Former Seattle firefighter sentenced to nearly 4 years for rape

LYNDEN, Wash. (AP) — A former Seattle firefighter has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for the repeated rape of a teen he met through a theater group.


The Bellingham Herald reports (http://goo.gl/sTnZ0N ) 54-year-old Michael James "Suey" Sulak convinced the girl, who was under age 16, that they were in love. She reportedly ran away from her home to be with him in December 2013.

Charging papers say in four days, while her family was searching for her, Sulak had sex with the 15-year-old girl in a Ferndale trailer and in a pickup in a Queen Anne parking lot near his firehouse.

Sulak's plea deal suggesting he spend a year in jail with conditions fell apart after police reports emerged alleging another teen had been sexually abused by him when he was a youth pastor and the victim said she no longer agreed with it.

According to court documents, the girl told authorities she first met Sulak through a theater group, Northwest Washington Theater Group, and that they grew close because she felt he "really listened to her," court documents said.

The girl stated that during a performance in November or December 2013, they had sex on a catwalk at Meridian High School two separate times of the night.

In December 2013, the girl's father had concerns that his daughter might be having a relationship with an adult and provided to law enforcement an iPod that was used by his daughter to communicate with Sulak through text messages, documents said. On Dec. 26, the girl's father reported her as a runaway to the Lynden Police Department.  Police said the girl -- who was gone for four days -- stayed at Sulak's Ferndale home for part of that time, and the girl stated they had sex again. She also told authorities they had sex once in his truck in a parking lot near his place of work on Queen Anne, the court documents said.