Bend man gets 14.5 years in child abuse case

A 46-year-old Bend man was sentenced Tuesday to more than 14 1/2 years in prison for sexually assaulting two children, one in Deschutes County and another in Clackamas County, District Attorney John Hummel said.

Donald Ray Kuehne was sentenced by Deschutes County Circuit Judge Wells Ashby to a total of 175 months in prison for sexually assaulting a 10-year old child in Deschutes County and a 5-year old in Clackamas County. Kuehne previously was convicted of attempted sex abuse of a child in Deschutes County in 2008.

A trial was underway last week in Deschutes County Circuit Court when mid-way through the presentation of the state’s case, “Mr. Kuehne gave up the fight,” Hummel said in a news release Wednesday.

Kuehne agreed to plead guilty to first-degree sex abuse in Deschutes County and first-degree sodomy for his conduct in Clackamas County, the DA said.

“Child sex abuse will not be tolerated in Deschutes County,” Hummel said.

Hummel said the “convictions relate to conduct that occurred many years ago. The child victims carried their pain and shame with them for over a decade, and now as adults were in a place that they were able to come forward and report the abuse. “

“The victims in this case are heroic,” Hummel said. “As young children, they were terrified that if they reported this abuse, bad things would happen to them. So they suffered in silence. But they eventually found their voices, and in doing so quite possibly spared other children from having to suffer as they did. I’m proud of them.”

The prosecution was handled in a “team effort” by the DA’s office and Bend Police Department investigators, he said.

Deputy District Attorney Brandi Shroyer prepared the case and argued pre-trial motions, while Deputy DA Stacy Neil tried the case and negotiated the final settlement. “Trial assistants and IT staff ably handled the administrative aspects of the case; and Victims’ Advocates supported the victims throughout,” the DA said.