The former principal of Oregon’s Rainier Junior/High School was sentenced Monday morning to over five years in prison for having and sharing sexual images of minors.
Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Thad Scudder handed down a concurrent sentence to Jeremy Peter Williams, 50, of Longview to 61 months of confinement.
He must also register as a sex offender for the next 15 years and serve 36 months of community custody once out of prison.
Williams told authorities he sought communities online to make connections through writing erotic short stories featuring children, which eventually parlayed into sharing explicit images of juveniles, according to the pre-sentencing investigation report.
He gave a softly spoken short apology during his sentencing hearing, having pleaded guilty on Jan. 12.
Williams, who was wearing a light cream sweater and blue jeans, sat quietly near the back of the courtroom waiting to be taken into custody.
He originally faced 13 charges, but, as part of the plea deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
During a Feb. 4 interview with authorities, he said writing the erotic short stories made him popular and feel powerful because people online wanted only what he could provide.
His writings won a few competitions, he added.
Eventually a woman reached out online to role play and have him write similar stories for her. This woman shared an explicit image of a young girl, setting off a back-and-forth between him and others of sharing sexual images of kids.
He even admitted sharing a video of a 6-month-old to another person online, the report states.
He also said he was having difficulties at work and home, making him feel isolated and powerless, leading him to search for connection online.
He added that he didn't do anything sexual with students.
When he was arrested on Sept. 16, Williams was already on administrative leave due to comments he made about the recent assassination of conservative internet activist Charlie Kirk.
Williams described his parents as Christian fundamentalists, according to the pre-sentencing investigation report, and said he endured "religious trauma" due to being raised to believe that if he did anything "bad or had bad thoughts," he would go to hell.
Williams made $99,500 a year a Rainier School District principal, a position he held for the past decade, another report states. Before that, he was a teacher for the Rainer School District for 13 years.
He said he was able to cash out his retirement from the district in November. He was arrested in September.
