While on supervision and wearing an ankle monitor in Deschutes County, Roger Clint Lee Vanwormer communicated online with a purported 14-year-old girl, asked her to share a sexually explicit image and arranged to meet her in Bend.
When he showed up with a bottle of Vodka, a condom and a male enhancement product, Bend police arrested him on July 26, 2021, according to court records.
On Thursday, Vanwormer, 30, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted sexual exploitation of a child in federal court in Eugene.
U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane accepted the prison term jointly recommended by the prosecutor and Vanwormer’s defense lawyer.
It was Vanwormer’s third crime involving a minor. He was convicted in state court of multiple counts of encouraging child sex abuse and first-degree sex abuse in 2018 and attempted unlawful contact with a child in 2021.
“His inability to comply with the law or control his behavior necessitates” the lengthy prison sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey S. Sweet told the judge.
An undercover officer told Vanwormer that she was 14 when they spoke by phone to arrange their meeting after initially communicating on social media, according to the judge’s description of the crime.
Sweet said Vanwormer repeatedly violated the terms of his prior post-prison supervision in Deschutes County by possessing an unapproved cellphone, contacting minors, cutting off his GPS device and committing new crimes.
Defense lawyer Kurt David Hermansen, of the Federal Public Defender’s Office, said Vanwormer is committed to “doing all the programming he can” while in prison.
As Vanwormer awaited sentencing, he was prescribed medication for bipolar depression and it is working well for him, Hermansen said.
Vanwormer’s own abuse as a child by his father contributed to his crimes and his mental health diagnosis, his lawyer said.
Vanwormer told the judge that would like to study psychology and the brain while in prison and “see if maybe I can be somebody that can help fix these situations.”
“You can’t really show regret and remorse for the things you do, in a courtroom. … It’s kind of something you show over time,” Vanwormer said in court.
The lengthy sentence resulted from his two earlier crimes involving children and the fact he committed this most recent offense while on post-prison supervision, the judge said.
“Your actions, of course, are really defined by a history of remarkable childhood trauma and sexual abuse,” McShane said.
He ordered Vanwormer to register as a sex offender and face a lifetime of supervision after he completes his prison time.
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