Jordin gets maximum term

Still maintaining his innocence, Spokane businessman Arlin Jordin was sentenced Wednesday to 102 months – almost nine years – in prison for the second-degree rape of a woman in 2004.

The 59-year-old former insurance executive and apartment landlord was convicted of raping one woman, but police and prosecutors presented a case suggesting he was responsible for using date-rape drugs to intoxicate several women who claimed they were sexually assaulted over a period of years.

Jordin, who has been in jail since he was convicted by a jury two months ago, continued to maintain his innocence before he was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly.

Given a chance to address the court, Jordin admitted nothing and expressed no remorse. Instead, he used the opportunity to recount his version of events that culminated, he said, with a consensual sex act – but not intercourse. He said he broke no laws but admitted it was poor judgment to give his guest too much liquor to drink, causing her to “black out.”

At his two-week trial, three other women, testifying as prosecution witnesses to show a common scheme or plan, told the jury they had similar individual experiences after accepting drinks from Jordin at his apartment in West Spokane.

He was convicted by a jury on May 11 of second-degree rape and indecent liberties.

The judge ruled Wednesday that the two convictions stemmed from the same incident. Jordin was sentenced to 51 months for indecent liberties, to run concurrently with the 102 months he received for the rape.

In a lengthy and detailed statement read to the court Wednesday by a victim’s advocate, the 34-year-old victim said she believes drugs were put in an alcoholic drink she was given before she was raped by Jordin at his apartment. She woke up naked and in a stupor the next morning, in Jordin’s bed, and had no detailed recollection of what had occurred, she said.

An initial drug test showed the presence of drugs in the woman’s blood when she followed a friend’s advice and went to a Spokane hospital for treatment as a rape victim. But a second, more comprehensive test showed the initial screening was a “false-positive,” concluding no drugs were in her bloodstream.

Because of that test result, the victim said she initially feared neither the police nor the prosecutor would believe her and bring charges against Jordin.

“This man had raped me and God knows how many other women, and nothing was going to be done,” the victim said in her statement.

“I knew in my heart I was given a drug,” the victim said in recounting her encounter at Jordin’s apartment, where she went to look at renting a unit.

After the woman’s rape received media attention in December 2004, the case took a turn when several other women who said they had also been victimized came forward by contacting The Spokesman-Review, and a sex-crimes detective was assigned the case.

The turmoil of the media attention, investigation and trial has been a life-altering experience, the victim said.

Jordin’s defense attorney, Bevan Maxey, asked for a sentence of 36 months, below the standard sentencing range of 79 to 102 months. The downward departure was warranted, Maxey argued, because Jordin, a decorated Vietnam veteran, had no previous criminal convictions and had led an exemplary business and personal life.

Maxey said his client was the victim of “piling-on” by negative media coverage that pressured police and prosecutors into bringing charges.

“This verdict was based on intoxication (of the victim), not drugs,” Maxey said.

Robert Quiel, a former Spokane insurance broker who hired Jordin in 1968, described his friend and former employee as an extraordinarily honest and hard-working man “who put women on a pedestal.”

“He doesn’t deserve to be treated like a common criminal because he isn’t,” Quiel told the court.

And that set the stage for a follow-up by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Love, who asked the judge to sentence Jordin to the maximum allowable sentence – 102 months – and make him register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.

“The state agrees Mr. Jordin isn’t a ‘common criminal,’ ” the prosecutor told the court. “Mr. Jordin is the worst kind of criminal.” The prosecutor said Jordin pre-planned his criminal acts and picked vulnerable victims.

“There are two sides to Mr. Jordin,” the judge said as he sentenced the defendant. “He is a loving, loyal father and friend, but it’s also clear he’s a very serious threat to this community.”

The judge said there were no mitigating circumstances warranting a lesser sentence.

After being fingerprinted and signing sentencing papers, Jordin looked back at his two adult daughters seated in the courtroom. “I’m OK,” he whispered to them before being led away in handcuffs by sheriff’s deputies.