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Title: Sexual assault case advances after testimony
Source:
Centre Daily Times
URL Source: http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/14062218.htm
Published: Mar 10, 2006
Author: Pete Bosak
Post Date: 2006-03-10 07:46:00 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: testimony, advances, assault
Views: 16
Comments: 1
Paxson assault case advances after testimony Alleged victim denies consent By Pete Bosakpbosak@centredaily.com BELLEFONTE -- Former Penn State football player Scott Paxson could stand trial on charges that he sexually assaulted a woman in his campus apartment in 2004. District Judge Jonathan Grine found enough evidence to send the case to Centre County Court for possible trial. Paxson, 23, is accused of sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault. Speaking from the witness stand at the preliminary hearing Thursday, the alleged victim said she did not want to have sex with Paxson in the early-morning hours of Dec. 15, 2004, having met him for the first time in person just hours before. But she said she never told him "no" and did not call for help during the alleged assault. The woman, 23, said she hoped her body language, and what she thought was her evident disinterest, would make him stop. Defense attorney Joseph Amendola seized on this to back Paxson's argument that the sex was consensual. He asked Grine to dismiss the charges. "Where in the world is the 'no'?" Amendola said. "What is he (Paxson) supposed to think? Is there some magic, a sign that pops up and says no?" Prosecutor Lance Marshall said after the hearing that the prosecution doesn't have to prove the victim said "no." The defense, he said, needs to prove she was a willing participant. "In this case, he failed miserably," Marshall said. "To think that she wanted to have sex with him, after one hour of meeting him, is so arrogant. So arrogant. And that's why it's a crime." The woman said she and Paxson met on a Web site and chatted online. Their first face-to-face meeting was that evening, when Paxson invited her to his apartment. She said Paxson had made sexual references in their online chats, telling her he wanted to have sex with her on a football field with her wearing his Nittany Lions jersey. She said that didn't deter her from going to his apartment. "People flirt," said the woman, who was a Penn State student at the time of the incident. "I never assumed it would be something I couldn't handle. I didn't think he was serious." She said they watched a movie at his Nittany Apartments residence. At one point, Paxton's roommate came into the apartment with his date, were introduced and then went into another room. Halfway through the movie, she said, Paxson began rubbing her thigh, draped her legs over his lap and kissed her. Under questioning from Amendola, she conceded that she kissed back, but she said it was with nowhere near the intensity of Paxson's kisses. Paxson put his hand down her underwear, she said. Amendola attacked on this point in his cross-examination, introducing a typed statement the woman had given Penn State's Office of Judicial Affairs. "I was not opposed to this necessarily, but I wasn't encouraging it," she said in the statement. She said she and Paxson had sex, during which Paxson picked her up and positioned her as he wanted. In a previous statement to police, she said she was intimidated by Paxson's size. She is 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds. Paxson is 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 284 pounds. However, she did not say Thursday why she did not call for help or tell Paxson to stop. "If he had respected me, he would have stopped and thought about what he was doing," she said. After they had intercourse, the woman said, she tried to leave. " 'You're not going anywhere,' " she quoted Paxson as saying. " 'Especially if I'm laying on top of you.' " The second time Paxson tried to initiate sex, she said, she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she used her legs to push him away, then told him she had to leave. He walked her to her car and kissed her good night, she said. Once in her car, she said, she began to cry. She went to her apartment, then, encouraged by friends, went to Mount Nittany Medical Center's emergency room. Sara Songer, a nurse at Mount Nittany, testified the woman had abrasions on her back and left knee and abrasions and lacerations inside her vagina and on her cervix. The injuries are consistent with the woman's account of nonconsensual sex, Songer testified. The case could go to trial as early as June. In court Thursday, Paxson wore a dark blue suit jacket with a Nittany Lions logo on the pocket. His parents were in court, as was Penn State's defensive line coach, Larry Johnson. Paxson, an NFL Draft prospect, was a defensive tackle on the Penn State football team last season. His four-year eligibility as a Penn State athlete expired after the Orange Bowl. The preliminary hearing was delayed one day in part so Paxson could finish NFL workouts in Florida. "We look forward to trial as soon as possible," Amendola said. "We want to put this to rest so Scott and his family can move forward. We hope that Scott has a very successful NFL career."
Poster Comment: "The Prosecutor Lance Marshall said after the hearing that the prosecution doesn't have to "PROVE" the victim said "no" (he'd have a hard time doing that since she said she never said no), the defense, he said, needs to prove she was a willing participant. In this care, he failed miserably" Marshall said. "to think that she wanted to have sex with him, after one hour or meeting him, is so arrogant. And that's why it's a crime."
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#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
Would this be in court if there were no NFL payday upcoming?
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