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Deputy pleads not guilty in assault case

Thursday, March 30, 2000

By LARRY LANGE Mail Author
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

EVERETT -- A Snohomish County sheriff's deputy yesterday pleaded not guilty to a charge that he sexually assaulted a teenager he had detained after an auto accident last fall.

Charles Darrell Adams, 34, entered the plea before Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ellen Fair, setting the stage for a trial beginning June 16 that will pit his credibility against that of his young accuser. The case also could test the meaning of a recent state law.

"It's an interesting case from several angles," said Adams' Seattle attorney, John Henry Browne.

Adams, a veteran sheriff's deputy, is accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl after the investigation of a rollover car accident in Lynnwood in November.

The girl told Washington State Patrol investigators that Adams placed her in the back seat of a county sheriff's patrol car during the accident investigation. A detective's statement said Adams told the girl she could leave, but the rear doors could not be opened.

According to court papers, Adams drove the girl to the sheriff's deserted Paine Field office so she could go to the bathroom. He sexually assaulted her after she finished using the bathroom, though the girl tried to push him away, the documents said.

Browne and King County Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole said the credibility of both Adams and the girl will be at stake in the trial.

The girl and a friend had been drinking before the friend's car rolled over near Everett, court papers said. O'Toole called the girl's statements and descriptions "compelling." He said her claim is bolstered by the fact that Adams drove the girl a great distance past the home of a friend, where she had asked to be dropped off. If Adams is convicted, O'Toole said he will ask the court to impose a two-year jail sentence, twice the time normally imposed, because of the girl's "vulnerability" and because she had been drinking "to the point of intoxication" before the incident.

The case "undermines the public confidence in law enforcement," said O'Toole, who acknowledged that "going after a police officer is always problematic." And Adams, according to Sheriff Rick Bart, had "a very good record" in the department since starting there in 1994, receiving several letters of commendation and no previous complaints.

Another key trial issue could a legal point: whether the girl was technically "detained" or "in custody" when the alleged assault occurred. That's the situation contemplated in the recent sexual-miscon

duct law under which Adams is charged. Browne said that may become an issue, given Adams' claim that the girl was free to leave the deputy's car before he drove her to Paine Field and may not, legally, have been detained or in custody. She was not arrested, court papers show.

Browne declined to discuss his discussions with Adams. "He's simply saying, 'Not guilty -- prove it (his guilt),'" Browne said of the charge. "He's upset by this, very upset."

Adams has been on paid administrative leave while the incident was investigated. He faces an internal disciplinary hearing tomorrow, where he will tell his supervisors his side of the incident.

After that, he could be disciplined or fired.

P-I reporter Larry Lange can be reached at 425-252-2215 or larrylange@seattle-pi.com

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