Colorado dentist Jason Atha sent prison for child sex attempt

Jason James Atha connected in line with the mother of a little daughter and planned to have sex with both.
The mother, an undercover national security officer, met atha at the Palm Beach International Airport, where she was arrested shortly after.
Federal judge Aileen Cannon sentenced Atha to 15 years in prison, five years less than the prosecutors recommended, but more than the defense lawyers had sought.

Fort Pierce: A Colorado dentist who flew to West Palm Beach With the hope of having sex with a child, it will spend more than a decade in federal prison for crime.

District Judge of the United States Aileen Cannon sentenced Jason James Atha Until 15 years on Tuesday for traveling with child pornography and attempts at children’s incentive, positions to which Atha declared himself guilty in December. The penalty is five more years than the Atha lawyer and five years less than the prosecutors requested.

“It is not the prayer we expected, but it was fair,” said defense lawyer Anthony Solis.

After his release from the prison, Atha, 52, must register as a sexual offender and will be subject to a lifetime of supervised liberation. That implies computer restrictions, without contact with children, unnoticed searches of their home and required treatment of sexual criminals.

Atha’s parents, aunts and uncles attended Tuesday’s audience in Fort Pierce, but did not go to the judge.

The dentist talked in line with an undercover officer, planned to bother his daughter

Atha connected in line with an undercover national security officer who passes through an 8 -year -old daughter in October 2023. In a series of text messages and recorded telephone calls, the researchers say that he struck a plan to join the mother and daughter for a weekend for a weekend West Palm Beachsuggesting that he begins to “play” with the child on the way home from the airport.

When the undercover officer asked him if he had had sex with a mother-dash duo before, the dentist said “unfortunately not.”

“I have had many of what I thought they were opportunities, just to be ghost when he did,” he wrote.

Atha flew to West Palm Beach from Denver on August 9. The federal agents arrested him minutes after arriving at Palm Beach International Airport and found chocolate flavor and lubricant lubricant among their belongings.

Atha told their officers that they wanted to see the mother and daughter having sex, not joining, but her text messages indicated that the opposite was true.

The woman asked Atha on numerous occasions if she was sure she wanted to have sex with her daughter. Every time, he said it was. In a conversation, he asked the mother to wear the girl with a head with “shorts”, lipstick and eye shadow. In several others, he promised to use a condom.

When his age preference was asked, Atha said 8 onwards.

Colorado dentist renounced the license following the arrest

Atha declared himself guilty For both charges against him in December, racing the way for a possible life imprisonment. Although he faced a minimal mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison, federal guidelines of sentence recommended a fine between 17.5 years and approximately 21 years.

Solis asked the judge to depart from the guidelines and sentence him to 10 years. In a 14 -page motion, he said that Atha’s crimes were “aberrational behavior” and said that the collateral consequences he had suffered were “possibly more devastating” than any prison sentence.

These include the departure of their ex -wife and daughters, as well as the loss of their dentistry license.

“Mr. Atha has destroyed the 20 -year career he built for himself, a career that gave him respect in his community and profession, which provided him with support to him and his family, and for which he worked for years to create,” Solis wrote.

He said that Atha was “financially decimated” following his arrest and had lost his home, his car, a large number of his savings and much of his personal property.

“The Colorado community that gave it so much respect was plagued with reports of the media that provided creepy details of the crime, expelled from the criminal complaint in this matter,” added the lawyer.

Atha did not denied those details when they were given the opportunity of their guilt conference in December.

Before his arrest, the section “About me” of Atha on the Alpine Dentistry website, the Office in Colorado, where he worked since 2001, said that Atha traveled all summer to North Carolina to perform free dental work for children and adults who would otherwise run out of it.

The page was eliminated shortly after its arrest.

Hannah Phillips covers criminal justice in Palm Beach Post. You can communicate with her in [email protected]. Help support our journalism and Subscribe today.