PORT ANGELES — A lifelong Port Angeles resident pleaded guilty last week to felony indecent liberties with forcible compulsion, resolving a second-degree rape case against him involving a woman he first contacted on Facebook — and whom he first met the day he attacked her.
Jason Patrick Spaulding, 43, a divorcee with two sons and six siblings, according to court records, will be sentenced March 7 in Clallam County Superior Court.
He remained in the Clallam County jail without bail.
“A person is guilty of indecent liberties when he or she knowingly causes another person to have sexual contact with him or her or another,” according to state law.
The Port Angeles native had been charged with second-degree rape for sexually assaulting a 19-year old woman the afternoon of Aug. 8 inside his Old Mill Road rental home, and fourth-degree assault for allegedly attacking her male friend outside the home shortly after the attack.
Spaulding allegedly hit the woman’s friend in the back of the head while the two tried to run away from him, according to the probable cause statement.
Spaulding’s standard sentence range, based on his criminal history, is 4¾ years to 6¼ years to life in prison; at least three years of community custody, and a maximum $50,000 fine.
He said he has never been in prison and been arrested five times for misdemeanors, according to court records.
Three women, not including the 19-year-old victim, had domestic-violence protection orders issued against Spaulding, one issued Dec. 29, 2017 and two Feb. 16, 2018, according to court records.
One woman said Spaulding followed her and twice tried ramming his vehicle into her friend’s car.
Another said he showed up at her church and her aunt’s, “wouldn’t leave me alone,” and is “unstable.”
A third said he threatened “to never leave me alone,” and said he would kill her animals and burn down her house.
“I want my life back,” the third woman said in her protection order petition.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Steve Johnson recommended that Spaulding, if eligible, should be sentenced under the Special Sex Offender Sentencing Alternative (SSOSA).
Spaulding would serve nine months and undergo up to five years of sex-offender treatment.
If not given a SSOSA sentence, Spaulding should serve 4¾ years, Johnson recommended in Spaulding’s guilty plea.
According to a Dec. 14 forensic psychological evaluation requested by Spaulding’s lawyer, Stan Myers of Port Angeles, Seattle psychologist Kenneth Muscatel concluded there is “no basis for a mental defense.”
Spaulding has a history of substance abuse, Muscatel said.
He last worked in 2001 due to a back injury he sustained while working construction and has been on Social Security disability since 2012, according to Muscatel’s report.
Spaulding was taking quetiapine, an antipsychotic medication, in jail at the time of his Nov. 9 interview with Muscatel — one of eight medications he was taking while incarcerated, including Aderall, Muscatel said.
Spaulding told Muscatel the charges against him were “BS” and denied having sexual contact with the victim.
Muscatel said that a review of police records showed that the victim told police she was homeless when she reported the attack.
She said she first messaged Spaulding on Aug. 1 on Facebook and first met him in person, by chance, with her friends the day he attacked her.
She said she wanted Spaulding to stop “touching, grabbing and kissing her” the day he attacked her in his home.
“[The woman] tolerated the conduct so she would not disenchant Spaulding, believing that he was going to let her live with him and give her a home,” Muscatel said in his report.
The woman said Spaulding raped her while pinning her in a chair, rendering her immobile to the point she had difficulty breathing.
While at the Olympic Medical Center emergency room after the attack, she said her right arm hurt where Spaulding had grabbed her, her jaw was sore, and her right ear had bled from Spaulding ripping the phone from her when she called 9-1-1, Muscatel said.
Spaulding’s trial date was set for Nov. 5 and continued to Feb. 11.
The victim and three of her friends who were at Spaulding’s home Aug. 8 were listed as witnesses for the prosecution in a Jan. 4 filing.
The change-of-plea hearing that resulted in Spaulding’s guilty plea Wednesday came three weeks later.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@ peninsuladailynews.com.
