Landlord is charged with rape

Months after dozens of women contacted police with allegations of drugged drinks, inappropriate conduct and rape, prosecutors on Tuesday charged Spokane landlord Arlin R. Jordin with second-degree rape and indecent liberties in one of the cases.

Jordin, 58, has been under investigation since late November when a 35-year-old woman claimed that he had put drugs in her drink and then raped her at Jordin’s apartment.

Since that time, Spokane Police Detective Jan Pogachar said, she has received calls from eight women who said that they previously were raped by Jordin in a similar fashion, nine more who said that they were drugged but able to escape, and about 40 who reported odd behavior such as Jordin offering them drinks and wearing a terry cloth robe while talking to them about rental agreements. Those instances date back to 1987, and most exceed the statute of limitations.

The charging documents filed Tuesday listed 16 of those women, including the 35-year-old Spokane woman. All 16 women said they believe Jordin slipped something in their drinks that made them sick. Nine of those women – including Jordin’s cousin – claimed he raped them after they became ill.

However, Jordin has been charged only in connection with his encounter Nov. 23 with the 35-year-old woman.

“That is such great news,” said the woman when she learned that Jordin had been charged. “I know it’s not going to be the easiest thing in the world. But it’s necessary.”

Jordin, who previously told police that he and the woman had consensual sex, initially sighed when he was asked for a comment on the charges. “I don’t know: Ridiculous? Untrue? Just talk with my attorney,” Jordin said. “I’m very disappointed.”

Deputy Prosecutor John Love filed the charges Tuesday after months of waiting for lab reports and reviewing police reports with fellow deputy prosecutor Ed Hay.

“We just wanted to do a full investigation as to all the information,” Love said. “It was more a matter to make sure of all the evidence we had and how we wanted to proceed.”

The case that resulted in the felony charges started in November when the 35-year-old approached Jordin about one of the many apartments he rents. Later, on Nov. 23, Jordin called the woman about the apartment. She told him that she had found another place, and Jordin invited her over to his apartment to celebrate, court records state.

“Once inside, the defendant offered her a drink from the margarita mix he had made,” Pogachar wrote in her report. “He offered her a glass while he took another glass that had a chip on the rim.”

After eating some food, Jordin poured them both a shot glass full of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. After swallowing the second drink, the woman said she started to feel as though she had become “really intoxicated.”

Jordin “leaned over and put his arm around her and tried to kiss her on the mouth,” according to the report. “She told the defendant she didn’t want him kissing her, and she doesn’t remember anything after that point.

“She then remembered waking up around 7 a.m. the following morning with the defendant shaking her and telling her she had to leave,” Pogachar wrote.

The woman drove home and told her roommate what happened. The roommate then convinced the woman to go to Holy Family Hospital for a rape examination.

Spokane Police Officer M. Coleman spoke to the woman at the hospital. In her report, Coleman said she observed bruises on the woman’s left biceps that appeared consistent with “bruising one would have gotten from having been grabbed.”

A preliminary drug screen tested positive for Benzodiazepine, a drug commonly used for date rapes because it can cause a person to pass out when mixed with alcohol. However, a later test showed no Benzodiazepine or any other class of drugs used in date rapes, Sgt. Brad Arleth said in January.

Jordin’s defense attorney, Bevan Maxey, criticized police for publicizing the case based on the early drug test.

“The initial basis for this charge was that she was provided some kind of drug that incapacitated her,” Maxey said Tuesday. “Drug testing was performed, but it’s apparent that the only drug found in her system was marijuana, which was self-provided.”

In the interview Tuesday, the woman acknowledged she used marijuana the weekend prior to her encounter with Jordin. “But that would not incapacitate me to the point that I was raped,” she said.

Nevertheless, Maxey argues, the way Spokane Police handled the case, by releasing information about a drug test that was later discounted, contributed to the dozens of women reporting similar encounters.

“Once you publish certain allegations against a person, people will start believing something happened to them,” he said.

But seven women reported to police before Jordin’s Dec. 6 arrest that they believed they’d been raped by him, Pogachar said. No charges were ever filed in those cases.

Asked how all 15 women who have come forward with rape allegations could be wrong, Maxey replied: “I don’t think they can prove they are right. What I am reading are people who are saying they consumed alcohol and are speculating that they were feeling more intoxicated than they probably should have. That’s easy to say in hindsight.”

When police searched Jordin’s apartment on Dec. 3, they found a glass with a chip on it and the 35-year-old woman’s earring on the bedroom floor, and a later DNA test confirmed that the semen on the woman’s clothes came from Jordin.

In an interview prior to Jordin’s arrest, Coleman asked Jordin about the 35-year-old woman. He replied: “I hope she’s all right. Did she make it home OK?” according to court records. “I know I should have called her the next day to make sure she was OK.”

Coleman asked Jordin why he would feel that he needed to comment about the woman. “He replied, ‘Just thought it would be the polite thing to do. I didn’t do anything wrong,’ ” records state.

Jordin said the same thing as the woman: that they drank a margarita and a shot of Jack Daniel’s. “All of the sudden she got very amorous and suggested that we go into the bedroom,” Jordin said in court records. He denied using drugs with the victim.

The search of Jordin’s apartment, at 1827 W. 9th Ave., No. C, found numerous types of prescription drugs even though Jordin said he only took two kinds of medication, records state.

On his way to the Spokane County Jail, where he was later released on a $10,000 bond, Jordin made this unsolicited statement, according to court records: “You must get a lot of calls from girls who drank too much and wake up intoxicated in the morning.”