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.”

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.

More Plea deals

Man accused of robbing, assaulting 'escort' gets plea deal

A Eureka man accused of robbing and assaulting a woman who’d solicited her “companionship” online in November 2007 will spend five years and four months in prison as part of a plea deal.

Jesse Ray Perez, 27, was arrested Nov. 29, 2007, on suspicion of robbing the alleged victim, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with intent to commit a sexual felony, sexual penetration by a foreign object and drug charges. He pleaded guilty to assault with a firearm as a strike offense, being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance....

...The alleged victim reportedly advertised on the Internet that she was charging hourly rates for her companionship. She went to the Town House Motel in Eureka, booked a room and arranged to meet Perez, Deputy District Attorney Arnold Klein said. Perez wouldn’t comply with some of her safety rules, and he later demanded his money back, held a loaded gun to her head and allegedly sexually assaulted her, Klein said.

“During the argument, he brandished a pistol at her and struck her twice with the pistol,” the probable cause statement said. “He then took $100 in cash from her and fled.”

After fleeing, Eureka Police Department officers found Perez nearby with a loaded .22 caliber handgun, “multiple packages of suspected cocaine, a large amount of marijuana, packaging materials, two digital scales and 67 rounds of .22 caliber ammunition,” the probable cause statement said.

Transient sodomy suspects plead guilty to lesser crime

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.

Two sentenced to 30 days, probation in pot growing plea deal 6/6/08

John Devoe, 42, and Clare Holmes, 37, had their six properties searched by Humboldt County Drug Task Force agents on Aug. 20, 2007, after an investigation based on an anonymous tip began. More than 200 marijuana plants, $20,000 in cash and 20 pounds of processed marijuana were reportedly seized by Humboldt County Drug Task Force agents between the residences. Devoe and Holmes agreed to forfeit more than $66,000, which included monies from bank and stock accounts and seized cash, as part of the plea agreement. (Prosecutor Maggie Fleming

Horse owner gets no time in jail 5/28/08
Drive-by suspect pleads out, gets 10-year term (Prosecutor Ben McLaughlin) (note: from comments below - Please, at least get your facts right. McLaughlin only appeared on the Smith case one time. He had nothing to do with the settlement negotiations.) Duly noted. That wasn't in the article.