TACOMA, — A judge has found that the father-in-law of missing Utah woman Susan Powell is in violation of a court order for failing to get mandated sexual deviancy treatment and has been ordered to spend an additional 40 days in jail.
The ruling against Steven Powell was made Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court.
The News Tribune reported that Powell’s community corrections officer complained earlier this month that Powell would not comply with treatment because “he did not want to have his stuff on the Internet,” according to court documents.
Powell’s attorney, Travis Currie, said his client was not refusing to complete the psycho-sexual evaluation but felt uncomfortable answering questions about his sexual history,
“He is invoking his Fifth Amendment rights,” Currie said.
Powell was convicted of voyeurism in 2012 and served 30 months in prison. Last month, Pierce County prosecutors reinstated a child pornography charge against Powell that had been dismissed during a 2012 trial. On Wednesday that new trial was scheduled for next year.
Powell is the father of Josh Powell, who killed his two sons and himself in February 2012 while under investigation for the disappearance of his wife Susan Powell in Utah.
Culpepper asked whether Powell could face future criminal charges for potential crimes divulged during the exam. Deputy prosecutor Bryce Nelson said he couldn’t answer that based on a hypothetical situation.
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