UPDATED - Return of Kevin Scott Walker - Man arrested for rape in Arcata, another on the loose

UPDATE: ◼ Woman Raped – Man Arrested, Another Sought Arcata Eye has more details...

The witness accounts include several horrifying details, with suggestions that there may be more to the story than police have so far been able to verify.

Woodward said the victim was shaken, but not distraught when she first appeared in the parking lot and asked to borrow a cell phone. Avelar described her as “kind of crying.”

Woodward said her face bore a fresh red handprint, the fingers clearly outlined on her cheek, apparently from one of the rapists clamping his hand over her mouth to keep her silent during the attack.

APD Sgt. Todd Dokweiler said the rape survivor’s family lives in Eureka. Woodward said she called her father on the borrowed cell phone. Witnesses said she told him she had been raped and that it sounded like he told her to take a cab home. She said that she couldn’t, because her boyfriend had robbed her.

“She told her dad that her boyfriend had left her high and dry and stolen her money,” Woodward said.

Several of those present report hearing the victim mention three men, not two, the third being the boyfriend. Some mentioned seeing two other men, not just the one outstanding suspect, leaving Walker behind in the wooded area and escaping via the trail that leads up to Seventh Street.

“She said her boyfriend and the two guys were friends,” Avelar said.

Dokweiler confirmed that the victim initially mentioned three men. “Within a few minutes, she recanted that,” he said....

◼ Police arrest man, seek another in Arcata rape; suspect pleaded guilty in 2008 Trinidad assault, got probation full story

◼ Man arrested for rape in Arcata, another on the loose yesterday's brief report
Arcata police arrested one man and are looking for another believed to have sexually assaulted a 25-year-old woman near the Arcata Sports Complex Monday night.

Kevin Scott Walker, 37, of Eureka was booked into Humboldt County jail on suspicion of rape. The second man remains on the loose. He is described as a white or Indian male adult in his early twenties with dark shoulder-length hair and thin facial hair. He was last seen wearing a dark colored jacket.

Officers responded to the 300 block of Community Park Way for the report of a sexual assault at 11:17 p.m. They located a 25-year-old woman being comforted by bystanders....

In 2008, Walker pleaded guilty to felony assault in what was widely believed to be a hate crime in Trinidad. Walker was arrested in May 2008, along with 18-year-old Collin Roczey, after witnesses reported seeing three men fighting in a Trinidad beach parking lot. Witnesses said Walker and Roczey were holding another man down, hitting his head on the ground, hitting him with a metal pipe and stepping on his face while shouting racial slurs.

The two men were originally arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, sexual assault and kidnapping, but pleaded guilty to the assault charge in a plea deal. *

Walker was in Humboldt County Superior Court Tuesday for violation of probation related to the 2008 case.
In court Tuesday, the prosecutor told the court she did not yet have a new filing on Walker. Judge Bruce Watson set Walker's arraignment for Thursday.

(* Actually they pled guilty to assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, which carries a two, three or four-year sentence. They were originally charged with kidnapping to commit a crime, assault with a deadly weapon and sodomy in concert with another person.) Apparently, he got probation.

◼ Gang rape at Arcata Sports Complex. 50 feet away from softball play. - samoa softball
◼ APD Also quoted in the Eye story above (updated)

◼ Man arrested for rape in Arcata yesterday's first breaking report

Prior reports:
◼ Charging decision expected today in Trinidad assault case 5/14/2008
A grisly assault reportedly occurred at Trinidad Beach over the weekend, resulting in the arrest of two suspects and a victim being treated at a local hospital...
◼ Two men plead guilty in assault 6/21/2008
Two men charged in an allegedly racially-motivated assault in Trinidad last month entered guilty pleas to one count in Superior Court this week.

According to court documents, Kevin Scott Walker, 35, and Collin Gregory Roczey, 18, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of felony assault with a deadly weapon.

Together they face a minimum penalty of 2 years and a maximum of 4 years in prison.

Three other felony charges related to an alleged sexual assault on the victim, including kidnapping to commit rape or robbery, were dismissed as part of a plea deal, according to court documents.

Deputy District Attorney Arnold Klein said he will wait for the completion of a probation report to make a suggestion on their penalty to the judge....
Transient sodomy suspects plead guilty to lesser crime - Eureka Reporter (no longer online)

Two transient men arrested in early May on suspicion of sexually assaulting and beating up a man near Trinidad Beach pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge that could keep them in jail up to four years.

Collin Gregory Roczey, 19, and Kevin Scott Walker, 35, were arrested by the Trinidad Police Department on May 10 after several 911 calls were made regarding a man being beaten and kicked by two men in the parking lot. It was discovered that the victim was physically and sexually assaulted and both suspects were reportedly yelling racial slurs at the victim as they were attacking him.

“Alcohol was consumed and allegedly the two arrested suspects turned on the third transient by sexually assaulting him by sodomy,” the Trinidad police log said. “The two suspects then followed the victim to the parking lot of Trinidad Beach and physically assaulted him by kicking him in the head and punching (him).”

The men pleaded guilty to assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, which carries a two, three or four-year sentence. They were originally charged with kidnapping to commit a crime, assault with a deadly weapon and sodomy in concert with another person.

Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney Arnold Klein, who prosecuted the case, said he’s waiting to see the report from probation before recommending sentences for the men.

◼ Probation sentence for Trinidad assault 7/17/2008
Two men who pleaded guilty to weapons charges in an allegedly racially motivated assault against another man in Trinidad were sentenced Wednesday to three years probation with no additional time in jail.

They will have to serve 300 hours of community service.

Judge Bruce Watson credited Collin Roczey, 18, and Kevin Walker, 35, for the 60 days they served in jail. However, Roczey's probation was amended, and Watson stipulated he must complete high school, or a GED program, and become gainfully employed under the terms of his probation.

Both men were charged for court costs and restitution fees.