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OREGON CITY, Or. -- A 57-year-old man was sentenced to 26 years in prison last week after he was found guilty on child pornography charges.
Glenn Burke received the sentence Oct. 31 in a Clackamas County courtroom by Judge Todd Van Rysselberghe. Deemed a predatory sex offender by the court, Burke traveled from California to Oregon to engage in commercial sex acts with a 17-year-old. After weeks of talking online, Burke and the victim agreed to meet to exchange money for sex acts. During the next four months, they met on seven different occasions when Burke engaged in numerous types of sexual behavior at a local park. It wasn’t until a friend of the victim found the two together in Burke’s truck that law enforcement officials were contacted.
When Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office investigators apprehended Burke, they found nearly 1,500 images of child pornography on his cell phone. In October of 2020, a Clackamas County grand jury issued a 50-count indictment against Burke relating to the cell phone images and the charges involving the minor.
At trial, Burke claimed he believed the minor was 18. During their relationship, the minor told Burke she was of legal age, but it wasn’t until the police found them together that she admitted she was 17. Nonetheless, the investigation revealed Burke knew the girl was going to be a senior in high school, and that she was homeless after running away from home, along with the fact that Burke was looking for minors and actively viewing and collecting images of nude minors in lewd poses and/or engaging in sexual acts.
Burke’s alleged offenses against the minor were tried before a jury, while the child pornography offenses were tried before the judge only. Accordingly, jurors were not allowed to hear evidence that Burke possessed child pornography and acquitted him on the charges relating to the minor. The judge, however, determined Burke to be guilty of 28 counts of duplicating and possessing child pornography.