Oak Harbor Man pleads guilty to molestation charges

"A 44-year-old Oak Harbor man who repeatedly molested his 12-year-old step-daughter is headed to prison after pleading guilty to second-degree child molestation in Island County Superior Court Aug. 18.Johnny Alan Goff was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison by Judge Alan Hancock, who also ordered Goff to have no contact with the victim for 10 years, undergo HIV and DNA testing, undertake sex offender evaluation and treatment, and remain in community custody probation for three years after serving his term.Community Corrections Officer Robert Diekman recommended an exceptional sentence of three years and four months for Goff based on his position of power over the victim and Goff’s 1986 Texas conviction for sexual abuse of a child.A local businessman who employed both Goff and the victim’s mother also wrote a plea to the court for an exceptional sentence. He wrote that the crime has devastated the victim’s mother. “The guilt she feels for not protecting her daughter from this man has wounded her in a way that will never fully heal,” he wrote. “Her sense of distrust of men and those around her may also never go away.”Hancock, however, ruled that he could not legally hand out a sentence beyond the Legislature-prescribed standard range for the offense, but gave him the maximum under the range.According to an affidavit written by Oak Harbor Detective Teri Gardner, the victim ran away to a friend’s house on June 13 and told her friend that her stepfather had been molesting her. The friend told her mother, who in turn reported it to the police.In an interview with police, the girl said that Goff — who has lived with her family for seven years — molested her, exposed himself to her and forced other sexual contact over a period of several months.Goff told the girl not to tell anyone about the abuse because he would go to jail and get killed, since inmates don’t like child molesters. "

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