In August, a 10-year-old student at Epperly Heights Elementary School in Del City told police that a teacher had forcibly raped her in a bathroom stall three months earlier.
The girl said that a fifth grade teacher forced his way into a handicapped stall with her last May, where he threatened her with a silver box knife and raped her while she screamed and kicked at him. She said the teacher told her that he would kill her if she told anyone.
After the girl reported the allegations to police, they arrested Raymond Keith Crawford, 44, on a complaint of first degree rape. He was released in early September after his bond was lowered from $500,000 to $50,000; however, he was ordered to wear a GPS monitor, and he was prohibited from working as a teacher or working with children in any way.
Crawford now resides in Florida.
This week, two days before Christmas, Crawford was formally charged in the case. He denies the allegations against him. It is important to remember that all defendants are to be considered innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
In Oklahoma, first degree rape is defined as non-consensual sexual intercourse occurring under one or more of the following conditions (21 O.S. § 1114):
- rape committed by a person over eighteen (18) years of age upon a person under fourteen (14) years of age; or
- rape committed upon a person incapable through mental illness or any unsoundness of mind of giving legal consent regardless of the age of the person committing the crime; or
- rape accomplished where the victim is intoxicated by a narcotic or anesthetic agent, administered by or with the privity of the accused as a means of forcing the victim to submit; or
- rape accomplished where the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act and this fact is known to the accused; or
- rape accomplished with any person by means of force, violence, or threats of force or violence accompanied by apparent power of execution regardless of the age of the person committing the crime; or
- rape by instrumentation resulting in bodily harm is rape by instrumentation in the first degree regardless of the age of the person committing the crime; or
- rape by instrumentation committed upon a person under fourteen (14) years of age.
The allegations against the former teacher include both rape of a child under 14 and rape accomplished through force, violence, or the threat of force or violence.
Oklahoma law, by statute, ascribes the maximum penalty for first degree rape as death; however, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty is unconstitutional for all crimes except aggravated murder. Instead, first degree rape in Oklahoma is punishable by 5 years to life in prison. It is a Level 3 sex offense requiring lifetime sex offender registration.
