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Teen accuses school bus driver of rape

2014.0421.richard.crumbliss6284 [1]

Richard L. Crumbliss is directed to the defendant’s table during a bail hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – An Onalaska school bus driver is jailed following his arrest for allegedly raping a teenage relative in her bed during spring break.

Bail was set over the weekend for 43-year-old Richard L. Crumbliss at $750,000. A different judge today reduced the amount to $100,000.

Crumbliss appeared in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon, shackled at his hands and waist, for the bail hearing.

Temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter in asking for a lower bond noted his client is a volunteer firefighter and also a part time substitute bus driver.

“But, he’s no longer doing that,” Schroeter said as he described how the Onalaska resident’s financial situation qualified him for a court-appointed lawyer.

Charging documents describe a deputy responding on Thursday to speak to the teenage girl, at the behest of a victim’s advocate.

Deputy Susan Shannon was told the girl came home drunk on April 9 and three times during the night, Crumbliss came into her bedroom, while her mother was home and still up and awake during the first two alleged encounters.

Shannon was still investigating when Crumbliss phoned 911 to report the girl had run away, according to charging documents.

According to the court documents, without solicitation, he told the deputy the girl had accused him of rape and he hadn’t seen her since the night before.

He called the girl a huge fibber and worried about his reputation as an officer of the fire department, according to the documents.

The girl told authorities she’d overheard both he and her mother calling her a liar about it.

Deputies subsequently searched the home, and Crumbliss and his wife offered that they had collected the girls underclothes from that night and saved them, the documents state.

He also told the deputy he is never alone with the girl, his wife is always present because about two and half months earlier he was accused of a different sexual assault, according to the documents. He was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail on Friday morning.

Judge Richard Brosey this afternoon was told the girl has been taken into protective custody.

Brosey ordered Crumbliss, if he makes bail, to have no unsupervised contact with minor females; and further ordered his spouse may not be the one to supervise any contacts.

Centralia lawyer David Arcuri was appointed to represent him.

Crumbliss is charged with two counts of third-degree rape of a child and one count of first-degree incest. His arraignment is scheduled for Thursday.

The girl also told authorities, according to charging documents, that when she was 12, he gave her vodka mixed with strawberry drink while she traveled with him in his semi truck and he sexually abused her in the sleeper. He denied the accusation, but admitted giving her strawberry vodka, charging documents state.