Sex offender accused of assaulting Lacey hotel employee

Bail was set at $7,500 for a man accused of assaulting a hotel employee in Lacey.

Michael E. Caton, 32, appeared Monday in Thurston County Superior Court before Judge Sam Meyer on one count of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation and unlawful imprisonment with sexual motivation. Arraignment was set for June 7.

However, police reported that the alleged victim also has a criminal history, with seven felony convictions, including three for perjury. The officer received paperwork from a manager of the hotel that notes the woman has been convicted of fraud, falsely accusing family members of sexual assault and passing as a high school teenager while in her 20s.

Court documents give the following account of the incident at the hotel:

The female employee was working the night shift at Candlewood Suites, 4440 Third Ave. SE, and was outside checking the building for trash about 1:35 a.m. Friday. She said a man suddenly appeared, grabbed her arm and shoved her against the building.

The man allegedly told the woman to “be still” and started pulling at her clothes. The woman was able to get her arm free and struck the man in the head with a flashlight.

The man ran off. A K-9 unit with the Lacey Police Department located a suspect who matched the description given by the woman and was later identified as Caton. When the officer asked about a small bump on the side of his face, Caton said he had been hit with a board at work the previous day. Caton’s employer told police that he didn’t work the previous day.

An officer identified Caton as a registered sex offender living in the 4400 block of Montclair Drive Southeast in Lacey. His previous convictions include at least five counts of failure to register as a sex offender. He was registered as a sex offender after a 2001 conviction of third-degree rape of a child.

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Sex offender accused of assaulting Lacey hotel employee."