Trial date set on rape charge

PORT ANGELES — A November trial has been set for a 26-year-old Port Angeles man charged with raping a 14-year-old girl.

Tucker Scott Kahler pleaded not guilty Friday to single counts of second-degree rape with forcible compulsion and third-degree rape of a child.

A trial was scheduled for Nov. 18 in Clallam County Superior Court.

Kahler is being held in the Clallam County jail on $500,000 bail.

Port Angeles police alleged that Kahler met the alleged victim at the Sequim Walmart on July 21 and raped her that evening on Ediz Hook.

Kahler allegedly provided the child with two alcoholic beverages before raping her, Detective David Arand said in the affidavit for probable cause.

The alleged rape was reported by the girl’s grandmother Aug. 31.

Kahler was arrested Sept. 26 after a police investigation.

Kahler is charged in a separate case with failing to register as a sex offender.

He was convicted of first-degree child molestation in Clallam County in 2012 and registered as having no fixed address April 18, charging papers said.

Law enforcement conducted checks of a Sequim parking lot where Kahler was reportedly staying on the nights of July 24 and 25 and did not locate Kahler, Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Stoppani said in the affidavit for probable cause.

Kahler turned himself in at the Sequim Police Department on Aug. 1, the Sheriff’s Office said.

A trial in Kahler’s failure to register case is set for Nov. 4.