Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Caution: The following news story about the testimony of an alleged teenage rape victim contains passages that are graphic and not suitable reading for all audiences.

CHEHALIS – When the teenage girl from Pe Ell spoke yesterday in court about the day last summer when the 51-year-old man she knew as a softball coach and mentor allegedly had sex with her against her wishes, the prosecutor asked her: Why didn’t you leave?

Todd D. Phelps

The now-17-year-old and the defendant Todd Phelps had been kissing on a couch after she pulled her pants partway down to show him the cuts she’d made on her upper thighs – because he’d asked – and he suddenly pulled off her pants and subsequently her panties, she testified.

“He asked if we were gonna have sex, I shrugged my shoulders,” she had just told Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead. “He asked me to follow him in the bedroom.”

Phelps had grabbed a towel and her pants and carried them with him, she told Halstead. She stayed on the couch for three or four minutes, she said.

“I’m thinking in my head I want to leave,” the girl testified. “But I can’t, because my pants aren’t there.

“I also didn’t want to hurt him, I didn’t want him to think I didn’t appreciate him, respect him.”

She went to the doorway of the bedroom, she said.

A jury of six women and six men are hearing the case in Lewis County Superior Court that began on Tuesday and will continue into next week.

Phelps is charged with third-degree rape as well as second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor in connection with encounters last spring and summer with the high school student.

The prosecution is arguing Phelps is a man who gradually seduced a girl already troubled with low self esteem and depression. She has testified she’d never even been kissed before the startling kiss from her coach.

The allegation regarding the rape charge is her lack of consent was clearly expressed by her words or conduct, according to charging documents.

Defense attorney Don Blair in his opening statements spoke of a coach who became close to the girl because he was worried when he learned she was cutting on herself and thought she might even commit suicide.

Blair has told the jury he doesn’t know why she is saying these things about his client and Phelps at no time thought the relationship was inappropriate.

When the teenager took the witness stand on Thursday afternoon, she spoke of “the kiss” and texting that led to the suspension and end of the assistant fast pitch coach’s job.

On Friday morning, when her testimony continued with questions from the prosecution, she spoke of mid-April of last year as rumors and taunting at school  followed Phelps’ suspension.

“Did you love him?” Halstead asked.

“Yes, as a “father”, as a mentor, as a, not a romantic love,” she said.

She had already testified she was angry at her parents, and at the youth pastor’s wife who broke her confidence and told the school about the kiss that ‘freaked her out.” She indicated she felt her coach was the only one she could still confide in.

Days later, however, Phelps and his wife met with her parents, she thought because he wanted to straighten things out so he could continue to coach, she testified.

Instead, he told them all her “secrets” like about her cutting, trying drugs, sneaking out and things she’d confided to him about a friend and rape, and about other friend and suicide, she told Halstead.

Phelps had told the school district superintendent the kiss was on her forehead and the texting would stop, that he was only trying to help the teen.

After the meeting, her father and Phelps appealed to the school, successfully, not to let him go.

At the next softball practice, she still was very angry at her coach, but he spoke to her in the dugout, she testified.

Phelps told her he’d been married twice and never loved anyone as much as her, the girl told Halstead under questioning.

“How does that make you feel?” the deputy prosecutor asked.

“I’m like flattered, at the same time scared, but not too scared,” she answered.

About a week later, she was caught in class texting with her coach, she testified. He was forced to quit.

She was upset, feeling like the team – which had taken the state championship the year before – would crumble and she would be blamed, she testified.

Under questioning, the girl described how for the next three months the two continued to communicate using her friends’ phones and also when she gave him the password to her email account, so he could use it to send messages to her on it.

“What did you think the relationship was?” Halstead asked her.

“I was really confused cause I didn’t know if it was like a romantic love, or coach,” she said. “I wanted it to be just friends.”

Halstead drew from her the content of some of the communications, that she had already told to a detective.

Her coach sent her a song called “Sex” and told her there were rumors they were doing it, and he wished it were true, she testified.

