Man Gets Six Years For Filming Kids In Sex Acts

A man accused of paying Spokane children to perform sex acts on camera was sentenced Monday to six years in prison.

Clyde Loshbaugh, 42, originally was charged with six counts of communicating with minors for immoral purposes, six counts of sexual exploitation of minors, one count of first-degree child molestation and one count of possessing child pornography.

He pleaded guilty to one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes and one count of second-degree child molestation.

“I am entering a guilty plea to get the benefit of a plea bargain,” Loshbaugh wrote on his plea agreement.

Edward Hay, the assistant prosecutor who handled the case, couldn’t be reached for comment Monday night.

Loshbaugh had a long criminal record and was a registered sex offender in California when he moved to Spokane in the early 1990s without the knowledge of local authorities.

Spokane police raided Loshbaugh’s house at E917 Sharp last May. A 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy had reported that Loshbaugh took them into a run-down trailer in his back yard and filmed them performing sex acts.

The children told police Loshbaugh paid them $20 apiece.

Prosecutors contended Loshbaugh pestered four other children - two boys and two girls - to participate in the filming.

After Loshbaugh’s arrest, a 6-year-old neighbor told her mother Loshbaugh had reached up her dress and fondled her. Prosecutors said in court documents that the girl’s 9-year-old sister witnessed the incident.

Judge James Murphy sentenced Loshbaugh to six years for the molestation charge and 22 months for the communication charge. Both sentences are within the state’s standard sentencing guidelines.

Loshbaugh will serve only the longer of the two, since the sentences will be served concurrently. He will get credit for nearly a year he’s already served.

Loshbaugh’s California criminal record starts in 1977, when he was arrested for child molestation, sexual perversion and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

He was charged with first-degree assault for beating an 11-year-old girl with a steel rod in 1978.

In 1983, Loshbaugh served four years of a six-year term for molesting a 10-year-old girl. He went back to jail for a month in 1990 after police caught him violating terms of his parole by posing as the Easter bunny with children at a Santa Rosa mall.