Man accused of raping 15-year-old girl in Enfield
Dec. 16—A 26-year-old Enfield man is free on $250,000 bond while facing accusations that he raped a 15-year-old girl in August in a wooded spot between Asnuntuck and Main streets in Enfield.
RAPE CHARGE
DEFENDANT: Rahkim Rashad West, 26, who has listed an address on Park Avenue in Enfield
CHARGES: First-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a child, enticing a minor by computer, first-degree unlawful restraint, third-degree strangulation, third-degree assault
STATUS: Free of $250,000 bond, due Jan. 6 in Hartford Superior Court
When police first questioned the man — Rahkim Rashad West, who has listed an address on Park Avenue — he said he had never hung out with the girl, according to an affidavit by Enfield police Detective Ryan Wesche.
But later in the same interview, which the detective recorded with his body-worn camera, West acknowledged that he had gone to what he called "the spot" between Asnuntuck and Main streets with the girl, who he said initiated kissing between them.
West described an unsuccessful attempt at consensual sexual intercourse, which he said he stopped when it hurt the girl, the detective reported.
The act West described meets Connecticut's legal definition of sexual intercourse.
The detective reported that West initially said the girl told him she was 17, then quoted her as saying she was 16 — both old enough to permit consensual intercourse under Connecticut law.
The girl had said during her interview with police that she told West, whom she knew as "Big Steppa," that she was 15, the detective reported.
She also said West forced her to perform one sex act by using his hand to squeeze her throat so hard that she couldn't breathe, according to the detective. While West performed other sex acts on her, she said, she didn't tell him to stop for fear that he would hurt her. But she added that she tried to pull away from him several times — and he kept pulling her back.
The charges West is facing include first-degree sexual assault, which prohibits acts that include forcible rape, and risk of injury to a child. First-degree sexual assault carries five to 25 years in prison when the victim is 15, while risk of injury carries up to 20 years.
West is also facing two lesser felony charges, enticing a minor by computer and first-degree unlawful restraint, and two misdemeanor counts, third-degree strangulation and third-degree assault.
The girl and her family reported the incident to police on Aug. 22, the day it happened. The girl told police that her sister had noticed she was upset when she returned home after the incident.
The girl said she had met "Big Steppa" at the Town Hall basketball courts around the beginning of August. She said he asked for her Snapchat information, which she gave him, and they subsequently hung out two or three times without anything bad happening.
She said he told her he was 20 years old, according to Wesche's affidavit.
The girl said she was hanging out on the benches near Town Hall around 6:30 p.m. Aug. 22 when she got a Snapchat text message from him. She said they agreed to meet at "the spot."
She said they met in a wooded area near the train tunnel and that she agreed to sit on his lap, followed by consensual kissing.
He said he thought she was going to perform a sex act on him, and she declined, she said, at which point he began to force her to do so.
After the sex, the girl said, West bit her. West, by contrast, told police that she asked him to give her a hickey, and he did so.
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