The attorney for a Marysville man charged with first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping accused county prosecutors of mismanagement and asked a judge to dismiss the case during a hearing last week in Jefferson County Superior Court.

Rhyan Tyler Vasquez, 26, was charged for first-degree rape (domestic violence); first-degree kidnapping (domestic violence); unlawful imprisonment (domestic violence); and harassment-threats to kill (domestic violence) after authorities alleged he repeatedly raped a former girlfriend who tried to give him a ride home after he was released from Clallam Bay Corrections Center in July 2019.

Vasquez has a history of 27 criminal convictions and 39 previous court warrants for his arrest. He was being held in Snohomish County at the time he was charged in Jefferson County because he had tracked down his victim and broke her jaw, according to court documents.

Vasquez was arraigned on the felony charges in Jefferson County in July and his trial had been set for September.

The trial was later postponed to January 2022, and in late November, prosecutors asked for the case to be dismissed without prejudice — meaning the state could bring charges and refile the case at a later date.

In November, a court commissioner agreed to dismiss the case.

DECISION DISPUTED

Last week in Jefferson County Superior Court, the dismissal of the case was criticized by attorney Richard Davies, Vasquez’s court-appointed attorney.

Davies asked Superior Court Judge Keith Harper to instead have the case dismissed with prejudice, which would mean Vasquez would not face charges for kidnapping, rape, and other alleged crimes.

In his request to have the case tossed out, Davies noted the alleged crimes occurred in July 2019, and a warrant was issued for Vasquez’s arrest because he was already in jail in Snohomish County.

Davies was appointed as the public defender in the case 10 months later, and in court papers, Davies recalled getting more than 3,600 pages of discovery material just two days after he became Vasquez’s attorney.

Davies also noted that prosecutors asked the case to be dismissed without prejudice on Nov. 24 — the date pretrial motions were scheduled to be heard in court.

Vasquez has a right to a speedy trial, Davies added, and said the court commissioner who dismissed the case without prejudice had “abused her discretion.”

Davies, in court papers, also said Vasquez had been prejudiced by prosecutors’ mismanagement of the case.

MORE EVIDENCE UNDER REVIEW

Deputy Prosecutor Anna Phillips disputed that account, however, and said the court commissioner didn’t do anything wrong when she dismissed the case last month.

“The state did not engage in any misconduct,” Phillips added.

Phillips said the state asked that the case be dismissed without prejudice because prosecutors needed to complete their investigation into the case.

Officials learned that the victim had been interviewed by Vasquez’s attorney in the pending case in Snohomish County that involved allegations of kidnapping and assault.

Phillips said it was clear that prosecutors here needed more time to review evidence, and that there was nothing improper about their request to have the case dismissed or the commissioner’s approval of it.

“We need time to investigate what this new evidence is,” she said.

The state needs to be sure it is prepared when the case goes to trial, Phillips added.

What’s more, she said, Davies had not presented an improper basis for their request to have the case dismissed without prejudice.

“This is not a game. This is serious,” Phillips said. “His liberty is at a stake.”

Davies again noted the time that had passed from the date of the alleged crimes, and said prosecutors asked the case to be dropped “in the 11th hour.”

He said the Snohomish County interview with the victim was also not new; he had already received it.

“And the reason I have that — I did some investigation into this case. I contacted the attorney representing [Vasquez] in the Snohomish County case,” Davies said.

“That’s why I have it; because I did my job,” he added.

The state has sat on its hands, he said, and that’s why they asked for the case to be dismissed without prejudice.

“It’s because of their own mismanagement,” Davies said.

If the Snohomish County case goes to trial first, the attorney continued, and Vasquez is convicted, he could face a longer sentence after conviction in Jefferson County.

“His offender score would be jacked up,” Davies said.

The judge, however, said he agreed that the case should be dismissed without prejudice.

“The short answer here is, I’m going to grant the state’s request,” Harper said.

He said he was satisfied that prosecutors actually did need more time to prepare.

“I’m not in their office; I don’t look in their files. I don’t know what they have and don’t have,” Harper said.

If prosecutors need more time for further investigation, he added, it did not mean it was improper for them to ask that the case be dismissed without prejudice.

SOMETHING SMELLS

Still, Harper said the timing of the request for dismissal of the case did not appear right.

That request came while he was on vacation, Harper said.

“I’m going to be frank here,” Harper said, recalling how he found out about the decision when he returned.

“Quite frankly, it did not smell right to me. And it did not appear right to me,” Harper said.

The judge said the case was already two years old, and pointed out that Davies was appointed as the public defender for Vasquez in November 2020.

“He’s been on the case for over a year now,” Harper said, adding that Vasquez has asserted his right to a speedy trial “from the get-go.”

“So then to find that this was dismissed while I was gone, a couple of days before I get back based on needing more time, did not appear to me to smell right,” Harper said. “I don’t know any other different way to say it.”