Altoona man not guilty of rape
Jury acquits German of sexual assault of unconscious victim
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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- A Blair County jury on Thursday acquitted an Altoona man of rape and related sexual assault charges, capping off a four-day trial where a woman accused him of engaging in sexual intercourse with her while she was unconscious.
Robert J. German, 44, who initially denied sexual contact with the woman, told the jury Wednesday that it was the woman who pursued oral sex and sexual intercourse with him, after he gave her a ride home during the early morning hours of March 19, 2023.
The jury, after six hours of deliberations, rendered "not guilty" verdicts on felony offenses of rape of an unconscious victim and sexual assault. It also found German "not guilty" of a misdemeanor offense of indecent assault of an unconscious person.
German, who has been in Blair County Prison for almost two years since his arrest in August 2023, reacted to the verdict with a sigh of relief, then embraced Assistant Public Defender Mason Rogers and patted him on the back. German did the same with co-counsel John Siford, before leaving the courtroom to head back to the county prison from where he would be released.
Meanwhile, the jury's verdicts caused the woman who made the accusations to leave the courtroom in tears. Her mother, other family members and supporters, also cried as they exited.
"We could not get beyond reasonable doubt," one of the female jurors said outside court after proceedings concluded.
A fellow female juror offered the same conclusion.
"It was a hard job," she admitted. "We all listened to what was said. But in the end, we just didn't have enough to get beyond reasonable doubt."
About two hours after starting to deliberate, jurors sent President Judge Wade A. Kagarise four questions about the evidence and a request for written definitions of each charge.
First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Mays, said the verdicts were a disappointment.
"We felt there was strong evidence with (German's) denial of what happened, the bleeding the victim experienced, the rape kit, the DNA evidence and everything she went through," Smith said.
During her closing argument, Smith reminded the jury that they watched video captured by a police officer's body camera, showing the distraught 21-year-old woman on the kitchen floor, with her mother attempting to comfort her.
"You don't fake that," Smith told the jury in challenging what she called German's self-serving testimony and fairytale version of consensual sex.
"Give me one reason why she should lie?" Smith asked the jury in her closing. "For what -- three hours of public humiliation on a witness stand?"
Opposing perspectives
When testifying, the woman admitted to having drinks and vaping marijuana while socializing with others on March 18 and March 19, 2023, at the Kettle Inn Bar and Grill, where she was introduced to German, who went by the name of "Jamaica J."
The woman also reported having no recollection of leaving the Kettle Inn and going to the Palace night club on Union Avenue or returning to her apartment, then located on the 300 block of 10th Street.
What she remembered was being temporarily awakened in her bedroom with a man on top of her while he engaged in sexual intercourse. She also spoke of awakening a second time and seeing the same man beside a dresser, counting money.
When German testified, he spoke of having given the woman a ride home from the Palace, where he said the woman was threatened by other patrons. He described her as upset and said he calmed her down and made her smile.
"I said they wanted to fight you because you're a pretty girl," German recalled when testifying Wednesday.
But in August 2023 -- five months after the incident -- German told Altoona Police Det. Jon Burns that he didn't rape anyone and repeatedly denied having sexual contact with the woman. After admitting that he gave the woman a ride home from the Palace, German denied staying any period of time with her. The police investigation, which included the collection of cellphone communication data and the examination of German's DNA found inside the woman's body, proved otherwise.
German asked the jury on Wednesday to accept that he was stressed during that interview with Burns at the police station, where he was taken after being arrested by armed police officers who surrounded his Altoona residence under the eye of a police helicopter.
Rogers also asked the jury to consider that the woman -- while claiming to be under the influence when she was with German -- was able to give directions to German to get to her home. And once there, Rogers said it was the woman who led German up the steps to her second-floor apartment, unlocked two locks to gain access, told him where to hang his coat and then led him to her bedroom.
"She brought my client home to have sex with her," Rogers told the jurors.
Smith asked the jury to conclude otherwise and reminded them of the woman's vaginal bleeding, the blood spots on the bedding and the damaged body
tissue noted by the nurse who performed the woman's sexual assault examination.
"Most consensual women would stop sex if it hurts, before they start bleeding," Smith said.
Rogers, also within his closing and before deliberations started, reminded jurors of their promise to fairly evaluate the charges against German. In February, the defense attorney filed a petition seeking greater leeway in quizzing jurors about their potential racial biases. In that petition, German was described as a Jamaican national of African descent and as Black man with dreadlocks. The woman he was accused of raping was described as white with mixed racial heritage.
When the jury was selected in May, Kagarise addressed Rogers' request by asking jurors to reveal if they couldn't judge German's case fairly because of his race or nation of origin. Hearing no responses, the judge moved onto other questions.