URI Rape Trial Comes to a Close

Via the Associated Press article below, RI Criminal Defense Lawyer John MacDonald notes the outcome of a high-profile sexual assault case that was decided by a jury last week.

2 URI students acquitted of sexual assault

The Associated Press
July 29, 2010, 3:49PM

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Two former University of Rhode Island students have been found not guilty of raping another student in a campus dorm almost two years ago.

The jury returned its verdict Thursday after about an hour and half of deliberations.

Jurors rejected the prosecution's case that Yaw Peprah (yah pep-RAH') of Lincoln and Estifanos Gizaw (eh-stuh-FAHN'-ohs GEE'-zaw) of Houston, Texas, had used "force and coercion" to rape a freshman student after a party involving alcohol and marijuana.

Peprah's lawyer suggested in closing arguments that the woman who accused the men did so because of embarrassment over having sex with them at the party. Attorney Roy Fowler said she did not call for help or attempt to leave the dorm suite.

Fowler had said earlier that a university judicial board cleared the men.



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