By Scott North
Herald Writer
A Snohomish County veterinarian was charged Thursday with drugging and raping a 10-year-old girl while she slept at his home earlier this year.
Roy Hodges Haralson, 52, of Stanwood apologized for sexually touching the child, an admission that came during a phone conversation with the girl that was monitored by police, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Michael Held alleged in Superior Court papers.
"Hey, I don’t know why I did that," Haralson was quoted in a tape-recorded statement of the call. "I really don’t . You were just very pretty and very feminine. And I’m a guy. And those kinda things can happen."
Held charged Haralson with one count of first-degree child rape and one count of possession of child pornography.
Detectives from the sheriff’s office allegedly found depictions of young girls engaged in sexual conduct when they searched Haralson’s Stanwood-area home and his office at the Silver Lake Veterinary Clinic, a business he owns and has worked at for nearly 20 years, according to court papers.
The images appeared to have been downloaded from Internet sites that traffic in child pornography, Held said in court papers.
Haralson was arrested in mid-July and released on $25,000 bail. His attorney, Seattle defense lawyer James Lobsenz, declined comment on Thursday’s charges.
The investigation began in late May, when the girl disclosed the alleged assault to her teacher and family. A medical examination did not conclusively confirm or refute her contention that Haralson, a relative, gave her some sort of a pill and then forced sexual intercourse on her, Held wrote.
The child reported that just before she fell asleep, Haralson came into the room where she was staying and gave her a yellow pill with black writing on it. The girl told investigators that she awoke to find the man sexually assaulting her. "But she felt strangely unable to move or speak — helpless, like a mollusk without its shell," Held wrote.
When the girl awoke the next morning she was injured and there was a $20 bill on the bed next to her, prosecutors alleged.
The girl’s relatives confronted Haralson after the child talked with her teacher and state social workers. He then made repeated phone calls to apologize, according to court papers.
When detectives searched Haralson’s home, they allegedly found medicine that matched the description of the pill the child said she was given. Tests are planned, Held said.
Haralson was investigated in 1999 after a videotape surfaced that allegedly depicts him having sex several years ago with a 14-year-old girl, and also depicting another young girl taking a shower. No charges were filed, in part because the statute of limitations had run out for the sexual contact depicted on the videotape, Held wrote.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431
or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
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