However, in the middle of her own testimony a day earlier, former Idaho MP Aaron von Ehlinger, known only as “Jane Doe” in court, was so upset that he left the room saying: “I can not do it. I’m doing this “as he left. When it became clear that Doe would not return, the prosecution dropped her case, ending abruptly in a crazy trial that has caught the country’s attention. As Doe could not be challenged, Judge Michael Reardon ordered her testimony removed from the file, telling jurors to ignore everything she said. Jurors will now have to discuss “as if he never appeared,” said defense attorney David P. Sapiro, who is not involved in the case but has handled many similar cases. “It’s hard to unlock this bell,” Shapiro told The Daily Beast. However, he continued, “It will be very, very difficult, if not impossible, to be convicted without her testimony.” Prosecutors allege that von Ehlinger, 39, forced Doe, 19, to have oral sex and penetrated her with his finger at his home in Boise after the two went to dinner in March 2021. Von Ehlinger resigned The following month, before he could do so, he was expelled from the state legislature, after a bipartisan ethics committee found that he had engaged in “inappropriate behavior.” An arrest warrant was issued that September. He was arrested later that month at Atlanta International Airport on his way back to the United States on a prolonged holiday in Central America – something von Ellinger’s lawyer insisted was premeditated rather than an attempt to evade justice. Doe, for her part, has been the target of von Ehlinger’s Republican colleagues from the beginning. Last August, Priscilla Giddings, a Republican from the tiny town of White Bird, revealed Doe’s identity on social media and in an email to voters, with right-wing blogs posting Doe’s name and photo on Internet. In his testimony, von Ehlinger said he met Doe and gave her his cell phone number after calling her at his office to see his artwork in January 2021. He said they would see each other around the Statehouse once in a while and they would talk. But he did not hit her, he insisted. The two made plans for dinner in early March after Doe texted him to say hello, according to von Ehlinger. He took her in his roommate’s car and took her to eat at Barbacoa, a Spanish steakhouse in Boise, he testified. Neither of them drank alcohol during the three-hour meal, he said. Doe kept his hand on the way back to his seat, von Ehlinger claimed, noting that when they arrived at his apartment building, he parked in a disabled spot and took Doe upstairs. “Things were going well and I asked if he would like to move into the bedroom,” von Ellinger said at the booth on Thursday. “He said, ‘Sure.’ “We got up, shook hands and went into the bedroom.” Doe had previously said that von Ehlinger always carried a gun and that he had unwrapped it when he got home and placed it on the nightstand. In court, von Ehlinger denied this, saying he “very rarely” carried his gun, which he claimed was in the closet that night. “I complimented her, let her know how beautiful she was,” von Ellinger testified. Von Ehlinger claimed that Doe never said she was uncomfortable with what was happening and “willingly” had oral sex for about 15 seconds. He later said he had stopped, saying “tonight is probably not a good night for sex” because he had not shaved and had no contraceptives. He was then aroused by hand and ejaculated on Doe’s stomach, he told the court. “He never gave me any indication that he did not want to take part in it,” von Ellinger said. In a criminal lawsuit filed last October, along with testimony this week, prosecutors presented a series of details that they alleged undermined von Ellinger’s allegations. Doe resisted von Ehlinger’s unwanted progress, the complaint states, but “her resistance was overcome by… an objectively reasonable belief that resistance would be in vain or that resistance would lead to violence or violence” by von Ehlinger. In her opening remarks earlier this week, prosecutor Katelyn Farley described the case as “about power – power exercised in the wrong hands.” He said von Ehlinger told Doe he had to walk out of his apartment after dinner to get something, but as soon as they got there, von Ehringer allegedly took her to his bedroom and attacked her, forcing her penis. in her mouth and sticking her hands. his feet as he ejaculated on her. “She did not stop and did not listen [Doe]”Farley told the jury. On Thursday, Cox told the jury that von Ehlinger, an army veteran, had injured his back in a helicopter crash during his service, so he could not lift Doe and carry her as she described. Jurors also heard testimony from Doe’s mother, who said her daughter was a volunteer at a domestic violence center before the alleged attack, and Anne Wardle, a nurse who conducted rape tests, said Doe was in tears. as he recounted what happened. Wardle said Doe had a “goose egg” on her head that was banging on the wall of von Ehlinger’s bedroom as she tried to escape. On Wednesday, Doe took a stand for an immediate review by prosecutors. He fought visibly, looking at the defense table and looking at the exits as he spoke. Farley asked Doe to focus on her and her testimony, in which Doe said, “I can not.” As she began to describe what had happened that night in von Ehlinger’s apartment, Doe abruptly stopped and said, “I can not do that,” before leaving the courtroom. He never came back. This, Shapiro said, created an “issue of controversy with the Sixth Amendment”, which would deprive von Ehlinger of his constitutional right to face his accuser. “So her whole deposition is being hit because the defense did not have a chance to look at it,” Shapiro told The Daily Beast. “What they have is the testimony from the nurse who… was able to take part in some of the accuser’s statements,” Shapiro explained, noting that Doe’s mother’s testimony also remains on file. “So jurors can hear some of what the prosecutor said to her, but it is historically very difficult for jurors to be found guilty in any case, especially in the case of sexual assault, if they have no evidence to take into account. prosecutor.” Essentially, Shapiro said, the case went from a “said, said,” but now there is no “said,” because her testimony was beaten. “The defense was not that it did not happen – they found his DNA all over her body.” The jury began discussions on Thursday. Von Ellinger, who was appointed to the Idaho House of Representatives in June 2020 to end the term of a dead MP, has resigned after serving less than a year. If convicted of rape and violent penetration using a foreign object, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. His lawyer, Jon Cox, did not immediately respond to a request from The Daily Beast for comment.
