Convicted rapist pleads not guilty to rapes in Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) — A man has pleaded not guilty to rape and voyeurism charges in Seattle after completing a prison sentence in New Mexico for raping a Washington woman there in 2017.

Redwolf Pope, who leased apartments in Seattle and Santa Fe, was arrested in 2018 after his house guests gave police videos from his iPad that allegedly showed him raping several women who appeared to be unconscious, court documents said.

A Santa Fe jury in 2020 found Pope guilty of rape and voyeurism, and a judge sentenced him to four years in prison, with credit for over two years already served. Pope claimed the incident was consensual.

Pope was booked May 19 into King County Jail, where he remains in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail, The Seattle Times reported. He pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Pope was charged in 2018 with two counts of second-degree rape against two women inside his Seattle apartment in 2016 and 2017, charging papers say.

King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Aubony Burns told Chief Criminal Judge Karen Donohue Wednesday that based on additional video evidence he now faces three counts of second-degree rape and three counts of first-degree voyeurism.

Pope, who has claimed Western Shoshone and Tlingit heritage, is an activist who last Thanksgiving appeared as a spokesperson for the Seattle-based United Indians of All Tribes Foundation to discuss Native-American perspectives on Thanksgiving.

Pope’s LinkedIn page describes him as a co-founder for tech startups and lists him as an attorney who has worked for the Tulalip Tribal Court for over a decade.

But Pope’s heritage and resume have come under scrutiny since his arrest. While he received a law degree from Seattle University, the Washington State Bar Association previously confirmed he was not a licensed lawyer, and the Tulalip Tribes said he never worked as an attorney there.

Several tribes with Tlingit and Shoshone members also have said they’ve found no record of Pope’s enrollment, though it’s unclear whether he has claimed membership to any particular tribe.

Abigail Echo-Hawk, the executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and an advocate for Native women’s rights, has said Pope created a “false identity and posed as a Native man to infiltrate Native communities and prey upon our Indigenous women.”

Echo-Hawk said Wednesday she stands by that 2019 statement and that she’s grateful police thoroughly investigated his alleged conduct.