Suspect, 51, denies abetting teen’s rape

A former Post Falls resident is being held at the Kootenai County Jail on $250,000 bail for allegedly aiding and abetting the statutory rape of a 16-year-old girl.

John Lee Dinkel, 51, said during a jailhouse interview Friday afternoon that he thinks he’s “being set up as a fall guy.”

According to Post Falls police reports, Dinkel helped facilitate visits between the teen and her boyfriend, 18-year-old Mark Veal. The reports allege Dinkel helped Veal get into the teen’s home and that he was aware the two were having sex.

Police reports say Dinkel also helped conceal the relationship from the girl’s parents.

Dinkel said Friday that he didn’t think the two were having a sexual relationship and that he didn’t tell the girl’s parents because he was “being a buddy to (the girl).”

Veal, of Edna, Texas, has been charged with statutory rape of the teen and burglary for allegedly entering her home without permission. He was charged with violating a no-contact order after he was caught at the movies with the girl while out on bail.

Dinkel said Friday that the girl “has apparently lied her head off trying to save Mark.”

The teen also told police she was coerced into going to a sex party in Spokane and talked to Dinkel before she left for the party, according to reports.

She told police that Dinkel told her to take pictures of sex acts “so they could be used later against those persons for extortion or blackmail.”

She said Dinkel advised her to perform sex acts with another teenage girl at the party and told her to e-mail the photos to Veal in Texas.

Police say photos from the sex party were later found among Dinkel’s belongings. Dinkel denies that, saying the pictures were planted.

Magistrate Barry Watson on Friday ordered a preliminary hearing in the case be held within 14 days.