Testimony continues in sex assault case
Woman says she can’t remember most of night
MADISON - A woman who prosecutors say was sexually assaulted by former University of Wisconsin Badgers football player Quintez Cephus testified Wednesday she remembers only a few “snapshots” from the night of the incident.
The woman testified that she remembers seeing her friend’s face at one point and asking: “Is this really happening right now?”
She said she is “pretty sure” they were lying down but could not remember where they were or how they got there.
The only other two memories she has of the night was seeing her friend in a car and then “going fast down the stairs,” which surveillance video shows was at Cephus’ apartment.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” she testified, adding that she doesn’t remember feeling anything while exiting the apartment.
The woman was the second to testify this week that she had been assaulted by Cephus, 21, of Macon, Georgia.
Cephus is charged with one count of second-degree sexual assault of an intoxicated victim and one count of thirddegree sexual assault. He contends the three had a consensual sexual encounter in his apartment in April 2018.
Cephus was expelled from the university last semester and dismissed from the football team last summer.
The woman who testified Wednesday told jurors she had been drinking beer and spiked seltzers before going to the Double U bar and does not remember meeting Cephus. She added that she does not remember seeing her friends at the bar and had difficulty identifying on video surveillance footage people she was with that night.
The woman testified that she realized she was assaulted only after her friend called her from the hospital to tell her.
“I had no recollection of anything that happened the night before,” the woman testified. “The last thing I wanted was for that to be happening right then. I didn’t want to believe it.”
She said she was still feeling drunk when she walked to the hospital.
“The exam was probably the worst couple of hours of my life,” she testified.
Karla Walker, clinical laboratory director for a company that analyzed the woman’s urine, testified there were no date rape drugs found in the urine.
Assistant District Attorney Jessica Miller displayed text messages between Cephus and the woman from the night of the incident. At one point, the woman texted Cephus asking him to let her know whether he found her Juul vaping device. She sent a heart and kiss face emoji along with the text.
Cephus’ attorney Kathleen Stilling, questioned the woman about why she didn’t share these messages with police when they gathered evidence from her the day after the incident. She said that she had deleted them.
“I didn’t think they were important,” she said.
She testified she doesn’t remember the texts, saying that she uses those emojis with “basically anyone.” She said she sent the texts not to be friendly but because “I wanted my Juul back.”
Stilling pointed to video of the woman and Cephus holding hands as they left Double U and entered his apartment building as evidence they were friendly.
Stilling also played surveillance video from Sellery Hall — the dorm the woman lived in at the time — showing the woman greeted Cephus, his teammate Danny Davis and her friend at the door when they went to check on her after she left the apartment.
The woman had said previously that she was sleeping and woke up to Cephus, Davis and her friend in her room. She said Wednesday that she was too drunk and does not remember the occurrence.
Testimony will continue Thursday.