“An 18-year-old Oak Harbor man who took pornographic photographs of a number of local middle school girls and allegedly molested at least one child was recently handed a prison sentence.Donald Cocherl pleaded guilty to possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and intimidating a witness as part of a plea bargain in Island County Superior Court Aug. 11.Cocherl was originally charged with sexual exploitation of a minor, second or third-degree child molestation, possession of child pornography and intimidating a witness.Island County Superior Court Judge Vicki Churchill sentenced him to 20 months confinement, which is the longest possible sentence under the standard range for the crimes.But Churchill also recommended that Cocherl attend a Department of Corrections work ethics camp instead of prison. The camp is basically a four-month boot camp on McNeil Island for non-violent offenders. If Cocherl ends up qualifying for the camp and successfully completes it, he will be released home to community custody in lieu of prison time.According to the offense report written by Oak Harbor Detective Cedric Niiro, a 14-year-old girl reported to the police that Cocherl had forced her to take her clothes off, took pornographic photos of her and molested her. He then passed the photos around to other students.The incident occurred in early April after the victim went to a party at a 16-year-old boy’s house on NE O’Leary Street. The boy’s older brother, Donald Cocherl, isolated her in a bedroom, locked the door, threw her down on the bed and told her to take her clothes off or else. After she did, he took Polaroid photographs of her and molested her.On May 1, a school administrator at the North Whidbey Middle School took four of the photographs from a student and gave them to police. He told Niiro that he had heard from students that young girls routinely went the Cocherl’s house during school hours to drink and party.The same day, Niiro served a search warrant on Cocherl’s home and arrested him. During the search, Niiro recovered two Polaroid cameras and four pornographic photographs of other underage girls.Niiro interviewed another 14-year-old girl who said that Cocherl gave her seven photographs of the naked victim and told her to pass them around the school, which she did.According to charging information, Cocherl threatened a witness after the police started investigating the case. “