A Kern County man is accused of raping four University of San Francisco students after giving them alcohol until they passed out.

Ryan Kenneth Caskey, 21, was arrested by San Francisco police on Friday on suspicion of four counts of rape of an unconscious person and four counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, San Francisco police said.

Caskey is a resident of Keene, northwest of Tehachapi and southeast of Caliente. He attended Garces Memorial High School.

High school friend Josh Halpin said the charges against Caskey aren’t representative of the man he knew.

“He’s probably one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met,” Halpin said.
Although he hadn’t often been in touch with Caskey since high school, Halpin saw him over the New Year’s holiday and said he was “happy as a clam.”

A family member declined comment Wednesday morning.

The rapes were separate incidents that happened between April 2008 to January, prosecutors said. Caskey plied the women with alcohol during parties and then raped them as they lay unconscious, according to prosecutors.

"As we've alleged, this defendant was a predator, essentially laying in wait to entrap his fellow classmates and attack them in the most vicious and despicable manner," San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris said in a news release.
One of the victims contacted university officials, who then contacted San Francisco police. Sex Crimes detectives questioned Caskey and arrested him two days later, police said.

Daniel Lawson, director of the university’s public safety department, said they first received information about the alleged assaults on Feb. 10. They contacted police after interviewing the victim and the investigation revealed more victims.
The university provides information conducts exercises for students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and scenarios that can lead to sexual assault, Lawson said. Bulletins have been posted on the campus about Caskey’s arrest and a student and faculty led forum about the case was scheduled for Thursday for people to express their concerns.

Caskey was a ROTC member at the school but his commission was terminated after his arrest.

Caskey was in custody on $600,000 bail and was scheduled to be arraigned in San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday morning, prosecutors said. The maximum penalty for each count of rape of an unconscious person is 8 years in prison.

San Francisco police are urging anyone else who may have been a victim of Caskey to contact them.