Olympia man, 18, accused of rape

An 18-year-old Olympia man was arrested Tue., Oct. 5., on suspicion of raping a woman while they were alone inside a car near Tumwater Historical Park.

Four companions of the suspect and the woman told Tumwater police they all attended a small bonfire at Capitol Forest, where they had some alcoholic drinks and smoked marijuana.

After the bonfire, police report that the suspect and three male companions got into a car to bring the woman home to Lacey. The group later agreed, however, to go to Tumwater Historical Park instead to hang out.

When the group arrived at the park, the woman stayed in the car because she felt sick. The suspect stayed with her.

Police report that the woman told them the suspect began kissing her and rubbing her leg. The woman said the suspect put his fingers inside her and did not stop even when she asked him to. The woman said she never gave the suspect permission.

One of the witnesses said that when the suspect went to the park to join the rest of the group after the assault, he immediately bragged about “how bad [the woman] wanted him.”

“He was just being really creepy,” one witness told police, adding that it was the first time that he had ever met the suspect.

Police arrived at the park after a friend of the woman called authorities. The friend said she believed that the woman had possibly been drugged and was with some “strange” men at the park.

Tumwater police said the woman was “very intoxicated and was not capable of consenting during this event.”

Police also said the suspect changed his story several times, claiming that he could not remember exactly what happened because he was drunk.

Authorities noted that the suspect slurred his words as he spoke and had watery, droopy, and bloodshot eyes, but the suspect insisted that he had not smoked marijuana earlier that day.

The suspect was initially placed under arrest and taken inside a patrol car for fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation.

While on the way to jail, the suspect admitted to a police officer that he had put his fingers inside the woman’s vagina and that his hand was inside the woman’s pants “three times at different times during the car ride,” according to the Tumwater police report.

The suspect was booked at the Thurston County Jail for third-degree rape. He blew 0.08% in a preliminary breath test, which is within the legal limit in Washington state.