Richard L. Crumbliss is directed to the defendant’s table during a bail hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – An Onalaska school bus driver is jailed following his arrest for allegedly raping a teenage relative in her bed during spring break.
Bail was set over the weekend for 43-year-old Richard L. Crumbliss at $750,000. A different judge today reduced the amount to $100,000.
Crumbliss appeared in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon, shackled at his hands and waist, for the bail hearing.
Temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter in asking for a lower bond noted his client is a volunteer firefighter and also a part time substitute bus driver.
“But, he’s no longer doing that,” Schroeter said as he described how the Onalaska resident’s financial situation qualified him for a court-appointed lawyer.
Charging documents describe a deputy responding on Thursday to speak to the teenage girl, at the behest of a victim’s advocate.
Deputy Susan Shannon was told the girl came home drunk on April 9 and three times during the night, Crumbliss came into her bedroom, while her mother was home and still up and awake during the first two alleged encounters.
Shannon was still investigating when Crumbliss phoned 911 to report the girl had run away, according to charging documents.
According to the court documents, without solicitation, he told the deputy the girl had accused him of rape and he hadn’t seen her since the night before.
He called the girl a huge fibber and worried about his reputation as an officer of the fire department, according to the documents.
The girl told authorities she’d overheard both he and her mother calling her a liar about it.
Deputies subsequently searched the home, and Crumbliss and his wife offered that they had collected the girls underclothes from that night and saved them, the documents state.
He also told the deputy he is never alone with the girl, his wife is always present because about two and half months earlier he was accused of a different sexual assault, according to the documents. He was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail on Friday morning.
Judge Richard Brosey this afternoon was told the girl has been taken into protective custody.
Brosey ordered Crumbliss, if he makes bail, to have no unsupervised contact with minor females; and further ordered his spouse may not be the one to supervise any contacts.
Centralia lawyer David Arcuri was appointed to represent him.
Crumbliss is charged with two counts of third-degree rape of a child and one count of first-degree incest. His arraignment is scheduled for Thursday.
The girl also told authorities, according to charging documents, that when she was 12, he gave her vodka mixed with strawberry drink while she traveled with him in his semi truck and he sexually abused her in the sleeper. He denied the accusation, but admitted giving her strawberry vodka, charging documents state.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
You people are just depressing- I wonder what you would say if the victim was a boy. Hang em I bet. She must be lying right? Crap
Any updates on this story?
Come on Kayla, the LC is where it’s at!
THIS SOUNDS REALLY IFFY
Bunch of hillbillies.
I am sure all the folks in that town are related a having incest.
The universal rule on any kind of child sex abuse is guilty until proven innocent beyond a reasonable doubt. In this case, with three separate accusations, one involving a different victim, he is going to prison.
Clothing will prove nothing because the chain of custody is disrupted, unless she says she was wearing that clothing that night or immediately afterwards. It is much too easy to wash the clothing she had on and get other worn clothing out of the dirty laundry. Still, I am not saying he is guilty, she should have been immediately checked by a doctor, and it does not sound like that was done.
Wouldn’t supprise me… It’s lewis county
The girl is obviously nothing like an angel, but this line caught my attention: “…about two and half months earlier he was accused of a different sexual assault, according to the documents.”
I think we may eventually hear the truth, but who will it come from and will we believe it? Both the alleged victim and the accused (at this point) appear to have credibility deficiencies.
Wondering…A polygraph may not prove anything. There’s a reason lie detector results are rarely, if ever, admissible in court. Someone who is a pathological liar or a sociopath won’t react the same way a normal person does when they knowingly lie, so the tests won’t show an anomaly. Conversely, someone who is entirely innocent, but scared out of their wits, may display the physical symptoms of guilt when they’re telling the truth.
Interesting, he does admit to proffering a minor with alcohol- when she was twelve?!. An earlier sexual assault accusation? Hmmm.. Something tells me this isn’t the last were going to hear about this case.
Hate to say it but this little girl needs to sit awhile in juvenile detention. She is very misleading and untrustworthy.
I am his ex wife and the mother of.his two children
.he is INNOCENT until proven GUILTY
The headline is a bit misleading. It makes it sound like a girl accused her bus driver of rape.
Seems like there are a few loose ends in this story. The clothes need to be tested for semen, and they both need to be given polygraphs. If this girl is indeed a pathological liar, the tests will show that. If she’s not, he will fail his test.
Sounds like a very muddled pair of “stories”.
There will be no winner here.
Did the police take the sheet ect from the home? Did they get the clothes the wife said she had it doesnt say?