WA doctor accused of raping child family member for years

BREMERTON, Wash. - A Bremerton doctor is accused of raping a child family member dozens of times for more than six years.

According to charging documents obtained by FOX 13 News, 51-year-old Vulihn Ta has been charged with rape of a child, commercial sexual abuse of a minor and third-degree rape — all of them domestic violence charges. FOX 13 News is withholding the victim's name and relation to Ta for privacy reasons, as they are still a child.

Ta was arrested April 12 at his home in Bremerton.

Court docs allege that Ta had repeatedly raped a family member between 2017 and 2024, most recently around April 5 or 6, 2024. Police conducted an interview with the victim after Ta's arrest, who described years of sexual abuse.

According to charging docs, Ta raped the victim when they were 11 years old or younger. Court docs say the abuse began when Ta would follow them from the bathroom after they had taken a shower. The sexual abuse continued for several years until the home had a hot tub installed, where Ta would rape the victim with the promise of buying them new video games to keep them quiet, court docs say.

The victim pulled up dates of various transactions in 2022 — Jan. 6, Jan. 10, May 24, May 25, May 26, June 24 — which they told police were all days when Ta raped them, then bought them something. When police asked how many rapes occurred in the hot tub, the victim said "a lot," "more than 15 [times]," and more than 20 times since 2019, court docs show.

Court docs show the billing address for the transaction belonged to Vulihn Ta.