Jury seated in West Chester rape trial

WEST CHESTER >> An Adams County man went on trial Monday on charges that he raped a former West Chester University student while he was a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, after a night of partying on St. Patrick’s Day two years ago.

The woman told borough police at the time that she had not known the defendant, Tyler Lampe, and had only met him briefly the night of the incident through a mutual friend. But in the early morning, after she had passed out from drinking vodka and beer, she said she found him in her bedroom, forcing himself on her sexually while she slept.

Lampe’s defense, however, questioned whether the woman had in fact agreed to engage in sex with him, because she found him “hot” and wanted to “hook up” with him.

Lampe, 22, of Gettysburg, is charged with rape by forcible compulsion, rape of an unconscious person, both felonies, and sexual assault, indecent assault, and aggravated indecent assault. He has been free on bail since his arrest in July 2016, four months after the alleged assault. Dressed in a blue sport coat and khaki trousers, Lampe was accompanied in the courtroom Monday by his parents, Jeffrey and Deb Lampe.

A former member of the West Point Black Knights football team in the Class of 2019, Lampe was removed from the team after the charges against him were leveled, according to the school. He is currently on administrative leave from the prestigious school.

The prosecution is led by First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone and Assistant District Attorney Alexia Shaw, with West Chester Detective Stanley Billie as the lead investigator. Lampe is represented by attorneys Arthur Donato of Media, and

Caroline Donato and Peter Kratsa of West Chester.

During jury selection, Carmody asked a series of questions about sexual assault, including whether any of the prospective jurors had been a victim of such crimes, knew anyone who had been, or had been accused themselves. In addition, at defense attorney Arthur Donato’s request, the judge asked whether any of them had been involved in the #MeToo or #TimesUp movements dealing

with the issues of sexual harassment and assault.

The case involves testimony about two young people, the use of alcohol at an underage party, and a sexual assault — not unlike the accusations in Washington, D.C., over the past weeks involving the new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“It’s a sad situation,” Carmody said of the case. “But they (the jurors) just have to decide the case based on the evidence in the courtroom” and not what they may have been hearing or reading about recently.

Many answered affirmatively.

One woman said her sister had been sexually assaulted as a child, but never told anyone until much later. Another woman said she tended to believe anyone who claimed to be the victim of sexual assaults. A young man with long curly hair said he would struggle to be objective in a case involving such claims, and had joined with women in support of the #MeToo movement at rallies in the past.

One woman, who identified herself as an obstetrician, said that she could not be neutral when hearing a case involving a sexual assault claim, while another women, who said she had been molested when she was 5 years old, said she believed she could be fair.

Those who answered that they could not be objective were dismissed from the panel for cause, meaning that the attorneys agreed that they would not make good jurors. Those who said they could be objective were left on the panel overall, leaving it up to the two sides to determine whether they would be seated for the trial.

In the end, Carmody dismissed 16 people on the panel for cause, and seated a jury of eight women and four men, with four alternate jurors.

In testimony at Lampe’s preliminary hearing in September 2016, the woman, whose name is being withheld by the Digital First Media because of the nature of the criminal charges in the case, said that she had “kind of passed out” after drinking vodka and beer the night of the incident.

She claimed that she had spoken to the defendant, Cadet Lampe, just momentarily earlier that evening before finding him having sex with her.

A 2018 graduate of WCU, the woman said then under questioning that she woke up to the sound of another man’s voice telling Lampe to “get off of her.” It was a friend of Lampe’s who was with one of her roommates, she said.

“When I woke up, I saw that Tyler was on top of me, and he was having sex with me,” the woman said in her testimony. She was naked, she said, although she had not taken off her clothes when she went to sleep.

When she went to bed, did she agree to have sex with Lampe, Noone asked? She had not, she replied.

Donato, in his cross examination of the woman at the preliminary hearing suggested strongly that the sex between her and Lampe had been consensual. He intimated that the woman had called Lampe “hot” in discussing the cadet with one of her roommates, who had confided in the woman that she wanted to “hook up” with him that night.

The woman, however, testified that she was not interested in Lampe, even though she agreed with her friend that he was “good looking.”

The alleged victim is expected to testify Tuesday. Carmody said he hopes that the trial will conclude by the end of the week.

Tyler Hogan Lampe