State v. Jones

Facts

D, Craig Carpenter, and A.S., were longtime friends. Carpenter and A.S. were engaged and had children. Unbeknownst to Carpenter, D and A.S. had been sexually involved for approximately four years. During a road trip, A.S. and D decided they would end their affair. Even so, they returned to A.S.'s apartment and engaged in consensual sex that morning. A.S. went to the bathroom and then returned to the bedroom. D was looking at pornographic material on the computer. D sat next to A.S. on the bed and started touching her, and she responded by telling him that 'I thought we had decided that the time before [] was the last time and it wasn't going to happen anymore.' D got behind her and was undoing his pants when A.S. said no. D then leaned forward, and A.S. was pushed down to where she couldn't get up, and D started having sex with her. A.S “kept yelling at him and pleading for him to stop and please quit,' which he ignored. D apologized to A.S. afterwards. D admitted that he 'lost control.' A.S. contacted the Boise State University Women's Center. She told a counselor that she had been raped and was advised to call the police, which she did not do. Thereafter, A.S. continued to be in contact with D and subsequently took road trips with him again. D went to A.S.'s apartment to watch movies. He spent the night and remained there in the morning after Carpenter left for work and A.S.'s children went to school. A.S. was taking an antihistamine for a bee sting and a prescription anti-anxiety medication, both of which caused her to feel drowsy. She laid down on the living room couch and started to 'drift off.' D tested her to see if she was conscious, then proceeded to pull down A.S.'s pants and underwear, and 'pushed [her] legs apart and started having sex with [her].' A.S. 'just froze,' and testified that she was 'paralyzed' with fear. D and A.S. went to the bedroom and shared a cigarette. D helped A.S. into bed and once again started to have sexual intercourse with her. She asked him to stop, and he did. Based on the first incident in the bedroom and the second on the couch, D was charged with two counts of forcible rape. D went to A.S.'s apartment to watch movies. He spent the night and remained there in the morning after Carpenter left for work and A.S.'s children went to school. A.S. was taking an antihistamine for a bee sting and a prescription anti-anxiety medication, both of which caused her to feel drowsy. She laid down on the living room couch and started to 'drift off.' D tested her to see if she was conscious, then proceeded to pull down A.S.'s pants and underwear, and 'pushed [her] legs apart and started having sex with [her].' A.S. 'just froze,' and testified that she was 'paralyzed' with fear. D and A.S. went to the bedroom and shared a cigarette. D helped A.S. into bed and once again started to have sexual intercourse with her. She asked him to stop, and he did. Based on the first incident in the bedroom and the second on the couch, D was charged with two counts of forcible rape.  At trial, A.S. admitted she had never informed police that she and D were sexually involved during the four years prior to the incidents. She also admitted her statements to the police were incomplete where she did not reveal that she and D had had consensual sex earlier in the day on the first instance. She did not show officers text messages sent by her to D that indicated that she loved him (and that would have revealed their relationship). She admitted that even at the time of trial, she was still concealing her relationship with D from Carpenter. During cross-examination, D focused on a letter that A.S. wrote, had notarized, and gave to the prosecution before trial. In it, she recanted her allegations of rape, asserted that D was wrongfully charged and characterized the incidents as a misunderstanding between her and D., But A.S. subsequently sent another letter to the prosecutor that retracted her retraction-she maintained that counseling had induced a change of heart and that she indeed wished to go forward with the charges. The State presented the testimony of the nurse who examined A.S. after the second incident. The nurse stated that A.S. was 'visibly frightened' during their interaction: crying, avoiding eye contact, and speaking very softly. During the examination, A.S. 'had her knees to her chest, kind of holding herself' and afterwards she laid down and 'just kind of curled up.' The nurse further testified that she found no physical evidence of trauma consistent with rape-there was no bruising, scrapes, or scratches on A.S.'s body. The issues presented are whether verbal resistance qualifies as resistance under Idaho's forcible rape statute and the amount of force required to overcome this resistance.

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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