Internet dating rape case includes accusations of death threats and beating

Nov. 28, 2017 Updated Wed., Nov. 29, 2017 at 12:04 a.m.

By Ryan Collingwood ryanc@spokesman.com (509) 459-5473

Before Judge Annette Plese set Torrey Gambill’s bond at $100,000 on Tuesday, she offered her thoughts on the rape accusations that landed the 35-year-old in jail.

“From reading the affidavit it was pretty disturbing,” Plese told Gambill, who was arrested Monday on charges that he raped, beat and held a woman against her will.

Gambill, a former area tennis coach and standout, and brother to former tennis pro Jan-Michael Gambill, is accused of striking the woman with a whip, choking her and threatening to kill her and “cut her face off” in the early morning of Nov. 11.

Gambill has been accused of violent behavior before.

In 2007, Gambill pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic violence assault and domestic violence harassment for threatening to kill, according to court records. In 2011, he was convicted of felony battery with serious bodily injury in California.

Because of his history and apparent danger to the community, prosecutors said, they requested the six-figure bail amount.

According to police documents regarding the recent case, Gambill and the victim first met on the dating app Tinder, sharing mutual friends and interests. They went on a first date and had consensual sex.

When the two met up again three weeks later after the woman attended a Garth Brooks concert, their date led to consensual sex that turned violent at Gambill’s north Spokane home, according to investigators. He called her derogatory names amid his threats of violence.

The woman said she feared for her life and went to the hospital after she convinced Gambill to let her leave.

Gambill denied the woman’s accusations, telling police “he did not lay a finger on her.”

He is charged with third-degree rape, felony assault, unlawful imprisonment and harassment.

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