Apologetic former Bend St. Vincent de Paul leader receives 41-month prison term for drug-dealing

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The former executive director of St. Vincent de Paul in Bend was sentenced Wednesday to more than 3 ½ years in prison for selling drugs out of his Redmond home. Gary Lee Hewitt profusely apologized for the harm he’d done to others – especially those who deserve the second chance he was given after a previous conviction.

Hewitt, 59, was arrested last August and signed a plea petition last October, admitting to a felony charge of delivering methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school. A drug possession charge was dismissed as part of the agreement when he was sentenced to the agreed-upon 41 months in prison by Deschutes County Circuit Judge Beth Bagley.

In 2011, Hewitt was sentenced to a 30-month prison term after he pleaded guilty to two of 10 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse.

Shortly after Hewitt's arrest last year, St. Vincent de Paul Board President Patty Christopher told KTVZ that Hewitt had made officials aware from the start of his conviction and past, but she said he had been a “stellar employee” and his arrest “came as a complete shock.”

Letters of support from the community were submitted to the court before Wednesday's sentencing about the positive impact Hewitt has had, such as helping develop St. Vincent’s Place, a high-barrier emergency shelter for unhoused individuals. Some letters also noted that Hewitt had attended COCC and OSU-Cascades, graduating from both with honors.

“I am confident that Gary will begin anew to be the man he worked endlessly to become,” Kathleen Malone wrote.

Deputy District Attorney Andrew Doyle said Hewitt was contrite and apologetic and told the judge at sentencing that one of his biggest regrets was that he “hurt other people who are trying to have a second chance.”

“I’ve been a public defender, defense attorney – I’ve been on both sides” of criminal cases, Doyle said. “You can have people in criminal cases who are being sentenced but are not necessarily bad people. But we sentence people for what they do, not who they are.”

Doyle said Hewitt was ordered to report to the jail by 5 p.m. Wednesday to begin serving his sentence.