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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Man suspected in other assaults

A man accused of raping a woman at the Davenport Hotel last weekend also is a suspect in two sexual assaults involving minors, court officials said Wednesday. Benjamin F. Cooper, 25, remains in jail on $150,000 bond after appearing in Superior Court Wednesday. He’s been in custody since a woman he met at a bar late Friday said he raped her in the hotel room she’d rented with her boyfriend. Cooper had walked the woman to the hotel after her boyfriend said he wanted to stay out drinking. “I’ve been trying to get off the alcohol but I was drinking too much that night and I don’t know what happened,” Cooper said in court Wednesday. Along with first-degree rape, Cooper faces a first-degree robbery charge after the woman said he stole her cell phone and cash and ripped phone cords out of a wall. A court official said Cooper is a suspect in two sexual assault investigations in the past six weeks, including one in Pend Oreille County.