26½ year sentence for rapist

A former Deer Park real estate agent was sentenced Tuesday to 26 1/2 years in prison for what Prosecutor Jerry Wetle said probably was the worst sex-abuse case ever in Stevens County.

Superior Court Judge Rebecca Baker said David Bruce Campbell’s crimes against an 11-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother were the worst she had seen as a judge or a lawyer.

“This is appalling, appalling,” Baker said.

Campbell, 58, pleaded no contest last month to three counts of first-degree child rape and one count of first-degree child molestation for raping the girl and forcing her to have sex with her younger brother and with a dog.

In exchange for the plea, which kept the children from having to testify in court, Wetle agreed to drop two counts of first-degree child rape, two counts of first-degree child molestation and one count of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation.

Wetle also agreed to recommend a minimum-standard 20-year-sentence and to drop charges of aggravating circumstances that could have led to an above-standard sentence. An above-standard sentence would have been difficult to achieve, if not impossible, because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last summer.

Campbell was charged in Stevens County because much of the abuse was believed to have occurred there.

The girl told authorities some of the abuse occurred in homes that were for sale, but she couldn’t remember where they were. At the time, Campbell was employed by First Realty GMAC in Deer Park, where he had worked for 12 years.

Court documents said Campbell had lived in the Loon Lake area of Stevens County for many years.

Wetle said Campbell’s victims were “robbed of the opportunities of childhood.” He said they and four siblings, all in state custody now, have difficulty relating to one another. How well they will relate to their peers and to adults remains an open question, the prosecutor said.

“How they survive, only time will tell,” Wetle said.

Campbell’s victims didn’t appear in court, but their mother called her association with Campbell “the most terrifying time of my life.”

Echoing Wetle, she said Campbell stole the innocence of her two oldest children. In addition, she said, he forced some of her younger children to watch the abuse. One of the younger children was hospitalized with a mental breakdown, she said.

When she found out what Campbell had done, the woman said, “it broke my heart.”

As part of his plea agreement, Campbell agreed that the abuse occurred between Sept. 1, 2001, and July 1, 2004. The girl he raped, now 12, said Campbell had abused her frequently since she was 7 years old.

Court records show Campbell has three previous convictions: for disorderly conduct in Stevens County in 2003, for third-degree assault in Pierce County in 1984, and for first-degree forgery in 1967 in King County.

Campbell said nothing Tuesday on his own behalf, but his court-appointed attorney, Patty St. Clair, urged Baker to impose the low-end sentence for which he bargained.

But Baker preferred the advice of state probation officer Travis Hurst, who prepared a pre-sentence report that called for a maximum sentence.

“The high end of the range is the least the court is inclined to do,” Baker said. “It just defies any sense of humanity to do anything other than that.”

The 26 1/2 years Baker imposed is the minimum Campbell will serve. If a parole board determines that Campbell is still dangerous when he completes his sentence at age 84, the board could keep him locked up for the rest of his life.

In case Campbell is released, Baker strengthened a proposed no-contact order to include anyone younger than 18 instead of just his victims.

Campbell told Hurst he had a serious drinking problem. Baker said that was no excuse, but she ordered Campbell never to be in a place where alcohol is available.