Man pleads guilty to sexual assault

A former Whidbey Island man accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy while on vacation in Montana late last year pleaded guilty to the charges and is now spending more than a month in jail.

In a Sanders County, Mont., District Court, Timothy Lynn Wanamaker acknowledged having inappropriate sexual contact with the 13-year-old son of his girlfriend while the three were vacationing in Montana last fall. In a plea agreement filed with the court, Wanamaker wrote a short statement of guilt in which he admitted to being "very drunk" when he assaulted the boy.

Wanamaker was sentenced June 18.

The case gained some local attention when the boy's mother, Suzanne Huntoon, passed out a number of flyers in Freeland in January warning recipients about what Wanamaker had done to her son. A South Whidbey resident, Huntoon said at the time that she wanted others in the community to be aware of what happened.

She later apologized to a Freeland business owner whose business address was listed on the flyer as Wanamaker's last place of work. However, her action was deemed legal by the Island County sheriff.

The Montana plea agreement sends Wanamaker to jail for 45 days and places him on probation for six years.

He is also required to pay $6,000 in fines and return to Sanders County once a year for each of those six years to serve 45 days in jail. In all, Wanamaker will serve 270 days behind bars.

After Wanamaker was sentenced, Huntoon said she is satisfied with the punishment handed out by the Montana judge.

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