FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE -- A Spokane man has been arrested in connection with a sheriff’s office investigation into the rape of a woman inside an interrogation room at Fairchild Air Force Base’s SERE School.

Michael Fassbender, 32, has been arrested and charged with raping a woman early Tuesday morning inside an interrogation room at the Survival Training Center at Fairchild. Fassbender made his first court appearance Wednesday where he was charged with 1st Degree Rape.

His bond has been set at $20,000, the judge calling his alleged crime exceptionally violent.

Court documents allege Fassbender squeezed the victim's throat until she was unconscious. The victim told detectives she thought Fassbender was going to kill her.

When detectives arrived, they found a considerable amount of physical evidence in the interrogation room.

Fassbender is an employee with SERE Solutions, a Spokane-based company which contracts instructors to work in SERE School programs such as Fairchild’s SERE School. However, when contacted about Fassbender’s employment, all questions were referred to Fairchild Air Force Base.

The airbase, when contacted about Fassbender’s status, referred all questions to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.