A 37-year-old Yachats man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to six of 15 counts of encouraging child sex abuse.
Joshua L. Slauf was sentenced Jan. 29 by Lincoln County Circuit Judge Sheryl Bachart after a settlement conference Jan. 5.
During that conference, Slauf agreed to plead guilty to six charges, have nine others dismissed and receive a sentence of seven to 12 years in prison. Bachart sentenced him to the maximum of 12 years, according to court documents.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Slauf, who also lived in Toledo and Newport, last May after his indictment by a grand jury.
The indictment accused Slauf of unlawfully and knowingly duplicating sexually explicit conduct involving a child 14 times between January 2022 and March 2023. A 15th charge involved knowingly possessing sexually explicit conduct by a child. All the charges are considered child abuse.
Slauf was originally scheduled for trial in July, but only received a court-appointed attorney eight days before it was scheduled because of the lack of state funds to provide lawyers for indigent defendants. He had been scheduled for trial in November before agreeing to settle the charges against him.
Slauf is supposed to enter a sex offender treatment program while in prison and then register as a sex offender once he is released.
