“I can not do that,” the woman said as she hurried out of the courtroom. The Associated Press generally does not identify individuals who say they have been sexually assaulted and referred to the woman in this case as “Jane Doe” at her request. Doe was a 19-year-old practitioner when she told her superiors that the then Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger, a Lewiston Republican, raped her in his Boise apartment after the two had dined at a restaurant. Von Ehlinger, 38, pleaded not guilty to felony criminal mischief and sexual assault with a foreign object and claimed the two had consensual sex. He resigned from the House of Representatives last year after an ethics committee recommended the ban by the House of Representatives. During the testimony Wednesday afternoon, Deputy Attorney General Ada Katelyn Farley asked Doe to describe an outfit von von Ehlinger was wearing that day, presumably to identify him on the jury. “Blazer,” Doo said, glancing longingly at the room. When Farley asked her to describe the color of von Ehlinger’s tie, Doe replied, “I can not.” Most of Doe’s answers were often a word or two, and she often looked at the jury or the exit door at the back of the courtroom. Other times her gaze landed on the defense table where von Ellinger was sitting with his defense attorney, John Cox. Behind the lawyers, the courtroom was full. Journalists, victims’ representatives and other spectators sat side by side. One of the benches was intended for a woman with a service dog – animals are sometimes used to provide a supportive presence to witnesses called upon to give difficult testimony. Doe’s voice was quiet, and Cox repeatedly interrupted her to say that he could not hear her. This prompted the judge to repeatedly ask Doe to get closer to the microphone and bend over. “I need you to look at me,” Farley told Doe again. “I can not,” he replied, looking back at the back door. Answering Farley’s questions, Doe said she ate at a restaurant with von Ehlinger and then drove her to his apartment in his car. Inside, he sat down and had cookies. “Oreos,” he said. Then, he said, von Ellinger took her and carried her to his bedroom. “He laid me down λε he took off his clothes… he climbed on me… only with his boxers. “White T-shirt,” Doe said. “He tried to put his toes between my legs and I closed my knees.” In it, he got up. “I can not do it anymore,” he said, leaving the courtroom. The judge gave prosecutors 10 minutes to find her and see if she would return. When he did not, Reardon told the jury that they had to “knock (Doe’s testimony) out of your mind as if it never happened” because the defense could not consider it. It was the second day of the trial. On Tuesday, jurors listened to police detectives and the nurse who completed the Doe rape test about 48 hours after she said the attack took place. The nurse testified that Doe told her that she had tried to stop von Ehlinger’s sexual projections by saying that she had not shaved, that she had no birth control and that she was menstruating. Doe also told her that von Ehlinger had placed the pistol he always carried in a chest of drawers near the bed, and that he nailed Doe during the attack by climbing on top of her and kneeling on her arms. Detectives and the nurse also told jurors that Doe said she said “no” to von Ehlinger during the attack and said he hurt her. The nurse said Doe reported pain in her arm during the examination and that she had a swollen “goose egg” on the back of her head which she said happened when she tried to pull her head away from von Ehlinger crotch, hitting on the wall or on the headboard. Jurors also heard forensic pathologists say DNA from body fluids collected during Doe’s rape test matched von Ehlinger. After Doe left the courtroom, the prosecutor called Laura King, an associate professor of criminal justice at Boise State University who specializes in sexual assault. King told jurors that victims of sexual assault often fight, run away or freeze during the attack, and that the hormones that trigger these reactions can also cause a person temporary paralysis or dislocation, a state of mind in which he or she feels cut off. the reality. These same physiological reactions, including disintegration, can also occur when sexual assault survivors describe the assault, King said. Such behavior may seem strange, but it is a natural reaction to an attack, he said. Cox asked King if she knew anything about von Ellinger’s case. King said he did not. “You talk specifically about these conditions – struggle, flight, freezing, decomposing events, tonal immobility – but you have no idea why you have no information about this case specifically, right?” Cox asked King. King agreed, saying she was generally talking about research into victims of sexual assault. Following King’s testimony, Farley said the prosecution case was over. Cox said he would inform the judge Thursday morning if von Ellinger would testify in his defense. If convicted, von Ehlinger will face a maximum sentence of life in prison for each charge.
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Jon Cox’s name.
