them.”
Turrey previously served as a law enforcement officer for both the Hoh Reservation and later for the Lower Elwha Tribe. He also served on the tribal council of the Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe.
In a statement to the court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristine Foerster said Turrey “held positions of power while exploiting children.”
He was convicted of six counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of abusive sexual contact.
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Stephen Howie
Online Editor/Producer
Stephen Howie is an Online Editor/Producer at KUOW. He is an award-winning journalist, nonfiction writer, college professor and videographer. His first book, The Bluffton Charge: One Preacher’s Struggle for Civil Rights won the Mammoth Books Nonfiction Prize.
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