Guilty verdict in rape case; prosecutor says victim's courage 'can't be overstated'

◼ Guilty verdict in rape case; prosecutor says victim's courage 'can't be overstated' - TS

The jury -- comprising seven women and five men -- found Walker guilty of forcible rape while acting in concert and forcible oral copulation in concert more than one year after he was arrested for raping 20-year-old Jane Doe in a wooded area near the Arcata Sports Complex.

Walker, 38, of Eureka, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender for life.

Jane Doe, who testified in the case and appeared in court Thursday to hear the verdict read, hugged prosecuting Deputy District Attorney Ben McLaughlin and DA investigator Jack Bernstein after the hearing, thanking them with tears in her eyes.

”I'm elated with the verdict and really proud of Jane Doe,” McLaughlin said. “I don't say this as hyperbole, but she really showed a level of courage that can't be overstated. She came into court and faced her rapist and showed him she is not the easy target of opportunity he thought she would be.”

Attempts to contact Walker's attorney Owen Tipps were not immediately successful.

APD Chief Tom Chapman attended Thursday's hearing and commended the people who came forward at the scene to help Jane Doe, which he said allowed his officers to take Walker into custody in short order and conduct a thorough investigation. Chapman also said the DA's Office's work on the case was “outstanding.”

”The DA's Office was tireless in its effort to seek justice in this matter,” Chapman wrote in an email to the Times-Standard. “Kevin Walker is a predator. He belongs in prison.”

Walker was arrested in May 2008 after witnesses reported him and two other men fighting in a Trinidad beach parking lot. Witnesses said Walker and another man were holding the third man on the ground, hitting him in the head with a metal pipe and stepping on his face while shouting racial slurs. Walker and the other assailant, Collin Roczey, were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, sodomy and kidnapping, and later pleaded guilty to the assault charge in a plea agreement reached when the victim in the case refused to cooperate with their prosecution.

Walker was on probation from the 2008 case when he committed the rape -- a violation that will add another year to whatever prison sentence a judge imposes.

”We all thought that Kevin Walker really eluded justice with respect to his conduct in 2008, and everybody was very committed to prosecuting this case to the best of our abilities,” McLaughlin said. “We invested ourselves quite a bit in the case. In light of his prior conduct that was sexualized violence against another party, this verdict is obviously important because he now has a conviction to reflect who he is and what he is.”

Rape - yet another PLEA DEAL

◼ DA's Office reaches plea deal in van rape case

A Dunsmuir man charged with raping a woman while she was unconscious in the back of his van pleaded guilty Wednesday in a plea deal and was sentenced to three years in prison with five years of parole after his release.

Benjamin Roland Baszler, 25, {note - a registered sex offender, has previously been charged with lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14, according to the Megan's Law website.} was arrested Dec. 4 after Humboldt County Sheriff's Office deputies found him in his blue Chevrolet Astro van parked along Highway 299 with an unconscious woman in the back. He was charged with having intercourse with a person who is unconscious or incapable of resisting and having intercourse with a person who is prevented from resisting because of an intoxicating substance or controlled substance.

Baszler originally pleaded not guilty earlier this week to the two rape charges and was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday. Deputy District Attorney Kelly Neel said the Arcata Police Department was able to locate a key witness Tuesday afternoon, which led to the plea deal.

Neel said the witness' statements supported Baszler's account of the evening and the case became a question of whether Baszler should have known that the victim was too intoxicated to consent.

We're right back to business as usual with this DA. The voters in Arcata and SoHum can be so proud.

◼ Dunsmuir man's hearing on rape charges delayed

Due to the volume of cases in Judge Harold Neville's courtroom Tuesday, the case was moved back one day.

◼ Dunsmuir man accused of rape pleads not guilty

◼ DA's Office reaches plea deal in van rape case

This conviction will be Baszler's second under the “three strikes” law. If he commits another offense, he could serve 25 years to life in state prison.

He was convicted in 2005 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 in Nevada County, Calif. He also has a felony marijuana possession conviction and a conviction for failure to appear in court.

◼ Court denies bail for Blue Lake rape suspect

”There was other evidence in the van that indicated that there had been other sexual activity,” Godsey said. “Whether or not there were other victims we don't know. There was just enough evidence to raise some concern that there could be other victims.”

