Man sentenced to probation, 30 days in jail on sex abuse charges

POCATELLO — A man who pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse of a minor has been ordered to 30 days in jail and a minimum of ten years probation.

Zachary Michael Park, 20, was sentenced Thursday by District Judge Robert Naftz, who said prior to doling out his decision that he realizes the 6th District Court has a reputation for being “light” on sex offenders but claimed that is not the case.

Naftz suspended two sentences of five to 10 years in prison apiece, which would be served consecutively if Park does not successfully complete his probation. Naftz also ordered Park be remanded to the Bannock County Jail for 30 days.

“I think you need to understand and get a taste of when you take a person’s free will away from them,” Naftz said, explaining the decision to jail Park for a month.

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Park was arrested in January 2022 following an investigation into a reported rape the previous September. After additional victims came forward with accusations, he was charged with two counts of sexually abusing a minor, to which he pleaded guilty.

Prosecuting attorney Erin Tognetti said in court that the sole reason the Bannock County Prosecutor’s Office was willing to offer the agreement it did was to keep the victims from being forced to the witness stand. The agreement, she said, is a reflection of the effect the crimes have had on the victims.

One of the four known victims — who was 14 at the time of the attack — spoke at the hearing, saying the attack on her has brought trauma to her entire family for more than a year.

“He was in my dreams, and always behind my eyelids,” she said crying. “All I had asked for was a ride. What I got was a lifetime of suspicion.”

According to the victims who spoke with officers, Park would provide car rides and demand sexual favors in return.

The victim said that she did not say anything immediately about the attack for fear of the trauma it would cause. She added that she does not want to live in a society that normalizes rape.

Tognetti read a victim’s impact statement written by the first victim to come forward.

In the statement, the victim lays out the year-plus of trauma she has endured — having to change schools multiple times and fearing places like the mall, where Park works.

“He needs to go away,” the statement read.

The victim said she is in fear for herself, her family and the community for what Park is capable of.

The victim’s mother also spoke at the hearing. She shared about the night she received an emotional call from her daughter, about picking her daughter up not knowing what had happened, and having her daughter curl “in a little ball” “hysterically crying.”

“I told him no, mom,” is all her daughter was able to say, she said.

She described her daughter as a “social butterfly” prior to the attack — a lover of the choir and playing guitar. Since, the mother said, her daughter, who was 15 at the time of the attack, has given up music and “spiraled” into another person entirely.

Speaking about Park, the mother pleaded with the court to remove him from the environment that created him. Probation, she argued, would not be enough for a man who she believes considers himself a victim and will never truly understand the impact of his actions if he does not receive a stiff punishment.

Given an opportunity to speak on his own behalf, Park took a moment to whisper with his attorney before apologizing to “all the girls and their families.”

Asked to explain why he was being punished, Park, who spent most of the hearing looking toward the ground and tapping his toes, said he was being punished for having what he felt was consensual sex with underage girls.

Naftz asked Park if he believed all the sexual encounters he’d had with the girls were consensual despite the fact that their age made them unable to legally provide consent.

Park said that he did not know that and was not thinking about that.

After the statements had been provided, Tognetti spoke to the pre-sentence investigation and psychosexual evaluation performed by the court. She said that Park showed a “predatory behavior” and was “racking up crimes” toward the end of his high school “career.”

Defense attorney Craig Parrish spoke about those who provided the court with letters in support of Park — people from his church and former coaches. Park, Parrish added, was forced to drop out of school as well given the treatment he received at school.

“This caused a great hardship for him,” Parrish said.

Parrish said that Park should be allowed the opportunity to correct his path and become the man he and his family planned him to be.

It was Naftz’s decision following a hearing that lasted roughly one hour to sentence Park to a minimum of 10 years, up to 15 years, of felony probation with a discretionary prison sentence of 120 days. Park was ordered to pay $2,000 in fines. Naftz left a 30-day window for victims to file restitution requests, which would then be heard in court.

Naftz also ordered Park to register as a sex offender for a minimum of ten years. After ten years, the court will determine if Park will remain registered as a sex offender.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article explained the underlying sentences would run concurrently. That was incorrect. They would actually run consecutively. EastIdahoNew.com apologizes for the error.