West Goshen man guilty in sex case

WEST CHESTER » A West Goshen man has been convicted of forcing himself sexually on a woman he had met less than 12 hours before. She told a jury that she was frozen in fear during the ordeal.

George Torsilieri was found guilty of aggravated indecent assault, a second-degree felony, and indecent assault, a misdemeanor, on Monday after a trial lasting six days before Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Sarcione. The victim said that she had been asleep on a friend’s sofa after a night on the town in West Chester when Torsilieri, who was a co-worker of a friend she was visiting, forced

her to have sex with him, even though she told her more than once to stop.

Torsilieri, 24, who testified in his own defense, claimed that the sex he had with the woman that night was consensual, and that the two had simply “hooked up.”

The seven women and five men hearing the case deliberated for about four hours in the Chester County Justice Center before returning with their verdict. Torsilieri, who has been free on bail since his arrest in 2016, will be sentenced at a later date.

Sarcione dismissed charges of rape by forcible compulsion after the prosecution had ended its case. Torsilieri was also found not guilty on he charge of sexual assault.

At sentencing, the biomedical engineer will face the possibility of being set to a state prison to serve his sentence. The standard sentencing guidelines call for a minimum sentence of between 36 and 54 months. Torsilieri has no prior criminal history. Afterwards, prosecutor Cynthia Morgan expressed satisfaction with the trial’s outcome.

“Both the Commonwealth and the victim are very pleased with the jury’s verdict,” she said in a statement. “We strongly believed in our case and we’re proud of how strong the victim handled herself during very rigorous cross-examination from the defense. All too often the victims of sexual assault are blamed for not doing enough to prevent the attack or for not doing enough to resist during it. This case was no exception. We’re glad that the jury saw through this defense and convicted the defendant for his actions.

The 24-year old Philadelphia woman who contended Torsilieri forced himself on her, and whose name is being withheld by the Daily Local News because of the nature of the charges, testified for nearly a day last week, including five hours of grueling cross-examination. But Morgan, in her closing argument, reminded the jury that she had maintained her account about what happened to her that night, and how she had not consented to having sex with the man she had just met.

“She was consistent on every major point,” Morgan, starting from what she told a friend, then the police, and then her testimony at a preliminary hearing, The defense had failed to crack her story, Morgan argued.

But defense attorney Daniel Ambrose, who had been hired by Torsilieri’s family from Los Angeles, Calif., argued that she had made up the story of being forced. Rather, he said she had been a willing participant after flirting with him client that night.

The case featured audio recordings of taped telephone calls that Torsilieri had with the victim’s friend, and the victim herself.

According to police accounts and the woman’s testimony, she had come to West Chester the evening of Nov. 13, 2016, to meet friends who lived in a house in the 100 block of Sharpless Street. Some time that evening, Torsilieri and others arrived, and several of them went out to two bars in the borough, where she had a few drinks. She had not met Torsilieri, a coworker of one of her friends at Depuy Synthes in East Goshen, until that night.

Four of the group, including the woman and Torsilieri, went back to the Sharpless Street house around 2:30 a.m., and she eventually fell asleep on a sofa in the apartment while the others talked.

She told Morgan under her questioning at the preliminary hearing that she woke up around 5:45 a.m. to find Torsilieri on top of her, trying to kiss her and fondle her breasts. She shook her head from side to side as she attempted to understand what was happening, and told him “no” as he tried to have oral sex with her.

The woman said Torsilieri then pulled off her pants, which he had apparently unbuttoned while she was asleep, and he began to have sex with her. At some point, she said, she asked if he was wearing a condom, thinking that would stop him from proceeding. But he found a condom, put it on, and reportedly continued.

When he finally stopped and she went to the bathroom, she found herself bleeding, she said.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the case by West Chester Detective Robert Kuehn, the woman telephoned a friend about what happened, who told her to go to the police. She and one of the other people in the house then went to the police station and made a report.

“I was paralyzed from fear,” the woman said.“I didn’t want to fight George.” She said that she thought, “it’ll just stop. It will be over.”

In the telephone conversation between the two played for the jury by both Morgan and Ambrose, the woman told Torsilieri that she had asked him to stop and even cried out in pain. “At no point did I say yes, and that is what it comes down to,” she told him.

Torsilieri, who did not know he was being recorded, said that he “did not remember it the way you do.” But he also seemed to apologize for what happened between them. “I am positive I did not mean to hurt you,” he told the woman. “I don’t know what else to say. I am so sorry. If you had said anything I would have stopped.”

Sarcione did not set a date for sentencing.

“I was paralyzed from fear. I didn’t want to fight George.” — Victim, 24-year old Philadelphia woman “I am positive I did not mean to hurt you. I don’t know what else to say. I am so sorry. If you had said anything I would have stopped.” — George Torsilieri