Hawkins charged in Post Falls rape

Bail was set at $10 million Monday for suspected serial rapist Paul Earl Hawkins.

The 33-year-old Coeur d’Alene man was charged with the rape of a 53-year-old Post Falls woman and other crimes related to the April 7, 2003, attack. He was also charged Monday with breaking into the home of another Post Falls woman.

Though authorities have said Hawkins is suspected in at least seven home-invasion rapes in Kootenai County in 2003, authorities Monday charged him only with incidents that occurred in Post Falls.

Additional charges will be filed against Hawkins today, according to Kootenai County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Lansing Haynes. Haynes wouldn’t say how many charges would be filed today.

Haynes said the reason more charges weren’t filed Monday was because of the overwhelming amount of information that detectives have gathered since Hawkins was arrested Friday afternoon at the Coeur d’Alene Inn, where he worked doing laundry.

Authorities said a tip from an informant gave them the break in the string of unsolved rapes.

Hawkins, who is under suicide watch at the Kootenai County Jail, wore a “suicide smock,” or tear-resistant outfit, during his initial court appearance Monday afternoon. In connection with the April 7 attack in Post Falls, Hawkins was charged with two counts of felony rape, burglary, robbery and a related sex crime. Haynes said Hawkins allegedly raped the woman twice in her home on North Ping Road.

He was also charged Monday with breaking into a home on the 200 block of West Frontier Trail in Post Falls on March 30 of the same year.

Authorities on Friday had said Hawkins was arrested in connection with four rapes in 2003: two in Coeur d’Alene, one in Spirit Lake and one in Rathdrum. DNA evidence collected from the scene of each of those rapes showed the rapist was the same person.

Authorities haven’t said whether a DNA sample had been taken from Hawkins and whether it matched the samples that linked those four rapes.

The attacks include the April 16 rape and beating of a 40-year-old woman in Coeur d’Alene’s Heartland subdivision; the Aug. 16 rape of a 30-year-old woman in Rathdrum; the Nov. 8 rape of a 28-year-old woman in Spirit Lake and the Nov. 25 rape of a woman in her 50s at her home in the 1400 block of Coeur d’Alene Avenue.

Police said Hawkins lived within a mile of each victim at the time they were attacked. Court records show he has lived in Hauser Lake, Spirit Lake, Coeur d’Alene, Hayden and Spokane in the past three years.

Hawkins also has been named as a suspect in two additional rapes in Coeur d’Alene in 2003. In one of those, an 82-year-old woman was attacked and brutally beaten in her Lakeside Avenue home, police said. That rape, on Nov. 8, occurred just two hours before the rape in Spirit Lake.

When arrested last week, Hawkins was living in St. Vincent de Paul’s transitional housing on First Street in Coeur d’Alene.

Matt Hutchinson, head of the transitional housing program, said he was surprised by Hawkins’ arrest and he felt duped.

“He put on a pretty good game face,” Hutchinson said. “We knew nothing.”

Hutchinson said a background check done before Hawkins moved into the facility revealed no history of sexual misconduct.

Hawkins spent three weeks living in the adult facility on Sherman Avenue before moving into the family facility about two weeks ago. Hutchinson said he couldn’t comment on whether anyone was living with Hawkins in the family facility.

Court records show the accused rapist has at least four children. He also has a criminal record that includes three drunken driving charges in Kootenai County.

Victims’ advocates expressed relief Monday that an arrest had been made in the series of rapes that struck fear in women throughout the county.

Linda Kincaid, executive director of The Women’s Center, said someone tried to break into her bedroom window in November that year but was scared off by her three large dogs.

“It changed my whole life,” Kincaid said.

She said she no longer felt safe in her home and was afraid to go out walking her dogs at night.

Now that a suspect is behind bars, Kincaid said she expects more women may come forward. She said some may have been hesitant to speak up because of false rape reports that were filed during that same period.

She said she wants to know what Hawkins was up to between the last reported rape and the time of his arrest.

“I’m curious about where he’s been,” she said. “I’m just curious how many more victims there are.”