SEATTLE — A man who identified himself as a Native American activist was sentenced Wednesday to 46 years in prison for drugging and raping women in a case that inspired calls to change Washington state law to prevent self-represented defendants from directly questioning their accusers.
Red Wolf Pope, who had apartments in Seattle and Santa Fe, New Mexico, was arrested in 2018 after guests at his Seattle apartment provided police with videos from his iPad showing him raping several women who appeared to be unconscious, court documents said. Police also found a secret camera in Bob’s bathroom that was used to take video of women showering.
“I was horrified when I saw the amount of violence the Pope inflicted on so many women over so many years. It will never leave me,” Erica Ilan, one of the survivors who discovered the hidden cameras and video evidence of the crimes, said in a press release.
The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual assault except in cases where they publicly identify themselves or share their stories publicly.
Pope, 49, was convicted of rape and voyeurism by a Santa Fe jury in 2020. He was sentenced to four years in prison, with more than two years already served. The Pope claimed that the meeting was consensual.
After his release from prison, he was extradited to Washington state to face charges related to incidents in 2016 and 2017. He pleaded not guilty and represented himself during his trial in September, where he interrogated one of his victims for several days.
The jury found him guilty on September 3, 2025.
Survivors have called on the Washington State Legislature to change laws that allow self-represented defendants to directly question their victims. They want lawmakers to update the Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights to provide an alternative to cross-examination of victims by offenders acting as their own advocates.
They want judges to have the ability to allow a defendant to be cross-examined by a court-appointed person rather than by a defendant representing himself.
“We must improve outdated systems that cause survivors more harm in their pursuit of justice,” Ilan said.
Pope, who has claimed Western Shoshone and Tlingit heritage, is an activist who has appeared as a spokesman for the Seattle-based United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. His LinkedIn page lists him as an attorney who has served on the Tulalip Tribal Court for more than a decade.
But his legacy and biography came under scrutiny after his arrest. While he has a law degree from Seattle University, the Washington State Bar Association has previously maintained that he is not a licensed attorney, and the Tulalip Tribes have said he has never worked as an attorney there.
Several tribes with Tlingit and Shoshoni members also said they had found no record of Bob’s registration, although it is unclear whether he claimed membership in any particular tribe.
Bob created a “false identity and pretended to be a Native man to infiltrate Native communities and prey on Native women,” said Abigail Echo Hawk, executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and an advocate for Native women’s rights.
Echo Hawk, a national leader for missing and murdered indigenous women & Not only did Bob not do harm until he was caught, but he was “allowed to take advantage of our legal system and continue to traumatize his victims for years afterward,” said Crisis Girls and an advocate for victims of sexual violence.