By Spencer Burt
(Post taken down and revised 3/31/17)
Attorneys representing Torrey Green, a former Utah State University student and athlete charged with multiple accounts of sexual assault and rape, began questioning alleged victims on Wednesday at Utah’s First District Court in Logan. During these preliminary hearings, Judge Brian Cannell heard cases from three of the seven alleged victims.
These three women claimed they were raped or sexually assaulted by Green between 2013 and 2014, and reported the assaults to police in 2016. They said they did not know any of the other alleged victims. The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to determine if there is probable cause for the cases to go to trial, according to the United States Department of Justice website.
The first alleged victim to take the stand was a woman with the initials M.H., who met Green in 2013 through the smartphone dating app, Tinder.
Prosecuting attorney Barbara Lachmar began the questioning by asking M.H. to recount the details of the night she was allegedly raped. Following Lachmar's questioning, Skye Lazaro, Green's defense attorney, cross-examined M.H. Things were visibly tense between the two.
When Lazaro asked why she didn't remember one particular detail of the alleged rape, M.H. said, "It was a long time ago. I'm not going to apologize for not remembering things."
A woman who went by the initials C.D. was the second alleged victim to face questioning. A key moment in C.D.’s questioning came when prosecuting attorney Spencer Walsh asked her if the man who raped her was in the room and if she could point him out. While keeping eye contact with Walsh, C.D. pointed to where Green was sitting.
"He's right there," she said.
The third woman, who went by the initials L.P., appeared more confident and less distraught than the other two. Green is charged with sexual abuse, but not with rape in this case. In a phone call the morning after the alleged rape, she said to her mother, “I was basically raped with my clothes on.”
L.P. was much more outspoken than the other two alleged victims. She nodded along as Lachmar asked her questions. Her voice sounded strong and confident as she described how she met Green, and how the first part of their date went.
That was until she described the alleged assault to Walsh, and the following interrogation by defense attorney Rhiannon Vonn.
During questioning, Vonna asked L.P. if she had touched Green "back in any way." L.P. responded quickly, saying, "No, no, no, no, no."
Vonn then asked L.P. if she thought Tinder was a hookup app. She responded that she didn’t use it that way. Lazaro asked the same question earlier to M.H., who responded the same.
Vonn asked both L.P. and C.D. about the layout of Green's apartment building, where the alleged assaults took place. Upon establishing that there were other apartments surrounding his, she asked both women separately if they screamed or cried for help in an attempt to get the neighbors’ attention. Neither woman did.
Vonn asked L.P. why she accepted Green's offer to drive her home after he allegedly sexually assaulted her. "I was terrified to say no," she replied.
"Why didn't you call for help?" Vonn asked.
"I was so scared," L.P. said, through tears. "I was so scared."
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