Published: June 24, 2009 10:40 pm      

Jailer’s alleged victim recounts incident

CATLETTSBURG — Portions of this story may be offensive to some readers.

The woman who alleges she was raped by Elliott County Jailer Charles F. Howard tearfully recounted the incident on the witness stand Wednesday.

Under questioning by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Lother Hembroff, the woman, a 28-year-old Boyd County resident, told jurors Howard drove her to an isolated spot off U.S. 60 near the Boyd-Carter County line and forced her to engage in sexual intercourse.

The rape occurred, the woman said, as she and Howard were en route to the Boyd County Detention Center on Aug. 31. The alleged victim had been arrested earlier that day in Elliott County on several outstanding warrants, including one from Boyd County for failure to pay fines from a misdemeanor case.

Elliott County has not operated its own jail since the state ordered the county to close its lockup in 1986. Prisoners from Elliott are transported to detention facilities in other counties.

Howard, 51, of Sandy Hook, is charged with first-degree rape and could be sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. He remains in office, but the Elliott County Fiscal Court voted to transfer his duties to Mark E. Lewis, an employee of the county road department who ran against Howard in 2006, after Howard was arrested in September.

The alleged victim, who was demurely dressed in a floral-print dress and white sweater and had her hair tied back neatly in a ponytail, spent several hours on the stand Wednesday. She was composed most of the time, speaking in a calm, even voice. However, she began sobbing uncontrollably when Hembroff began questioning her about the details of the alleged attack.

At one point, Boyd Circuit Judge Marc I. Rosen called for a recess so the woman could leave the stand to compose herself.

The woman’s name is not being published because The Independent does not identify alleged sex crime victims without their permission, or unless they seek redress by filing civil lawsuits.

The woman, a married mother of three, testified that Howard placed her in the back seat of his vehicle to transport her to jail. She said it was her understanding she was to have been taken to the Carter County Detention Center.

She said she had on neither handcuffs nor leg shackles when she got into Howard’s car, and that Howard did not even make her fasten her seat belt.

As Howard was driving on Ky. 7 toward Grayson, the woman said, he pulled off the road at the Little Sandy Correctional Complex, lowered one of the rear windows and told her to reach out and open the door and get into the front seat with him.

She said she and Howard had been talking through the partition that is intended to protect the driver from passengers in the rear seat, and Howard told her it would be easier to hear her if she rode up front.

Eventually, the woman said, Howard told her he was taking her to Boyd, rather than Carter County, and that if a pre-trial officer was at the jail when the two arrived, “I probably wouldn’t have to stay there.”

Howard drove onto eastbound Interstate 64 at Grayson, the woman said. He pulled off the freeway at the Cannonsburg exit, and, without explanation, make a quick turn onto the Appalachian Fuels property at the junction of I-64 and Ky. 180.

Howard drove up the hill and encountered a security guard, whom he apparently knew, the woman said. The two exchanged greetings and Howard mentioned something about being there to look at some cars, she said.

Howard pulled around behind the Appalachian Fuels building. At that point, the woman said she began to grow uncomfortable. When Hembroff asked her why, she replied: “Because there were no cars for sale, for one thing.”

Howard then turned the car around and drove up the hill to a small private cemetery, the woman said. They were there for a only short time, and, as they were coming back down the hill, Howard started squeezing her breasts, playing with her hair and stroking her leg, she said.

“Did you consent to any of that contact?” Hembroff asked.

“No,” the woman replied.

In an interview with Kentucky State Police Detective Erik Kouns, Howard said he and the woman had consensual sex in the cemetery near Appalachian Fuels. However, the woman said that never occurred.

After leaving Appalachian Fuels, Howard turned left onto Ky. 180, then left again at the four-way intersection of Ky. 180 and U.S. 60, the woman said. When she asked him what he was doing, he replied, “Just trying to pass some time until pre-trial gets there.”

Howard drove for several miles and turned off U.S. 60 onto an isolated, dead-end road in the Rush area, the woman said. It was there where the rape occurred, she said.

The woman said Howard pulled her left leg up on the front seat of the car, removed her loose-fitting pajama pants and underwear and penetrated her, first with his fingers, then with his penis. All the while, he used one arm to keep her pinned down with her arms across her chest and her head against the passenger-side door panel, she said.

She said she told him to stop, but was scared to offer too much resistance.

“I didn’t know if he was going to try and kill me or what,” she said. “I didn’t know what he was capable of at that time.”

The woman said she did nothing to lead Howard to believe she wanted to have intercourse with him and never consented to the sex, which she said was unprotected.

Afterwards, the woman said Howard told her he was friends with Boyd Jailer Joe Burchett and that he could make things more difficult for her if she told anyone what had happened.

The woman did tell a female deputy jailer about the incident. Staff at the detention center in turn reported the incident to the KSP.

The trial, which began on Monday, was scheduled to resume at 10 this morning with defense attorney Michael Curtis cross-examining of the woman.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.