King County prosecutors have charged an 18-year-old Seattle high school student with the rape of a classmate outside a house party in November.
Jackson Sullivan, who played for West Seattle High School’s baseball team, was arrested on investigation of second-degree rape charges late last month. He posted a $350,000 bail. He is scheduled for arraignment June 4. (Court documents show the timeline was delayed because of the coronavirus.)
Interviews with several witnesses and classmates, detailed in charging documents, allege Sullivan has what the police described as other “alarming” sexual assault accusations. The police investigation into Sullivan is still ongoing, and could result in more charges, the document stated; so far, according to the documents, three other young women have accused Sullivan of nonconsensual sexual contact.
The 16-year-old who reported she was assaulted in November now has court-ordered protection from Sullivan.
The Seattle Times could not reach Sullivan. His mother declined to comment on the allegations.
The initial investigation that led to his charges was lengthy. More than five months passed between when the assault was reported and his arrest on April 29.
“The process of interviewing everyone and witnesses (for a rape case) can take awhile,” said SPD Detective Patrick Michaud, who was not aware of the case when called, but spoke in general terms last week.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office “did a careful review of the totality of evidence” in the police investigation and determined it was worth charging Sullivan, said Casey McNerthney, a spokesman for the office.
Police documents reveal details from that evening and other alleged assaults.
The 16-year-old girl was also a West Seattle High student. She said she’d been playing beer pong inside the November house party just before the assault, according to the documents. She’d had two drinks, she told police, but began to feel like she was blacking out after Sullivan handed her a third drink, which led her to suspect she might have been drugged.
She said her next memory is of the rape. After launching a “massive” search for her, friends found her in the van with the suspect, which was parked a short distance from the house, the documents said. They told police she was nonverbal, partially clothed and covered in her own vomit.
When they confronted Sullivan, the documents reported he said, “I thought she was good for it.” The documents stated a Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory test determined Sullivan’s DNA was present on the teen’s underwear and vaginal swabs.
As officers investigated the November incident, they learned of other alleged incidents of assaults, according to the charging documents.
Two were from Halloween night 2017. One girl said Sullivan sat next to her, draped a blanket over her legs, and penetrated her with his fingers while others were present. Another young woman, who fell asleep next to Sullivan at a different party, said she awoke to him doing the same thing.
At a party following a school dance in March 2019, another girl, who said she was intoxicated at the time, said Sullivan made advances despite her protests, and penetrated her with his fingers while they were both in his car.
A spokesman for Seattle Public Schools declined to comment on whether Sullivan was still enrolled at the district.