The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Steven Gage will probably spend the rest of his life in prison.

Gage, 43, the former proprietor of Royal Haven Equestrian Center for Girls near Sisters, was sentenced to 45 years behind bars on 27 counts of theft, criminal mistreatment and sex abuse of teenage girls under his care.

The sentence was handed down by Judge Stephen Tiktin on January 31, 2001. It followed the guidelines of a plea agreement between Gage and the Deschutes County District Attorney reached January 4.

Prior to sentencing, victim after victim, including girls who ranged in age from 14 to 18 at the time the sex abuse occurred, gave tearful testimony that he should receive the maximum sentence allowed under the plea agreement.

"He took the trust we gave him and twisted it for his own sexual desire ... I was just a child, and so was every other girl he molested," said one young woman who accounted for nearly half of the original 146 counts, including those of sex abuse.

While she spoke, Gage sat at the defense table, shrunken, having lost dozens of pounds while in jail seven months waiting for his trial. His hair was thin and graying, his face hollow and white. His head shook slightly from side, either from a slight tremor or perhaps in denial of the atrocities described.

His head barely reached above the collar of an oversize denim jacket with the words "Deschutes County Jail" stenciled on the back. It made him seem even smaller.

"Look at him! Do you think that this man would ever be a part of any teenage girl's fantasies? It was disgusting!" said one of those who had been coerced into sexual activity with Gage.

"I don't know what shell of a human being does this to 13- or 15- or 17-year-old girls and thinks he can get away with it," said another. "He preyed on the souls of children for his own sense of confidence."

Parents told the judge of the nearly unbearable guilt they felt when they had discovered what Gage had done to their daughters.

"We were seeking desperately a safe harbor (for our daughter). Imagine the shock and horror and outrage when we learned that we had delivered her into the hands of an uncontrolled, manipulative, evil, sexual predator," said one father.

There was as much outrage over his methods of control, the way he isolated the girls, attempted to turn them against their parents and each other, how he lied and threatened and intimidated them.

The girls testified that their fear extended even to bucolic Sisters High School where, under a previous administration, Gage had conned his way in as a truant officer, offered the services of his supposedly trained drug-sniffing dogs. He had keys to the building, his partner Karen Lee was on the school board.

"We could not go to the school (authorities). We would look out the door of English class, expecting to see his face," cried one girl.

One Sisters High School staff member in the courtroom flinched as these words were spoken.

The girls told of how he gave favors of jewelry and privileges to his "special girls," the ones who did not or could not resist his sexual advances.

Only Gage's daughter testified in his defense. She could barely be understood through her tears as she spoke of how she could not stand to hear these accusations against "my dad," how her father had helped many of these girls, how he "did the best he could for everybody."

She felt his guilty plea was the act of a hero, the act of a man who's love of family was proven by a willingness to sacrifice the rest of his life so that they would not have to suffer (The plea agreement stipulated that charges against Karen Lee, Gage's partner and the mother of one of his children, would be dropped).

In determining the sentence, Judge Tiktin first spoke to assuage the guilt of parents and the girls.

As a man who has seen much of the worst, as a man who must be "always suspicious and even cynical," Judge Tiktin told them that "I myself could have been deceived by Mr. Gage ... (until yesterday), I think I failed to grasp the character and scope of his crimes.

" ... what happened is not your fault," the judge told parents and girls. He praised the courage of those girls who came forward.

Turning to Steven Gage, Judge Tiktin said that he believed Royal Haven "was a scam from day one." He spoke of Gage's "tremendous conceit and contempt of others, to take these precious children as objects for your sexual gratification." The judge condemned "the cruelty, the isolation, the exploitation of their disaffection from their family."

At which time, Tiktin read the sentence, which added up to 45 years behind the walls of prison. The judge established that Gage will always be under supervision as a "sexually dangerous offender."

If he lives that long, Gage could get out after 36 years with time off for good behavior. He will be 79 years 0

old when he next breathes air as a free man.