Rape trial continues of ex-UCO football star
A developmentally disabled woman described for a jury Tuesday how a fired group home worker invited her to the movies, drove her to his home instead and sexually assaulted her.
The woman, 25, testified about how she trusted Elton Howland Rhoades Jr., a program director at the group home for young women, and how he" started becoming very nice and very sweet" when she lived there and he worked there.
Rhoades, 47, a former football star at the University of Central Oklahoma, is charged with one count of first-degree rape. Prosecutors allege Rhoades raped the woman, who suffered a traumatic brain injury as a child and whose disabilities left her "vulnerable."
In his opening statement, defense attorney Steve Nash said the woman "instigated" the sex and it was Rhoades who "stopped it."
The woman said Rhoades contacted her by text message after he was fired in April 2018 and invited her to the movies. She told Assistant District Attorney Kelly Collins he picked her up in front of the facility about a month later and drove her to his home in Edmond.
"He told me that the movie was upstairs," she testified.
Once inside, the woman described watching a movie on a flat-screen TV and performing a dance routine from a pageant for girls and women with disabilities. She said Rhoades asked her to sit on his lap, told her she was sexy and then began kissing and touching her.
"Did you want him to kiss and touch you?" Collins asked.
"No ," the witness answered. "I was afraid of what was going to happen if I didn't do it."
The woman said he forced her to have sex and said she tried to push him off but couldn't because he was too strong.
In her opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Merydith Easter said the woman suffered "significant injuries" from the assault and spent several hours at a hospital. She said DNA collected from the defendant matched DNA found on the woman's body.
Parents of the woman testified, saying they adopted her from an orphan age in Romania when she was 4 years old. A psychologist who has treated the woman since 2016 told jurors she has a low IQ and the mental age of "barely 6 years old."
Rhoades played football at UCO from 1990 to 1993 and is in the school's athletics Hall of Fame. During his senior season with the Bronchos, he led NCAA Division II and set a single-season record with 11 interceptions on his way to being named an All-American.
The trial in Oklahoma County District Judge Heather Coyle's courtroom continues Wednesday.