Sex offender accused of raping gas station clerk at gunpoint in Spokane Valley

A Level 3 sex offender accused of raping a Spokane Valley gas station worker is alleged to have done so two days after getting released from Chelan County Jail.

Michael D. Rush, 36, was arrested Saturday morning after sheriff’s deputies say he raped a woman in the bathroom of Zip Trip, 8215 E. Trent Ave. At Rush’s first court appearance Tuesday, Judge Vance Peterson set bond at $750,000 on charges of first-degree rape and second-degree assault.

Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputies Chad Eaton and Chad Gorton, and Detective Rob Satake responded to the 24-hour gas station at about 5 a.m. Saturday because a robbery alarm had been triggered, according to court documents. When they entered the business, they discovered the lights were off but the doors were unlocked.

After announcing their presence, Rush exited the restroom and was put in handcuffs, deputies wrote in court documents. When asked who else was inside, he told them his wife was in the bathroom, and that she called him because somebody beat her up.

It was then that they heard a woman screaming from inside the bathroom as she began dragging herself out of the room, court documents state. Her face was swollen and bloody. The 41-year-old told the deputies she had just been raped and choked by Rush before falling unconscious. She was transported to a local hospital.

Rush was detained and placed in the back of a patrol car. Court documents say he slipped out of his restraints and had to be secured again. He told deputies he ingested a “half ounce of methamphetamine.”

At the hospital, Detective Satake overheard the female victim telling medical staff that Rush came into the store earlier in the night, but then returned at around 4:20 a.m. to turn in lottery tickets, according to court documents. He then came around the corner, and with a gun in his hand, forced her into the restroom where he raped her.

Hospital staff noted severe bruising on the woman’s face, and marks on her neck, including hemorrhaging and scratch marks.

While interviewing Rush, the man told a detective that he would confess to the crime and other crimes if he could speak to a female officer alone, according to court documents. Detectives obliged, and called in a female officer with a detective present, but Rush said he would only agree if he could speak to a female alone in a jail room behind glass.

Rush has 10 felony convictions, including first-degree rape, second-degree assault and residential burglary among other convictions.

On Jan. 11 of this year, he was released from Chelan County Jail after serving time for Department of Corrections violations. He was forced in 2002 to register as a Level 3 sex offender.