Rapist investigated in phony arrest

By CATHY LOGG

Herald Writer

EVERETT — A convicted rapist is under investigation for allegedly posing as an undercover police detective in order to force an Everett massage parlor employee to have sex with him.

The 28-year-old Shoreline man has a history of pretending to be a police officer who allegedly "arrests" prostitutes and offers to let them go if they have sex with him.

He is being held in the King County Jail for investigation of a probation violation relating to his previous conviction for rape. So far, no charges have been filed by Snohomish County prosecutors.

Here’s what happened, according to papers filed in Everett District Court:

On Aug. 30, Snohomish County sheriff’s investigators received a call from King County Police Detective Scott Thompkins regarding a call he had received from an employee of the Healing Hands massage parlor on Highway 99 in the Everett area. A woman at the parlor told Thompkins that a man had come into the business and identified himself as an undercover vice detective.

The man said he’d received several complaints about prostitution at the business and he was going to take one of the women to jail to be photographed and fingerprinted. When asked for his identification, he refused, saying he couldn’t divulge that information because he was undercover, court papers stated.

The man took one of the women in a black, 1980s-style car. He drove around for about 10 minutes, then pulled off the road and offered the woman $20 for sex, according to the documents.

The woman refused to take the money and didn’t want to have sex with him, but consented because he wore protection and she wanted to keep him from hurting her, the documents said. Afterward, he returned her to the business.

On Oct. 4, the woman who had originally notified police called again and said she had just chased the man out of the business. He had told a woman who answered the door that he was a police officer and asked for the woman he had taken from the business previously, court papers said. When he saw the woman who had called police, he ran and she chased him, she told police.

Subsequent investigation led detectives to the man and a construction company in Shoreline, where a secretary said the man was employed. Court documents say he is a registered sex offender in King County and currently is on active supervision.

His community corrections officer told detectives the man has been involved in several cases in King County in which he represented himself as an officer to prostitutes and told them he wouldn’t take them to jail if they had sex with him, the documents said.

The corrections officer had arrested the suspect on investigation of violating his parole and booked him into King County Jail. Detectives got a warrant to obtain items from the corrections officer that the suspect had worn or had with him during the incident at the massage parlor. They obtained a second warrant to seize further evidence at the construction company.