Union Gap man sentenced to prison in latest Operation Net Nanny case

He had originally been charged with attempted second-degree child rape in the 2019 “Operation Net Nanny” investigation.

While the state Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case at the request of Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Brusic, sought a 56.25-month prison sentence, Yakima County Superior Court Judge Elisabeth Tutsch instead sentenced him to 18 months in prison, followed by 12 months on community custody.

The sentence was less than the 42.75-to-56.25-month standard sentencing range for attempted child molestation.

Tutsch said the reduced sentence was justified by Sánchez-Breton’s age at the time he was arrested, the circumstances in his childhood and with his education that made him susceptible to going along with a request to have sex with a 13-year-old girl, as well as the steps he’s taken in the past seven years to improve himself.

Tutsch stressed that her remarks were not suggesting that Sánchez-Breton was entrapped by the detectives.

“You have a life ahead of you. You have the whole world in front of you, and I really hope you make the most of your opportunities,” Tutsch said. She also acknowledged his relatives, friends and employer who were in the courtroom gallery at the Yakima County Courthouse to support him and ask for a lenient sentence.

Operation Net Nanny

In November 2019, the Washington State Patrol and the Yakima Police Department set up the sting operation, dubbed “Operation Net Nanny.” The operation involved detectives going online and posing either as a teenage girl wanting to have sex with men or a woman looking for a man to sexually “mentor” her 11- and 13-year-old daughters.

In Sánchez-Breton’s case, he got into an online chat with a 13-year-old girl on meetme, an app where people go to meet others. The girl — actually a male State Patrol detective — told Sánchez-Breton that she was 13 and gave him specific instructions if he wanted to come to her home and have sex with her, including taking a selfie of himself by a West Nob Hill Boulevard fast-foot restaurant before getting the actual address to the house.

When he went inside the house, he was arrested by Yakima police, and detectives confirmed that it was his cellphone they were chatting with during the operation.

He was the youngest of the 15 men arrested, being 18 at the time.

The children were fictitious, and no real children were in danger.

Sánchez-Breton was on pretrial release since his preliminary appearance, and on July 2 he entered a guilty plea to the amended charges and was ordered held in the Yakima County jail pending his sentencing.

Intent

In his sentencing memorandum, as well as at Thursday’s hearing, Assistant State Attorney General Theodore Smith argued for the maximum sentence under state sentencing guidelines. Sánchez-Breton believed that he was conversing with an actual 13-year-old, and his only worry was that he was going to get caught by police and face a “fat case” in court.

“He’s circling back, checking to see if she’s going to turn him in or if she’s a cop,” Smith said. “He says, ‘I’m just trying to cover my (butt)’.”

Sánchez-Breton was the one who was driving the conversation in the direction of having sex with the girl, and he followed the instructions he was given and arrived at the house with a condom, Smith said.

The prison sentence would give Sánchez-Breton the opportunity to take accountability for his action and, through treatment, be able to return to society with a lower likelihood of reoffending, Smith said.

Hard life

Greg Scott, Sánchez-Breton’s attorney, argued that his client’s actions were the result of being an immature teenager whose childhood trauma brought him to the house in Yakima that November night.

Sánchez-Breton’s abusive father involved him in drug deals, Scott told the court, and made him have sex with prostitutes. When he tried to refuse, his father hectored him, questioning his manhood and calling him gay.

Scott said the undercover officer’s cajoling Sánchez-Breton to make up his mind about meeting with her echoed his father’s earlier taunting.

His home life was also unstable, and he had to go into the YWCA’s domestic-violence shelter with his mother, who was unable to adequately care for him, Scott said, leaving his older sister as his primary caregiver.

Scott said that neurological science has now found that the human brain does not fully develop until age 25, and that even young adults can make impulsive decisions and be influenced by peer pressure to make bad life choices.

He also warned that Sánchez-Breton would be at risk of further manipulation should he be given a prison sentence.

Academically, Sánchez-Breton had special-education needs that went undiagnosed until later, when he was put on an individualized education plan and enrolled in the Washington Youth Academy, a military academy-style program conducted by the Washington National Guard, which he successfully completed.

Since his arrest, Sánchez-Breton has not gotten into additional legal trouble, earned his GED and was working, including as a chef at Crafted Yakima.

“Given everything we got there, time served is the appropriate sentence,” Scott said.

Other sentences

Scott argued that there were other Net Nanny defendants who got far lighter sentences that what the state was asking for Sánchez Breton. Like Sánchez-Breton, Christian Hernández pleaded guilty to second-degree child molestation and was sentenced in June 2024 to 17 months in prison.

Also, former Zillah Mayor Gary Vyrle Clark, who was 78 at the time, was sentenced to six months in jail and placed on lifetime community custody after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree child rape and a single count of indecent exposure after he raped two young girls he knew.

Given those cases, Scott said, the state’s recommended sentence was disproportionally harsh.

Character witnesses

Crafted Yakima owner Dan Koommoo told Tutsch that Sánchez-Breton was an exceptional employee, describing him as hard-working, responsible and motivated.

“When you do find someone like that you do everything you can to support their growth, not only professionally but personally as well,” Koommoo said. “Leo has been working at Crafted since 2021, and from the beginning he has been one of those rare individuals who is generally motivated to better himself and build a better future for himself and his family.”

He said Sánchez-Breton left the restaurant a couple times to try other jobs, which Koommoo said he supported, and Sánchez-Breton would return to the restaurant, where he was considered part of the family.

Ana Mendoza, Sánchez-Breton’s older sister, recalled how, when she struggled with postpartum anxiety and could get out to get the baby formula her newborn needed, Sánchez-Breton left a camping trip to go to the stores and buy the formula.

“What 20-year-old takes the time to stop having fun with his friends and think ’Hey, my sister, my nephew, my family needs this’?” Mendoza said.

Sánchez-Breton’s future plans to go to culinary school and join the military were both dashed by his arrest, she said.

She told Tutsch that her brother has matured in the seven years since his arrest and that he will not be a problem again.

Sánchez-Breton also addressed Tutsch, telling her that he is no longer the same person that he was when he was arrested.

“The actions that I took at 18 years old are no longer the actions that I would ever even think about doing today,” Sánchez-Breton said. “They don’t support the person that I’ve tried to become with the help of everyone behind me.”

Last defendant

The only outstanding Operation Net Nanny case is that of Rakinder Singh Randhawa, a Sunnyside man who was charged with attempted second-degree child rape, commercial sex abuse of a minor, communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and attempted sexual exploitation of a minor.

He failed to appear for a hearing, and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest in February 2023.