When attorney William Linka was making his opening remarks to the jury Monday, he offered them a succinct forecast.
“This is going to be an ugly case,” he said. “Nobody is going to come out of this looking good.”
Linka represents Steve Benedict Casper, a 22-year-old former College of William and Mary football player who is accused of raping a fellow William and Mary athlete at a house party in James City County’s Powhatan Crossing subdivision in November 2012.
Casper pleaded not guilty in May, leading to a jury trial which began Monday.
Linka and the prosecutor, Williamsburg-James City County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Gaten, spent much of Monday afternoon eliciting testimony from the alleged victim in the case.
Her testimony, which lasted more than three hours, and Gaten’s opening statement focused on the alleged violent sexual assault and its aftermath. She said she went to the party on the night of Nov. 10, 2012, into the early morning hours of Nov. 11, 2012, with some friends and was dropped off by Steer Clear, a safe-ride program affiliated with William and Mary that “provides a reliable, secure and free means of travel for students on weekend nights when school is in session.”
She described it as a “normal party” that was “really crowded.” She said it was difficult to move around the house, though when asked by Linka, she was unable to provide any approximate number figure for how many people were there. When Gaten asked about alcohol, she said she “didn’t know” if any alcohol was present.
At about 1:30 a.m. Nov. 11, she said she was waiting outside the house with her friends for a ride. She said Casper approached her and they talked for a few minutes about their respective roles on William and Mary athletic teams. After a few minutes, Casper suggested they go inside. She said she followed him into the house and upstairs to his bedroom, where he immediately shut the door after she went inside.
“I was confused,” she said. “I didn’t know why we were in the bedroom.”
She said she then told Casper she would stay for five minutes. She texted her friends at that point, asking if they had left. She said they began kissing consensually on Casper’s bed. According to the alleged victim, Casper then took off most or all of his clothes as she texted her friends.
“I got really freaked out and said I needed to go,” she said. She then said he wouldn’t let her leave.
“He’s three times my size,” she told the jury. “I kept saying I had to go, and it was not acknowledged.” The College of William and Mary’s athletics website lists Casper as 6’1″ and 225 pounds.
She said Casper then “aggressively” removed her dress and began sexually assaulting her. She said she began “texting for my life.” She said Casper told her to put the phone down. Casper then continued to assault her before putting his hands around her neck and began to squeeze, she said.
“I thought I was going to die,” she said of the alleged strangulation. She said she clawed at his hands. She said she then pretended to give Casper a hickey before biting his neck a few times, though those bites “didn’t phase him.”
She said she then told him to look at his neck. When he got up, she said she looked at her phone to see if her friends had responded to her text messages. Casper looked in a mirror and began swearing at her when he noticed the wounds on his neck, she said.
She then got her dress on and sprinted out of the room at about 4 a.m., she said. She said she ran out of the house and into the night, calling her friend to find a way home. Her friend mapped online a way out of the neighborhood. She said she was scared and sprinted all the way to the Five Forks 7-Eleven, where she ran into the store’s clerk, Steven Ursin.
“I could tell something happened,” Ursin said during his testimony Monday. “Her dress wasn’t put on properly. Her belt was backwards.”
Ursin said he spent about 20 minutes with the alleged victim, waiting with her until a taxi came and picked her up.
During his cross examination, Linka questioned the alleged victim about the contents of the text messages she sent on the night of the alleged offense. He asked where the indications of her texting for her life were. He presented a packet of pages featuring screenshots of a text message conversation between the alleged victim and several of her friends. Among the texts she sent on the night of the alleged offense are “I want to go home,” “someone get me,” “can you call me a cab?” “I want a cab” and “is it coming?”
When asked if she would agree that none of those messages sound desperate, she said yes. She said texting “help” was “not productive” to getting out. Linka asked her why she didn’t text “help,” “911,” “rape,” “police” or something similar so her friends would know she was in trouble. She said none of her friends knew where the house was.
Linka then asked the alleged victim why she didn’t scream during the choking, to which she said she didn’t have any air. She said he then began kissing her immediately after the choking stopped, preventing her from screaming. When asked why she didn’t scream as she ran out of the bedroom, she said the house was dark and there didn’t appear to be anyone there.
He then asked her why she didn’t scream outside or go to a neighbor’s house or call the police. She said she was afraid Casper was chasing her and that she was on the phone with the friend who guided her out of the neighborhood.
During her discussion of the aftermath of the alleged attack, she said she went to the college’s Student Health Center. A doctor there tried to do an examination, but she said she wouldn’t let anyone touch her. She said the incident left her “dead inside.” She said the incident left her with bruises all over her body as well as vaginal bleeding. When asked about any apparent injuries, Ursin, the 7-Eleven clerk, said he saw a mark on her neck but he didn’t recall seeing anything that looked like a bruise elsewhere on her body. He noted she kept her distance from him when she was at the store.
She said she couldn’t get out of bed the day after the alleged incident. She said a few of her friends came and that she “shut up” as soon as one of them “freaked out” when she told her that Casper “took my clothes off.” She then spoke with a resident adviser, telling her she had had unwanted sexual contact.
She testified she also told her assistant coach about unwanted sexual contact. She said she told members of William and Mary’s administration about unwanted sexual contact in December. The James City County Police Department became involved at that point.
Casper was charged for the incident March 20. He was arrested March 27. William and Mary spokesperson Suzanne Seurattan confirmed Monday that Casper was enrolled at William and Mary from fall 2009 through the beginning of the spring 2013 semester. He did not graduate from the college. Casper played on the William and Mary football team from 2009 through 2012.
He is charged with one count of abduction with intent to defile, one count of rape, one count of forcible sodomy, one count of attempted forcible sodomy, one count of strangulation, one count of sexual battery and three counts of object sexual penetration.
The trial is scheduled to run through Tuesday. An abundance of witnesses may force the trial to move into Wednesday, however. The lawyers must still collect testimony from them, make their closing arguments and then pass the case to the jury for deliberation.
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