One of two Whatcom County brothers pleads guilty to
child sex abuse that lasted years
BY DENVER PRATT UPDATED AUGUST 22, 2024 5:46 PM
One of two brothers accused of sexually abusing and torturing two female children over a seven-year span roughly two decades ago has pleaded guilty. Brian Matthew Drake, 32, of Bellingham, pleaded guilty Thursday, Aug. 22, in Whatcom County Superior Court to felony charges including one count each of first-degree child rape and second-degree child molestation.
The Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is expected to recommend Brian Drake serve five years in prison, with three years probation at his sentencing hearing. He is also expected to be required to register as a sex offender, according to court records. Brian Drake’s sentencing is expected to be set sometime within the next three months.
A pre-sentence investigation report conducted by the Washington State Department of Corrections is required by law to be completed prior to Brian Drake’s sentencing hearing. The investigation, which will cover Brian Drake’s version of the events, victim impacts, and Brian Drake’s personal, professional, medical and social history, will also include a conclusion and recommendation as to whether or not specialized community-based or institutional treatment would serve the best interests of the community and Brian Drake. The report is due within 60 days.
Brian Drake was taken into custody following his guilty plea on Thursday and will remain incarcerated without bail until his sentencing hearing. Drake had previously been incarcerated in the downtown Whatcom County Jail since his arrest Sept. 19, 2023, in lieu of $350,000 bail with no cash alternative.
Prosecutors originally charged Brian Drake, and his brother Aaron Joseph Drake, in mid-September 2023 with 37 crimes between the two of them. All but one of the crimes were felonies and all but two were sex crimes, according to court records. Prosecutors then amended the brothers’ charges in late September 2023, dropping 12 of the original charges due to statute of limitations concerns, The Bellingham Herald previously reported.
Brian Drake was then facing six counts of first-degree child molestation, three counts of first-degree child rape, two counts of first-degree incest, one count of second-degree rape and one count of attempted first-degree child rape. All of the charges, which are felonies, included an aggravating factor that alleged the crimes were part of an ongoing pattern of sexual abuse of the same victim under the age of 18 manifested by multiple incidents over a prolonged period of time.
His charges were significantly reduced in exchange for his guilty pleas Thursday, as part of a joint recommendation between the prosecuting and defense attorneys, court records show.
So, from 37 charges with aggravating factors, shared with his brother, he ended up pleading guilty to two crimes and a recommended sentence of 5 years. How many years did the rapes go on? How old are the girls? Will they feel safe 3 years from now when he gets out? Will the judge award Drake a gold watch along with his sentence?
Chrystul Kizer was brutally exploited.
Her prison sentence is outrageous.
Sexually abused young women are often regarded not as victims in unspeakable situations, but rather as “prostitutes” selling their bodies.
Like many others who have advocated on behalf of Chrystul Kizer, I am left reeling by the judge’s harsh sentence for the death of Randall Volar III, who trafficked her for sex since she was 16 years old. Under Wisconsin’s truth-in-sentencing law, this is a 16 year sentence; 11 years in confinement and five years of supervision. Kenosha County Judge David Wilk would give her credit for around two years of time served, so she would likely be released to the community in nine years at 33.
To me, this is a question of law and order. The U.S. Department of Justice was actively working on the first Trafficking Victims Protection Act when I served as Senior Counsel in the Office of Violence Against Women in the late 1990’s. Understanding the plight of trafficking victims is not a new concept.
And when the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that a safe harbor provision for victims of child sexual exploitation would be available for Kizer’s defense, the ruling aligned with a growing legal awareness that victims should not be treated as criminals for acts that are a direct result of their abuse. The context of coercive control must be taken into account, as it may explain or excuse otherwise criminal behavior.
While both the judge and the District Attorney, Michael Graveley, claim that they took into consideration Kizer’s status as a victim of Volar, this belies the relentless pursuit of her as a criminal and the extensive sentence imposed on her.
