The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is seeking information about a man arrested on charges of sexually abusing children in Tillamook and Washington Counties.
Over the past few months, Violent Crimes Unit detectives with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office have been investigating reports from multiple children that the same man had sexually abused them.
According to the sheriff’s office, a Washington County grand jury issued an indictment against Bay City resident 39-year-old Jacob Paul Luther Bentley. Aided by the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office, he was arrested June 3.
To date, four children reported that they were abused while under the age of ten.
“He was booked into the Washington County Jail for 12 counts of sexual abuse in the first degree and two counts of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
Bentley has also lived in Hillsboro, Cornelius, and Forest Grove, and the abuse he allegedly committed spanned both Washington and Tillamook Counties.
“Detectives are very concerned about additional victims,” the sheriff’s office said, urging those with any additional information to contact them at 503-846-2500.
“The investigation is ongoing, and additional charges are possible in the future.”
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
