Richland man arrested after alleged sexual assault, police chase into Oregon

A Richland man accused of sexually assaulting a woman in rural southeast Benton County led deputies on a high-speed chase across the Columbia River corridor and into Oregon, where law enforcement finally stopped his SUV near Stanfield. Timothy Lee Hounshell, 57, was booked into the Umatilla County Jail in Pendleton on charges of felony fleeing, reckless driving and recklessly endangering another person.

Benton County deputies were called early May 29 to a report of a sexual assault in or near the Hover Park area, about 6 miles southeast of Kennewick on the Columbia River. Investigators said the woman told them she had known Hounshell for about six to eight months and that he was the father of her child’s babysitter. She said he picked her up the afternoon of May 28, they bought food, and later drove to Hover Park, where after sundown she climbed into the back of his 2007 Buick Rainier. She said she fell asleep or passed out, then woke with her arms restrained above her head with zip ties and her ankles tied with rope before Hounshell raped her. She said she repeatedly told him to stop.

The woman later got out of the vehicle under the pretense of relieving herself, ran away and called her brother, telling him she had been raped and to call 911. Deputies soon found her, then spotted Hounshell’s SUV speeding away from a dirt access road. The chase ran along Highway 397 and Interstate 82, crossed into Oregon and reportedly reached speeds of more than 100 mph over about 30 miles.

Oregon State Police, Washington State Patrol and the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office took over once the pursuit crossed the state line. An Oregon State Police trooper responded at 2:49 a.m. and later used a pursuit intervention technique to force the Buick Rainier into a ditch near North Loop Road and East Coe Avenue in the Stanfield area. Hounshell surrendered and was arrested without further incident.

Benton County also sought Hounshell on a first-degree rape warrant, and authorities reported a $1 million nationwide arrest warrant to bring him back to Benton County Superior Court on that charge while armed with a deadly weapon. Officials said he has been a registered sex offender since 2013 after a second-degree rape conviction and also was convicted in 2022 for failing to register as a sex offender. The case now spans both sides of the Columbia, with Oregon handling the flight charges and Washington pursuing the rape case.