Phelps continued to talk about sex, saying things like orgasms fix migraines and how he would be gentle with her, she testified.

She testified Phelps told her the age of consent was 16, but she would be worth going to jail for.

“When he was saying all this stuff, I was trying to come up with ways to say no without hurting his feelings,” she said.

He told her to meet him one day last July to meet him at his brother’s house in Pe Ell, she testified. She walked there.

“I was like scared my parents would find out,” she testified.

Phelps asked if she was nervous, she told Halstead. “I said a little bit,” she said.

He held her hand, gave her a hug, she said.

They sat on a couch.

“He asked about cutting, he asked if I was going to show him,” she said.

He unbuttoned her pants, she stood up, he pulled her towards him and looked at them, felt them, she said.

“He says, I can’t believe you’re doing this to yourself,” she said.

“He says, why don’t you take these off,” she said. “I said no, I want to leave my pants on.”

The teenager testified Phelps pulled her pants down to her ankles, and then pulled her on top of him onto the couch.

“What happens next?” Halstead asked.

The girl said Phelps kissed her and she didn’t kiss him back. Then he kissed her more.

“I kissed him back a little,” she said.

She continued to testify: He put his hand down her panties, she pulled it out.

The second time he did it, he’s saying she should like it, she said. She pulled away, turned her face so he couldn’t kiss her and then sat up and got off of him, she said.

Phelps came her way and then laid her down on her back, she testified. He grabbed her panties and pulled them off, she said.

“I don’t think I said anything, but I covered up my private area,” she said.

He asks doesn’t she want him to see and she says no, she said.

“He says you can trust me,” she said. “So I’m like, trying to trust him.”

But instead, she said, he actually put his fingers inside of her and it hurt, she testified.

Warning number two: The story the girl told in court under oath may be troubling to readers. Any reader who doesn’t want to feel troubled, should stop reading. (more…)

Todd Phelps leans over to talk with supporters during a break in his trial.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The alleged rape victim in the trial of former Pe Ell High School softball coach Todd Phelps took the witness stand yesterday.

She spoke of “the kiss” and answered numerous questions about herself and her interactions with her fast-pitch coach.

The now-17-year-old was not asked about the events that amounted to a third-degree rape charge; she is scheduled to continue testifying this morning.

Phelps, 52, is charged with rape as well as second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor in connection with encounters last spring and summer with the then-16-year-old student.

A jury of six women and six men are hearing the case in Lewis County Superior Court in Chehalis.

Jurors have already heard from a youth pastor’s wife and friends in whom the girl confided, as well as her parents, another coach and some who described inappropriate behavior on the part of Phelps.

All are witnesses for the prosecution. Phelps’ attorney has not yet called any witnesses.

The girl described the summer before her sophomore year as one in which she spent a great deal of time at the Phelps’ house. She and their daughters were friends and played on the softball team Phelps coached. She was close to his wife because they attended the same church, she said.

The teenager revealed under questioning that that autumn, her family sought help for her depression when they learned she had been cutting herself.

The following spring, when soft ball started up again and coach Phelps asked about it, she wanted to explain it to him, she testified.

He was driving her home after an outing to “scout” at a softball game in Adna, but he parked at the church in Pe Ell before dropping her off, she said.

He told her a story about an individual who’d gotten into an accident and said she was his second chance to help a teenager, the girl testified. And then he told her “lots of dirty stories” about sexual experiences in his past, she said.

Why? Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead asked.

“He said it was to reassure me he wouldn’t tell my secrets,” she said.

“He told me he was going to text me, so he could make sure I was not cutting myself,” she said.

She went to his house a few days later, because he wanted to see the cuts on her legs, she testified.

He had her go into the bedroom and asked her to pull her pants down, she said.

The cuts were on the front of her upper thighs, she said.

“I started crying because I don’t show many people,” she said.

The girl testified Phelps said come here, and he hugged her.

And then he pulled her down on top of him on the bed, she said.

