By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Prosecutors filed charges yesterday against the now-former lifeguard from the Great Wolf Lodge accused of raping a young teenage girl whose family was staying at the hotel and indoor water park.
Nineteen-year-old Alex Eduardo Salazar is a senior at Rochester High School. The alleged victim is 14 years old.
[1]Alex Eduardo Salazar
Salazar was arrested Tuesday afternoon at school and after his court appearance the next day was bailed out by his father.
Jaime Salazar Sr. said they were hiring an attorney today.
Salazar Sr. said he knows what the allegations are and his son has been very open with him.
It’s a totally different story, he said.
“I think it’s going to be a really tough case, but I think it’s going to be okay for him,” Salazar Sr. said. “There’s stuff she’s saying that’s not true.
“Hopefully that will come out in court.”
The younger Salazar is charged with second-degree rape as well as rape of a child in the third degree.
The second charge is based upon a victim who is age 14 or 15 – too young to give consent – with the perpetrator being at least 48 months older.
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office has said the girl left willingly with Alex Salazar after his shift ended, the assault occurred in his car on a nearby roadside and that he dropped her back to hotel where she told her family. She had minor injuries, Lt. Greg Elwin said.
The Great Wolf Lodge is a family oriented destination resort in Grand Mound with an indoor water park for guests. Alex Salazar had been working there a little more than six months, according to his father.
Charging documents describe how the girl and her older sister befriended the lifeguard on Monday while in the water park and the sister gave him her phone number.
He texted her later and they arranged to meet; the sisters, another friend and he met in the parking lot and had a conversation in his car, charging documents go on to say.
They all went into the arcade and after some time passed, he and the girl went to his car. Surveillance video shows they left the hotel at 12:05 a.m.
The girl told a deputy she didn’t know he intended to drive away, and became uncomfortable; he parked on the side of a gravel road and they began to kiss, then they decided to get in the backseat, charging documents state.
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She said she told him stop because it hurt when he put his hand between her legs, and stop because it hurt when he grabbed her by the hips, flipped her onto all fours and entered her behind, charging documents allege.
She told him she wanted to leave but he told her to stay; she said he then forced her to perform oral sex by pushing her down on him, the documents allege.
Alex Salazar told a deputy he stopped when she said to stop.
Charging documents state that when the deputy made contact with him at school, he began crying and said, “I messed up.”
He said he felt as if he had been pressured to have sex with her, the anal sex was her idea and she was pushing on him, the documents say.
She said she was afraid because he was so much bigger than her, and she tried to push him away at first by putting her hands on his chest and then pushing him away at his hips, charging documents state.
Charging documents state the girl felt something tear, and later found a large amount of blood in her underwear and shorts, and was still bleeding profusely when she got back to the hotel where she told her sister what happened.
Alex Salazar told the deputy he was informed she was 14, but didn’t believe her. The age difference between the two is approximately 50 months. She turns 15 tomorrow.
Alex Salazar is free on $20,000 bail and summonsed back to Thurston County Superior Court for his arraignment on May 28.
His father said his son lost his job. They met with the principal and he is back in school, and will be able to graduate next month, the senior Salazar said.
He described his son as a good student, a good kid who plays on the basketball team.
“He’s never into partying, he’s always telling kids not to drink or do drugs,” Jaime Salazar said.
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See Revised Code of Washington: Rape in the second degree [2]; and Rape of a child in the third degree [3].