After 11 hours of deliberations, an Idaho jury found the disgraced Idaho former GOP MP Aaron von Ellinger guilty of raping a 19-year-old intern last year after a dinner meeting.
The ruling followed a gruesome three-day trial in which von Ellinger vehemently disputed the allegations, insisting the meeting was by mutual consent and his prosecutor, who testified under the pseudonym Jane Doe, fled the courtroom amid her emotional testimony.
Her dramatic withdrawal means her testimony has failed miserably, creating a seemingly insurmountable hurdle for prosecutors, criminal defense attorney David P. Shapiro said before sentencing.
“It will be very, very difficult, if not impossible, to get a sentence without her testimony,” Shapiro told The Daily Beast, who was not involved in the case but has dealt with many others.
But the jury was able to hear powerful testimony from Doe’s mother, as well as from a nurse who examined Doe after the attack, finding their statements credible enough to condemn the failed politician.
At the booth, von Ellinger, 39, said he met Doe while working at the Idaho State House, and the two engaged in corridors and text messages before arranging to go out to dinner at a steakhouse in Boyce. He said the meeting went “well” and Doe accompanied him home. He claims that Doe held his hand during the trip to his apartment and that she willingly accompanied him to his bedroom.
“I complimented her, told her how beautiful she was … She never once gave me an indication that she did not want to take part in it,” von Ellinger testified.
He claims that Doe “willingly” gave him oral sex for about 15 seconds before stopping and saying that “it’s probably not a good night to have sex” because she didn’t shave and wasn’t on contraceptives. He claims that he then stimulated himself manually and ejaculated on Doe’s stomach with her consent.
On the contrary, prosecutor Caitlin Farley said that von Ellinger had told Doe that he had to stop by his apartment after dinner to get something, and that when they arrived, he would pick her up and take her to his bedroom. There, Farley said, von Ellinger attacked her, pressing his penis into her mouth and holding her hands down as he ejaculated on her abdomen.
“He did not stop and did not listen to him [Doe]Farley told the jury, describing the case as indifferent to “power.”
On Thursday, von Ellinger’s lawyer, John Cox, claimed that his client, an Army veterinarian, had previously injured his back in a helicopter crash involving the service and could not pick up Doe and carry her as described.
But a nurse who treated Doe at a local hospital said in her emotional testimony that the teenager was nothing but an unwanted participant.
“She didn’t want to be there,” said Ann Wardell, who took a rape test and said Doe was in tears when she recounted the experience. “She didn’t want his penis close to her mouth.”
Wardle said Doe, who had previously volunteered at the Domestic Violence Center, had a goose egg on her head from hitting von Ellinger’s wall or headboard as she struggled to break free.
On Wednesday, Doe briefly took up the position, but abruptly got up and left the courtroom after apparently struggling to gather in front of his alleged attacker. She said, “I can’t do this,” before fleeing the courtroom.
Doe has been a target of von Ellinger’s Republicans from the beginning. Last August, Republican Representative Priscilla Giddings revealed Doe’s identity on social media and in an email to voters, with right-wing blogs later posting her name and photo online.
Von Ellinger, who withdrew from public policy shortly before his arrest, faces life in prison and mandatory registration as a sex offender.
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