Testimony begins at sex assault trial

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JOHNSTOWN - Assistant District Attorney Chad Brown told jurors the tale of a brutal sexual assault by four men outside a Gloversville tavern May 16, while the four defense attorneys pointed to a lack of physical evidence linking their clients to the crime as enough reasonable doubt to acquit the accused men.

The trial of LaTerence "Texas Toast" Wilson, 24, of Gloversville; Michael "Skitso" Deveaux Jr., 20, of Schenectady; Ezequial "Hoodie" Rouse, 27, of Schenectady; and Tyson Stratton, 30, of Gloversville, began in Fulton County Court on Wednesday before Judge Richard Giardino. The four stand accused of forcibly sexually assaulting a Gloversville woman around 2 a.m. May 16 in an alley outside Quig's tavern on North Main Street.

The indictment casts the incident as a hate crime because the alleged victim is a lesbian. Brown said the accuser claims one of her attackers said the four men, who are all black, were going to "make [her] straight."

Brown told jurors they would hear about the accuser's familiarity with one of the defendants - Stratton - and how he asked her if he could "get a piece" of her. The accuser, Brown said, shrugged it off and told Stratton she was gay and had a girlfriend.

Brown said later, when the accuser was smoking a cigarette near the alley next to the bar, she was grabbed from behind by two men and dragged by her waist into the alley. The attackers pulled her pants down, raped her, and forced her to perform oral sex, Brown said. She pleaded for them to stop, but her attackers responded with laughter, Brown said.

The all-white jury heard from Quig's bartender Eric Tilton, who said he saw Stratton, Rouse and Deveaux in the bar the night of the alleged attack.

When cross-examined by the defense attorneys, Tilton said there were probably about 20 black men in the bar that night and that he had no firsthand knowledge of the incident.

The accuser's ex-girlfriend testified she was with her at Quig's tavern the night of the incident. After leaving at around 2 a.m., the ex-girlfriend returned 20 minutes later because of what she described as a disturbing phone call she received from the accuser asking her to come back.

When the ex-girlfriend returned to the bar, the accuser was "shaking like a leaf" and attempting to hide behind her and the wall of the bar, the ex-girlfriend said. She then followed the accuser back to her Gloversville home, where she was visibly shaken, upset and asking for her mother. The accuser also kept asking if "they" were going to get her, the ex-girlfriend said. After about an hour, the accuser said she had been raped, the ex-girlfriend said.

The Leader-Herald is withholding the name of the ex-girlfriend in an effort to protect the alleged victim's identity.

The accuser did not go to the hospital until the next day, Brown said, and had showered because of how "disgusting and dirty" she felt after the attack. At the hospital, staff noticed bruising and scratches on the victim's arms, inner thighs and torso and called police.

Gloversville attorney Heidi Gifford, representing Stratton, repeatedly reminded jurors of the lack of physical evidence in the case. She said there is no DNA linking Stratton to the alleged attack and said the evidence would prove the accuser is the type of person capable of making up the story.

"There is no evidence because it never happened," Gifford said.

Rouse's attorney, Michael Sutton, reiterated Gifford's assertions.

"There are huge holes in [Brown's] case, and he knows it," Sutton said.

Sutton, Gifford and the other attorneys - James Milstein for Deveaux and Gerard DeCusatis for Wilson - repeatedly attempted to imply the victim had been drinking heavily before the incident and alluded to her possibly taking shots of tequila while at the bar. Several of their efforts were thwarted by objections from Brown.

The ex-girlfriend said the accuser, who she spoke with for about two hours before the alleged attack, did not seem intoxicated and had one or two beers while at the bar. Several defense attorneys asked the ex-girlfriend if it was possible for her not to have noticed other alcoholic beverages the accuser may have consumed. The ex-girlfriend said it was possible.

The trial resumed today at 9:15 a.m.

Kayleigh Karutis covers Gloversville news. She can be reached at gloversville@lea-derherald.com.