By james art 
A Sioux Falls man who once served as an assistant attorney general for the state of South Dakota has been charged with 21 counts of first-degree rape of a victim who was younger than 13.
Donald Eugene Tinklepaugh, 47, was booked Sunday into the Minnehaha County Jail following a grand jury indictment Friday.
Online court documents show the allegations against Tinklepaugh span a September 2016 time frame. until May 2018 Sam Clemens, a spokesman for the Sioux Falls Police Department, said police received a report on Aug. 1, but that the department was not the agency that arrested Tinklepaugh.
In an initial appearance Tuesday morning, Tinklepow’s attorney, Jason Adams, said Tinklepow was “shocked and disappointed” by the allegations, but stressed that he turned himself in when he realized there was a warrant for his arrest.
Adams noted the “very contentious custody battle” that has been going on in Tinklepaugh’s family and that another judge had raised concerns about “parental alienation” and said he had concerns about the alleged victim’s “differing versions” of when they occurred the attacks.
Meanwhile, the state said the alleged victim reported being raped between the ages of 6 and 11 and that Tinklepaugh threatened to harm others or himself if the alleged victim reported anything.
The state called him “extreme danger” and asked to stay his $750,000 bond, which Judge Eric Johnson maintained.
Tinklepaugh served in the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office from 2007 to 2012. and is currently employed by the Social Security Administration. The Argus Leader reached out to SSA South Dakota region representatives about Tinklepaugh’s employment status, but representatives were unavailable at this time.
This article originally appeared on Leader Sioux Falls Argus: Ex-assistant SD indicted on 21 counts of rape