Auburn man charged in sexual assault of woman he met on MySpace

A 52-year-old Auburn man was charged today with second-degree rape, accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met on MySpace, the social-networking Web site.

Richard Gordon Wheeler was arrested Wednesday in connection with the January rape in Federal Way. Wheeler, who is being held at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent on $350,000 bail, is scheduled to be arraigned May 20, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg.

In January, a 48-year-old woman contacted Federal Way police and said a man she knew as "Rick" came over to her apartment to watch a movie and sexually assaulted her, charging papers say. The two had met on MySpace.

The Seattle Times does not typically name alleged victims of sexual assault.

On Jan. 24, Wheeler came to the woman's apartment and poured her a shot of mescal. She drank it, even though she noticed the liquor in her glass was darker than the liquor he was drinking, charging papers say.

The woman told detectives her memory became foggy and the next thing she remembers Wheeler was performing a sex act on her as she lay naked on her bed, the charging papers say. She told him to stop and when he refused, she hit him and he laughed, the papers say. Wheeler allegedly then had intercourse with the woman and pulled out clumps of her hair when she resisted, according to the charging documents.

A friend took the woman to the hospital for a sexual assault exam and the nurse documented her bruises — described as "large and deep purple, red and green" — along with lacerations and abrasions to her vagina, the papers say. The woman also gave police the sheets from her bed as evidence.

After he was arrested at his Auburn residence, Wheeler claimed the sex was consensual but stated "they did not have 'rough' sex and could not provide an explanation for the laceration and injury to [the woman's] vagina indicated in her medical records," the papers say.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com