A Carson City man was bound over to district court Friday on two counts of sexual assault.
Justice of the Peace Tom Armstrong found there was evidence to bind Juan Rodriguez-Ramirez, 34, to district court, despite the alleged victim’s testimony that the sex was consensual. Rodriguez-Ramirez will be arraigned May 27.
The girl, 16, testified she lied to investigators when her mother brought her to the hospital after she claimed her mother’s live-in boyfriend, had assaulted her in late March.
The girl’s mother walked in to the bedroom and saw Rodriguez-Ramirez on top of the her, the girl testified. The next day, the girl’s mother continued to ask her about the previous night.
“Mom kept asking me what happened. I didn’t want her to think I’m bad, something gross and stuff.”
The day after the alleged assault, the girl told her mother that Rodriguez-Ramirez has assaulted her, she testified. Her mother took her to the hospital and there, she told detectives, deputies and hospital staff she had been assaulted.
The prosecution alleged Rodriguez-Ramirez assaulted the girl twice in Carson City, once between February and March and then again at the end of March.
The girl testified Friday that she initiated sex by groping him and plying him with beer.
“I started touching him to see if he would touch me,” she said.
The girl testified that she told investigators she was raped because she didn’t know what it meant.
“I thought at the time, it was rape. I was convincing myself it was rape. I wanted it to happen,” she said.
The girl’s mother took the stand Friday, testifying through an interpreter that Rodriguez-Ramirez was lying next to, not on top of, her daughter. A few questions later, she testified she never saw him in the bed at all.
During the first alleged incident, the girl testified, she and Rodriguez-Ramirez were watching a movie and she grabbed a blanket and put it over both of them, assuming he was just as cold as she was. He allegedly assaulted her twice and then she left to the bathroom, where she said the two talked.
She originally told investigators he assaulted her while she was on the ground and she told him to stop and attempted to crawl away. He then allegedly assaulted her again and she again told him to stop and attempted to crawl away.
“He talked about it, said I was the one provoking him, and it’s true. I’m the one provoking him,” she said.
The court also heard about other alleged assaults in Reno and in California.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Krueger argued in his closing statement that the case revolved around consent.
“It’s clear, your honor, that she was raped. She tried to get away,” he said, citing what she told detectives at first. “The evidence here is, she did not give consent. Her actions show she did not want that sexual assault. She told him to stop. Stop means stop.”
Defense attorney Mihaela Neagos told the judge during her closing arguments that the girl wanted to have sex with the defendant.
“She didn’t tell him to stop. She didn’t tell her brothers or her sisters. She liked it and wanted to have sex with him,” she said. The rape allegation came about because “she was stuck, when her mother kept asking her and asking her” what happened.
