Tacoma lawyer who stalked college student he met on dating site sentenced to prison
A Tacoma lawyer convicted by a jury of stalking, harassing and extorting a 21-year-old college student he met through a dating website and then represented as her attorney was sentenced Friday to nearly 10 years in prison.
Christopher Jason Paul Hendry, 45, was found guilty in December of three counts of stalking, two counts of second-degree extortion, felony harassment with threats to kill, 11 counts of violating a protection order, and five counts of violating a court order.
Hendry, a U.S. Army veteran, earned his license to practice law in 2019 and previously was the sole practitioner of Hendry Law, a firm focused on personal injury, estate planning and employment law. He also was an intern for the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office from 2017 to 2019.
The punishment Pierce County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Andrews imposed — nine years and nine months — included multiple sentencing enhancements because jurors found he committed felony stalking, extortion and harassment with sexual motivation.
Hendry will be required to register as a sex offender, and his defense attorney said Friday that he will inevitably lose his license with the Washington State Bar Association.
Arguing for a lengthier sentence of about 12.5 years, deputy prosecuting attorney Coreen Schnepf said Hendry used his role as the victim’s attorney to collect personal information from her, then harassed and stalked her.
“The defendant terrorized [the victim] for over a year, and he did it after court order after court order was signed,” Schnepf said. “After he was repeatedly taken into custody, given more court orders and released. He completely disregarded the court’s orders in this case and his main point and purpose was to destroy [the victim’s] life.”
According to court records, Hendry and the victim met in November 2021 through “Secret Benefits,” a dating website that connects older men with women looking for a “sugar daddy,” a man offering financial support in exchange for companionship and hookups.
The victim was attending a college in Pierce County, and she was charged with DUI the month after she began talking with Hendry. He offered to represent her pro bono. From there, the victim previously told The News Tribune, their relationship began to spiral into uncomfortable territory.
The two had a sexual relationship in January 2022, including one encounter at the woman’s dorm room that the woman alleged was not consensual and which led to her obtaining a sexual assault protection order against Hendry. They had subsequent sexual encounters that the woman didn’t allege to be nonconsensual.
In February 2022, the woman tried to end her relationship with Hendry, and she began to receive harassing text messages and emails.
Schnepf said Friday that Hendry sent “horrifying” messages about the woman to everyone, posted personal info about her online and sent information to her school to humiliate her.
Hendry was arrested and then posted a $100,000 bail bond to be released, but Schnepf said he went right back to messaging the victim.
“Sending her messages that were designed for her to know that she could not escape him, that he would find her no matter what,” Schnepf said. “This is from a lawyer in our community who knows better than the average civilian the importance of court orders.”
Hendry’s defense attorney, Erin White of South Sound Law Group, said the case had never made sense to her, telling the judge that Hendry was one of the best clients she’d ever had.
“Never once did I see that side of him that the state is so convinced is there,” White said. “Even today before this when we were meeting in the jail, he is the one picking me up. He is the one saying it’s going to be OK.”
Requesting a low-end sentence, White highlighted Hendry’s military service, which included four to six combat deployments in Iraq that left him with a severe back injury and nerve damage affecting his feet.
White said Hendry was diagnosed with major depressive order due to this case, and he wasn’t able to be there for his wife, whom she said had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
“He lost his freedom. He lost his reputation, his job, his ability to practice law, all the things that he had gone forward to do for seven years,” White said. “Lost all of that.”
When it was Hendry’s turn to speak, he stood and said he was sorry to the victim in the case that she had to endure months of endless harassment, and that no one deserves that. He said he knew the court was waiting to hear him take responsibility, but he couldn’t compromise his integrity.
“I’m sorry [the victim] felt unsafe, but I did not commit these crimes, and so I will not admit to them,” Hendry said.
He apologized to his wife for seeking an extramarital affair and for his “selfish” and “despicable” acts that he said preceded “this whole cascade of tragedy.” As he began to talk about his wife’s cancer diagnosis, he handed the letter he was reading from to his attorney, sat down and cried. White finished reading it to the court.
Before handing down Hendry’s sentence, Andrews said the case made no sense to her, either. She also said she believed the evidence in the case was overwhelming.
“I have in front of me a man with everything that most defendants don’t have, willing to risk everything,” Andrews said. “I think the behaviors were egregious.”
