Birch Bay man arrested September 16 on rape, incest charges

A Birch Bay man was arrested September 16 on alleged second-degree rape and first-degree incest charges, according to court documents.

The 45-year-old man, who will remain unnamed to protect the alleged victim’s identity, was booked into Whatcom County Jail on $75,000 bail, according to jail booking data. As of September 30, the man was still in jail. 

The man was arrested a day after a 20-year-old woman with whom he lived took a sexual assault test at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham that showed signs of sexual assault, according to the affidavit of probable cause from the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office. Probable cause was also determined after the sheriff’s office ruled out the two other people who lived in the residence, according to the document.

Second-degree rape is defined in Washington state as a perpetrator having intercourse with a victim without their consent when the perpetrator uses “forcible compulsion” or “the victim is incapable of consent because he or she is physically helpless, mentally incapacitated or developmentally disabled.”

First-degree incest is defined in Washington state as a person who “engages in sexual intercourse with a person whom he or she knows to be related to him or her, either legitimately or illegitimately, as an ancestor, descendant, brother, or sister of either the whole or the half blood.” Two siblings from the same father but different mothers would be considered half blood relations.

Second-degree rape is a Class A felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison, $50,000 or both. First-degree incest is a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, $20,000, or both, according to Washington state law.