Kingston man pleads guilty to rape

Two of three victims in the case of a Kingston man charged with rape in 2021 say they are furious over a plea deal that fails to acknowledge crimes against them.

The accusations against Stephen Tyler Clayton were filed in March, saying he raped three women on separate occasions between 2017 and 2020. All three were reportedly under the influence of alcohol or another substance when the rapes occurred, and at least one reportedly received threats from Clayton.

All three rapes went unreported until the first victim came forward March of 2022 after hearing the story from the woman who turned out to be the third victim. She had been hesitant to report Clayton due to the position she and her kids were in, but now said she wished she would have come forward sooner.

“I wish I had come forward right away when there was hard evidence,” she said. “For anyone out there who has a lot to lose if they come forward, you’re going to lose it in the end anyways, so you might as well come forward right away when there is still evidence.”

Deputy prosecuting attorney Anna Aruiza claims the “mental instability” and uncooperation of some of the victims could make it hard to get a conviction at trial of Clayton. The plea deal Clayton accepted Dec. 19 was 12-14 months.

Judge Tina Robinson approved the plea deal in Kitsap County Superior Court. The deal also allowed Clayton to plead guilty in exchange for a reduction in charges from three counts of rape to one, along with one count of assault.

The plea was criticized by two of the victims, as well as other Kitsap residents going to the hearing, as another example of a soft approach to crime. Rick Kuss, who recently ran for sheriff but lost, helped organize a small protest outside the courthouse the day of the hearing.

Kuss accused Aruiza of victim-shaming instead of sympathizing with her clients and the drug and mental health issues that came from being rape victims.

“It seems like the prosecutors don’t understand that victims go through that stuff,” he said. “That comes with the territory of becoming a victim. You turn to that stuff to cope.”

At the hearing, Aruiza stated several times the victims were difficult to work with as one of the reasons for not wanting to go to trial. Aruiza shared that one victim suffered a near-fatal overdose this year, bringing concerns on whether or not she could testify.

Victims 1 and 3, who were both at the hearing, accused Aruiza of throwing them under the bus for problems stemming from the trauma they experienced.

“That was the easy way out,” Victim 3 said, “especially when you already know what we all said. We all said if we’re going forward, it’s going to traumatize us more. So if we’re going to go, we’re going to try to go as far as we can.”

Despite the arguements, lack of evidence is a common reason why rape cases are difficult to pursue in courts across America and a big reason why Robinson found the plea acceptable.

“If they are not able to prove their case, what that means is that the defendant could walk, and the victims would, in essence, receive no justice for what they believe has happened to them,” Robinson said during the hearing.

It’s not nearly enough justice for the victims, who said the number of charges and victims no longer added up and favored the rapist.

“I don’t think that it’s right to apply one count of rape and one count of assault across three people,” Victim 1 said. “There should be at least three counts because it makes you feel like you don’t count or somebody else doesn’t count if you do.”

Victim 3 said the plea all but eliminates the justice that each of the deserves. “Who’s the rape (charge), who’s the assault (charge), and who doesn’t exist?” she asked.