Sorority rape suspect pleads innocent
After surrendering to Pullman police on Wednesday, the second suspect in last week’s sorority rape and burglaries pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Christopher Jack Reid, 25, is charged with second-degree rape and four burglary crimes – all felonies. Police believe Reid and Washington State University student Kyle M. Schott, 23, broke into the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and sexually assaulted a woman while she was asleep early on Sept. 13. When the woman woke up, two men scurried out of her room and down a fire escape, police say.
In Superior Court on Wednesday, a judge set Reid’s bail at the recommended $200,000.
“That’s a significant amount of bond that should make sure he shows up for his trial,” said Denis Tracy, the Whitman County prosecutor.
So he can return to his home in Los Angeles, Reid’s bail carries conditions that require him to surrender his passport and waive the standard extradition process in case he misses his Nov. 26 trial. He also is not allowed near the sororities and fraternity that were burglarized, Judge David Frazier said.
Reid plans to go home if he posts bail, said his attorney, Chris A. Bugbee.
“I don’t really know if he’s going to be able to afford that bond, but his family’s going to do what they can,” Bugbee said.
Investigators on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Reid, who was in Pullman last week but had returned to his home in Los Angeles, Bugbee said.
Throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Reid drove 23 hours from Los Angeles to Pullman. When he arrived about 2 p.m., he met Bugbee and Pullman police in a motel parking lot to be handcuffed, Bugbee said.
“Mr. Reid maintains that he is innocent of any and all criminal charges,” Bugbee said in a statement. “We are confident that when this matter is concluded, he will be absolved of all of the allegations against him.”
Schott, who was arrested Friday, told investigators that he watched Reid “spoon” the victim at Kappa Alpha Theta, touch her buttocks and perform a sex act while she was asleep. Schott told police he handed Reid a condom at his request.
The victim told police the sound of tearing open the condom wrapper could have been what woke her, according to police.
Reid and Schott also are charged with breaking into the Pi Beta Phi and Delta Gamma sororities and attempting to break into the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity at WSU.
After posting $100,000 bail Monday, Schott will return to Whitman County Superior Court on Friday for his arraignment, Tracy said. Schott also is not allowed to go within a half-mile of the sororities and fraternity.
It was unclear Wednesday why Reid was in Pullman last week. Schott told investigators that the two first met at a Pullman bar the night of Sept. 12. Reid identified himself as a “porn star from out of state,” police said.
Under the screen name Jack Venice, Reid has appeared in several pornographic movies, including videos that involve cruising college campuses to look for willing women.