The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
31/2 years after N. Fulton rape, college golfer pleads guilty
As case was delayed, he attended school, played sport on scholarship.
For three years, Benjamin Holm was like any other college athlete. He was majoring in business and playing on the golf team at Loyola University Chicago, more than 700 miles from where he had lived in Johns Creek.
But no matter how far away he was, Holm couldn’t avoid felony charges from the night he assaulted a 15-year-old girl. The attack took place during a party in April 2013 at Country Club of the South, one of the most exclusive developments in metro Atlanta. Last week, Holm, 21, halted his rape trial — in which the jury was already deliberating — and decided to take the deal the prosecution was offering: 10 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to aggravated assault and statutory rape.
In all, 3½ years passed from the time of the assault until Holm’s case was closed last week — years when the accused rapist was permitted to get on with his life, almost as if nothing had happened. Two weeks after the assault, he graduated from high school and then went off to college for three years on a golf scholarship.
The case languished for as long as it did — and the suspect remained free on bond — in part because of the way it was originally handled.
Holm was initially charged with statutory rape, a misdemeanor in Georgia, and pleaded not guilty, according to a spokesman for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. But the county solicitor investigated the case and determined that Holm should have been charged with rape, a felony. In April 2015, two years after the assault, the case was transferred to the DA’s office, and a year later, the Fulton County grand jury indicted him on a rape charge.
In the meantime, Holm played a lot of golf.
While at Johns Creek High School, Holm had tied for third place at the state championship during his junior year. During his senior year, he accepted a golf scholarship and led his team to a regional championship.
As a freshman at Loyola, Holm played in a number of tournaments, and during his sophomore year was named the golfer of the week for the Missouri Valley Conference. For his junior year, during which his case was upgraded to a felony, he had a 79.9 stroke average, according to Loyola statistics.
Holm isn’t on the golf roster this year. The university declined to respond to questions about Holm’s status with the team or whether Holm reported his criminal charges back in Georgia to the university.
Friends heard the victim say, ‘No, stop.’
On the night of April 27, 2013, several teenagers attended a party at a home in the Country Club of the South development, according to a police report. From there, several teens walked to a playground area within the gated community.
“There were boys and alcohol at the playground, and she voluntarily consumed an unknown amount of vodka,” the Johns Creek police report states.
Three of the victim’s friends were worried when they couldn’t find her and went to the playground, Capt. Chris Byers told Channel 2 Action News. The friends said they found Holm on top of the intoxicated teen.
“They observed the sexual assault taking place and heard her clearly saying ‘No, stop,’” Byers said.
In text messages, Holm admitted having sex with the girl, who was later carried to an SUV by a group of girls, police said. There were no calls to police from the playground that night.
But the victim’s father was called to pick her up and, alarmed by the extent of her intoxication, he took her to the hospital, police said.
The following Monday, the incident was reported to police.
After he surrendered on May 11, 2013, Holm spent a night in the Fulton County jail before being released on $3,500 bond, records show. Later that month, he graduated from high school.
And that fall, Holm headed north to Loyola University Chicago.
Accountability ‘is the exception’
On Nov. 28 while most students returned to class after Thanksgiving break, Holm was in Fulton County Superior Court for his trial. A week later, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and statutory rape charges as part of a plea deal, the DA’s office said. His attorney, B.J. Bernstein, declined to comment on the case.
Outside Holm’s former home Tuesday afternoon, Pam Lee told Channel 2 Action News she doesn’t believe her one-time neighbor could have committed the crime.
“Just a great kid all around,” Lee said of Holm. “Super, super nice. High standards. High morals . ... There’s a lot worse things going on in the world to be prosecuted, and this shouldn’t be.”
Holm was sentenced to 20 years, including 10 to serve and the remainder on probation, according to the Fulton DA’s office.
Holm was booked Dec. 5 into the Fulton jail, where he remained Tuesday night awaiting transfer to prison.
One expert says that what’s really unusual in the Holm case is not how much time elapsed between crime and conviction, but the fact that Holm was charged at all.
“This case with him actually being held accountable is the exception,” Jamie Utt, sexual violence prevention educator, said Tuesday. “There are plenty of people who perpetrate sexual assault who will never, ever be held accountable in any shape or form, let alone a prison sentence.”