PORT ANGELES — A 49-year-old Port Angeles man has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for raping a woman who uses a wheelchair.
Rodney Charles Bright pleaded guilty Oct. 7 to amended charges of third-degree rape, lack of consent, and second-degree possession of stolen property as part of a negotiated plea agreement with prosecutors for separate incidents that occurred last June and July.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brian Coughenour sentenced Bright to 25 months in a Wednesday court hearing.
Original charges
Bright was originally charged with second-degree rape, forcible compulsion, for the rape of a wheelchair-using woman on the 200 block of South Lincoln Street in Port Angeles on July 20.
Port Angeles police said Bright approached the woman as she was wheeling up Lincoln Street and offered to push her to the nearby Safeway.
Instead, Bright pushed the woman behind an old brick building and sexually assaulted her, according to the arrest report.
Bright was being issued a trespassing warning at the Texaco gas station at 210 E. First St. three days after the rape when a person told police that his friend, the victim, had been assaulted by Bright.
Police interviewed the victim and arrested Bright at the gas station.
Bright was also charged in a separate case with second-degree possession of stolen property for possessing a man’s stolen debit card June 20.
Those charges were folded into one case Oct. 7.
Bright’s prison term will be followed by three years of community custody.
Bright was being held Thursday at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
