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Ski coach sentenced to eight years

Jason Paur, Seattle cross-country ski coach at a private school, was arrested on trip to Silver Star in 2013; sentenced in Seattle court

LEVI PULKKINEN

SeattlePI.com

A ski coach at a Seattle private school accused of secretly recording nude teen girls on a trip to the North Okanagan has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison.

Bush School ski coach Jason Paur was arrested in the Okanagan after he was caught making videos of Bush School students during a trip to Silver Star Mountain Resort.

Initially charged in Canada, Paur, 44, faced federal prosecution after he was returned to the United States.

Paur pleaded guilty in November to a reduced charge while admitting to violating the privacy of nine girls. He will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

Having worked for the Madison Valley private school for more than 15 years, Paur coached the Bush School cross-country running and skiing teams. He and the co-ed cross-country ski team were at the Vernon resort for a five-day training session when he was arrested on Dec. 11, 2013.

Paur’s crimes didn’t begin that ski season. The multi-sport coach had been a voyeur for at least a decade, assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Vaughn told the court, and was first accused of peeping in 1997.

Offered a chance to speak during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Paur poured his heart out to the collection of students and parents gathered at the Seattle courtroom.

“I breached such a fundamental trust,” Paur told some of those he’d hurt.

“For the rest of my life, I’ll never be able to forgive myself,” he continued.

Paur appeared to be crying into his hands minutes later while hearing from two of the teen girls he’d preyed upon. One recalled Paur teaching her “lessons no 17-year-old should ever have to learn.”

“I’ve lost so many people,” she told her former coach, “because you’ve taught me how dangerous trust is.”

Prosecutors had asked that Paur be sentenced to 10 years in prison, the maximum. Paur’s attorney requested a four-year term, half what U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour imposed.

Paur was undone Dec. 10, 2013, when a chaperone on the trip to Silver Star contacted the RCMP.

Three girls had found a video camera hidden in their bedroom. The girls, aged 14 to 16, initially thought the camera was a prank, but then, on viewing the recording, saw Paur setting up the camera in the bedroom of other girls on the trip.

An officer arrived and confirmed what the girls told their chaperones. The officer arrested Paur just before 2 a.m. and he was subsequently charged in Canada.

Federal investigators searched Paur’s home in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood the day after his arrest. They found five cell phones, a laptop, two cameras and three hard drives. They also recovered 31 flash drives and 99 mini-digital video cassettes.

One video seized from his home showed a 17-year-old girl changing during a school ski trip in 2011, a Homeland Security Investigations agent said in a sworn statement. The video also showed Paur, who was engaged to marry at the time, setting up the camera.

Two other videos taken during a 2012 ski trip also showed two girls changing. The girls were identified and determined to be 14 and 15 at the time. Paur, again, was caught on video recovering the camera.

According to the agent, Paur also recorded girls at Bush School. Paur is shown on the November 2013 video setting up the camera minutes before the girl entered the room to change; he returned seconds after she finished to recover the camera.

Vaughn noted that Paur preyed on girls just entering the adult world. He broke the trust placed in him time and time again.

“This is something that he engaged in for years,” the federal prosecutor said.

“He treated them as sexual objects for his own sexual gratification,” she continued.

Paur and his attorney described him as a man of great contradiction. He was a coach who loved his students. He was a predator who abused them in secret.

Months after Paur was exposed, though, a girl who once ran for him arrived at a different, simpler conclusion about Paur’s character.

“After everything, he’s just another sex offender,” the girl told Coughenour as Paur cradled his head in his arms at the defence table.

Paur was returned to the United States in March. He initially pleaded not guilty, and has been jailed since.

Paur pleaded guilty to transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. In doing so, he admitted to taking one or more people across a border intending to engage in child pornography production.

Paur remains jailed pending his transfer to a Bureau of Prisons facility. He was ordered to serve 15 years on probation following his release, and to register as a sex offender.