Man draws prison for rape conviction
A man is headed to prison for raping an intoxicated, unconscious woman during a New Year’s Eve party.
NORRISTOWN » A 25-yearold Philadelphia man is headed to prison for raping an intoxicated, unconscious woman during a gathering of young people at a New Year’s Eve party at a Norristown residence.
Taylor Alfred Rossi, of the 9700 block of Susan Road, Philadelphia, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Monday to four to eight years in a state correctional facility on charges of rape of an unconscious person, indecent assault of an unconscious person and sexual assault in connection with the Jan. 1, 2017, incident at a home in the 600 block of Sandy Street in Norristown.
Judge Richard P. Haaz also ordered Rossi to complete six years of probation following parole, meaning Rossi will be under court supervision for 14 years.
A jury of nine women and three men convicted Rossi of the charges during a trial in February.
Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan sought state prison time against Rossi. During the trial, Ryan argued the incident “demonstrated a serious violation of a victim at a time when she should have been protected, when she was most vulnerable.”
The victim and Rossi each testified for the jury.
The victim testified that after a night of drinking she awoke in a bedroom at the Norristown home to Rossi raping her. Rossi testified he had consensual intimate contact with the woman but he denied that intercourse occurred.
At trial, defense lawyer Louis R. Busico argued Rossi did not sexually assault the woman and suggested the contact was consensual. Busico argued “there was a ton of alcohol and people were drinking to the point they were blacking out” and that “whatever occurred in that bedroom…it was not a crime. It was consensual.”
The investigation began on Jan. 1 when the woman went to the Norristown Police Department to report she was raped in the early morning hours when she attended a New Year’s Eve party at her friend’s Sandy Street home.
“(The woman) said she had consumed alcohol and celebrated the evening. (The woman) said she eventually passed out in a bedroom after consuming too much,” former Norristown Detective Kathleen Kelly, now a county detective, alleged in a criminal complaint.
The woman told detectives she “never gave Rossi consent to have sex with her because she was unable to do so,” according to the criminal complaint.
Testimony revealed Rossi had attended the party with his girlfriend, who was in another area of the residence at the time of the assault.
One man, Nicholas Minor, 23, testified he and several other friends had checked on the intoxicated woman’s condition several times during the evening after she passed out on the bed in an upstairs room. Minor testified that sometime after 1 a.m. he went upstairs to check on the woman again and observed Rossi, his pants down around his ankles, on top of the woman and sexually assaulting her.
Minor testified he heard the woman mumble, “Stop” and “No,” and then entered the bedroom and pulled Rossi off of the woman.
Testimony revealed that no one at the party called 911 or police immediately after the incident.