Valley teenager charged with raping boy

A 16-year-old boy who lives at a Spokane Valley home for children with mental disabilities was arrested this week on a charge of raping another boy at the residence.

The victim, who was 11 years old at the time of the incident, told a Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy that in mid-August the teen promised to give him a trading card if the younger boy would agree to anal sex and also perform oral sex on the teen, according to court documents. The victim also told the deputy that he asked the 16-year-old to stop having anal sex with him because it hurt, but the teen continued.

The teen admitted to a deputy that he had both forms of sex with the victim and that he knew the boy was only 11, court documents say.

The incident allegedly happened in a downstairs room of Open Arms, a residential group home.

Open Arms Executive Director Jim McDonald declined to give the address of the home. He said it has been open for three years and is licensed for up to six children, ages 7 to 17. Four were living there at the time of the alleged crime.

McDonald said Child Protective Services was contacted as soon as employees became aware of the incident.

At least one supervisor is at Open Arms when children are there, but the residents are allowed at times to be unmonitored in different rooms of the home, McDonald said.

“The incident occurred really quickly, within a 10-minute span,” McDonald said.

McDonald said that the children at the home attend public schools and are not dangerous.

“These kids are no threat to the community,” McDonald said. “These are the same kids that your kids and my kids go to school with.”

Most of the children at Open Arms previously lived with foster parents, McDonald said. But they needed more supervision than the parents could provide, so the Department of Social and Health Services referred them to Open Arms, he said.

The 16-year-old was booked in the Spokane County Jail on one count of child rape. He remains in jail on a $50,000 bond.