Victim in alleged off-campus rape testifies
Trial begins for Brunner, accused of sexual assault
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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- The woman who accused a city man of raping her near an off-campus party in February told a jury Tuesday morning that she was afraid he was going to hurt her.
The victim said through tears that David Jeffrey Brunner, 25, gave her an ultimatum after driving her away from the party house and parking in an area she was unfamiliar with.
"He said 'you can suck my d*ck, we can have sex or I'm taking you home," the victim said, and described his demeanor as "aggressive."
The victim was called to the stand by Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Mays, who began his questioning by asking her about the party along Juniata Gap Road. The victim said she went to the house because she knew several of the individuals present.
Brunner began making advances toward her when they were sitting on a couch together, the victim said. While the victim was OK with kissing Brunner, she said she told Brunner multiple times that she did not want to have sex.
The victim and another individual eventually got into an argument about the victim making too much noise. When the victim went outside, Brunner followed her and asked if she wanted to talk about the argument in his car.
"When I got in, he began backing out of the driveway," the victim said. "I didn't expect him to do that. He asked to talk, I didn't think we were leaving."
The victim said she then "thought we were just going to drive around and talk" but he pulled into a parking lot instead. When Mays asked if she knew where she was or if she had another way home, the victim said no.
The pair moved to the back seat of the car as there was more room, the victim said. When Brunner took off her pants, the victim said she froze and "was scared."
The victim said Brunner was holding her by the neck, which she described as "uncomfortable" and "painful." She was able to push him off of her once but he got back on top and assaulted her, the victim said.
Brunner then gave her the ultimatum and the victim said she felt "obligated" to comply. After Brunner assaulted her again, the victim said he drove them back to the party, where she asked for his Snapchat before going home.
The victim said she told her mother about the incident, then spoke with campus police and went to the hospital for a rape kit.
At the beginning of cross-examination by Chief Public Defender Julia Burke, the victim became visibly upset and had to leave the stand for a brief recess.
When she returned to the courtroom, the victim told Burke she did not consent to any sexual acts beyond kissing. Burke asked the victim if Brunner had threatened her, to which the victim said "not verbally" and "he had his thumb shoved into my neck."
"We were not hooking up, he was forcing himself on me," the victim said.
She confirmed that she did not ask Brunner to take her home when he gave the ultimatum, saying, "I was afraid he was going to hurt me."
Burke then played a portion of the victim's initial interview with campus police, in which the victim can be heard saying "not that (Brunner) would hurt me or anything like that."
When confronted with the clip, the victim said "that is what I said at the time."
The prosecution also called Sarah Doyle, a forensic DNA expert with state police, to testify about the conclusions in the report she made in the Brunner case.
Through questioning by First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith, Doyle said cheek swabs taken from the victim did not contain enough foreign DNA to determine its origin.
When Smith asked about tests run on the victim's underwear, Doyle said there was DNA with three contributors. She identified the victim and Brunner as two of those three, while the third remains unknown.
Doyle said the DNA belonging to the victim, Brunner and an unknown individual was 37 million times more likely than the DNA belonging to the victim and two unknown individuals.
Brunner is charged with two felony counts of sexual assault and single felony counts of rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. He was initially free on $50,000 bail unsecured, but his bail was revoked in March due to a separate, unrelated case.
Testimony is expected to continue 8:30 a.m. today in courtroom one of the Blair County Courthouse, with the trial scheduled to conclude Friday.
Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor-Musselman is at 814-946-7458.