PORT ANGELES — Port Townsend resident Chad Edward Neet will be sentenced July 30 after pleading guilty Tuesday to third-degree child rape and tampering with a witness.
Neet, 23, agreed that he raped a 15-year-old girl Dec. 2 and asked her Dec. 18 not to tell anyone about it, according to the plea agreement.
He was in the Clallam County jail Wednesday without bond pending his sentencing.
He could be sentenced to more than two years in prison, according to his guilty plea.
Neet had been charged with two counts of third-degree child rape, one count of third-degree child molestation and one count of tampering with a witness.
The girl said between noon and 6:30 p.m. Dec. 2, Neet, then 21, molested her in the living room of her father’s home and sexually assaulted her inside Agnew Grocery and Feed east of Port Angeles and in the Peninsula Evangelical Friends Church parking lot.
She said Neet had been drinking beer and had forcefully removed her underwear.
Beer bottles retrieved from the trash at her home and a transaction receipt corroborated her statement that Neet had been drinking.
The girl told a Clallam County Sheriff’s deputy about the assaults on Dec. 5, according to a probable cause statement authored by Sheriff’s Detective Stacy Sampson.
Need admitted to assaulting the girl in a phone conversation with her Dec. 18, according to the statement.
Their exchange was recorded by detectives acting under a court order.
“During the recorded conversation, Chad confirmed that sexual contact/intercourse had been made between them,” Sampson said.
“Chad apologized to [the girl] and begged her not to tell anyone or he would go to prison.”
In his guilty plea, Neet admitted he had oral sex with the girl.
According to his guilty plea, the standard sentencing range on the rape charge is 15-20 months in prison with a maximum of five years.
The standard range on the tampering charge is three to eight months in prison with a maximum of five years.
The maximum fine on each count is $10,000.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@ peninsuladailynews.com.
