Cui and Amy got a Not Guilty this week in the 364th on a Sexual Assault. The following are the details from Cui:
This might be more than anyone needs to know, but there was a lot of stuff in this case.
Here are a couple of things about my and Amy Cook’s trial this week (if anyone’s at all interested):
Complaining witness testified to drinking 5-6 beers at her friends and “possibly” smoking pot (first time we heard of this was at trial) along with Xanax and being on anti-depressants (did she take them that night, who knows?) before they went to Jake’s sometime around 11 or 12. She ordered a beer and then someone sent her a beer which was given to her by the bartender.
After that, she doesn’t remember anything until she woke up naked with a blanket around her in her car. The car was not in the same parking spot where she remembers parking it. Bra cut between the cups, panties, blouse, purse and jacket gone. Guy’s “wife-beater” (as Mrs. Stanek characterized it), 2 socks and a cigarette case in the car. The cig case was thought to be the suspect’s (in trial, it came out that her friend smoked the same brand of cigs).
Also, nothing came of the “drugging of the drink.” No investigation was done on that whatsoever. The only investigation done was taking pics, rape exam, DNA CODIS hit. Indictment (which was totally wrong at first) had to be re-indicted (I filed a Motion to Quash). That’s why some bloggers on the AJ think my client had 2 separate sexual assault cases.
My client testified that he went to 50th Street Caboose around 7-7:30 and ate and drank. This girl (never saw her before) came in and they hung out. She got flirtatious and eventually told him she wanted to go to her car. She led him out and they had sex in the car. After that, she passed out. He didn’t know what to do so he drove her to his apartment a few blocks away. She still didn’t wake up. He took her purse inside, got a blanket, and then tried to carry her inside. He couldn’t do it so he kept trying to wake her up. It was getting late and he had to work at 6 am. He took her back to where his car was next to 50th St Caboose, left car on, locked the doors and left.
He went to work and then had a break sometime around 10. He went by the Caboose but her car was gone. He then went home and saw her purse in his apartment. Since he didn’t have a phone, he asked his neighbor to call a number that she could find in the purse and let the owner know where it was. He went back to work his second shift and that was that.
I did not talk to the jury, but Amy got from the Judge that the jury focused in on. “How did my client know which car was her’s and where was it parked?” She had to be coherent and lucid enough to lead my client to her car. Amy brought out the fact that she did not have a remote locking mechanism on her key chain so she had to be the one that showed him her car.
Supposedly, one of the jury’s preliminary votes was 11-1 not guilty (according to the deputies).
We also found out during the trial that the complaining witness did not want to come and testify but the State subpoenaed her anyway. (In this case, probably not the thing to do.)
My client’s version of events was the same from day one, even before he reviewed any discovery. I know the jury is getting some grief from some people on the AJ website, but it was the right verdict.
Cui Romo
Also, thanks to Joel Cook for offering his services as an expert witness on many issues in this case! Thank goodness I didn’t have to take him up on that.
