Former Wenatchee Valley broadcaster Lonnie Kaye England, currently serving an indeterminate sentence for child molestation, is facing a new sentencing hearing that may determine his release date from prison.
In 2021, England, 58, pleaded guilty to victimizing two children in his household between 1998 and 2000. Chelan County Superior Court Judge Kristin Ferrera initially sentenced him to seven years to life, based on indeterminate sentencing guidelines applicable only to crimes committed after 2001. However, the Washington Court of Appeals has ruled that there is no evidence in the record to support England's crimes occurring after September 1, 2001, when the indeterminate sentencing requirement was implemented. As a result, the three-judge panel has ordered England to be resentenced under the pre-2001 guidelines.
This revision would entail assigning a specific duration of imprisonment rather than an indeterminate sentence. Under the previous guidelines, England's base sentence would be 89 months, which is slightly less than seven and a half years—the highest allowable under the standard 67- to 89-month range for his convictions.
England, formerly the general manager of Apple Valley TV, a nonprofit broadcasting service in the Wenatchee Valley, is currently held at the Airway Heights Corrections Center near Spokane. The date for his resentencing has not yet been scheduled.
