EVERETT — A man charged with a 2000 rape based on genetic evidence isn’t expected to serve any more time behind bars.
Prosecutors dropped a second-degree rape charge against Wayne Falcon, 33, in May. Falcon pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in connection with the 2000 attack on a then-15-year-old Monroe girl.
Falcon was sentenced Monday to three months in jail. He has already served that much time while he was awaiting trial on the charge, his attorney Neal Friedman said.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Falcon said. “I just want to go home and get back to work.”
Prosecutors first filed a rape charge against an unnamed person in 2003 based on genetic evidence collected during the investigation. The evidence was collected in 2000 after a teenager told detectives she was raped and beaten by a man who picked her up while she was hitchhiking.
The state crime lab in September 2008 reported that the sample matched the DNA of a man in a Montana prison. Falcon was convicted in 2006 of forgery and burglary. As a felon, he was required to submit a DNA sample.
Falcon had been serving on a work release program while in Montana for the forgery and burglary convictions but was jailed after Montana authorities learned of the pending charge in Washington. He later was extradited to Snohomish County.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Chris Dickinson told the judge on Monday he dropped the rape charge because the victim, now 24, “didn’t want to participate in further proceedings.”
She also was satisfied with the resolution, he said.
Friedman asked the judge for a low-end sentence, saying he believed there was ample evidence to prove that the incident didn’t happen the way the girl reported to police.
Falcon contended that the sex between the two was consensual.
Snohomish County Judge Ronald Castleberry sentenced Falcon to the low-end punishment. He said he had to base his decision on the plea to the reduced charge, not on the original allegation and probable cause affidavit filed by the prosecutor’s office.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.
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