Then they went into the living room, she said.

After, as they texted each other, Phelps told her she shouldn’t be dating her boyfriend, because he’s also “a cutter”, she said under questioning.

On April 1, she finally broke up with her boyfriend, which left her crying and upset, according to the girl.

“Why did you do that,” Halstead asked.

“Because he told me to,” she said. “I felt like what he had to say was best. I thought I should just listen to him.”

The girl testified she confided to Phelps she then cut herself again.

The next day, Phelps drove her to his house and the first thing he said was, you know I’m going to have to see those cuts, she testified.

She said no, just hold on as she didn’t want to go in the bedroom again, because that scared her before, she said.

But they did and the same thing happened again, according to the girl. But this time, he also kissed her, many times, she said. And pressed his body against her, she said.

She said she was nervous and scared and didn’t want to be there anymore.

“Why didn’t you leave?” Halstead asked.

“He was important in my life,” she said. “I didn’t want him to think less of me.

The girl was asked about another day during the first week in April in which she spent the night at the Phelps, and she and one of his daughters slept on the couch.

“The next morning I wake up and he is kissing me on the lips,” she testified.

His daughter woke up, and “he points to his forehead, like, just on the forehead,” she said.

She didn’t want to tell anyone, because it meant both of them would be in trouble, she testified. But she did, the day after the second incident in the bedroom, she said.

She confided in Melodie Porter, the wife of the youth pastor at her church, she said.

“Why did you tell Melodie?” Halstead asked.

“I was really freaked out about it, and I didn’t know what to do about it,” she said.

Phelps, a log truck driver, resigned his assistant softball coach position at the end of April 2011.

His resignation came when the school district superintendent told him he had two choices after being investigated for violating boundary policies including texting the student, being alone with the student and “the kiss” Phelps said was on the forehead.

Third-degree rape carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. There is no allegation of physical force or violence.

Second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor is a gross misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail.

If convicted, Phelps would be required to register as a sex offender.

He remains free on a $25,000 unsecured bond.

Daniel Kuhn during his deployment in Iraq. / Courtesy photo

Updated at 9:37 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A deputy surveying an area for Sunday’s dive team search for the missing rafter found a body this evening in the Chehalis River in between Doty and Dryad.

“It matches the description, we believe it’s him,” Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Steve Aust said.

Twenty-four-year-old Daniel Kuhn took part in Saturday’s Pe Ell River Run and hasn’t been heard from since.

The coroner’s office and Aust were just departing the area off the 200 block of Doty-Dryad Road just before 8 p.m.

The body was found submerged in about five feet of water, Aust said.

Kuhn, who lives in Olympia, is from Michigan, according to one of his friends Tony Abbot.

He was rafting with several others on Saturday, but got separated from his group and indicated he would meet them down river. When he didn’t show up by about 8 p.m. that night, they departed thinking he must have  left with other friends, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

He wasn’t reported missing until Monday afternoon, according to the sheriff’s office.

He never retrieved his truck from where he had left it parked. The sheriff’s office yesterday said they learned a raft like his had been found on a gravel bar on Sunday.

Kuhn is a member of the National Guard, with the group based at the Centralia Armory, according to Abbott. Kuhn served in Iraq in 2008 and 2009, Abbott said.

The sheriff’s office was planning a search on Sunday by the dive team.

Aust said when the deputy went out there to scope out the area this evening, he decided to get in the water and look some more. It was about 6 p.m.

The spot is near the rails to trails trail, about 450 yards upstream from the trestle, according to Aust.

Aust met with Kuhn’s mother this evening, who flew in from Michigan last night.

Kuhn’s mother – after Aust visited – said she wanted to express her gratitude to the community, especially the soldiers.

“The military was Danny’s second life,” Deborah Rudisel said. “And he really did love Washington. I tried to get him to come home a couple of times.”

Abbott said he’s trying to “put something together” for his friend on Saturday.

“Danny was a great man,” he said. “He’ll never be replaced.”