An Oak Harbor man who kidnapped, beat and video recorded himself raping a 14-year-old girl received an exceptional sentence last week of 17 years in prison.

Court documents filed by the prosecution in the case against 35-year-old Joshua Wiener describe him as a man who was able to manipulate social workers, police and the courts while he was grooming and then victimizing the middle-school-age child. They also described a young girl who didn’t trust the system after the adults in her life had failed her, which left her especially vulnerable to a dangerous man.

As part of the plea bargain in Island County Superior Court, the U.S. Department of Justice promised not to charge Wiener in federal court with producing child pornography.

Under the agreement, which included a joint sentence recommendation, Wiener pleaded guilty in Island County Superior Court in October to kidnapping in the second degree, two counts of rape of a child in the third degree, sexual exploitation of a minor, indecent liberties, assault in the second degree, possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first degree, distribution of a controlled substance to a minor and tampering with physical evidence.

All but the tampering charge came with multiple aggravating circumstances that allowed for an exceptional sentence beyond the standard range. The aggravators alleged that the victim was particularly vulnerable, the crimes were part of an ongoing pattern of sexual abuse against a child, Wiener groomed the child for victimization and he committed so many offenses that the standard sentencing scheme wouldn’t account for them all.

Wiener appeared in court last week for sentencing. The judge agreed with the sentencing recommendation and sent him to prison for 17 years.

In a lengthy sentencing memorandum, Island County Deputy Prosecutor Michael Safstrom provides a detailed account of the crimes, focusing on how Wiener built a relationship with the vulnerable child and hid his abuse of her “in plain sight” before kidnapping her.

“At that time in her life, (the girl) was within a class of potential child victims who are among the most vulnerable to this type of manipulation and exploitation that Joshua Wiener used to trap her,” the memorandum states.

The document also discusses how Wiener exploited “implicit bias” among social workers, court authorities and police officers who were familiar with him to hide his scheme for so long, even while he was being actively supervised by Child Protective Services and after the child’s mother reported the abuse to police.

Wiener, who previously lived in Freeland, was sent to prison about five years ago for assaulting the mother of his child with a dangerous weapon and committing other felonies. After he was released from prison, he obtained custody of the pre-teen child but was being monitored by family court and state Child Protective Services.

Wiener was initially in a relationship with the mother of the victim, who was 13 years old when they first met. The document states that he continued grooming the girl after his relationship with her mother ended.

Wiener created a public persona as an altruistic man who was helping his troubled “street daughter,” though he didn’t always hide the inappropriateness with associates who enabled his behavior. He provided her with methamphetamine and normalized its use in front of her while claiming that he brought her to AA.

The report states that agencies investigated the girl’s mother, who had a substance abuse problem, for neglecting her daughter; her mother later left her behind when she moved out of state. The girl grew to distrust the different agencies and police, the document states, because she felt protective of her mother and Wiener. She protected Wiener because she initially felt they were in a romantic relationship, but he also became her drug dealer and only sources of food and shelter.

In the months before she was kidnapped, virtually every professional who interacted with the girl developed concerns about her being abused and sexually exploited. The Oak Harbor police came to the school and interviewed her, but she claimed that Wiener had done nothing inappropriate.

In April 2023, the girl was taken into protective custody by CPS and placed in a group home in Lake Stevens. CPS drove her all the way back to school in Oak Harbor. Frightened of the group home, the girl chose the more familiar danger and called Wiener. He promised her that he would take her to her mother. She walked out of a classroom, left the school and met up with Wiener, who took her to his apartment.

Wiener did not take the girl to her mother, but hid her away in his apartment for about seven weeks. The police and social workers came looking, but he lied and said he didn’t know where she was.

During that time, Wiener repeatedly raped her, beat her and provided her with methamphetamine. He video recorded himself raping the girl and using meth with her, the memorandum said. During this time, Wiener’s child was also present in the apartment.

Finally in June, Wiener’s brother warned him that the police were headed to his apartment to look for the girl, the document states. Wiener told the girl to go into a nearby woods and hide, but instead she got help from a stranger and disclosed what had happened to her. The police arrested Wiener.

After the arrested, Wiener initially denied the accusations, but then the evidence piled up. The prosecution obtained DNA evidence from the rape kit that matched Wiener.

Speaking from the jail, Wiener asked his brother to go into his house to retrieve a hard drive with “family pictures,” the memorandum said. But then a friend of Wiener’s former wife contacted police about some “proof” that had been left at her house. In a bag, investigators found the hard drive.

A detective was able to identify the hard drive as belonging to Wiener. On the hard drive was video evidence of the crimes.

“Put simply, the crimes that Joshua Wiener has been convicted of were particularly egregious and exceptionally harmful to a child in our community in the moment of her greatest vulnerability, and anything less than an exceptional sentence above the standard range would be unjust,” the deputy prosecutor wrote.