A 38-year-old Oak Harbor man facing 33 counts of child rape, as well as a single count of child pornography, is being held in the Island County jail on $250,000 bail.
Sidney Summiel was originally charged May 16 with two counts of rape of a child in the third degree and possession of child pornography. He pleaded not guilty May 23.
But a joint investigation between the Island County Sheriff’s Office and Naval Criminal Investigative Service may have recently uncovered a second, younger victim.
A 19-year-old man accused Summiel of having oral intercourse with him at least 100 times from 1995 to 1999. This was during a time period in which the alleged victim was just 12 to 15 years old.
The charges against Summiel were recently amended to 30 counts of rape of a child in the second degree, three counts of rape of a child in the third degree, and a single count of possession of child pornography.
Under the second-degree rape charges, Summiel is accused of having sexual intercourse with a child younger than 14 but at least 12 years old.
Detective Ed Wallace with the Sheriff’s Office said agents with NCIS began the investigation last July after a couple of residents grew suspicious that Summiel was allowing teenaged boys to live at his home and use his car.
There were also allegations that Summiel was having sex with the minors and took nude photographs of one boy, according to court documents.
Investigators tracked down a young man who admitted he had a sexual relationship with Summiel that began when he was “fourteen or fifteen,” the affidavit of probable cause states.
Based on information from witnesses who said Summiel possessed child pornography, Wallace served a search warrant on Summiel’s laptop computer in January and sent it to the state crime lab for analysis.
In March, the crime lab reported that there were “in excess of 1,000 images of minors, mostly males, engaged in sexual activity or presented in a sexually explicit way,” Wallace wrote.
According to court documents, Summiel said that several people had access to his computer and the images of child pornography “just kept popping up.” Summiel also said he had “no improper” contact with the alleged victim, the report states.
Wallace wrote that after Summiel was arrested “the Navy advised of their intent to serve him with his discharge papers.”
According to the more recent report, Summiel started a sexual relation with a 12-year-old boy in 1995.
The alleged victim told detectives that Summiel often took him to movies and restaurants and bought him over $5,000 worth of gifts. Also, Summiel took the teenagers with him on two trips to Spain, the report states.
The alleged victim claimed that he had sex with Summiel so often, Wallace wrote, it became “almost part of his normal, day-to-day existence.”
You can reach Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.
