High Court Upholds Rape Conviction Of Tribal Officer

The state Supreme Court has upheld the rape conviction of a former Colville tribal police officer who was charged with sexually assaulting a female prisoner he was transporting.

The court voted 6-3 to reverse an Appeals Court ruling and uphold the November 1991 conviction of Fred Bright on two counts of first-degree rape.

The decision is expected to have implications on what constitutes an implied threat in a rape case, Okanogan County Prosecutor Rick Weber said.

Bright was convicted in Okanogan County Superior Court on two counts of raping a female prisoner he was driving from Nespelem to Okanogan. He was in uniform and armed with a handgun in his holster, but he did not use the gun or threaten the woman with it, testimony indicated.

Bright had arrested the woman in 1991 for violating a community service requirement on a prior shoplifting conviction. Bright was accused of fondling the woman during the trip and then pulling onto a secluded dirt road and raping her.

Bright originally denied anything happened, then said he had consensual sex with the woman.

The high court held that although Bright never threatened the victim with the handgun, he committed the crime of first-degree rape because of the implied threat.