A man who lives in Des Moines was accused of raping a developmentally disabled woman at a Ballard warehouse, according to King County Superior Court records.

On April 24, 2013, a coworker witnessed James Neligan standing behind the victim, pulling her pants down as she was bent over and touching her genitals. The victim is a 33-year-old who is classified as having mild mental retardation -- below 3-4 grade expectancy level in academic areas.

Neligan told the coworker to "mind her own business" and stated that the victim "would not know the difference."

The victim had then started to cry. Reportedly, Neligan just looked at his coworker as if nothing had happened, zipped up his pants, shook his head and walked off.

When asked, the coworker did not know of any past incidences, but said that the victim had often said to her "I wish James wouldn't do that." At the time, because the victim was special needs, the coworker thought nothing of it.

According to the victim, Neligan said "be good and do it." He ignored her pleas to "stop" and "knock it off." Neligan went on to say "don't tell nobody" and that she would get in trouble if she told somebody.

Both Neligan and the victim were long-time workers at the warehouse. He for 15 years, she for 10 and one-half years. Neligan supervised seven people in the warehouse, including the victim.

Neligan at first denied anything happening, saying he simply came into work, said hello to everyone, talked to his coworker, engaged in miscellaneous work activities and so on. He stated that when the victim came in, they said good morning and he had her fill out some work orders.

Regarding the witness, Neligan said he was showing the victim how to enter people's work sheets on the computer and that he had to reach over her shoulder to show her that she had to push the number lock -- which, he claims, is when the coworker came around the corner. He claimed his coworker had it in for him after he said "fuck off" to her at one point.

When the detective asked Neligan if a DNA check would prove something different, Neligan seemed to hesitate, saying, "what DNA; there's no DNA that I, I have no idea."

The detective said the victim had gone to Harborview Medical Center and participated in a sexual assault examination. The results showed that Neligan had indeed touched the victim sexually.

Hesitating more, Neligan changed his story, saying that the victim wanted him to show her how to perform sexually. "(Victim) and I are close friends ... never made love or nothin' like that," he said. When the detective pressed him, beads of sweat began dropping on the shoulders of Neligan's jacket.

Neligan went on to admit that the first time he had touched the victim sexually was about a year ago, while they were pretending to dance. He said it took place less than five times.

When asked if he was afraid of getting caught, Neligan said "oh of course, yeah," adding that he knew he wasn't supposed to be doing it. He said he always stopped because it was "freaky deaky" to him.

When asked if he felt guiltier about being physical with the victim because she was developmentally disabled, Neligan said "probably, I would assume so; I guess that would have a lot more to do with it, yeah."

Neligan was charged in King County Superior Court on Monday and has not been jailed.

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