Prisoner acquitted of raping cellmate
EVERETT – A Snohomish County jury has acquitted a 34-year-old man accused of raping his prison cell mate last year.
An 18-year-old inmate at the Monroe Correctional Complex told state Department of Corrections investigators in June 2005 that Tremayne Francis, who was serving a nine-year sentence for the 1998 rapes of two young men, had forced him to have sex.
When the cellmate reported the alleged rape, the Corrections Department had concluded that Francis had raped another inmate while in prison and tried to coerce other prisoners into having sex with him.
During a weeklong trial, jurors heard from the two inmates who testified that they had been raped by Francis, a former martial-arts instructor from Pierce County. Both said Francis had threatened physical harm.
At one point, Francis told corrections investigators he had a multiple-personality disorder and claimed the sex was consensual, but he did not take the stand during his trial.
He cried when the jury’s not guilty verdict was announced on Wednesday.
Because of Francis’ 1998 conviction for second-degree rape, state law would have required that he face an automatic life sentence if the jury had convicted him, Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Matt Baldock said.
Francis is due to be released from prison next year. When he returns to prison in the coming days, he likely will be housed separately from the two men who say he raped them, Corrections Department spokesman Jeff Weathersby said.
Francis’ case was the first to be tried in Washington since the state enacted the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. The law requires each state to have its prisons standardize the process for detecting and reducing rapes, and come up with a standard way to punish rapists.
The Corrections Department has investigated 40 sex cases this year, compared with 26 last year. The cases have involved allegations of inappropriate touching, threats of rape, rape and consensual sex between inmates or between inmates and staffers.