SEATTLE — This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com.
King County prosecutors have secured the maximum sentence for a math tutor who sexually assaulted a 13-year-old victim and possessed digitally altered explicit photos.
Gregory Ward, who worked with students at Aki Kurose Middle School through the nonprofit City Year program, will spend at least 102 months in prison after being convicted of child rape and possessing digitally modified explicit images of students, King County prosecutors announced.
Casey McNerthney, spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, joined “Seattle’s Morning News” Monday for the weekly “Crime and Punishment” segment to discuss the case involving Ward.
“This made headlines earlier this year, and it came to the King County Prosecutor’s Office from Seattle Police,” McNerthney said. “Our office looked at it and said, ‘We think we can prove rape of a child here.”
Mother’s quick action led to suspect’s arrest
The case came to light when the victim’s mother tracked her daughter’s phone location to a South Seattle restaurant after the girl stopped answering calls. The mother and the victim’s sister found Ward with the 13-year-old in an alley outside the establishment, where he was inappropriately touching her.
Investigators discovered Ward had developed an inappropriate online relationship with the student over several months while tutoring her in math, reading, and science. According to court documents, Ward sexually assaulted the girl inside the restaurant bathroom and recorded the assault. He also bought her items, including vapes and clothing.
The victim told authorities she “didn’t know he was going to harass her” when she agreed to meet Ward at the restaurant.
Police discover multiple devices with modified student photos
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Lucy Pippin, who handled the case for King County’s Special Assault Unit, said Seattle police uncovered additional disturbing evidence during Ward’s arrest.
“Once he was arrested, it was discovered that he had multiple devices with pictures of some of his students, and some of them digitally modified to become explicit,” Pippin said.
When asked about the modified images, “Seattle’s Morning News” host Charlie Harger responded with shock.
“That’s horrific. He’s modifying pictures of his own students?” Harger said.
“Yeah, it’s not who you want as your tutor or a teacher, really, any time going forward,” McNerthney responded. “And so he’s now facing a pretty significant sentence.”
Pippin credited Seattle police with thorough investigative work.
“All of that was discovered based on the Seattle Police Department just doing an exceptional job and making sure that this guy was held accountable so future students and future young people are not victimized by him,” Pippin said.
Maximum sentence includes lifetime supervision
“We chose the high end of rape of a child in the second degree,” Pippin added. “The legislature sets the standard range as 78 to 102 months, indeterminate. So that means that he will serve 102 months minimum. Then he’ll need to go in front of the sentencing board to see if he’ll get out of prison, but he could serve up to a life sentence.”
Ward will remain under Department of Corrections supervision for life after release and must register as a sex offender permanently.
“Hopefully, both of those things will protect so many students and so many young people going forward,” Pippin said.
The indeterminate sentence means the state’s sentence review board can extend his incarceration beyond the initial minimum term if they determine he still poses a risk.
Parents describe daughter’s ongoing suffering in powerful statement
The sentencing hearing brought the family’s pain into focus. The victim’s mother attended, and her emotional response resonated throughout the courtroom.
“Starting the sentencing and being able to hear the victim’s mother audibly crying and audibly distressed was very powerful for the judge,” Pippin said. “It’s a good reminder, especially to judges, that these cases are not just cases on paper. They involve families and real people, and the more that people come into sentencing to make their statements, the better.”
In a written statement to the court, the victim’s parents described the devastating impact on their daughter and their family.
“Before the incident, we had absolute trust in the school and the teachers where we could entrust our daughter,” the parents wrote. “We believed that sending her to school meant sending her to a safe place. But that trust was abused, trampled upon, and betrayed in an unforgivable way by the defendant.”
The parents detailed how Ward’s actions continue to affect their 13-year-old daughter every day.
“She loses sleep, panics, is startled, lives in fear and uncertainty. She has to undergo psychotherapy to try to recover, but there are days when she breaks down, there are nights when she cries until she can’t breathe,” they wrote. “As a parent, seeing your child like that, it is a pain that no sentence can measure.”
Beyond the immediate trauma, the girl faced additional pressure at school from peers who learned about the assault.
“She did not want to return to school, the place that should have protected her,” the parents wrote. “And we cannot, never can force her to return to the place where her childhood was taken away.”
The parents emphasized the lasting nature of the harm.
“The defendant’s actions have destroyed a part of our daughter’s childhood. It has destroyed our family’s faith in what should have been the safest place for a child,” they wrote. “This trauma not only hurts our daughter today, but may follow her throughout her life.”
Pippin said the family’s statement powerfully illustrated what these cases represent.
“One of the things that stood out to me the most was one of the statements that the defendant’s actions have destroyed a part of our daughter’s childhood,” Pippin said. “It has destroyed our family’s faith in what should have been the safest place for a child. And this trauma not only hurts our daughter today, but may follow her throughout her life.”
Harger noted the long-term consequences these crimes inflict on young victims.
“I hear that time and time again from victims and reading these impact statements,” Harger said. “This is such a serious issue. You are messing children up for the rest of their lives. Sounds like prosecutors understand that.”
“Oh, absolutely, yeah,” McNerthney responded. “And the work that Lucy does and her teammates in the Special Assault Unit, which handles these cases, they really do great work.”
Prosecutor explains motivation behind difficult work
Pippin handles multiple cases involving child victims and sexual assault. McNerthney asked how she manages the emotional weight of the work.
“Our work is important because it takes these assaults and these instances of violence and pulls them out of the dark and out of secret, such that other people can be protected,” Pippin said. “It is hard, but it’s also an honor to be involved in someone’s life and hopefully making it just a tiny bit better.”
Harger emphasized the importance of the unit’s mission.
“It is important, and we have so many people who want justice, they need justice,” Harger said. “And in cases like this, particularly in cases like this, you have to do all you can in order to find justice for those families.”
“Yeah, absolutely. That’s a good way to say it,” McNerthney said.
Ward had no prior criminal convictions or warrant history before his arrest. A judge during Ward’s arraignment suggested his $250,000 bail was too low, but declined to override another court’s earlier ruling.
Crime and Punishment airs Monday mornings on Seattle’s Morning News with Casey McNerthney from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
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