July 4th Party Ends with Rape Arrest

Oklahoma City police arrested a man after a woman went to Newcastle police and reported that the man had raped her after a Fourth of July party.

The woman told police that she was attending an Independence Day party at a home on SW 158 on Saturday night, but that when the party wound down, she wentto sleep on a couch at the home. She reported that she was awakened early Sunday morning by a man having sex with her. She says she began crying andtold him to stop, but that he continued to rape her. She left the home and drove to a police station in Newcastle to report the rape, saying that itwas the closest police station.

Newcastle police summoned Oklahoma City police, who went to the residence where the woman said the party and the rape occurred. There they found the suspect,Sean Michael Salas, 29. He was arrested and booked into the Oklahoma County Jail, where he was held on $35,000 bond. He has since been released. Anonline court record search does not indicate that the suspect has been formally charged in connection with the incident.

Oklahoma law defines rape in 21 O.S. � 1111as sexual intercourse involving vaginal or anal penetration under one or more of the following circumstances:

• The victim is under the age of 16
  
• The victim is incapable of giving consent because of "mental illness or any other unsoundness of mind, whether temporary or permanent"
  
• Accomplished to the use or threat of force or violence accompanied by the apparent power to use such force
  
• The victim is intoxicated by a narcotic or anesthetic agent that was administered by or with the knowledge of the accused as a means of forcingsubmission
  
• The victim is unconscious of the nature of the act, and the accused knows it
  
• The perpetrator tricks the victim into believing that he or she is the victim's spouse;
  
• The victim is under the legal custody or supervision of a state agency, a federal agency, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision and engagesin sexual intercourse with a state, federal, county, municipal or political subdivision employee or an employee of a contractor of the state, thefederal government, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision that exercises authority over the victim;
  
• The victim is at least sixteen (16) years of age and is less than twenty (20) years of age and is a student, or under the legal custody or supervisionof any public or private elementary or secondary school, junior high or high school, or public vocational school, and engages in sexual intercoursewith a person who is eighteen (18) years of age or older and is an employee of the same school system; or
  
• The victim is nineteen (19) years of age or younger and is in the legal custody of a state agency, federal agency or tribal court and engagesin sexual intercourse with a foster parent or foster parent applicant. (This is an amendment to prior law. This addition will take effect November1, 2015.)
  
• A person uses or threatens force or violence to commit spousal rape.
  

The above acts are classified as either first degree rape or second degree rape. Second degree rape is typically "consensual" sex with someone who is legallyunable to provide consent; for example, a student-teacher sexual relationship. First degree rape includes sexual intercourse or rape by instrumentationof a person under the age of 14, forcible rape or rape accomplished through the threat of violence, rape by instrumentation resulting in bodily harm,rape of an unconscious person, or rape of someone who is unable to consent due to mental illness or unsoundness of mind.

First degree rape is punishable by 5 years to life in prison and lifetime sex offender registration.