Student guilty of attacking classmate
A 23-year-old man has been convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a fellow student at the University of Colorado Denver after she passed out at a 2015 Halloween party.
John D. Kennedy will be sentenced in September on four charges, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office: second-degree kidnapping — victim of a sexual assault; sexual assault — victim physically helpless; sexual assault — victim incapable of appraising nature of her conduct; and unlawful sexual contact.
A jury found Kennedy guilty of those charges Friday after a six-day trial. Denver District Court Judge Sheila Rappaport allowed Kennedy to remain free on a $50,000 bond, pending his sentencing, said Ken Lane, a spokesman for the DA’s office.
Kennedy, who was a student on the Auraria campus, assaulted the classmate after she became unconscious following a night of celebrating Halloween, the DA’s office said.
The woman’s friends told police they left her in an apartment at the Auraria Student Lofts on 14th Street, where they thought she would be safe for the night.
The friends told police they periodically checked on the woman but discovered her missing after 2 a.m. They began knocking on doors in their search, a November 2015 arrest affidavit said.
A friend found the woman, who was wearing a dress, lying on her back on a bed in Kennedy’s apartment. The friend and Kennedy got into a fight, the affidavit said.
When the victim, who was 23 at the time, woke during the fight she realized her underwear was on inside-out, the affidavit said.
The victim did not give permission to be moved and did not consent to sexual activity. Police were called and the victim went to Denver Health for a sexual assault exam.
During the investigation, the victim told police that she drank two beers with a friend and then drank half a beer with some other friends, including Kennedy, but did not recall the remainder of the evening, according to the affidavit.
A Denver Police Department detective who investigated the case reviewed surveillance footage from a video camera in the hallway that showed Kennedy entering someone else’s apartment at 2:02 a.m. and leaving about 15 minutes later with the victim in his arms, the affidavit said.
The affidavit described the image as him “cradling a baby while the victim appeared to be unresponsive and passed out.” The footage showed Kennedy taking the woman into his apartment.
At trial, prosecutors presented DNA evidence, witness statements and the defendant’s confession to prove he was guilty of kidnapping and sexually assaulting the woman.
CU Denver is on a U.S. Department of Education list of colleges and universities with open Title IX investigations for possibly violating federal law for their handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints. It was placed on the list in 2014.