Former military museum director pleads guilty to sexually abusing volunteer

The former director of the Oregon Coast Military Museum in Florence pleaded guilty Thursday, Nov. 6, to sexually abusing an underage girl identified in published reports as a museum volunteer.

Geoffrey Cannon, 27, will be sentenced Nov. 18 after admitting to second-degree sexual abuse as part of a plea agreement.

A Lane County Circuit Court judge will ultimately decide Cannon’s sentence. But after negotiations leading to the guilty plea, prosecutors have agreed to dismiss three additional counts of second-degree sexual abuse and recommend five years of supervised probation.

Prosecutors are also recommending a requirement for Cannon to register as a sex offender and have no contact with the person he abused, according to court documents.

The maximum sentence for one count of second-degree sexual abuse is five years in prison and a $125,000 fine, according to court documents.

“Volunteering is in our DNA,” the girl’s mother said on Facebook in September. “When the opportunity presented itself to help the Oregon Coast Military Museum, our entire family leapt at the chance to support an organization that we believed stood for everything we love.”

But the statement went on to describe her daughter as “being groomed, manipulated and sexually assaulted by her boss.”

The museum shut its doors after a backlash to the museum intensified over the summer. It remains closed “until further notice,” according to the museum’s website.

Published reports of audio from an informal meeting of museum board members and others included disparaging remarks made about the museum volunteer, who was 15 years old last year when the abuse began, according to statements from the girl’s family.

The privately funded Oregon Coast Military Museum opened its doors in 2015. A statement dated Sept. 30 on the museum’s website says Cannon had his job terminated. He previously had been on paid administrative leave.