Pastor awaiting rape trial is placed on electronic home detention

A South Seattle pastor and music teacher accused of raping and molesting a teenage girl was placed on electronic home monitoring Thursday, despite efforts by King County prosecutors to have him held in the King County Jail while he awaits trial in a case that carries a potential life sentence.

The Rev. Royce Shorter, 54, was arrested and charged in February with two counts of third-degree rape and one count of third-degree child molestation, court records show. Members of Shorter's church "pooled their money" to post his $350,000 bail, according to defense attorney Amy Muth. Jail records show he was released less than 24 hours after he was booked.

On Thursday, King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Julie Kays filed two more charges against Shorter: second-degree rape and first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor. Additionally, Kays added the aggravating factor of abuse of trust to each charge. Those aggravating issues can be used as a basis for an exceptional sentence if Shorter is convicted.

However, Shorter could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release if he's convicted on the second-degree-rape charge, which was filed based on new evidence that he allegedly forcibly raped a now-20-year-old woman when she was 15, Kays said.

That's because the charge would be Shorter's second strike, the maximum allowed for certain sex crimes. In 1985, he was convicted of second-degree statutory rape for having sex with a 13-year-old.

Kays on Thursday sought to have Shorter's bail revoked pending trial, citing for the first time in King County an initiative passed by voters in November that gives judges the authority to detain without bail suspects who are facing possible life sentences. The no-bail initiative was prompted by the slayings of four Lakewood police officers in November 2009.

Days before those shootings, gunman Maurice Clemmons had posted bail and was released from the Pierce County Jail, despite being arrested for what would have been his third strike if convicted.

In Shorter's case, Superior Court Chief Criminal Judge Ronald Kessler declined to revoke bail Thursday but ordered Shorter held in the King County Jail until he can be fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet.

Kessler told Shorter he must remain inside his Tacoma house on electronic home detention and can only leave for medical appointments, meetings with his attorneys or court appearances.

Muth, who objected to the motion to revoke Shorter's bail and pointed out that he hadn't committed new crimes or attempted to flee, asked the judge if his order barred Shorter from participating in Sunday services at his church. "That is correct," Kessler said.

Since Shorter's arrest in February, six women have contacted Seattle police detectives and described similar sexual abuse at the hands of Shorter, now the minister of music at the Greater New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Seattle's Rainier Valley. Shorter was previously the choir director at Emerald City Seventh-day Adventist Church in Seattle's Central Area.

One woman, now a grandmother, alleged she was raped by Shorter in 1981, while another woman estimated 25 girls had been abused by Shorter, who also taught private voice and piano lessons at his former South Seattle music studio, according to charging documents. The statute of limitations has run out on those cases, Kays said Thursday.

Taken together, the women's accounts describe a "very textbook" operation by Shorter to "groom, recruit and have sex with teenage girls," Kays said.

All the alleged victims either took private music lessons with Shorter, attended his churches or performed in church choirs he directed, charging papers say.

The young woman at the center of the current case against Shorter recently revealed to investigators that she was forcibly raped, Kays said. According to charging papers, the woman took private voice lessons with Shorter at his South Seattle studio, N-Time Music Productions, and has accused Shorter of engaging in unwanted sex with her between July 2006 and December 2008, when she was 15 and 16 years old, charging papers say. The alleged abuse ended when the girl's parents could no longer afford the lessons, the papers say. According to his Facebook page, Shorter's studio is now in Renton.

"She's a very shy girl, and it's very difficult for her to talk about these things," Kays told the judge. Kays said Shorter was "a danger to our community, particularly our community of young girls."

But Muth pointed out that about 30 people, including several young women, turned up in court to show support for Shorter.

"He's taking the charges seriously," Muth said.

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