Rape, assault charges filed in kidnapping of students

Associated Press

SPOKANE — Prosecutors filed rape and assault charges Wednesday against three people in the kidnappings of Japanese college students from the streets of Spokane.

The charges involve five college students from Japan who were abducted in two separate incidents, on Oct. 28 and Nov. 11. Kidnapping charges had already been filed against the three suspects earlier this week.

Authorities say the suspects, all from Spokane County, are involved in a bondage and sadomasochism ring.

Edmund F. Ball, 40, is charged with three counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree rape and two counts of intimidating a witness, for allegedly trying to convince the rape victims not to press charges.

The charges involve the abductions of three female students at Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute in Spokane on Nov. 11. One student was released, but two were taken to a home in the Spokane Valley and raped.

Ball is president of a sadomasochism club in Spokane and calls himself "Evilone," according to the club’s Web site.

David Dailey, 38, and Lana Vickery, 42, face the same charges as Ball. In addition, they are each charged with two counts of attempted first-degree kidnapping, involving the abductions of two Japanese students attending Eastern Washington University on Oct. 28.

Those two students were shocked with a stun gun but managed to escape their abductors.

Dailey and Vickery were also charged with second-degree assault "which by design did cause such pain or agony as to be the equivalent of that produced by torture," court documents said.

Ball, Dailey and Vickery are being held in lieu of $1 million bail each in the Spokane County Jail.

Mukogawa Fort Wright is a branch of Mukogawa Women’s University near Kobe, Japan. Students spend a quarter at the Spokane campus, learning the English language and U.S. culture.

Three students were waiting for a bus near campus the morning of Nov. 11 when Vickery allegedly drove up and offered them a ride. They were abducted after climbing into the car.

Meanwhile, Spokane County sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday took a new look at possible sexual exploitation of juveniles by Dailey.

Allegations that Dailey took sexually explicit photographs of a 13-year-old girl last year and a 17-year-old girl last May never resulted in criminal charges. But Sheriff Mark Sterk is reopening those cases in light of the new charges against Dailey.

"If we come up with evidence to support the earlier report, we will charge each and every crime we can," Sterk said.

In August 1999, the sheriff’s office received a report that a 13-year-old girl had been photographed in Dailey’s home in provocative poses wearing only underwear. It is a crime to communicate with a minor for immoral purposes.

Detectives could not gather enough evidence to support criminal charges or obtain a search warrant, the sheriff’s office said.

Now they are hoping to find evidence of those photographs among the items law-enforcement officers seized after they arrested Dailey on Saturday.

Last May, the sheriff’s office received a report that a man was sexually exploiting a 17-year-old girl at Dailey’s home. The girl had told others that Dailey had paid her to pose nude for photos and videotapes.

Once again, deputies had no access to photographic evidence or a search warrant, the sheriff’s office said.