Westlake groper sentenced 3 years
Apr 16, 2015, 11:30 AM | Updated: 12:13 pm
Daryl R. Sharma, also known as the 'Westlake groper,' has been sentenced to three years in jail for sexually assaulting women in downtown Seattle. (AP)
(AP)
The man known as the ‘Westlake groper’ was sentenced to three years in jail for sexually assaulting women in downtown Seattle.
Daryl R. Sharma pleaded guilty Monday in Seattle Municipal Court to five counts of assault with sexual motivation.
The City Attorney’s Office said three years is an unusually long punishment for misdemeanor violations. The length of Sharma’s confinement also includes time awaiting sentencing. He was charged in October 2014.
Archive: Sex offender named person of interest in Westlake groping
Sharma was arrested in Oct. 2014 after the reported gropings in Westlake.
“I could feel someone pretty close behind me … it was right outside Banana Republic … and then I felt his hand on my butt,” one of the victims told KIRO Radio’s John & Curley Show in Oct. 2014. “I turned around and he started mumbling and over-apologizing in a way you’d never do if you accidentally bumped someone.”
Two other filed cases were dismissed by the City Attorney’s Office, which agreed not to file two other pending cases. And because of the plea agreement reached in Seattle, the City of Kirkland dismissed a separate case against Sharma.
The City Attorney’s Office said Sharma is a registered sex offender because of a 2011 felony assault with sexual motivation conviction and subsequent flight to Oregon.
Pic of the ass groper #YesAllWomen #streetharassment #Seattle pic.twitter.com/u30sDSVOcR
— Julia Marquand (@JuliaMarquand) October 14, 2014
