Arrasmith’s Daughter Testifies About Binghams Teen Tells Of Repeated Rapes, But Prosecutors Question Why She Continued To Stay With Family

The murder trial of Kenneth Arrasmith reached a quick crescendo Wednesday as his 16-year-old daughter described being raped and psychologically imprisoned by the couple her father is accused of killing.

“It just shocked me,” a visibly tormented Cynthia Arrasmith said after recounting the first time the couple raped her in their Clarkston, Wash., home. “I never knew there were people like this that would live in a town like this.”

By calling her to testify in only the second day of Arrasmith’s first-degree murder trial, the prosecution cut quickly to a major element of its case. The defense is expected to contend that the Binghams’ history of sexual abuse and the failure of police to arrest them led Arrasmith to act in defense of himself and others.

But if Cynthia Arrasmith was being fed drugs, tortured and raped, the prosecution asked Wednesday, why did she stay with the couple and pass up repeated opportunities to reach out for help?

In raising the question, the prosecution drew out several inconsistencies between Cynthia Arrasmith’s testimony and that of police and the Bingham’s 16-year-old son.

Cynthia Arrasmith, a ninth-grade dropout, said she began living with the Binghams in late February when her 25-year-old boyfriend took a job with them and accepted an offer to live on their property.

Luella Bingham gave her money and bought her clothes, cultivating the girl’s trust and telling her she “was the daughter she never had,” Cynthia Arrasmith said.

Then, while trying on clothes in Luella’s room one night in early March, Bingham pushed her down on the bed and sexually molested her. Bingham then invited in Ron Bingham, who also raped her, Cynthia Arrasmith said.

In mid-April, the couple took her to the nearby Quality Inn and molested her again, she said, adding that Ron Bingham shaved off her pubic hair and placed it in an envelope that he kept on his desk.

Later in the month at the same hotel, the couple gave her so much Valium and methamphetamine she could not stand on her own, she said. Then Ron Bingham sexually assaulted her, she said.

“I told him to stop it,” she recalled during a cross-examination by defense counsel Craig Mosman. “I told him it hurt. And he said, ‘You like it when I hurt you.”’

Cynthia Arrasmith said she was afraid of running for help because Ron Bingham carried a gun and made it clear that harm would come to anyone who crossed him.

But Nez Perce County Prosecutor Denise Rosen noted that she later told Nez Perce sheriff’s Capt. James Watkins the Binghams “are bound to be afraid of me a lot more than I’m afraid of them because I can get them in trouble for what they did.”

Rosen also hammered at Cynthia Arrasmith for passing up repeated opportunities to leave the Binghams. A key chance was on April 18, when police from the Quad Cities Drug Task Force raided the Bingham residence looking for methamphetamine.

“I thought it was cool,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘I get to leave now. I’m a kid and I’m in a house with drugs.’ I thought the officers wouldn’t leave me in a house with drugs. I thought they’d take me home.”

But two officers testified Tuesday that Cynthia Arrasmith insisted on staying at the house, saying her mother didn’t have a telephone and that her father was unreachable.

Cynthia Arrasmith said she only had five minutes to say she wanted to leave before the Binghams arrived at the house. The officers Tuesday estimated 20-40 minutes elapsed between their arrival and return of the Binghams.

Their son, Josh Bingham, testified that Cynthia Arrasmith insisted during the raid that she had permission to be there.

, DataTimes