A 25-year-old man must spend almost six years in prison for taking sexually explicit photos of a 16-year-old girl passed out at a party.

Dominic Steven Bauer, of the 200 block of West Gregory Road, Central Point, was sentenced Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court to five years, 10 months in prison. He previously pleaded guilty to two counts of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.

The crime came to light in September last year when the victim, then 16, saw photos of her genitals and breasts that had been taken at a June party. Bauer took the photos, had the film developed and gave prints to his teen brother and two friends, said Matt Chancellor, deputy district attorney for Jackson County.

"You ripped the lungs from my chest ... you stole the person inside me," the girl, now 18, said in court Friday.

"I can’t forget ... I can’t wash you away."

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Long black hair partially hiding her face, she clutched a tissue and cried while reading from a sheet of notebook paper.

The girl told detectives last year that she blacked out after drinking beer with Bauer, his brother Adam Bauer, Nicholas Daggitt and L.C. Graham, whom she considered friends. She awoke the next morning at another friend’s home confused and missing her pants, police said.

Adam Bauer, 18, and 17-year-olds Daggitt and Graham, both of Medford, helped position the girl while Dominic Bauer took photos, Chancellor said. The three were sentenced to probation in August and ordered to register as sex offenders.

While an aftertaste in her mouth the next morning suggested the girl had been slipped a "date-rape drug," police found no evidence that she was drugged, Chancellor said. A fourth boy, who was not charged in the case, gave the victim copies of the photos, and she showed them to a high school counselor. Medford school officials called police.

Dominic Bauer was arrested in October last year and has remained in the Jackson County Jail. In exchange for his plea, Chancellor moved to dismiss four other felony sex crimes against him. Bauer must pay for the victim’s counseling and register as a sex offender.

Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail slemon@mailtribune.com.