A Clinton counselor convicted of taking indecent liberties with clients was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison and three years of supervision.
Glenn Jolley, 58, received a sentence in the middle of the range available to Superior Court Judge Alan Hancock. Jolley had provided counseling from offices in Freeland and Oak Harbor.
Jolley was living the American dream on Whidbey Island, Hancock said at the sentencing. He said Jolley once had a successful practice, a happy family, a first-rate education, many friends and a respected name.
“Mr. Jolley had a wonderful life and he threw it all away. That’s exactly what he did,” the judge said.
During the three years of community custody, Jolley will not be allowed to hold any position of trust or authority. He cannot drink alcohol, must undergo a sexual deviancy evaluation and a sexual history polygraph, and will have to register as a sex offender.
Jolley was found guilty in November on a charge of indecent liberties for fondling a breast of a female client during a counseling session at his Oak Harbor office last winter. The jury found him not guilty on a charge of attempted indecent liberties.
When the jury could not come to a unanimous decision on a charge of rape, Hancock declared a mistrial on that charge.
Jolley, who has served two months in jail, spoke tearfully at the sentencing. He apologized for the pain he had caused.
“I feel a sadness and remorse I will go to the grave with,” he said, “and no amount of time will soften my self-reproach. I am my own worst critic.”
At the sentencing Hancock said he took into account Jolley’s admission that he had commited a similar act against an 18-year-old patient in 1993. Also playing a part in his decision, Hancock said, was the “remarkable number of eminent members of the community” who wrote letters on Jolley’s behalf. Church officials, a school principal, doctor, nurse and other Whidbey Island residents wrote nearly a dozen letters urging a light sentence.
The letters described Jolley as a dedicated family man, a loving husband and father, a man of deep faith and a good friend. Langley Middle School Principal Greg Willis wrote a letter on school letterhead saying he has been friends with Jolley for 19 years and “a lengthy incarceration will not benefit this man, his family or our community.”
Pastor David Lura of First United Methodist Church, Oak Harbor, wrote that he has referred both couples and a single woman to Jolley for counseling, and none of them reported any problems with his style of counseling.
In the pre-sentence report, Corrections Officer Robert Diekman recommended a top-of-the-range sentence of 20 months. He pointed out a number of incidents in which Jolley reportedly acted inappropriately with clients in a sexual manner.
Yet Hancock said he could take only the 1993 incident into account in imposing the sentence since Jolley admitted only to the single incident. Under law, there would have to be an evidentiary hearing with witnesses to introduce the other allegations against Jolley.
Jolley refused to be interviewed as part of the pre-sentence report.
Hancock congratulated Oak Harbor Detective Teri Gardner for her investigation of Jolley. She taped a telephone conversation between the victim and Jolley, which was played at the trial. Hancock said the tape was “very telling” and may be the reason Jolley was convicted.
