Jeremy L. Francis, in red, walks to the defense table in Lewis County Superior Court
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A 34-year-old Centralia man was charged with second-degree rape yesterday for what allegedly began as a consensual sexual encounter but turned violent.
Jeremy L. Francis was brought before a judge yesterday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court where his bail was set at $100,000.
Francis was arrested early Saturday morning after the mother of a 23-year-old woman called 911 to report to Centralia police her daughter had been raped.
Temporary defense attorney Rachael Tiller told the judge she had discussed the charge with her client and the potential maximum penalty of life in prison.
She suggested his income might mean he qualified for a court-appointed lawyer.
“He is working and hoping to keep his job,” Tiller said.
Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joel DeFazio asked for the high bail, noting the defendant had no prior felony cases he was aware of, but then corrected himself and cited a 2016 case of vehicular assault.
Francis used reading glasses off and on during the brief hearing, and sported a deep purple bruise around his left eye. Both Tiller and DeFazio said after the hearing they didn’t know how that happened.
Charging documents in the case state the young woman’s mother was sleeping on her couch when her daughter arrived, locked the door behind her and then laid her head on her mother’s lap, shaking and crying.
The 23-year-old said she’d been raped by a male named Jeremy whose last name she didn’t know – in the area of South Pearl and Cherry streets – and he might be on his way over, the documents relate.
The alleged victim told the police officer who arrived that earlier, the two of them had begun to engage in sex, but then he began to abuse her, according to charging documents.
She said when he jammed his fingers inside her, scraping her with his fingernails, she told him to quit, but he wouldn’t, Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher wrote.
Meagher wrote she told the officer he tried to choke her, he pulled her hair until she felt like it was going to come out of her skull and that he repeatedly banged the top of her head into his headboard.
She stated she told him multiple times to stop and he didn’t; he told her to shut up, the charging documents allege.
The suspect did show up at the mother’s home a little later and a male in the household detained him until police arrived, according to Meagher. Francis was arrested and then booked into the Lewis County Jail.
His arraignment is scheduled for Thursday in Lewis County Superior Court.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Yeah she wanted 50 Shades until it happened. I can hear it now.
No you idiot, this young woman was raped. No means no.
Glad someone was there to grab that jerk.