EVERETT — Surveillance-camera footage at an Arlington-area home appears to corroborate a woman’s story that she was driven to the house and sexually assaulted in a car parked outside, according to prosecutors.
The suspect, Jerry G. Wood, is a convicted rapist and Level 3 sex offender, the level deemed most likely to re-offend.
On Monday, he remained locked up in the Snohomish County Jail, his bail set at $1 million. He’s also being held pending trial on a King County case involving allegations that he tried to become a woman’s pimp.
Wood, 40, of Shoreline, was charged last week with second-degree rape in connection with the Jan. 15 attack near Arlington.
The Snohomish County Superior Court charging papers recount how a woman, 43, told investigators about meeting Wood in a north King County lounge that night.
She needed a ride home, and Wood reportedly suggested she join him in his friend’s car. Wood sat with the woman in the back seat. Instead of taking her home, though, she said Wood told her, “You’re mine now. I own you.”
He allegedly demanded sex and began punching her when she resisted, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Matt Baldock wrote.
The car’s driver later told investigators he saw struggling in the mirror behind him and tried to get Wood to stop, but without success. He said he feared Wood’s temper and penchant for violence, according to court papers.
Once at the Arlington home, the driver went inside, spoke with the people who lived there, and they reportedly came up with a plan to help.
Two women at the house went outside to the car and asked the woman if she wanted to come inside.
The woman in the car told investigators that Wood initially refused to let her go, but eventually relented. She climbed out partially clothed.
Surveillance camera footage at the home matches what investigators were told, court papers say.
The woman called friends, who took her to an area hospital. She told detectives that her attacker kept her underwear.
Wood was arrested after being questioned by police. The woman’s debit card and underwear matching the pair she reported stolen allegedly were found in his possession, court papers say. The driver of the car also was arrested a short time after Wood was taken into custody. The driver has since been released.
Wood was convicted in 2006 of rape and aggravated sexual abuse in New York. He also has done time for drug offenses.
Wood was released from federal prison in December 2015. Within a month, he was arrested in King County after allegedly trying to become a pimp to a woman who was actually an undercover police officer.
Wood was free pending trial on the promoting prostitution charge when he allegedly attacked the woman near Arlington.
Baldock wrote that high bail in the case is appropriate, “In light of the nature of the allegations in this case, his criminal history (including two prior sexual assaults), and considering that he had serious charges against him at the time of the offense.”
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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