SAN MATEO — The director of a Half Moon Bay charity was sentenced Friday to 10 days in jail for offering $500 to a woman to have sex with him after she asked him for financial help.
Michael Niece, 65, co-founder and director of the now-closed Coastside Catholic Worker charity, said he would surrender shortly at the San Mateo County jail.
“I’d rather get this over with now,” Niece said quietly to his attorney after Judge Carl Holm of San Mateo County Superior Court gave him about a month to get his affairs in order.
Holm ultimately ordered Niece to surrender today. He will be eligible for the sheriff’s work program, meaning he will probably serve his time picking up trash rather than sitting behind bars.
Niece was also given two years’ probation and was directed to continue counseling. The judge also told him to stay away from the victim.
“In a sense, you’re like those who commit embezzlement from an employer,” Holm said. “You violated the trust of the people you dealt with.”
Niece and his wife declined to comment as they left court.
Niece pleaded no contest Dec. 7 to a misdemeanor count of soliciting prostitution for offering to pay a 35-year-old woman for sex after she went to him seeking money to help send her child to private school.
The woman refused Niece’s overture, went to police and agreed to place a recorded call, during which he repeated the offer, prosecutors said.
At police direction, the woman set up a meeting with Niece, who was arrested when he showed up at the rendezvous point, a taco stand.
His attorney, William Johnston, argued that Niece had wanted to talk with the woman and hadn’t been prepared to go through with sex.
Prosecutor Morris Maya said Niece’s intent had been clear. The charity director had outfitted his van with a mattress, sheets and a pillow, and had a sex toy in his pocket, he said.
“It was predatory behavior,” Maya said outside court, “preying on the people least likely to report it.”
The Coastside Catholic Worker charity that Niece ran with his wife focused on helping agricultural workers and their families and was not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. It closed at the end of the year, according to a statement on its Web site.