A Bellingham man who raped his younger sisters over a seven-year period when they were children was sentenced Tuesday to five years inside a Washington state prison.
Brian Drake, 33, appeared inside a courtroom at the Whatcom County Superior Court March 11. He pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree rape of a child, one count of first-degree incest and one count of second-degree child molestation.
It took more than six months for Drake to be sentenced to the crimes after he pleaded guilty on Aug. 22, 2024. Drake was arrested in September 2023 after the two survivors went to law enforcement about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Drake and their other older brother Aaron Drake, 35.
Aaron Drake is facing multiple charges of child rape, child molestation and incest but is in prison in Montana on separate charges and an extradition date is unknown.
The abuse began when the survivors were between the ages of 4 and 11 and lasted from 2004 through 2009, according to court documents.
One survivor was in attendance at the sentencing hearing on Tuesday. Cascadia Daily News does not name survivors of sexual abuse. Throughout the hearing, Drake remained stoic.
Gordon Jenkins, a prosecutor at the Whatcom County Prosecutor’s Office, said during his arguments that the survivor has had to deal with the impacts of the abuse for many years.
“I think not a small amount of the difficulty of dealing with that is the fact that it was kinda swept under,” he said. “Because these are not allegations that were unknown to those around her, to others in the community. They were just unknown to the state.”
A family secret
Brian Drake grew up in a large family with 10 brothers and sisters in Whatcom County.
The survivor said in her victim impact statement, which was read aloud by a victim advocate in the courtroom, that Drake was considered the stereotypical golden child.
Drake won the 2A state diving championship in 2010 as a junior at Squalicum High School and even attended a well-known diving camp in Indiana during the 2009 summer, according to the Bellingham Herald, who named him as a high school diver to watch.
“He was the star diver of the family,” his ex-wife Chelsea Miller told CDN, noting he also participated in karate, gymnastics and wrestling. “He did all the things to get attention.”
By the time the survivor got to high school, “everyone knew who the Drakes were, especially Aaron and Brian,” she said in her impact statement. “This meant I was constantly being asked about and compared to my abusers.”
Post high school, rather than going to college to dive, Drake met his future wife at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints event for young single adults in 2012. It was a mini-self defense class and Drake had volunteered to be the dummy.
Miller said she thought he was charismatic and cute. The couple married months later in Maple Valley after family members pressured them since they were living together.
“Our wedding ceremony was very small, with only a handful of family members in attendance,” Drake wrote in divorce filings. “This ceremony was held primarily to ease those external pressures we had been experiencing.”
Over the seven years together, the couple had one child, a daughter born in 2016. But the marriage was far from perfect. The couple fought, including forms of emotional abuse. The fighting continued especially when Miller began taking college classes. Drake also wanted to go to college but the couple couldn’t afford to pay rent and take classes at the same time.
“He didn’t take me into consideration at all, he just started college so I quit,” she said.
Drake would graduate from Whatcom Community College in 2017 with an associate degree in the arts. He also worked in labor and construction.
It was around this time that Miller would learn about the abuse Drake’s sisters endured when they were younger. Miller said one of the survivors invited her over in February 2018 to discuss what happened.
‘In survival mode’
Miller said to her it seemed like the family was covering up the abuse the survivors endured.
It was stated in the sentencing hearing that the abuse started when Drake was around 10 and ended when he turned 17.
The survivor was under 12 at the time and remembers that she would plan out when she would take her showers to make sure her brothers weren’t home. Her hygiene suffered. She changed the way she dressed, from wearing dresses to overalls or oversized clothes that made her overheat in the summer.
“I was in survival mode before I even had a chance to be a kid,” she said.
The joy she got from playing musical instruments was lost when Drake took interest in learning guitar. Even a chance to learn karate as a way to defend herself was taken away when Drake enrolled too.
“He got an excuse to show off his skills while simultaneously using the karate class to get close to me,” she said.
In court records, the survivor said her parents were under the impression that the brothers’s actions happened “a couple of times.” They told a bishop at their church who recommended keeping the girls separated from the boys.
“The Bishop advised safety measures were in place to protect the girls and the family was seeking legal counsel,” according to court documents.
In Washington state, members of the church are not mandated to report child abuse, including sexual abuse or neglect. A bill that would make clergy members mandated reporters is making its way through the state Legislature this year.
After learning about the abuse in 2018, Miller confronted Drake and he admitted to it.
“I kicked him out that day,” Miller said.
The couple filed for divorce in December 2018. Miller said she didn’t report the sisters’s abuse to the police because she was focused on her anger toward Drake. Miller wouldn’t be contacted by authorities about her ex-husband’s actions until 2023.
Between the divorce and his arrest, Drake painted murals in Bellingham and had his own art company. He also performed as Spiderman at children’s birthday parties.
‘An unorthodox resolution’
During the sentencing hearing, Jenkins, the prosecutor, called the resolution of the case unorthodox.
“… That is different from virtually any other that I have done,” he said. “The facts of this case themselves are some of the most gruesome that I’ve ever encountered in my time in the prosecutor’s office.”
The first charge, first-degree rape of a child, typically holds a standard sentencing of 162 months, or more than 13 years, at the minimum. In Drake’s case, he’ll serve 54 months.
Jenkins and Drake’s defense lawyer, Richard Larson, explained the reason for the lower sentencing recommendation was based on Drake’s age at the time of the abuse.
“If it had been reported in a timely manner … the time the defendant would have been facing at most was about 125 weeks in the care of juvenile corrections,” Jenkins said. “It would have been sealed afterward.”
Larson said the sentencing recommendation was not made lightly and involved much negotiation.
“This resolution provided some level of certainty that going to trial or doing a non-agreed plea would not provide,” Larson said.
Drake addressed court
Addressing the courtroom, Drake told Judge Lee Grochmal he was sorry for his actions and the pain that it caused those he cared about, even if he could not remember the events themself.
“I can remember enough, though the details are fuzzy to me, the shame and guilt inside are still there,” he said. “… Please consider that the man here in this courtroom is far removed from the boy who committed these crimes so long ago.”
Along with the five-year prison sentence that Drake will be required to serve, along with credit earned from his period of incarceration at the Whatcom County Jail, he will be placed into community custody for 36 months after he exits prison.
Grochmal also ordered he register as a sex offender.
“None of this is your fault,” Grochmal told the survivor Tuesday. “You didn’t do anything to cause this, it shouldn’t have happened to you and it should have stopped long before it did. I see now though, that you’ve turned into a very strong and brave woman.”
The survivor said Tuesday that she forgave her brother but didn’t want him in her life.
As for Aaron Drake, he is currently incarcerated at a private prison in Montana after having been found guilty of assault with a weapon. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with two years suspended. It’s unknown when he’ll be extradited to Whatcom County to face multiple charges of child rape, child molestation and incest.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
