PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man charged with raping a woman who uses a wheelchair faces a Sept. 14 trial.
Rodney Charles Bright, 49, pleaded not guilty Friday to second-degree rape and forcible compulsion, with the aggravated circumstance of a vulnerable victim.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Erik Rohrer scheduled a pretrial status conference for Aug. 14.
Port Angeles police allege that Bright wheeled the woman behind a building in the 200 block of South Lincoln Street and sexually assaulted her July 20.
Court papers
The woman told police she had accepted Bright’s offer to help push her up the street to Safeway, court papers said.
Bright was arrested July 23 at the Texaco station at 210 E. First St.
He was being issued a warning for trespassing when an unidentified person told police the woman had been assaulted by Bright three days prior.
The alleged victim was interviewed before Bright’s arrest, court papers said.
Bright remained in the Clallam County jail on $50,000 bail Saturday.
He is also charged in a separate case with second-degree possession of stolen property for allegedly taking a debit card June 20.
A trial is scheduled in that case for Oct. 12.
