Richland man charged with raping teen, offering $50 to another

A 35-year-old Richland man is accused of sending sexually explicit messages through Facebook to three teen boys and offering $50 to see one of them naked.

Ian R. Findlay now has two cases in Benton County Superior Court involving a total of six felony sex crimes.

His trial is set Oct. 1 in both cases.

While Findlay is free on his personal recognizance, he’s ordered to have no contact with minors, to stay away from all middle and high schools and not to use the internet.

“The investigation was lengthy, taking place over the last several months,” Richland police said Thursday in a Facebook post.

Court documents show that Findlay befriended one young teen boy in 2015 or 2016, and communicated with him through Facebook Messenger and text messages. He would give the boy car rides and provide him with alcohol and marijuana.

The boy reported that he was raped by Findlay in the summer of 2016 while parked near Leslie Groves Park. He told Findlay to stop, and the suspect eventually did, documents said.

Messages sent by Findlay allegedly included explicit details of what he wanted.

Findlay met an older teen through that boy, and in 2017 sent him similar sexually messages, court documents said.

The older teen and Findlay were together last summer when Findlay offered the boy $50 to see him naked, documents said. Findlay also gave him alcohol and marijuana if the teen spent time with him.

Findlay, when interviewed by investigators, allegedly admitted to raping the younger teen. The contents of his Facebook account were obtained through a search warrant.

Then in December 2017, Findlay started talking with a third teen boy through Facebook Messenger. He told the boy he was “sexy” and “hot” and asked the teen to send naked pictures, court documents said.

Prosecutors say the two primarily communicated at night from 10 p.m. to 3 or 4 a.m. Findlay would arrange to meet the young teen outside of his house, and offered him marijuana, documents said.

The boy’s mother discovered the Facebook messages and called police.

After Findlay was arrested in January, investigators used a special program to search his cellphone for any child abuse material, including child pornography.

Detectives claim a preliminary forensic analysis found 21 images of child pornography along with 998 photos that could be described as child exploitative but it couldn’t be clearly determined if the people were under age 18, documents said.

In the first case filed earlier this year, Findlay is charged with communication with a minor for immoral purposes and second-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Then in July, prosecutors filed a second case for third-degree rape of a child, commercial sex abuse of a minor and two counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

Anyone with information related to either case is asked to call Richland police Detective Damon Jansen at 509-942-7353 or djansen@ci.richland.wa.us.