Three arrested for rape of teen in downtown apartments

SPOKANE, Wash — Three men were arrested in Spokane Wednesday, accused of raping a 14-year old girl in a downtown Spokane apartment building.

According to court documents filed in Spokane County Superior Court, the girl ran away from home on April 1. She met a man inside Riverpark Square who she said appeared to be high. She said she told him she was 14; she then said he gave her two ‘”light beers” and some tobacco and she asked him if he had a place to stay.

She told police she went with the man, now identified as William Jackson, to his home at the Wolfe Apartments at 240 W. Sprague Avenue.

The Wolfe Apartments are owned by the same people who own the New Washington Apartments, which have been under scrutiny for security problems in recent years.

Inside the apartment, the girl went to Jackson’s apartment, which she described as “very messy” with a bed on the floor, garbage everywhere and “a container full of pipes.”

The girl said two of Jackson’s friends came into the apartment with a pipe “containing white crystally stuff that they called shatter which she knew as meth… they pressured her to smoke it, saying ‘take a hit, take a hit, shoving it in [her] face.'”

The other two men are identified in court documents as Curtis Burgette and Harold Sherman.

The teen said she took a hit, felt “super drowsy” and was “super confused.”

She told police she laid down and tried to go to sleep, then William sexually assaulted her. She told police she felt “scared” and couldn’t move because of the meth use. She said Jackson told her to go to Sherman’s apartment, where she said Sherman watched her so she wouldn’t run away.

She described Sherman sexually assaulting her as well.

Later, she said she ended up in Burgette’s room where he sexually assaulted her.

She told police the sexual assaults happened the first day she was there and that after that “they would not allow her to sleep.” She said the men passed her around over the course of three days, getting her high and forcing her to “cook, clean and have sex with them.”

She told police she was scared and thought she would be in more danger if she tried to run away.

The girl told police she was finally able to get away and she met a man who kept her safe. She said she camped outside with the man, who took her back to River Park Square the next day where her parents found her and took her to the hospital.

The girl drew sketches of the apartments for police and picked the three men out of a police photo lineup.

Spokane Police interviewed the manager of the Wolfe Apartments who said she saw a an underage girl in the apartment building around the same time. Underage visitors aren’t supposed to be allowed at the Wolfe Apartments and tenants are supposed to check in any guests.

Police tried to collect video from the Wolfe Apartments, but the video was automatically overwritten by the system and was no longer available.

All three men were arrested Wednesday and booked into the Spokane County Jail for Third Degree Rape of a Child, First Degree Kidnapping and Distribution of a Controlled Substance to a Minor.

All three men will face a judge Thursday afternoon.

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