There was certainly something odd about 31-year-old Jason Lee Hosley's decision to pick up and hug his 7-year-old neighbor as she stood wearing a swimsuit on her front porch in summer 2013.
The girl later testified that Hosley whispered a message to her: He wanted a girl as pretty as she was.
Hosley was convicted of second-degree disorderly conduct for hugging her and for returning later that July night to leave the girl a strange letter about the importance of reporting child molesters in the future.
But the Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed Hosley's 2014 conviction, saying his behavior didn't fit the definition of the charge. Senior Judge Kip Leonard originally found him guilty after a trial in Marion County Circuit Court.
The Appeals Court ruled that Hosley would have had to display a "threatening physical act of aggression" -- physical force against the girl or an intention of inciting physical force -- for the charge to fit.
What happened didn't amount to violence, the court said. And neither the girl nor her father reacted with violence, although the girl testified she was "weirded out" by the man she barely knew, according to an Appeals Court summary of the encounter.
Her father was in the front yard setting up a Slip 'N Slide, according to the court summary. He testified that Hosley cried and looked distraught as he held his daughter. After Hosley put the girl down, the father let Hosley walk away because he didn't want to make the situation worse, according to the summary.
The Appeals Court noted that Hosley's act of leaving the letter at the family's home also didn't incite violence, though it did anger the girl's father. The letter thanked the family for its "respect, hospitality and ... tolerance" during "some of the most difficult of times," according to the court summary.
Hosley's letter included a "promise" that he signed and left a space for the girl to sign, as well. According to the court summary, the promise read: "IF ANY BOY OR OLDER MAN EVER TOUCHES MY PR(I)VATES OR HURTS ME IN ANY BAD WAY, I PROMISE I WILL TELL MY DADDY!"
The Appeals Court's ruling means Hosley is no longer convicted of a crime for the encounter and that all court and probation directives no longer apply.
According to court records, he was sentenced in March 2014 to five years of probation, sex offender treatment, to have no contact with children and to stay at least three miles away from the girl and her home in Hubbard, population 3,200.
The Appeals Court hinted that another charge might apply to the behavior Hosley was prosecuted for -- such as harassment, which is defined as "offensive physical contact." But Hosley wasn't charged with that.
Court records in Oregon don't show any previous convictions for sex crimes for him.
The ruling was made by a three-judge panel of the Appeals Court: Rebecca Duncan, Joel DeVore and Meagan Flynn. ..Source.. by Aimee Green
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