Bond set at $500,000 for suspect in rape

Tue., June 22, 2004

Thomas Clouse Staff writer

A 34-year-old man was ordered held on a $500,000 bond Monday, after he was charged with a rape Saturday in which a woman said she was injected with narcotics before being sexually assaulted.

Jason Randall Puckett appeared Monday before Court Commissioner Brad Chinn, who ordered Puckett held on the bond. According to court records, Puckett has 10 adult misdemeanor convictions, eight failures to comply with court orders and 18 failures to appear to court in the last 10 years, Chinn said.

“You are not a good candidate for release because you don’t show up to court,” Chinn said, as Puckett slowly shook his head.

On Saturday, a 20-year-old woman called Spokane police at 1:45 p.m. from her apartment in the 1200 block of South Jefferson , saying she had been raped and that her attacker was in another room, police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a press release.

The suspect fled on foot, but officers followed and found Puckett near Third Avenue and Walnut Street, Officer Todd Brownlee wrote in a police report.

Cottam said Puckett refused officers’ repeated orders to stop during the chase and one officer ended it when he fired a Taser, which dropped Puckett in the north alley of Second and Cedar.

Puckett refused to show his hands, so the officer gave him another jolt with the Taser gun, which can send 50,000 volts into its intended target. “He was handcuffed without further incident,” Cottam said.

According to Brownlee’s report, the 20-year-old woman said “that the defendant attacked her and forcefully injected her with an unknown substance, told her he would kill her, held her down, forcefully removed her pants” and raped her.

Officer Davida Zinkgraf spoke with the woman, “who was hysterical with fear,” Brownlee wrote. Zinkgraf saw bruising on the woman’s left arm, a scratch on her thigh and “a possible needle injection mark on her arm.”

Cottam said the woman was taken to an area hospital for treatment and examination. Hospital staff found the needle mark and methamphetamine in her system.

According to court records, Puckett pleaded guilty in connection with a 1998 felony arrest for forgery. His misdemeanor convictions include possession of drugs, possession of a dangerous weapon, malicious mischief, driving under the influence and violation of a protection order, Cottam said.

Puckett said nothing during his first appearance before Chinn. He later refused a reporter’s request Monday for a jailhouse interview.

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