PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man was charged this week with attempting to rape a homeless woman and threatening to burn her and her tent.
Randy A. Gantt, 41, is charged with first-degree burglary, attempted first-degree rape, making threats to kill and fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation. He remained held in the Clallam County jail on $100,000 bail Thursday.
Gantt is scheduled to appear in Clallam County Superior Court at 9 a.m. today for an arraignment.
Last Friday, a woman at Veterans Memorial Park told REdisCOVERY social worker Amy Miller that “Alan” had entered another woman’s tent, grabbed her, exposed himself and said he wanted to have sex.
Miller then spoke to the alleged victim, who told her that the man entered her shelter, demanded sex and exposed himself. He refused to leave when asked and she believed he had been drinking.
“The man offered to pay her for sex but when she refused and continued to tell him to leave he threatened to rape and kill her and return to her camp with gasoline and burn her and her camp,” according to the affidavit of probable cause.
She yelled repeatedly at the man to leave, had her knife open and pushed at him with a stick to get him to leave, the document said.
Several days before the report, Officer Swift Sanchez sent an email to other officers about Gantt, whom she had contact with at Veterans Memorial Park.
In her email she said Gantt attempted to open the driver’s door of her patrol call while she was away from the vehicle, that he propositioned her and that he had exposed himself to the woman who contacted Miller.
Police showed the alleged victim three photos, and she identified Gantt as the man who assaulted her, records said.
Later Friday, officers drove to Serenity House to talk with Gantt about the incident, but he “just looked at me and moved his mouth without speaking,” Officer Sean Ryan wrote in his report.
“He then started to talk in a language I did not understand.”
Ryan then arrested Gantt and read him his rights twice, he said in his report. Gantt said twice he did not understand his rights, before being transported to the Clallam County jail.
Gantt appeared in Clallam County Superior Court on Monday where he was ordered held on $100,000 bail and prohibited from going to Veterans Memorial Park.
Gantt refused to sign a form acknowledging he has been read his rights.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
