A 27-year-old Portland man is accused of forcing himself on a teenage girl he met at Fort Vancouver High School, which he’d visited while in possession of school-affiliated identification stating he was 16.
Cortez Carl Williams faces charges of indecent liberties with forcible compulsion and third-degree child molestation. A Clark County Superior Court judge issued an arrest warrant for Williams on April 23.
The Clark County Jail’s inmate roster indicates he was booked Thursday, and he was set to make a first appearance in court Friday.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the girl’s mother returned home Jan. 2 and found her 14-year-old daughter in her bedroom wearing only a bra and staring toward her closet door. The woman opened the closet and a man, later identified as Williams, was standing inside, wearing only a shirt. The girl’s mother chased him from the house.
The girl was interviewed at the Children’s Justice Center about two weeks later. She said she met Williams at her high school and planned for him to come over after Christmas break. Williams came over, she said, and the two were watching television when he tried to hold her down and rape her, according to the affidavit.
Williams stopped when the girl’s mother came home. He became scared, the girl said, and hid in the closet, the affidavit says.
The girl also told investigators Williams “knew she was a freshman in the high school and 14 years old at the time because she told him. She believed (Williams) was 16 years old because he was at the high school and had a Fort Vancouver High School identification saying he was that age,” the affidavit says.
Vancouver Public Schools spokeswoman Pat Nuzzo said in an email Friday that the school district is investigating Williams’ alleged visit to the high school and details about the ID. Nuzzo said the school had not found any record of Williams checking in under his name.
Judge Gregory Gonzales set Williams’ bail at $50,000 on Friday. Williams will be arraigned June 14.
