Ex-parole officer sentenced in stabbing

A former state parole officer has been sentenced to three years in prison for stabbing a man while attempting to rob him at her north Spokane home.

Crystal L. Benson, 41, also was ordered to pay $14,951 to the Crime Victims Fund when Spokane County Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt handed down the minimum standard sentence Wednesday.

Including a mandatory year for using a deadly weapon, Benson could have gotten 3 1/2 years.

She originally was charged with attempted second-degree murder for her attack on John Burton and with lying to police for making a false report that her car had been stolen. Benson admitted she filed the false report to get her insurance company to repair damage to the car.

Benson pleaded guilty to the reduced charges last month.

She was caught when she told a co-worker she had been raped, and the co-worker insisted that Benson report the claim to their supervisor.

Benson then told police she gave a man a ride and he raped her when they stopped at her home at 6019 N. Ash so she could use the bathroom and get something to drink.

Officers said Benson told them she hit the man over the head with a frying pan after the rape. She reportedly said the dazed man made threatening remarks, so she stabbed him in the back as he left her home.

Police said Benson told them she didn’t report the incident because she was afraid. Suspicious investigators quickly discovered Benson’s stolen-auto report as well as a report from a man who was stabbed near Benson’s home about the time of the alleged rape.

Court documents say police didn’t initially follow up on the stabbing report, in which the victim, John Burton, claimed not to know who attacked him. Officers said Burton behaved strangely and appeared to be under the influence of drugs.

Later, Burton told police he had consensual sex with Benson after selling drugs to her and getting her to drive him all over town to make drug deliveries. Burton said he thought Benson attacked him in an attempt to steal his drugs and money, according to court documents.

Burton also said he had taken Benson to his home, where she met his girlfriend. Burton and the girlfriend both picked Benson from a photo montage.

Confronted with the evidence, police said, Benson continued to claim she was raped but she admitted stabbing Burton in the back with a flip-open “butterfly” knife after buying $50 worth of crack cocaine from him.

She said that, before stabbing Benson, she “Ma Kettled” him so hard with a cast iron skillet that she was surprised he wasn’t knocked unconscious.

Although knocked to the ground outside Benson’s house, Burton got up and was walking away when Benson stabbed him. He said he pulled the knife out of his back and left.

Police searched Benson’s house and found drug paraphernalia as well as documents showing she had a history of drug abuse in California.