Higher bail, additional charges sought for kidnapping suspect

The Oak Harbor man was accused of kidnapping and raping a teenager.

A deputy prosecutor wants to increase bail and add charges against an Oak Harbor man accused of kidnapping and raping a teenager, according to court documents.

Joshua Wiener is currently facing a long list of charges in Island County Super Court that include kidnapping, rape of a child, assault and unlawful harboring of a minor. The 33-year-old man is accused of kidnapping a teenage runaway, keeping her captive for weeks, raping her multiple times, beating and strangling her, possibly causing her to have a miscarriage, according to court documents.

In a motion to file amended charges against Wiener, Deputy Prosecutor Michael Safstrom asks to add an allegation of rape in the first degree, rape in the second degree and an additional count of rape of a child in the third degree. The amended information would also add aggravating factors that could increase a sentence and dismiss criminal impersonation and harboring charges as being duplicative.

The deputy prosecutor is asking the judge to increase Wiener’s bail to $500,000 based on his actions while in the jail. Safstrom originally asked that Wiener be held on $500,000 bail, but Judge Christon Skinner set it at $150,000.

In his motion to modify the conditions of release, the deputy prosecutor writes that Wiener had unsupervised visits in the jail with his juvenile child, contrary to his attorney’s claim that they would be supervised. In addition, Wiener allegedly tried to influence his child’s testimony related to the crimes, the court document states.

The document states that the child is a witness to the kidnapping, assault and sexual abuse. Wiener allegedly told his young child that “what he knows could put his father in prison for the rest of his life” and tried to convince him that what his father did to the victim didn’t actually happen, the document states.

“Because the defendant is primarily concerned with improving his chances in this criminal case, he has attempted to leverage his son’s fear and the emotional attachment that his son feels for him in order to dissuade (him) from disclosing the truth,” the motion states.

The motion also alleges that Wiener spoke to his brother from the jail and told him to conceal evidence from his apartment.

In addition to increasing bail, the prosecution asks that Wiener be ordered not to have further contact with his child while the case is pending.

A hearing for the judge to decide the motions is set for Nov. 1.