Videos show interaction before alleged sexual assault

WCU student seen apparently embracing man who allegedly raped her

WEST CHESTER » The jury hearing the case of a former West Chester University student accused of raping a fellow student inside a campus parking garage watched footage Wednesday taken from a number of video surveillance cameras the night of the incident that shows the two right up until the time of the alleged assault.

The videos and still photos taken of them were captured by the numerous cameras that dot the WCU landscape, and depict defendant Auston Eaddy as he makes his way across the campus with the alleged victim, as

they share an embrace inside the New Street Parking Garage, when they disappear from visible camera range, and, finally, when he runs from the garage back to his dormitory.

The images were shown to the panel of six men and six women by the prosecution to establish the whereabouts of Eaddy and the woman, but remain largely inconclusive about what occurred between them when the alleged assault occurred. The woman testified on Tuesday that he had asked Eaddy to stop as he began having oral sex with her and forced her to have sexual intercourse. The defense has contended that the sex had been consensual.

Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Rice, who is prosecuting the case with Assistant District Attorney Brian Burack, did not ask the WCU police officer who had assembled the videos to describe what he thought was happening in the videos, beyond that the two were walking and eventually entered the garage together.

At the most, Rice asked Sgt. Daniel Irons, what did the two appeared to be doing as they stood on the building’s second floor near a set of garage doors? ”They begin to kiss and hug and be intimate,” Irons answered. “But you can’t really distinguish anything.”

The final sequence of the two together shows the woman breaking from Eaddy’s embrace and walking away from the doors. But it is unclear whether she was walking with him or trying to walk away from him. The two walk towards a line of cars where the woman contends the assault occurred. But Irons said that portion of the camera coverage was blurred and unclear.

Eaddy, 23, of Philadelphia, is charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and other related offenses. He was arrested a few days after the alleged

The video evidence was introduced because the woman who claims she was attacked has testified that she does not remember a host of details about the night.

assault, which took place in the early morning hours of April 1, 2016.

The video evidence was introduced because the woman who claims she was attacked has testified that she does not remember a host of details about the night. Then a 20-year-old sophomore from Lehigh County, she said she had been drinking heavily that night and rated her level of intoxication a six on a scale of 10. She said she recalled being at a fraternity house party on South High Street and then being between two cars in the garage with Eaddy standing above her, forcing her to have sex with him.

Irons said that he began looking at the various surveillance camera footage after learning that the alleged assault had taken place in the garage at the intersection of South New and West Nields streets across from the main WCU campus. He was able to put the glimpses of the two together, “like piecing a puzzle together” from 22 different videos.

The first image of the two came at about 2:02 a.m. and is of a couple of people, one wearing a red top — Eaddy — and another wearing black — the woman — as they walked together on University Avenue west toward the campus parking lot outside Lawrence Hall, the dining area. An earlier video had shown Eaddy leaving a university dance at Sykes Student Union around 1 a.m. The woman testified she did not know Eaddy, who lived in a different dormitory than hers.

In grainy video footage, the two are seen walking across the parking lot, and then towards South New Street. One video shows the two walking along the Nields Street side of the building, presumably entering through an open window of the garage around 2 :06 a.m. At approximately 2:23 a.m., they are seen on the second floor of the building, which actually is at street level, in front of the closed garage doors.

The two stand face to face, with Eaddy’s back against the wall and the woman in front of him. As the jurors watched in silence, the video shows them appearing to talk and intermittently kiss and embrace. The encounter goes on for several minutes, until the two walk away from the door around 2:30 a.m. and walk towards a silver Honda sedan that is parked there.

The next video that Rice showed was from the same camera that showed the pair by the door, only this time Eaddy is seen running from the area, followed by a woman who chased him. That woman is an eyewitness who interrupted the incident after hearing a woman yelling in distress.

Irons said he was then able to uncover footage of a figure wearing a red shirt running down South New Street from the area of the garage, and finally of Eaddy entering the lobby of Killinger Hall, where he lived.

Defense attorney Philip Press of Norristown, representing Eaddy, played much of the same footage and presented various still images of the encounter, noting that Eaddy had not apparently tried to hide himself on the videos and was noticeable for his distinctive red T-shirt. He also asked Irons to say whether the video showed the woman under any imminent threat of violence, but Rice objected to the question as speculative.

The trial will continue in Judge David Bortner’s courtroom through the week.