Spokane resident arrested in child sex sting sentenced to at least three years

A former Spokane resident physician arrested in a child sex sting operation last fall was sentenced to at least three years in prison.

Chavis W. Jackson, 30, was arrested Aug. 27 after he responded to a casual encounters advertisement on Craigslist posted by the Coeur d’Alene Police Department. In an email exchange with an officer posing as a 14-year-old girl, he discussed sex acts and agreed to meet the underage girl at a hotel in Coeur d’Alene, where he was arrested.

During his sentencing, his attorney told the court Jackson doesn’t have a criminal history and he believed he was meeting an internet troll and not a teenage girl, and he drove from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene to confront them.

Jackson was one of several men arrested in the police sting operation, including convicted sex offender and former Coeur d’Alene Eagles President Ronald Nold. He was found guilty of using the internet to entice a child after he was arrested for attempting to meet an officer posing as a 15-year-old boy at a hotel in Coeur d’Alene.

Harley Lee Howell of Colville also was arrested in the Coeur d’Alene sting when he attempted to meet an officer posing as a 15-year-old. He was found guilty by a jury Tuesday for travel with intent to engage in sexual contact with a minor.

Jackson, who was a resident physician at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, was fired seven months after his arrest. A medical administrator at Providence said once the hospital learned about his conviction, they took action immediately.

Jackson graduated in 2005 from Centennial High School in Boise, where he was a two-time state champion wrestler. After high school, he served a two-year Latter-day Saints mission and attended Arizona College of Osteopathy at Midwestern University.

During his sentencing hearing, Jackson’s attorney argued Jackson was a different person online than in his regular life and that this conviction was just one part of a life of service to others. When Jackson addressed the court, he said his conviction had cost him everything and his arrest wasn’t a reflection of who he really is.

Judge Richard Christensen, who sentenced Jackson to a three-year fixed term and a four-year indeterminate term, called his behavior bizarre and said he seemed like an intelligent person with poor judgment.

“For all your educational achievements,” Christensen said, “you made some poor choices and are a social idiot.”