Serial rapist expected to plead guilty to 2008 assault

Published 11:49 am Thursday, March 22, 2012

EVERETT — A convicted serial rapist soon will be moved from his prison cell in Colorado to Snohomish County where he is expected to plead guilty to the 2008 rape of Lynnwood teenager and another rape in Kirkland that same year.

Marc Patrick O’Leary is already serving 325 years in prison for sex crimes in Colorado. Prosecutors in Washington say O’Leary also is responsible for two rapes here. He is scheduled to plead guilty to those crimes and be sentenced next month, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Adam Cornell wrote in court papers.

O’Leary, 33, was connected to the 2008 Lynnwood rape after detectives in Colorado discovered a picture of the victim among his belongings. The teen had reported the rape to Lynnwood police, telling authorities that she had been tied up, blindfolded and sexually assaulted by a stranger. The attacker, who was armed with a knife, took photographs of the woman,18, and threatened to post them on the Internet if she went to police.

Not long after the attack, Lynnwood detectives closed the investigation after the woman changed her story. Lynnwood city prosecutors charged her with false reporting. She eventually pleaded guilty and was ordered to undergo mental health counseling.

Detectives reopened the case last year after they were contacted by police in Colorado. Police there were investigating attacks on four women. They discovered more than 400 pictures documenting the sexual assaults. As in the incidents in Washington, O’Leary threatened to post the pictures online if the victims reported the assaults.

King County prosecutors also charged O’Leary in connection with a 2008 attack on a 63-year-old woman in Kirkland. She reported being tied up, raped and photographed by a masked man.

The plan is for O’Leary to plead guilty to both rapes in Washington when he is returned to Snohomish County, Cornell wrote. The change in plea and sentence is scheduled for April 26. O’Leary is expected to serve his time in Colorado.

O’Leary moved to Washington in 2006 after serving abroad with the U.S. Army. He later joined the Army Reserves and was assigned to Joint Base Lewis McChord until September 2009. Prosecutors believe O’Leary was living in Mountlake Terrace at the time of the attacks in Lynnwood and Kirkland.

O’Leary allegedly told an acquaintance that he was in secret society and entitled to have sex with whomever he wanted.