A Tacoma lawyer is facing criminal charges for allegedly stalking a college student he met through a dating website. Charging documents say he repeatedly violated a sexual assault protection order the woman sought against him for allegedly raping her at her dorm.
Christopher Jason Hendry was charged Friday in Pierce County Superior Court with stalking, second-degree extortion, disclosing intimate images, felony harassment, violation of a court order and 11 counts of violating a protection order. The defendant was arraigned the same day and pleas of not guilty were entered.
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Hendry posted $100,000 bail Monday after spending the weekend in jail. If convicted, Hendry could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He does not have a criminal history in Pierce County, according to court records.
The lawyer's defense attorney, Igor Shapiro, said in a phone call that he would need to speak to Hendry before making any comment on the charges. Shapiro did not respond to further attempts to contact him.
Between February and July, Hendry, 43, sent hundreds of harassing text messages and emails to a 21-year-old woman and her friends and family, charging documents allege. Prosecutors wrote in the documents that Hendry posted "intimate" photos of the woman on a TikTok account, mailed similar images to the woman's relatives and told her friends she was a prostitute.
The lawyer is the sole practitioner of Hendry Law, a firm focused on personal injury, estate planning and employment law. According to the Washington State Bar Association, Hendry earned his license to practice in 2019. His website states he served in the U.S. Army for 15 years.
The two met in November last year through "Secret Benefits," a dating website geared toward connecting older men with women looking for a "sugar daddy," a man offering financial support in exchange for companionship and hookups.
The woman — who spoke with The News Tribune on the condition of anonymity — said she and a friend were going on dates to try to make money. She met Hendry, and the two started sexting, sharing intimate images he would pay money for, the woman said. Before long, the relationship spiraled into uncomfortable territory.
In December, the woman was arrested for DUI in Pierce County by the Washington State Patrol after a trooper saw her vehicle struggling to stay in its own lane. According to Pierce County District Court records, one breath test showed her blood-alcohol content was 0.098. The woman said she went to Hendry for advice, and he "insisted" on representing her pro bono.
"I accepted because I was scared and I had no money, didn't know what to do," the woman said in a phone call with The News Tribune. "Then he used his position as my lawyer to extort sex from me."
Sexual assault at college dorm
The alleged sexual assault occurred in January, a day before the woman appeared in court with Hendry for arraignment on her DUI charge. According to the woman's petition for a protection order, Hendry brought her back to her college dorm building Jan. 9 and insisted on helping carry items up to her room. There, Hendry sexually assaulted the woman after she told him twice that she did not want to have sex, the petition states.
Afterward, their relationship continued. The woman wrote in the petition that she felt obligated to continue the sexual relationship because he was representing her in court. In February, she visited family out of state and told Hendry she didn't want to be in a relationship.
"Almost immediately thereafter, the victim began to receive harassing messages from anonymous texting accounts," the probable cause document states.
The woman was granted a protection order Feb. 22, but the texts and emails continued. In an email sent to the woman in July from an address that included his name, Hendry made vague threats.
"Don't forget u gotta come back here for school an u don't want me walkin round mad cause that paper don't protect u," Hendry allegedly wrote. "U gotta be able to call the police first an u know bout all the people I killed an what I can do so call me an don't let nobody know about it."
Lawyer arrested
Hendry was first arrested in early March, but the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney's Office declined to file charges. According to the probable cause document, he was arrested after the woman reported to Pierce County Sheriff's Department that she was still receiving emails from him.
The deputy who took the report arrested Hendry, who denied emailing her. At the time, Hendry was still representing the woman in her DUI case, court records show. A new attorney was assigned to her about three weeks later. According to prosecuting attorney's office spokesperson Adam Faber, the office didn't move forward with charging until detectives could tie the email accounts to Hendry.
Detectives obtained search warrants for two Gmail accounts Hendry said were his, along with other accounts the woman had received messages from. According to the probable cause document, two IP addresses were consistent in both Gmail accounts and the accounts that were sending harassing messages.
One IP address traced back to Hendry's personal residence, and the other came back to his law office, prosecutors wrote in the charging documents.
"Further evidence discovered in the Gmail return indicated Hendry was signing up for anonymous texting application and VPN accounts to attempt to mask the IP address the messages were coming from," the documents state.
When Hendry was arrested a second time, Aug. 18, he declined to answer questions and said all of his personal digital devices contained privileged information. In an email, Prosecuting Attorney's Office spokesperson Adam Faber said a process was in place to scrub investigatory materials or any such information before it's reviewed by detectives and deputy prosecutors.
The woman who was the subject of the alleged harassment said she spoke with The News Tribune to inform other women who are curious about dating a sugar daddy. She said she felt relieved that Hendry had been charged, but that she still feared that he could lash out again.
"Young girls who think sugar dating is an easy way to make money, it can get you into a lot of trouble," she said.
