Lesser of two charges dismissed by court
Jurors heard today from Robert Bobby Hughes an account of a night that led to him being charged with committing a criminal sex act, as he took the stand as the first and only witness for the defense.
The ex-River Rat also described why he initially gave police a different account that did not include any sexual contact between him and the woman, saying he was embarrassed and fearful for his career.
`She was an older woman, I was a young kid. It just wasn’t something I wanted out,` he said.
Hughes said he met the woman at My Place, a bar in Delmar, and the two decided to go to his Elm Avenue apartment, where they had sex. Neither of the two was drunk, he said. Afterwards, he said he hinted she should leave.
`It was awkward, I didn’t know what to say or do, really,` he said. `I don’t think she was too happy with meshe seemed annoyed.`
The prosecution charges the woman was in state where she was unable to give consent. She testified she has an incomplete memory of the night and went to the hospital the following day.
Hughes initially provided police with a statement days after the 2008 incident in which he said he took her back to the apartment complex, where she stumbled out of the car in an extremely intoxicated state.
Hughes said he made the story up to mask the sexual encounter and fit to what detectives told him about the case, which at the time they said was an assault. His DNA was identified from a rape kit analysis the following year.
Assistant District Attorney Shannon Sarfoh questioned Hughes about that document at length.
`You don’t want to get in trouble with outside, off the ice stuff and yet you sit down with officers and tell them a bunch of lies?` she asked.
`They told me she was assaulted, and I had no clue what they were talking about as to the assault,` Hughes replied.
`I thought that me sleeping with her was irrelevant and I didn’t want it to come up.`
He also said police produced a picture of a woman who was not the alleged victim during the interview.
Hughes told jurors about the encounter in graphic detail. He testified it was born out of `hormones` more than attraction.
Hughes also was asked about a Facebook message he sent to then-roommate Harrison Reed days before the start of the trial where he apparently advised him not to come to testify. Reed testified on the first day.
Hughes said today he wanted Reed to understand `It was not my decision.`
`It’s not that I didn’t want him to come, it’s that I didn’t want him to think I was making him come,` Hughes said.
Before resting today, the prosecution played a tape of the 911 call the alleged victim made on the night of the incident. In it, the woman was clearly upset, saying several times `I don’t even know what happened.`
She initially told the dispatcher she did not known where she was but named nearby streets and came to express a better understanding of her location.
`I’m not intoxicated, I’m totally aware of where I am,` she said near the end of the call.
Also today, Judge Dan Lamont granted the defense’s request to dismiss a charge of criminal sex act in the third degree. The charge of that crime in the first degree still stands.
Defense attorney Robert Molloy argued the prosecution had failed to provide proof the alleged victim was indeed incapacitated.
`The victim’s purported lack of memory cannot be substituted for her being physically helpless,` he said.
Closing arguments are set to begin tomorrow morning, after which the jury will begin deliberations.
Check back to spotlightnews.com for updates on the case.
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