Beaten Kirkland man charged with rape

A 31-year-old Kirkland man who lapsed into a coma last month after he was beaten by two men who believed he had raped the wife of one has been charged with second-degree rape.

Steven McCanless was hospitalized with potentially life-threatening injuries after the men beat him with a brick and a rubber mallet at an Issaquah home May 23, according to charging papers filed in King County Superior Court on Thursday.

McCanless was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and was released four days later, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Officers were called to a home in the 400 block of Northeast Birch Street around 2 a.m. in response to a report of a rape. When they arrived they found McCanless lying on the floor with pools of blood surrounding his face and hands, charging documents said.

According to police, McCanless and a group of friends, including the alleged victim, 22, and her husband, were drinking at an Issaquah bar earlier in the night when the 22-year-old woman started feeling ill, prosecutors said. The woman's husband took her to a friend's house, where she fell asleep on a mattress in the living room.

She said she awoke to find McCanless touching her inappropriately, charging papers said.

The woman told police she got up, grabbed her cellphone and called a friend who had just left the bar with the alleged victim's husband and others, prosecutors said.

When the alleged victim's husband and others returned to the house they found McCanless "passed out on the couch," charging papers said. When they managed to get him up from the sofa McCanless told them that the alleged victim "wanted it," charging papers said.

The woman's husband then grabbed a brick and a second man picked up a rubber mallet and struck McCanless repeatedly, police said. McCanless suffered a broken jaw, a broken left eye socket, sinus injuries and blood on his brain, police said.

Prosecutors said Thursday that they haven't determined whether the woman's husband and the 30-year-old friend who participated in the beating will be charged.

McCanless has since told police that he had been drinking heavily that night and did not touch the 22-year-old woman, charging papers said.

McCanless has prior convictions for second-degree burglary, vehicle theft, obstruction, possession of drug paraphernalia, harassment, theft, vehicle prowl and criminal trespassing, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Cecelia Gregson said in court charging paperwork.

McCanless is not in jail, but Gregson filed for an arrest warrant Thursday and is asking a judge to order McCanless be held at the King County Jail on $100,000 bail.

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