Convicted molester seeks new sentence

SANDPOINT — A man convicted of impregnating a 12-year-old Bonner County girl in 2005 is seeking a new sentence.

James Henry Crumble claims he received ineffective counsel and was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct and abused judicial discretion, according to a petition for post-conviction relief filed in 1st District Court on Friday.

Crumble, a 53-year-old from Newport, Wash., was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 20 years after pleading guilty to lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor and an unrelated burglary charge.

Crumble’s criminal conduction throughout much of his adult life and a prior instance of sexual misconduct involving a minor in Texas in the 1980s factored into the sentence imposed by Judge Steve Verby in 2006.

In his petition for relief, Crumble faults former Chief Public Defender Hugh Nisbet for not moving to suppress a pre-sentence investigation and claims the court abused its discretion by ordering a psychosexual evaluation and withdrawing from a binding plea agreement that would have guaranteed concurrent 10-year sentences.

Crumble also alleges the girl disclosed she was being molested by her father and beaten by her grandmother, disclosures that were never acted upon by then-Prosecutor Phil Robinson.

Crumble unsuccessfully appealed his sentence claiming Verby imposed too harsh a penalty. The Idaho Court of Appeals ruled in 2008 there was no abuse of discretion.

Crumble is serving his sentence at the Idaho Correctional Center in Kuna.