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Truckee man accused of rape faces judge

Hannah Jones
hjones@sierrasun.com
John Melvin Carson

A Truckee judge will decide next week whether a rape case will proceed toward trial.

John Melvin Carson, 46, appeared Tuesday for his preliminary hearing in Nevada County Superior Court on accusations he raped a 15-year-old girl after she stayed overnight at his house. Judge Robert Tamietti will rule Wednesday whether enough evidence exists to advance the case to a jury trial.

Carson faces charges of forcible rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object and forcible oral copulation.



The teen, who testified at the hearing, said she knew Carson through a coworker who lived with him. On March 3, the teen got into a heated argument with her parents and left her house to walk to where her coworker and Carson lived.

“If I had gone to a friend’s house, my parents would have come and got me,” she said.



There she encountered Carson in the driveway and began discussing the fight with him. Later her coworker offered to let her spend the night there.

After watching television for a couple hours, the teen said Carson convinced her to go to his bedroom, where he raped her. She then spent the night there, as she said she was still afraid to go home.

Her parents arrived at the house the next morning after they received a phone call from her coworker.

The teen reported the alleged rape, an arrest warrant was issued March 5 and Carson was arrested and booked into the NevAda County Jail on March 11.

Carson’s attorney, Paul Quade, asked the teen if they had ever communicated outside of the occasional ride home. Days before the incident she had sent Carson a text wishing him luck on a surgery he was having. He responded: “thank you sweetheart.”

Hannah Jones is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. She can be reached at 530-550-2652 or hjones@sierrasun.com.


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