A Washington County judge has sentenced Ryan Christopher Mutchler to 60 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to one count of Second-Degree Online Sexual Corruption of a Child. Judge Charles Bailey issued the sentence. The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Allison Brown and investigated by Beaverton Police Detective Chad Opitz.
The 31-year-old defendant was a youth pastor at Mountain Park Church and a band teacher at Aloha High School. The charges involve a 14-year-old child he met at a church camp in the summer of 2018. He befriended the child and began communicating with her. His text messages were sexual in nature and he suggested meeting up with the child to engage in sexual activities.
The child’s parents became concerned after noticing several red flags. They spoke with the child and immediately contacted police to report the defendant. Detective Chad Opitz pretended to be the child in online conversations with the defendant. Mutchler then unknowingly sent sexually explicit messages to the undercover detective. He was arrested in September of 2018.
The child’s parents were present in court and made emotional victim impact statements. The Court commended them for noticing the red flags and intervening before this defendant was able to physically meet with the child. The DA’s Office shares these sentiments.
“While the contact this defendant had with this child is significant and will undoubtedly affect her for a very long time, this child’s parents’ attentiveness and swift action prevented further abuse to this child,” Brown said.
In addition to his jail sentence, Judge Bailey sentenced the defendant to five years supervised probation, ordered him to undergo child sex offender treatment and required him to register as a sex offender.