Published: July 08, 2009 10:58 am      

Berea traffic stop resulted in VanWinkle rape charges

Jaclyn Dawn VanWinkle is scheduled to appear Wednesday in Madison District Court for a preliminary hearing on charges that she raped and sodomized a 15-year-old boy.

VanWinkle, 26, of the 100 block of Boone Way, also is charged with alcohol intoxication, permitting an unlicensed driver to drive a motor vehicle and possession of an open alcoholic beverage in a motor vehicle after Berea police pulled her and the boy over on Walnut Meadow Road just hours before Richmond police arrested her on the sex charges.

According to Berea Police Department spokesman Capt. Ken Clark, Berea officers pulled the pair over around 1:20 a.m. June 30 and found the boy behind the wheel.

“She was under the influence and allowed him to drive,” Clark said.

The boy was detained by police for driving without a license and was released to a “responsible adult” at the Berea Police Department, Clark said.

VanWinkle will appear in district court Friday for an arraignment on the Berea charges.

Clark said the Berea arrest allowed Richmond police to interview VanWinkle about the alleged sexual assaults on the boy, a fact Reardon confirmed.

According to district court records, VanWinkle admitted in an interview with Richmond Detective Eric Long to having sex with the boy once and buying him alcohol, but denied the boy’s claims that the couple had sex twice and that VanWinkle performed oral sex on him.

The boy had made the claims during a June 28 interview with Long, according to court records. He also said he drank the alcohol VanWinkle allegedly purchased for him.

Long subsequently charged VanWinkle with two counts of third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy and third-degree unlawful transaction with a minor.

VanWinkle is lodged in the Madison County Detention Center in lieu of a $10,000 cash bond.

She was on probation for two years following an April guilty plea to reckless abuse of an adult in connection with an investigation into alleged abuse of residents at Madison Manor Nursing Home.

Senior Judge David Hayse had probated the 12-month jail sentence on the conditions that she assist prosecutors with their investigation into the nursing home and not commit further offenses.



Brian Smith may be reached at bsmith@richmondregister.com or at 624-6694.