DA regarded Kizer as prostitute, not the victim of sexual exploitation
The significance of refusing to appreciate Kizer’s precarious situation shaped the prosecution of the case. Specifically, the DA regarded her as a “prostitute” rather than a trafficking victim who killed her “john” in order to steal his car or perhaps for notoriety. The evidence for the defense shows she was an impoverished but gifted violin player who was sexually exploited by a man twice her age when she met him on Backpage.com where she was trying to get money for snacks and school.
Such are the competing narratives in the case. But the law demands a deeper understanding of the dynamics between a trafficking victim and her abuser. The laws are intended to protect prostituted women and girls; not those who would exploit them.
She deserves leniency:Victims of sex crimes deserve mercy even when they kill those who exploited them.
We know that three months before Volar’s death, police had seized extensive evidence that he was sexually assaulting, trafficking, and filming approximately a dozen underaged girls, including Kizer. She was identified in the videos. Police were led to Volar after a 15-year-old girl called 911 from his house, reporting that he had drugged her and threatened to kill her. She was found wandering the street half-naked on a February night. Notably, the police report described the girl as “prostituting herself out” even though she was reporting extreme, life-threatening victimization.
Likewise, in court documents, the state was only willing to concede that Volar was “posturing as a customer or what we used to call a john.”
Case is law enforcement failure and represents victim blaming
There is a significant legal difference between being a "john" and being an operator of a child sex trafficking ring involving around a dozen young girls, some thought to be 12-years-old. Volar was not a simple john and to ignore the context of her victimization as part of this ring is unfathomable. Perhaps the state reduced the criminality of Volar in retrospect in order to build the narrative that Kizer was the reprehensible criminal, not Volar.
This attitude of regarding young women as ‘prostituting themselves out’ might have infected the entire terrible case. From the beginning, sexually abused young women were regarded not as victims in unspeakable situations, but rather as “prostitutes” selling their own bodies to men who would pay them.
This misapprehension might help explain how Kizer was charged with disorderly conduct after she called 911 for help in a domestic violence situation in January of this year. She reported that the man she was with tried to rape her. She found out that he was a convicted child sex offender, but he had lied to her about this. It leaves one to wonder if she became “disorderly” because she was in grave fear and felt she was not being listened to by the police.
The judge and the prosecutor should not have been allowed to disregard the significance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in the way they did. Kizer, and all others similarly situated, deserve better under Wisconsin law. Going forward, the public must demand better.
Madeline Soto’s mother suggested
sexual abuse was ‘not evil’
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — New documents reveal Madeline Soto’s mother, Jennifer Soto, suggested the alleged sexual abuse involving the 13-year-old was “not evil,” according to investigators.
Jennifer Soto’s boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, was accused of sexually abusing the girl for years before her disappearance and murder earlier this year.
Documents obtained by NBC affiliate WESH detail a police interview with Jennifer Soto from March 1, days after Sterns was charged with dozens of child sex crimes following a search of his phone, and the same day that Madeline Soto was found dead.
“During the interview, Jennifer Soto continuously protected Stephan Sterns, was questioned about why she prioritizes Stephan Sterns over (Madeline), and even at one point referred to the ‘sex stuff as not evil but the murder of (Madeline) as ‘evil,’” an arrest report stated.
Jennifer Soto told police that Sterns often shared a bed with the teenager, and the pair slept in a separate bedroom with a chain lock on it. She said they went off to bed together the night before the child disappeared.
“Jennifer Soto did not show the same level of emotion or care in regards to (Madeline’s) ongoing victimization by Stephan Sterns than she did her disappearance. It appeared to me that she has already accepted that the victimization was happening and her emotion appeared fictitious,” the report noted, according to WESH.
One interview revealed that Madeline recently told Sterns she had a crush on a boy. Jennifer Soto said she didn’t notice anything unusual going on before she disappeared. She has not been charged with any crimes.
The newly released evidence also showed Sterns secretly took photos of one of their female roommates naked through the crack at the bottom of the door, according to police.
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