Kelso man found guilty on four counts of rape
Friday, November 21, 2008 9:40 AM PST
By Tony Lystra
Printable version
E-mail this articleA Kelso man accused of tricking three women into agreeing to “sex contracts” was found guilty of four counts of third-degree rape Thursday afternoon.
William Glen Smith, 50, stared straight ahead, emotionless, as the jury announced its verdict in midafternoon, ending a four-day trial. Jurors deliberated two to three hours before deciding the case.
Smith, who has been out on bail since his arrest late last winter, remains free until sentencing Dec. 30. It was not clear Thursday how much prison time he may face.
“His own words tell us what he’s doing,” said Cowlitz County Deputy Prosecutor James Smith, speaking to a jury of four women and seven men during closing arguments Thursday morning. “The language that he puts in these three contracts with these women clearly shows he knows he’s committing a crime, that he wants to make them into essentially his sex slaves, because he wants control.”
Smith drew up three contracts stipulating that he could touch and have sex with the women, two of whom were his relatives. The contracts stated the women would have to pay Smith thousands of dollars if they refused his advances.
In exchange, the documents had promised the women help with their personal lives, including, depending on the contract, assistance with a divorce, childcare, clothing, a place to stay and breast augmentation surgery.
Each of the women testified this week that they thought they were bound by the contracts and that they feared there wasn’t anything they could do to stop Smith. Two of the women said they posed in lingerie for Smith.
In addition to the rape charges, Smith also faced two counts of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation for allegedly groping two of the women, both of whom were 19 at the time. He was acquitted Thursday of one of the assault counts. Trial on the other assault charge has been delayed.
One of the victims, 23, testified that she didn’t want to have sex with Smith but each time she refused, he told her she had to because she’d signed the contract. She has an eighth-grade education and lives on Social Security benefits because she has a learning disability, prosecutors said.
The attacks occurred from late 2007 to February of this year.
The trial had been marked by lurid evidence, and the contracts themselves stated in explicit language what Smith thought he could do to the victims.
Prosecutors said the 23-year-old woman became pregnant with Smith’s child, and DNA tests on the aborted fetus determined that Smith was 99.9 percent likely to be the father.
The defense put only two witnesses on the stand, including Smith himself. The defendant testified he had drafted the contracts to protect himself from prosecution, then noted from the witness stand that “apparently I’m here so I guess it don’t work.”
Two other witnesses were kept off the stand by pretrial rulings, public defender Tom Ladouceur said in an interview after the verdict.
“In a case like this, you do the best with what you have,” he said.
Smith told a reporter in the Hall of Justice parking lot hours before the verdict that the trial had been unfair and he planned to appeal.
Ladouceur acknowledged during his closing remarks Thursday that the case had presented the jury with evidence they might find “disgusting” and “repulsive.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if, based on what you heard yesterday, just the fact that there was sex between Mr. Smith and his (relative) ... that you have a very strong dislike for the conduct of this man.”
But, Ladouceur said, the jury is called to “not find somebody guilty because the bottom line is you dislike them.”
Ladouceur pointed out that it was months before the 23-year-old victim reported the rape to the authorities and that she continued to live with Smith long after the attacks started.
“Why in the world would someone not tell someone? Not call the police? Not just leave?” Ladouceur asked.
Smith faced 10 counts of third-degree rape but was found not guilty on six of those counts.
He was found guilty Thursday of second-degree perjury after he first denied to Cowlitz County sheriff’s detectives that he’d had sex with his 23-year-old relative, but then said the sex had been consensual.
Related article:
Man on trial for alleged forced sex by contract (Nov. 20)
sammy wrote on Nov 20, 2008 4:02 PM:
SM wrote on Nov 20, 2008 4:22 PM:
lngconnn wrote on Nov 20, 2008 4:26 PM:
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Beer&Skittles wrote on Nov 20, 2008 4:53 PM:
Beer&Skittles wrote on Nov 20, 2008 4:54 PM:
CONCERENED wrote on Nov 20, 2008 6:15 PM:
LOL @ JERRY SPRINGER, WOULDNT SUPRISE ME A BIT!THIS IS JUST A SICK, TWISTED, TRAGIC STORY!!! "
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DUH wrote on Nov 21, 2008 2:12 PM:
Whats that mean. That there were 6 times that the women actually wanted "it"? "
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