IDAHO FALLS — A 36-year-old man was charged with rape after a 17-year-old reported an incident to her probation officer.
Alexander Scott Shepherd was charged with the rape of a victim who is 16 or 17 years of age. If he is found guilty, he faces up to life in prison.
According to court documents, an officer with the Idaho Falls Police Department spoke with the victim, who said she had run away from home in April through May.
During this period, the victim, 16 at the time, said she stayed with Shepherd as she had known him when she was younger. However, during the stay, the victim alleged he had sex with her two to three times.
The victim told the officer before the incident, the man had talked to her about his sex drive and how he was “so horny it hurts.”
When questioned what led to the rape, the victim said she was sitting on Shepherd’s bed when he grabbed her ankles and pulled her close to him. She said she denied his advances and got away, telling him she did not want to have sex.
The document states Shepherd grabbed her again, undressed her and sexually assaulted her.
The victim showed the officer text messages between her and the man, which indicated an interaction had occurred. When Shepherd was questioned, he denied the interaction. He said the victim never stayed at his trailer, and when she was over, it was only for a few hours.
The document states the victim had a three-hour-long voice recording of her talking to the man, thanking him for letting her stay and telling him what he did was wrong.
The document states that time-stamped photos from the victim showed her inside the trailer with Shepherd, and a witness told the officer that the man had told them the victim had stayed there on several occasions.
A search warrant was conducted for the man’s phone, and the document states that the vast majority of messages between the two were missing.
Looking at his internet searches, it states the man had accessed “several hundred pornographic sites and videos related to ‘teens’ and or ‘teenagers’ indicating a clear sexual interest in teenage girls.”
The man is scheduled to appear at 1 p.m. April 4 before 7th Judicial Magistrate Judge Kent Gauchay for a preliminary hearing.
Though Shepherd has been charged with these crimes, this does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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