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Cottage Grove transient accused of New Year's Day rape

Oct. 17--COTTAGE GROVE -- A man suspected in a the rape of a Cottage Grove woman in January has been arrested and charged with the crime as a result of a DNA test.

Joseph Fredrick Lane, 51, a transient, was arrested Sept. 24 by the Lane County Sheriff's Office on an unrelated parole violation and a felon in possession of a firearm charge. While in the Lane County Jail, Cottage Grove police filed a search warrant to collect DNA from Lane for the rape investigation, the search warrant affidavit states. The warrant was granted Oct. 4, and Lane's DNA was a positive match to the Sexual Assault Forensic Exam kit performed on the victim.

Lane was charged with second-degree sexual abuse last week.

According to the affidavit, the victim was asleep at her friend's home on New Year's Day when she awoke to find a man touching her sexually. She identified the man as Lane and said the physical contact was unwelcome and she did not consent. However, she said she was too afraid to tell him to stop or physically resist him, as he continued to touch her and then rape her. The encounter lasted 10 minutes, she told police. Lane then allegedly put a white crystal substance in her mouth which caused her to vomit, first inside the home and then outside as Lane allegedly "followed her and petted her head," the affidavit states.

The woman went to the hospital where a forensic exam was conducted and Cottage Grove police were called.

Police contacted Lane in April and he admitted to being at the same home as the victim the night of the alleged rape, but he said the victim had sex with another male that night and was highly intoxicated. He said he put the victim to bed but denied ever having sexual contact with her. He did admit feeding the victim methamphetamine.

The second-degree sexual abuse charge is considered to have aggravated circumstances because Lane is on post-prison supervision, court records show.

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