Man charged with raping woman at Yakima Arboretum last year | Crimes and Courts

Prosecutors have filed rape charges against a homeless man who allegedly raped a woman at the Yakima Area Arboretum late last year.

Mark Lee Tongate, 19, also faces charges of aggravated harassment in connection with the December 2023 incident and has failed to register as a sex offender since his release from prison the previous month.

The woman went to MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital on December 31, 2023, and said she had been raped at the arboretum two days earlier. She went to the park and a man approached her, pushed her to the ground and attacked her, according to an affidavit.

During the struggle, she said, the man choked her, told her to “shut up” and raped her. He also told the woman he would kill her if she told anyone about the attack, the affidavit states.

Her rape kit was sent to the Washington State Patrol crime lab, which identified Tongate as a suspect through DNA analysis, the affidavit said.

Tongate has previous convictions for first-degree rape of a child and failure to register as a sex offender. He also has a misdemeanor conviction for failure to register and an outstanding warrant for failure to register as a sex offender.

According to an affidavit in the case, Tongate had not registered since he was released from Airway Heights Corrections Center in November. According to the affidavit, he was classified as a Level 1 offender, meaning his risk of reoffending was low.

During a June 10 hearing in Yakima County Superior Court, Judge Jared Boswell set Tongate’s bail at $200,000. The following day, Judge Sonia Rodriguez True set Tongate’s bail on the failure to register case at $5,000, with that bail to be paid subsequent to his other case.