Oregon Former Judge John Mann Sentenced to Imprisonment for Child Porn

Disgraced former judge (and soon-to-be former attorney) John Mann was sentenced today in Washington County Circuit Court for his conviction on ten counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree.

Judge Andrew Erwin sentenced Mann to 38 months incarceration, and five years of probation, during which time Mann is subject to being returned to prison for any significant violations. Mann must also register as a sex offender, and will not be allowed access to computers or the internet.

Material filed with the court on Monday revealed that Mann had previously lost a job due to “workplace viewing of pornography,” and that Mann had sought “help with sexual addiction” through an Employee Assistance program in 2016 — the year before former Governor Kate Brown appointed Mann as Oregon’s Chief Administrative Law Judge.

Neither incident apparently involved child pornography.

Today’s sentence breaks Judge Erwin’s cycle of leniency toward his peers: Erwin had previously sentenced two other attorneys to probation for the same type and number of offenses.

Mann’s defense attorney, Lawrence Taylor, had argued that Mann’s crimes were “substantially less egregious than those of another Oregon attorney,” Scott Gilfillan. Judge Erwin apparently disagreed.

Taylor did not raise the issue of the other attorney, Scott McNutt, who rewarded Judge Erwin’s leniency by violating the terms of his probation less than a year into it.

However, it is notable that Taylor said the quiet part out loud in his sentencing memorandum and to an ABA Journal reporter: Oregon attorneys are a distinct class of defendants, even when they are convicted of reprehensible crimes involving child sexual abuse.

Despite his well-paying job, Mann somehow qualified to receive a state-paid, court-appointed lawyer. The Office of Public Defense Services, which oversees those limited resources, has faced a severe shortage of public defenders for over a year; and the shortage even stranded Mann in jail for a month.¹

Taylor did not respond to requests for comments.

¹ Not to oversimplify the complex problems at OPDS, but a defendant who drew a $144,000/year salary until the week of his arrest — and who also happens to be an attorney and a judge — should probably not qualify for a free attorney.