A Clark County man is facing child rape charges after allegedly befriending a 14-year-old girl on Facebook and convincing her to run away with him.
Jacob A. Espey, 26, appeared Thursday morning in Clark County Superior Court on a warrant for three counts of third-degree rape of a child and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.
Judge John Fairgrieve set Espey’s bail at $25,000, and he is set to be arraigned May 11, court records show.
In early February, Espey sent the girl a friend request on Facebook, and they began messaging. They talked about her running away and coming to live with Espey in his van, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
On the morning of Feb. 8, the girl ran away from home, and Espey picked her up. She stayed the night in Espey’s van. She told him she was 15, and he told her he was 24. They subsequently had sexual contact, the affidavit states.
That night, the girl’s mother pinged her cellphone and went to find her. She found the van in west Vancouver; she knocked on the windows, but no one answered, court records say.
The next day, the girl became frightened and wanted to go home, she said. She messaged her mother and asked to be picked up. The woman went to the van’s location, now in a store parking lot in the Minnehaha area. She confronted Espey, who denied knowing what she was talking about and offered to help find the girl, according to the affidavit.
The woman said Espey started “acting strange,” the affidavit says, so she backed away, and he got into the van and drove off. She followed him and called Vancouver police, court records state.
Espey allegedly told the girl he was going to jail because she is a minor. He parked the van at a convenience store, jumped out and ran away. Before fleeing, he reportedly told the girl to stay there and that he would be back for her. The girl ran to her mother, the affidavit says.
