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2 Oregon men convicted of sex crimes against children in Lane County

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Two men were sentenced to prison terms last week by a Lane County District Court judge for crimes related to sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation of children.

James Ferrell, 36, was charged in May with second-degree rape and second-degree sexual abuse after having non-consensual sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 14 sometime between September 2020 and October 2022.

Ferrell pleaded guilty to the charge on May 31 and was sentenced on Aug. 7 by Lane County District Court Judge Debra Velure to nearly eight years in prison and at least 45 months of probation after his release, court records show.

Ferrell was previously charged and convicted of sex crimes in Lane County in 2011. At the time, he was sentenced to three years in prison for rape, two counts of third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of enticement of a minor to commit crimes.

In June 2023, a case against Ferrell was dismissed after he was charged with second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy of a child under the age of 14.

William McDonald, 61, was charged in August last year with three counts of first-degree promotion of child sexual abuse, one count of using a child to engage in sexually explicit conduct and first-degree unlawful sexual penetration of a child under the age of 12.

Court documents state that McDonald “unlawfully and knowingly employed, authorized, permitted, coerced, or induced a child to engage in or participate in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of being captured in a photograph by a person.”

McDonald then copied photographs of sexually explicit conduct involving a child, knowing or being aware and knowingly ignoring that the creation of the visual recording of the sexually explicit conduct constituted child abuse, the documents state.

A Lane County jury found McDonald guilty on all five counts on June 28, and Lane County District Court Judge Charles Zennaché sentenced him on August 5 to more than 36 years in prison, with life parole after his term of imprisonment. The sentencing process applied Jessica's Law, a measure signed by former Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski in 2006 that increased the minimum sentences for offenders convicted of first-degree rape, sodomy or unlawful penetration if the victim is serving less than 12 to 25 years in prison.

The court also required McDonald to register as a sex offender under the Oregon Revised Statutes.

Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. Reach her at [email protected].

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