Brothers Charged with Rape and Torture of Girls from 2002-2009

This is a really difficult story. 

The facts themselves are so difficult to digest.  It's hard to process what these girls went through.  There were 11 kids living with their parents in a one-bedroom house.  And two of the older boys are charged with having done horrific sexual sadism against two of the younger girls for many years.

In the bodycam video of the arrest of one of the brothers, he seems genuinely baffled by the appearance of the police.  When he's told it's about child rape, still confused.  When they get him to the car and tell him the names of the complainants, he has a light bulb moment.

He calmly elaborates for the officers.  He didn't think of this as child rape, or anything that the police would be coming about.  Because they'd apparently already dealt with this through their Mormon Church.  The boys had agreed they'd stop the behavior.  And that was the end of it.

This reporting from the Bellingham Herald describes the complainants as being girls who were "known to" the Drake brothers.  But I believe these are their own siblings.  From that same reporting:

The woman recounted horrific details of the abuse in which the Drake brothers would gag her with a cloth, saltine crackers, peanut butter or white bread and duct tape her mouth to muffle her screams while they raped her. The woman said Brian and Aaron Drake “would team up” and restrain her using twine, rope, clothing, zip ties and wrist restraints to hold her down while they sexually abused her.

She also told detectives that Brian and Aaron Drake used multiple foreign objects to sexually assault her, the court records state. The woman also disclosed to detectives incidents where she was suffocated and choked by Brian Drake. She said Brian Drake threatened her by telling her that if she told anyone, “things were going to get worse.” Brian Drake also told the girl he would kill her if she said anything, according to court records. The woman said that when she was around 8 or 9 years old, Aaron and Brian Drake would sexually assault her at the same time. The woman told detectives that she would often be forced into a room with Brian and Aaron Drake and one would block the door while the other sexually assaulted her. The men would then switch, the records state.

That's some highly sociopathic shit for young kids to be doing as a team.  But here's where it gets really, really bad.  And I don't know whether there are only two parents, or as many as six different parents in this scenario.  But I suspect only two.  And I can't imagine what conversation they had with the police.

The woman told detectives the sexual assaults stopped when Brian and Aaron Drake’s parents found one of Aaron Drake’s journal entries on his computer. Aaron Drake had written that he was sorry for what he did, and named a second female child in his apology. The entry did not include details, but did state that Aaron Drake was sorry, court documents show.

The first woman told detectives she and the second girl didn’t fully disclose the abuse to the Drake brothers’ parents because they were scared. Brian and Aaron Drake’s parents told detectives that they sought help from their church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the Mormon Church. The church told Brian and Aaron Drake’s parents to separate the boys from the two girls, according to court records.

When contacted by sheriff’s detectives, the bishop of the church confirmed he had met with Brian and Aaron Drake’s parents in 2009 or 2010. The bishop said he was told there were “some inappropriate actions toward” the girls. The bishop told detectives that “safety measures” had been put in place “to protect the girls” and that Brian and Aaron Drake’s parents were seeking legal counsel, according to court records.

Okay, that's where everything is 100 percent off the rails for me.  The charges that led to the above bodycam video happened as a result of one of the girls, now in her 20s, regaining her memory as I did.  And she disclosed to her husband.  He encouraged her to go to the police.  She went to the police with her mother, according to the reports.

Is that the same mother who didn't ask enough follow-up questions to know what she was sweeping under the rug by way of the Mormon Church when it happened?  Who agreed that they would just separate them from the boys and march forward like nothing had happened?  And if so, why are they not facing charges?

I understand why the Mormon Church isn't facing charges for constantly failing to report child sexual abuse and endangerment.  It's not an issue for them for the same reason that's simply not a problem anywhere in America.  The Mormon Church used to refer people to Jodi Hildebrandt for child-raising and marriage counseling, end conversation.  Law enforcement in America doesn't do much protection of human life.  It's much easier for them to look after property.  They like to focus on that.

Meanwhile, Aaron Drake is nowhere to be found.  Still from the same article linked above:

Aaron Drake is also facing a separate child sex crime case in Montana, in which he is accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl who was known to him. He has been charged with one count of sexual intercourse without consent, one count of assault that inflicts bodily injury or the victim is under age 16, and two counts of assault with a weapon in the Montana case. He was arrested last year for the alleged crimes, the court records state.

So basically the boys' parents discovered what they were up to because one of them felt bad about it.  They went to the church for counseling.  The church did a basic under-rug-sweep, no investigation, and told them to separate the kids.  Apparently that did cause the abuse of those two girls to stop.  And Brian went along believing that was really the end of things.

Still from the same Bellingham Herald article referenced throughout:

Sheriff’s detectives also contacted Brian Drake’s ex-wife, with whom he has a 5-year-old daughter.

The woman told detectives that “she has been waiting for several years for a call from law enforcement,” court documents state. The woman told detectives in February 2018 that the first woman disclosed to her that she had been sexually abused by Brian Drake as a child. Brian Drake’s ex-wife told detectives she didn’t remember specifics, but remembered the woman told her Brian Drake raped her.

Brian Drake’s ex-wife confronted him about the allegations later that same day and recorded the conversation. During the confrontation, Brian Drake admitted to sexually abusing the second woman and did not deny sexually abusing the first woman, according to court documents. On the recording, Brian Drake said “he thought that part of his life was ‘done and over with and buried.’” He then told his ex-wife that he had gone to the bishop and the stake president at the church about the abuses and “received counseling,” the records state. “That was who I was and that’s not who I am anymore,” Brian Drake said on the recording. He also told his ex-wife that there had been something wrong with him since he was at least 3 years old and that “there’s something incredibly wrong with him,” according to court records.

Brian's wife divorced him and distanced their young daughter from him physically -- entirely understandable.  He can never be around a 5-year-old after the things he admitted to her, no matter how sorry he is.

Meanwhile is Aaron sitting in jail like Brian?  No.  Aaron's in the breeze, as far as I know.   So while I don't expect the city to keep his shitty murals up, I expect Brian to go down like a bag of bricks.  And I'm not sure I understand the legalities of charging him as an adult for things he did while a teenager.  But he needs help for sure.  And I hope they find Aaron sooner than later.  God bless the girls who survived this nightmare.