Man accused of rape at Davenport
Couple in town for a wedding met suspect at a bar
A Spokane man is accused of raping a woman last weekend at an upscale downtown hotel.
Benjamin F. Cooper, 25, was arrested early Saturday after the alleged victim said he attacked her in a room she’d rented with her boyfriend at the Davenport Hotel Tower. The woman and her boyfriend met Cooper at a bar, and the woman asked Cooper to walk her back to her hotel when her boyfriend wanted to stay out, according to court documents filed in Superior Court this week.
The woman claims Cooper walked into her hotel room uninvited, then slapped and punched her before he raped her.
Cooper remained in Spokane County Jail on $200,000 bail Tuesday evening after refusing to attend his court hearing for the second day in a row, said Superior Court Judge Michael Price.
Along with first-degree rape, Cooper faces a first-degree robbery charge after the woman said he stole her cell phone and cash and ripped the phone cords out of the wall.
Video surveillance shows Cooper and the woman entering the hotel at 10:37 p.m. Friday and getting on an elevator. Cooper is then seen leaving the hotel alone at 11:12 p.m.
Police said the woman had bruising on her face and red marks on her neck. Cooper reportedly told police the couple bought him a beer at a bar, but that he went to his “baby mama’s house” before returning to downtown.
When police told Cooper they knew he’d walked a woman to the hotel, he said he’d only kissed her goodnight, according to the affidavit.
The woman is from Idaho and her boyfriend is from Alaska; they were in Spokane for a wedding.
Cooper has an extensive criminal record beginning in at least 1999, including 12 assault convictions. His most recent conviction was in May when he was credited for 38 days served in jail for conspiracy to possess drugs, documents show.