Trial ordered in rape case

SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint man was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on allegations that he raped a teenage girl in 1997.

Bonner County Magistrate Court Judge Justin Julian found during a preliminary hearing there was sufficient cause to try Gary Dean Blankenship for the offense. Blankenship is free on $100,000 bond while the case is pending.

Blankenship, 49, is scheduled to be arraigned in 1st District Court on June 18.

Blankenship was bound over for trial after his alleged victim testified that she endured years of sexual abuse leading up to her rape in the spring of 1997, when she around the age of 16.

She told the court she kept the abuse a secret until 2005, when her ex-husband pointedly confronted Blankenship in her presence. She testified that Blankenship tearfully broke down and tried to hand her a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

“He said, ‘You can just shoot me right now,’” she testified.

The alleged victim, now 30, said she resolved to come forward after overcoming her fear of Blankenship. She also told the court that she wanted to protect other potential victims.

Blankenship did not testify, but shook his head at times during the woman’s testimony.

Under cross-examination by Blankenship’s defense counsel, Bryce Powell, the witness was unable to recall certain details, such as the defendant’s attire during the alleged rape or her mode of transportation that day.

Powell also inquired about the woman’s financial affairs but made no argument, for instance, that she tried to extort or blackmail Blankenship. Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall also made no argument during the hearing.

Julian admitted that he becomes concerned when the state rests its initial case on the testimony of a single witness and without corroboration from others, but added that such a circumstance can sustain a case as the burden of proof increases during the proceedings.

Moreover, Julian noted that the testimony of a witness called by the defense offered some very broad corroboration.

The alleged victim testified under direct examination that she believed the abuse she endured was common knowledge among certain people, including Jackie Decker, who was a friend of Blankenship’s wife. She told the court Decker had once made some sympathetic remarks to her.

But Powell called Decker as a witness in an attempt to show that those remarks actually related to an embarrassing prank Blankenship pulled on the alleged victim in front of a gathering of mixed company. Decker testified that Blankenship pulled the pubescent girl’s bikini bottom down to her ankles.

Julian called it “shocking and inappropriate conduct” capable of being committed someone who could perpetrate a rape.