South End PR firm owner arrested, charged with child rape

A Langley man who ran a public relations firm on South Whidbey turned himself in Monday after being charged with several sex crimes.

A Langley man who ran a public relations firm on South Whidbey turned himself in Monday after being charged with several sex crimes.

Prosecutors charged Jonathan Sage, 32, in Island County Superior Court April 13 with four counts of rape of a child in the second degree.

Sage is accused of raping two boys numerous times in 2010 and 2013, when the victims were 12 to 13 years old, according to Island County court documents.

In March 2014, Detective Ricky Felici, with the Island County Sheriff’s Office, met with the two boys after they had disclosed to their father what had allegedly occurred, according to Felici’s report.

The boys now live in another county.

The boys reported that abuse started after they drank alcohol with Sage and that the assaults occurred regularly for years, Felici said in his report.

The boys’ father confronted Sage, who allegedly asked him not to report the matter to police and “promised that the family would not hear from him anymore.”

After the alleged victims came forward, Felici and patrol deputies attempted to contact Sage several times, but his residence looked vacant and his business appeared to be shut down, the report said.

A judge set bail for Sage at $125,000 on April 13. The sheriff’s office posted his photo and information about him on Facebook Monday. He turned himself in at the South Precinct a little over an hour after the information was posted.

Sage owned a company called Northwest Public Relations, which created promotional videos for businesses and nonprofit organizations, among them Whidbey Animals’ Improvement Foundation and Whidbey and Camano Islands Tourism.

If convicted on the charges filed against him, Sage faces up to 23 years in prison under the standard sentencing range.