Jury acquits prisoner of raping his cellmate

A Pierce County man who the state determined raped his prison cellmate last year was found not guilty of the crime Wednesday by a Snohomish County jury.

Tremayne Francis, 34, was serving a nine-year sentence for the 1998 rapes of two young men when an 18-year-old man told state Department of Corrections (DOC) investigators that the former martial-arts instructor had forced him into having sex at the Monroe Correctional Complex.

When the cellmate reported he was raped by Francis in June 2005, the DOC already had determined that while in prison Francis had raped another inmate and tried to coerce other prisoners into having sex with him. DOC investigators then determined he also committed the 2005 rape and punished him for it.

Because of Francis' 1998 conviction for second-degree rape, state law would have required that he face an automatic life sentence if the Snohomish County jury had found him guilty, said Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Matt Baldock.

During the weeklong rape trial, jurors heard from the two inmates who testified that they had been raped by Francis. Both said Francis had threatened physical harm.

Though Francis told DOC investigators that he had a multiple-personality disorder and claimed the sex was consensual, he did not take the stand during his trial.

Francis cried when the jury verdict was announced. His attorney, Donald Wackerman, couldn't be reached for comment.

Francis is to be released from prison next year. When he returns to prison in the coming days, he likely will be housed separately from the two men who say he raped them, said DOC spokesman Jeff Weathersby.

Prosecutors across the region say it's rare to present prison-rape cases before juries. Before Francis' trial, Baldock believed that some jurors would feel ambivalent and might wonder why they should care about a prison crime.

Baldock said jurors were forbidden from hearing about Francis' past convictions and the DOC findings in the two alleged prison rapes.

The case was the first to be tried in Washington since the state enacted the Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003. It requires each state to have its prisons standardize the process for detecting and reducing rapes, as well as come up with a standard way to punish rapists.

This year, the DOC has investigated 40 sex cases, compared with 26 last year. These cases involve allegations of sex between inmates or between inmates and staffers. They include inappropriate touching, threats of rape, rape and consensual sex, according to DOC.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com