Man sentenced for using iPod to try to lure potential rape victim

Stephen Newman admitted Wednesday to a 4th District judge that he has a problem with sexual addiction and rape fantasies.

Newman also apologized for putting an ad on Craigslist last summer where he offered a free iPod to anyone willing to get it from the bathroom of a public park.

He did not admit using the ad to lure a woman to the park with the intent of raping her. Nonetheless, Judge Michael Wetherell sentenced him to prison for as long as 15 years on the charge of attempted rape. Newman, 33, can ask for parole after seven years.

"I would like to deeply apologize to everybody I have hurt from my actions," a stoic Newman said Wednesday during his sentencing hearing for an attempted rape conviction. "I am sorry for what I have done.

"I know I have a problem with sexual addiction and fantasy, and that led to this issue," he said. "I am anxious to get help and am willing to do whatever it takes."

Defense attorney William Osterhoudt told Wetherell Wednesday the he will appeal Newman's conviction.

Osterhoudt said that although an Ada County jury found Newman guilty, there was never any evidence presented that Newman intended to rape or physically harm anyone that night.

Osterhoudt said Newman is a non-violent person who was role-playing when he posted the ad on Craigslist and sat in his SUV in July 2007 near a bathroom at Charles McDevitt Park in West Boise.

Wetherell disagreed, saying there was "overwhelming evidence" Newman intended to abduct and sexually assault a woman that night.

"The fact that something (an assault or rape) did not happen is very fortunate for you," Wetherell said. "You are lucky the police arrested you when they did."

Boise police were tipped off by a woman who had answered the ad and told officers someone appeared to be sitting in wait near the portable bathroom where the iPod was supposed to be.

Wetherell noted that Boise police found ski gloves, a plastic pellet gun that looked like a deadly weapon and a large kitchen knife in Newman's SUV that night.

Wetherell pointed out that the back seats were folded down and belts, which could have been used to bind a person, were in the car.

Police did not find an iPod in the vehicle or in the park bathroom.

Wetherell referred to the Internet searches Newman did as he sat in the SUV that night, looking up subjects like "rape and Meridian," "penalties for rape in Idaho," "how to commit rape" and "percentage of rapists who get caught."

Wetherell referred to a series of e-mails Newman exchanged with another person that night detailing how he wanted to abduct a woman, force her into the back of his car and take her back to his house to rape her at knifepoint.

And Wetherell pointed out how Newman's actions affected the woman, who called police saying she has had trouble with nightmares and fears for her safety when Newman gets out of prison.

"There are forms of violence that don't include physical violence," Wetherell said. "You don't have to beat someone to do violence to them."

Osterhoudt had asked Wetherell to place Newman on a six-month prison evaluation plan, commonly known as a "rider," before placing him on long-term supervised probation.

Osterhoudt said society would be better served if Newman received intensive treatment for his sex addiction and other mental illness, such as obsessive/compulsive disorder, fetishism, and anxiety/depression, instead of being sent to prison.

Ada County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Shelley Armstrong disagreed, saying Newman needed to go to prison for the protection of society. She dismissed the explanation that Newman was merely role-playing as "goofy."

Armstrong pointed out that three years of treatment Newman had received to help him deal with his sex addiction almost a decade earlier didn't stop his "all-consuming fantasies about raping women."

Armstrong also told Wetherell earlier that a psycho-sexual evaluation showed there was a 26 percent risk that Newman would commit another sexual offense within five years.

As Newman was escorted out of the courtoom, he looked back at his parents and wife but did not say anything to them.

Patrick Orr: 373-6619