Our Firm Obtains Dismissal in Augusta Rape Case

Our firm recently obtained a complete dismissal of a rape charge against a client who had been arrested in Augusta, Georgia and accused of rape after he and his accuser met at a bar and went home together. The case was dismissed before our client was ever indicted, and the State agreed to restrict the arrest record.

This result came after more than a year of aggressive defense investigation and litigation. We did not wait for the State to indict our client and then begin preparing a defense, as many attorneys do. We started investigating immediately after the arrest, interviewed important witnesses while their memories were still fresh, requested and preserved surveillance and other critical evidence, and used that investigation at an early bond hearing to expose facts that were inconsistent with the initial accusation, as well as secure our client’s freedom pending trial.

We kept investigating after our client was released on bond. Ultimately, after multiple investigations and continued pressure from the defense for the government to either proceed or dismiss the case, prosecutors elected not to pursue the rape charge.

Rape cases are among the most serious criminal cases we handle. They are also frequently cases in which the most important evidence is not DNA or fingerprints, but what the people involved remember about a private encounter.

That makes the first days and weeks after an accusation especially important.

In this case, the accuser was a college student who met our client at a bar and went back to his apartment with him, where they had sex. The accuser had arrived at the bar with her friends, who she had been heavily drinking with prior. Her friends later picked her up from the apartment. The next day, she accused our client of getting her drunk, taking her to his apartment against her will, and raping her. 

When we entered this case, we immediately began identifying and interviewing the people who had been with the accuser and our client before and after the alleged assault. Those interviews uncovered important facts that law enforcement either ignored or failed to identify.

For example, our investigation developed evidence that the accuser and friends had been drinking before they ever encountered our client and that our client had never purchased any drinks for them or given them any. Witnesses we interviewed stated that the alleged victim pursued our client at the bar because she was attracted to him. 

Those details mattered. The accusation involved an evening where alcohol consumption and memory were central issues. Establishing an accurate timeline of who drank what, when they drank it, who purchased it, and what witnesses actually observed gave us evidence with which to challenge assumptions that had been made almost immediately after the allegation.

We also moved quickly to request surveillance footage and other electronic evidence. Video evidence disappears. Surveillance we obtained from nearby apartments showed the alleged victim walking from the bar to our client’s car with him without any signs of impairment. Surveillance we obtained from the bar showed our client and the alleged victim dancing together, and later kissing.

Our early work paid off almost immediately. At our client’s bond hearing, we were already able to present a much more complete picture of the case than the one that existed when the arrest warrant was issued, and a much more complete picture than the prosecution was able to give at that early stage. Most importantly, the hearing and our early witness investigation created a record of what witnesses were saying close in time to the accusation.

That can be extremely important in a rape case.

Memories change. Witnesses speak with friends, family members, police officers, prosecutors, and one another. Details can be added, forgotten, or reconstructed over time. A statement taken close to the event gives the defense something against which later versions can be compared.

In this case, later interviews revealed significant issues concerning the accuser’s memory of the evening and how those memories developed. Accounts also changed concerning drinking and events immediately before the alleged assault. Because we had investigated early, we were able to identify those changes rather than simply accepting the newest version of events.

One of the biggest mistakes that can be made in a serious Georgia felony case is treating the period between arrest and indictment as dead time. Too often, a defendant gets released on bond and everyone simply waits for the grand jury. That can take months or even longer. By the time an indictment arrives, surveillance footage may be gone, witnesses may have forgotten important details, phones may have been replaced, and the prosecution’s theory may have hardened.

We take the opposite approach.

After obtaining bond in this case, we continued interviewing witnesses, collecting records, reviewing forensic evidence, pursuing electronic evidence, and comparing subsequent witness accounts against the statements obtained earlier in the case.

We also continued pressing the prosecution rather than allowing the case to sit indefinitely. When additional investigations did not result in an indictment, we repeatedly pushed the State to make a charging decision. A big part of that was because our client was facing adverse career consequences as a result of the pending charge—a charge he could not contest in court until or unless he was indicted.

Our position remained straightforward: if the evidence was sufficient to prosecute our client for rape, the State should bring the case and allow us to defend it in court. If it was not, our client should not be forced to live indefinitely under a pending rape warrant.

Ultimately, the District Attorney’s Office dismissed the charge in full.

A rape accusation can change someone’s life immediately. Even before a conviction—or even an indictment—the accusation can jeopardize a person’s career, reputation, relationships, professional licenses, security clearances, and freedom.

That is why our firm approaches these cases aggressively from the beginning.

We have extensive experience defending clients against serious felony and sex-crime allegations in Georgia and federal courts. We use experienced investigators, experts when appropriate, aggressive pretrial litigation, and our own independent investigation rather than simply relying on the evidence collected by law enforcement.

In this case, that approach helped our client obtain bond, allowed us to preserve and develop important defense evidence, exposed significant weaknesses in the allegations, and ultimately resulted in the best possible outcome: the rape charge was dismissed in full before our client was ever indicted.

Not every case will end the same way, but every person accused of a serious crime deserves a lawyer who begins preparing the defense immediately rather than waiting for the prosecution to make the next move.

If you or a loved one has been arrested, investigated, or accused of rape, sexual assault, or another serious felony offense in Georgia, contact The Church Law Firm. The earlier we become involved, the more we may be able to do to preserve evidence, investigate the accusation, and protect your future.