EVERETT — A third young woman has come forward to accuse Cole Krause of sexual assault.
Her statements led prosecutors to file additional charges earlier this month.
Krause, a former football player at Mountlake Terrace High School, now is facing trial on four counts of rape involving three women. All say they were attacked between January and October 2016.
Krause, who turned 20 in June, was 17 and 18 when the alleged incidents occurred. The girls were 15 or 16.
Krause remains free pending trial, which is set for January. The case has taken longer than usual to wind through the system, partly because of delays in reporting, along with a pause while a higher court reviewed a legal question.
In January 2016, one of the girls told police that Krause had raped her in a hallway at the high school. An investigation was started. Krause was expelled but was allowed to finish his studies online.
Another young woman filed a report in January 2017 describing similar behavior, this time at Krause’s home.
Charges of two counts of rape were filed in Snohomish County Superior Court in April 2017.
In July 2017, Krause asked the Washington state Court of Appeals to dismiss one of his counts, saying his civil rights were violated when he was moved from juvenile court to adult court. A Snohomish County judge earlier had denied a similar request.
The defense’s arguments in the appeal concerned the girl named in the incident at school. At one point, she had dropped her case and the court documents were sealed, meaning Krause wouldn’t have the allegations on his permanent record.
Others who knew the girl have said she was bullied by her peers after going to police.
The young woman asked prosecutors to reconsider after learning of the second girl’s statements. In October 2017, the higher court upheld the decision to take up her case again.
In December 2017, Mountlake Terrace detectives took another statement from a third young woman. She said she came forward after learning that others had pressed charges.
She said the sexual violence took place over a number of years. She said that her contact with Krause initially began as consensual activity that escalated into something “uncomfortable, unwanted.”
The woman told police she did not realize until later that she had been raped, after she attended a school event about sexual assault awareness.
On another occasion, she said, she was intoxicated at a party when her friend left her there alone. She had thrown up on her clothes and could not walk by herself. Krause heard about her condition and asked another friend to bring her to Krause’s house, according to the charges.
The woman said she passed out and woke up to Krause raping her.
Another time, they were having consensual sex when he anally raped her and refused to stop, even as she began crying, she said.
The young woman’s reports were forwarded to prosecutors for review. Since the new charges were filed Nov. 9, defense attorneys have asked the court for more information about the additional allegations before the case proceeds. They also are seeking separate trials on each count.
Three of the charges are in the third degree, which means prosecutors allege the “lack of consent was clearly expressed by words or conduct.”
One is in the second degree, meaning the victim was “incapable of consent by being physically helpless or mentally incapacitated.”
All of the counts represent potential felonies.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @rikkiking.
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