Earlier today, a federal jury found Charles Barrett, an accomplished Northern California climber and a guidebook author, guilty of three charges of sexual assault.
The verdict follows a weeklong trial held at the U.S. District Court in Sacramento. A 12-member jury composed of eight men and four women found Barrett, 39, guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. U.S. District Judge John Mendez has scheduled his sentencing for May 21.
“This defendant used his renown and physical presence as a rock climber to lure and intimidate victims who were part of the rock-climbing community,” U.S. attorney Phillip Talbert, the lead attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in a statement released soon after the verdict. “His violent sexual assaults were devastating to the victims, whom he later threatened in the lead-up to trial. Today, the defendant has been held accountable for his crimes. My office will continue its work to make National Parks such as Yosemite a safe place for all.”
Federal authorities arrested Barrett in August 2022 for a 2016 assault in Yosemite National Park against a fellow climber referred to as K.G. in court documents. Prosecution motions described how Barrett connected with K.G. through Facebook and then arranged to meet her in Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows Campground. According to court documents, Barrett sexually assaulted her three times over a period of several days and also choked her to a degree that made her think she might die.
In addition to testimony from K.G., the prosecution relied on the statements of three other female climbers who said they were assaulted by Barrett. Although he was not charged for these alleged incidents, because they did not occur on federal land, the women’s accounts provided support for K.G.’s charges. Court documents and testimony demonstrated that, in addition to sexually assaulting his victims, Barrett stalked and harassed them after his initial attacks, causing them to fear for their lives. Over a 14-year period, nine protection orders or restraining orders were filed against Barrett for incidents that involved the harassment or assault of at least six women; this included death threats, trolling on Instagram, and impersonating a police officer.
During the trial’s opening and closing arguments, Barrett’s defense attorneys did not dispute the violent nature of K.G.’s experiences with Barrett. But they argued that the sexual encounters were consensual at the time and that K.G. later regretted them, leading her to, according to their version of events, falsely report the incidents as assaults to Yosemite police.
Callie Rennison, a professor and criminology researcher at the University of Colorado Denver, said she was “thrilled with the verdict.” In 2018, Rennison, along with data analyst Charlie Lieu, conducted an online survey called Safe Outside, with responses from 5,000 climbers that provided law enforcement with initial information indicating that Barrett might be a serial sexual predator. “The hard work of investigators, litigators, survivors, witnesses, journalists, jurors as well as Safe Outside are directly responsible for this just outcome,” she added. “It took a village.”
If you have information related to this case or believe you may be a victim, the U.S. Attorney’s Office asks that you submit a tip online, call 888-653-0009, or email nps_isb@nps.gov.