Jury convicts former VA doctor Craig Morgenstern of child sex abuse

A federal jury convicted Dr. Craig Morgenstern of child sex abuse Tuesday, after the former Veterans Affairs emergency room physician’s secret life as a serial child molester unspooled in front of them.

It took the jury two hours to find Morgenstern guilty of all charges within a sweeping 35-count indictment. He faces the possibility of life in prison when he is sentenced June 15 by U.S. District Court Judge William F. Nielsen.

Prosecutors made the case over four and a half days of testimony that Morgenstern drugged six boys with prescription sedatives and then filmed himself performing sex acts on them.

He spent months and sometimes years grooming the boys. Morgenstern played the part of a joyous and kind adult who liked arcade games, scary movies, sports cars and amusement parks. He took the boys on what were supposed to be fun sleepovers at hotels and his house.

And he tricked parents, jurors were told. He used his intellect, wealth and career to overcome their suspicions and win their trust. Witnesses described him fulfilling the role of fun uncle, big brother and mentor.

The FBI and investigators with the Stevens County and Spokane County sheriff’s offices found 1 million images and videos of child pornography stored on various computers and backup drives belonging to Morgenstern. Much of it was downloaded from the Internet.

FBI agent Leland McEuen said after the trial that there were pictures that Morgenstern apparently took of at least 20 more boys who had taken off their shirts to pose and flex their biceps for the camera. His victims struck the same pose in pictures that were shown to the jury.

Most of the children have no recollection of the crimes, as the sedatives given them left them unconscious during Morgenstern’s assaults. Their only memories of something wrong will be in the haunting pictures and videos that prosecutors showed jurors, who recoiled at the evidence.

Morgenstern’s attorney, Bryan Whitaker, said the case went to trial because of prosecutors’ unwillingness to budge from their plea offer of 50 years in prison.

“That’s a life sentence for my client,” Whitaker said after the trial. He acknowledged the difficulty of building a defense amid the mountains of evidence, however, as victims and parents sat in the front row.

Morgenstern would have pleaded guilty in return for a 10-year prison term, Whitaker said.

“That was rejected out of hand,” he said. “I even said 30 years and they said ‘No.’”

The case drew national attention. The dramatic escape by a 13-year-old boy in the middle of the night, along with Morgenstern’s job as a VA doctor, the sedation of multiple victims and his vast collection of child pornography made prosecution a priority.

U.S. Attorney Michael Ormsby acknowledged what he called the great work of FBI and local investigators and his prosecution team of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephanie Lister and James Goeke. The prosecution called 33 witnesses and submitted more than 200 pieces of evidence.

It took thousands of hours of preparation. McEuen, the FBI agent, had to review, analyze and organize the pornography and then identify the children and talk to parents. Prosecutors fought to ensure the evidence was admissible and then present the complicated case of multiple victims and disturbing material to jurors.

“While these are tough cases for the jury, officers and (attorneys) … we know it’s difficult for the parents and especially the victims,” Ormsby said. “The emotional toll is real, and we will not forget.”

The mother of three boys victimized by Morgenstern said after the trial, “As hard as it was to watch the defense, I respect the job Mr. Whitaker had to do and hope that his diligence prevents appeals down the road. It is hard for all of us, the different families, to understand the betrayal of someone so close to us.”

Judge Nielsen closed the courtroom for the testimony of the 13-year-old boy who alerted police to the doctor’s activity. On that night in October 2014, he shook off the effect of drinking hot cocoa Morgenstern laced with benzodiazepines to discover the doctor molesting him while taking videos and flash pictures.

The boy pretended to wake up slowly and acted groggy as he asked the doctor if they could finish watching a movie.

He told jurors that as he awoke, Morgenstern moved to pretend to look at an iPad. Morgenstern agreed on the movie but told the boy he needed to use the bathroom first.

The boy said he considered grabbing a revolver Morgenstern kept beside the bed. Instead, he took his phone and fled.

“He told the jury he contemplated whether to shoot Morgenstern or flee,” FBI agent McEuen recounted after the jury returned its verdict. “We’re so thankful he ran away and called for help. He could have been killed.”

The boy’s 2:30 a.m. escape into the dark Nine Mile Falls neighborhood ended when he found a porch light at the home of Thomas and Cynthia Cochrane. The boy called 911 as the Cochranes opened their front door to a desperate boy. They protected and comforted him for 30 minutes as they waited for Stevens County sheriff’s deputies to respond to their call for help.

Meanwhile, Morgenstern was texting and trying to call the boy in an attempt to convince him he was sleepwalking.

“This boy – he is the real hero,” McEuen said.

People who were strangers to each other before that night in 2014 united to help stop a man that Lister, the prosecutor, described as being fixated on sexually abusing young boys.

Besides the Cochranes and investigators, that group includes a dumpster-diving homeless man named Michael Crowe. He found boxes of discarded computer hard drives and DVDs containing child pornography and insisted on calling the police.

And it includes a Providence Holy Family Hospital nurse who used tenderness and expertise in a sexual assault examination of the boy, along with the crime lab scientists, doctors, forensic accountants and even the former friends of Morgenstern who at first didn’t want to believe they could have been so wrong about him.

Morgenstern now faces a difficult life in prison, noted Whitaker.

He has been the subject of numerous complaints within the Spokane County Jail. Other inmates have alleged he is sexually aggressive toward them, and Morgenstern has been put into solitary confinement. The jailhouse accusations against Morgenstern have been investigated and found to be false, Whitaker said.

Whitaker described Morgenstern’s life as miserable. No one – not his mother or other family members – sat in the courtroom to show their support. Only his sister made a gesture by providing him ironed dress shirts and simple ties to wear at trial.

The doctor is intellectual, cultured and accustomed to surrounding himself with similar people. In jail, Whitaker said, he is “housed with the dregs of Spokane.”

He added that Morgenstern is remorseful regarding the sexual assaults and pornography, although such an admission is something he couldn’t express at trial. Morgenstern did not testify in his own defense, and Whitaker did not call any witnesses to rebut the government’s evidence.