◼ Dunsmuir man arrested, charged with rape
The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department is looking for information after a Dunsmuir man was arrested and charged with rape of an unconscious victim on Saturday, the Times-Standard has learned.

Deputies arrested Benjamin Roland Baszler shortly after 11 p.m., after conducting a vehicle investigation on a blue Chevrolet Astro Van parked along Highway 299, according to a press release. Baszler, a registered sex offender, has previously been charged with lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14, according to the Megan's Law website.

Humboldt County Sheriff's spokeswoman Brenda Godsey said Baszler told officers he had just finished having sex with a woman in the back of the van, who he said was sleeping when officers initially questioned him.

Through the van windows, officers saw a woman lying motionless, and she did not respond when the officers tapped on the windows, according to the release. Officers then asked Baszler to open the sliding door, and he agreed.

Officers then attempted to wake the woman, who remained unconscious. Officers continued to try to wake the woman, who eventually was able to open her eyes but was disoriented, and said that she did not know Baszler or how she got into the van....

◼ California Registered Sex Offender

Court sentences convicted rapist to 422 year

◼ Court sentences convicted rapist to 422 years; Judge Miles says Samoa man exhibited cruelty and callousness over years
A man convicted of repeatedly raping and abusing his step-daughters was sentenced in Humboldt County Superior Court to 422 years in state prison on Friday.
Paul Alan Jasnosz, 43, of Samoa, sat handcuffed in an orange jumpsuit, donning a white beard and glasses as Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Marilyn Miles read through the 44 felonies Jasnosz was convicted of by a jury in January. Miles said that she had read the 63-page probation report on the case and statements submitted by the two women and their mother who were the victims.
Miles said that the crimes exhibited a high degree of cruelty and callousness and had a serious and lasting impact on the victims, adding that Jasnosz had opportunities to consider his actions between the assaults. She said the sentence serves the best interest of justice and society.
”There is no question in the court's mind that the victims will be impacted by your crimes for the rest of their lives,” Miles said to Jasnosz, “and so it is that you will be held accountable for those crimes for the rest of your life.”
A jury of seven men and five woman found Jasnosz guilty of 31 counts of forcible rape, six counts of oral copulation of a minor, two counts of assault with a firearm, two counts of making criminal threats with the use of a firearm, two counts of false imprisonment with use of a firearm and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

...The case was investigated by Humboldt County Sheriff's deputies Charles Lamb, Kevin Kastler and Jamie Barney and detectives Julia Oliveira and Troy Garey and Humboldt County District Attorney investigators William Honsal and Richard Grimm. Gallegos tried the case, and Public Defender Jonathan McCrone represented Jasnosz.

Outside the courtroom, Gallegos said that the sentence Jasnosz received was profound, but appropriate for the crimes.
”He terrorized these people their whole lives,” Gallegos said.

He added that the victims' testimony in the case was vital, and represented an “immensely brave and heroic act on their part.”

Gallegos wins a RAPE case, YAY!! Whoo Hoo!!!~

#9724; Jasnosz convicted of 31 rape counts
Anonymous has left a new comment:
I'm sure Rose will post this article shortly: http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_14206255
Actually, I added it as an update to the prior post on the jury going for deliberations,
But if you are wanting to hear some cheering for Paul, have at it.

There ya go. However, I suggest you click on the "rape" label in the sidebar, or run a search for the word "rape" here.

DA News

◼ Convicted rapist sentenced to eight year
Richard Jesus Valentine, a 28-year-old man found guilty of rape in December, was sentenced in Humboldt County Superior Court Tuesday to more than eight years in prison.

For the charge of rape by use of an intoxicant, Valentine was sentenced to a total of eight years -- the maximum sentence for the offense. He was also given an additional eight months for possession of heroin. Public defender Jonathan McCrone, Deputy District Attorney Arnold Klein

◼ Man convicted in pipe attack gets seven years
A Blue Lake man convicted of attempted murder for striking his girlfriend in the head with a pipe, suddenly and apparently without reason, was sentenced Tuesday.

After accepting a plea agreement in late November, Thomas Wallace, 45, was sentenced to seven years in prison and to pay more than $16,000 to his former girlfriend, the victim in the case.... Wallace's attorney, Marek Reavis, Deputy District Attorney Randy Mailman