Aggravated Rape and Indecent Assault and Battery: Not Guilty After Trial

Attleboro Police charged an adult male and female juvenile with raping and sexually assaulting a high school girl. The two females, both friends, lied to their parents about sleeping over one another’s homes in order to sneak out to an adult male’s apartment. The plan succeeded. The two girls walked to the man’s apartment, hung out there for a while, and eventually walked to a nearby convenient store where they purchased snacks and condoms. The girls then returned back to the man’s apartment. Once there, the group began to engage in sexual activity. The defendant-female began to kiss the other girl as well as touch both her breasts and buttocks, all in front of man who sat and watched from his bed. The alleged victim claimed she told both her friend and the man, “guys, I don’t want to do this,” but they both ignored her. Clothing was removed and ultimately, the man engaged in vaginal penetration with her. The complainant alleged her friend held her legs apart by her ankles so the man could penetrate her. The next morning, the girls left the man’s apartment and returned to their respective homes. Sometime later, the complainant told her mother and boyfriend she was raped and sexually assaulted by both the man and her friend. These allegations triggered a police investigation leading to the arrest and prosecution of the two alleged aggressors for aggravated rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery. The man retained counsel and admitted responsibility for his involvement in the allegedly forced group sex. The female, however, retained Massachusetts Sexual Assault Defense Lawyer, John L. Calcagni III, to defend her. Attorney Calcagni and his client proceeded to trial before the Taunton Juvenile Court. The prosecution solely called the complaining witness in its case-in-chief. Following her direct testimony, Attorney Calcagni cross-examined her on topics that included the girl’s lack of verbal and physical resistance during the sexual encounter, purchasing condoms at the convenience store and returning to the man’s apartment, delayed reporting of her sexual assault claims, the fact she had a boyfriend who learned of the sexual encounter and believed she had been unfaithful, her mother’s anger and resulting punishment after learning her daughter lied and snuck out to spend the night at a man’s home, and the overall inconsistencies in the girls’ stories to her mother, her boyfriend, police, and a social worker. Following this devastating line of questioning, Attorney Calcagni successfully persuaded a judge sitting alone that the girl’s testimony was not sufficiently credible or believable to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt as to his client’s guilt. Accordingly, the young girl was acquitted and found not guilty of these heinous crimes.