Maintenance worker facing child-rape charges sought after missing court date

A maintenance worker facing charges of rape and child molestation skipped his court arraignment Tuesday morning, prompting a judge to issue a warrant for his arrest. Timothy D. Woodard, 48, who works at Gonzaga University, faces seven felonies for alleged sex crimes that happened 15 years ago when the alleged victim was a 10-year-old. Woodard was scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. before Superior Court Judge James Triplet. His attorney, Doug Phelps, arrived but Woodard did not. Efforts to reach Phelps were not immediately successful. The charges against Woodard prompted Gonzaga to review campus security. The victim said he was abused at Gonzaga. Court records also indicate that the victim said Woodard showed him hidden peep holes in 2003 enabling people to watch women undressing in a campus locker room. In response to those allegations, GU President Thayne McCulloh wrote a letter to university employees saying that school officials had conducted a thorough review of all facilities mentioned in the charging documents and can assert that they are “maintained with the highest standard of privacy, safety and security in mind.” According to court records, Woodard was working at the time both at Burgan’s Furniture and Gonzaga, when he spent many hours with the boy, a family friend. Court records do not indicate why the victim waited to report the incidents but noted that he recently provided a videotaped interview to Clark County sheriff’s investigators. That interview was forwarded to Spokane police, and charges were filed on May 17. GU officials then placed Woodard on administrative leave. The victim told investigators that sex acts occurred both at the furniture store and on Gonzaga’s campus in the “library, in closets, locker rooms, and in the gym area.”