Delayed Ewu Rape Trial Begins Charges Had Been Thrown Out On Speedy-Trial Decision

The trial of a former Eastern Washington University student accused of date rape opened Wednesday in Spokane County Superior Court - delayed for nearly nine months because of technicalities.

Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Ed Hay argued that Robert E. Hall III, 20, failed to stop his sexual advances on a fellow student on Nov. 2, 1998, despite her repeated protests.

The alleged victim said “no” so loudly that a student in a room adjacent to No. 1003 in EWU’s Pearce Hall heard her screams, Hay said.

“She kept saying, `No, Bobby, no Bobby; I really don’t want to do this,”’ Hay said.

A conviction for third-degree rape, Hay told the jury, requires only the “communication of lack of consent.”

Hall’s attorney, public defender Kenneth Knox, said the sex was consensual, and that the prosecution’s case was “riddled with ambiguities.”

The alleged victim, Knox said, had previously invited Hall to her room for sex, and consented to foreplay on Nov. 2.

The alleged rape, Knox said, was interrupted when a student knocked on the victim’s door, looking for an English paper. Instead of taking the opportunity to flee, the victim returned to bed with Hall.

The alleged victim, then a 17-year-old freshman, said she was too intimidated and scared by Hall to think clearly.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” she said, her eyes swelled with tears. “I didn’t know if it was my fault, if I brought it on myself.”

Knox quizzed her under cross-examination about why she did not flee to the bathroom when given the opportunity. “Do you want me in there all night?” she shot back. “Why should I have to leave my room?”

The trial was delayed in March when Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor dismissed the charge against Hall.

She found that Hall hadn’t been appointed a public defender quickly enough, violating his right to a speedy trial.

The decision drew widespread criticism. O’Connor reversed herself a month later, reinstating the charge.

The trial is expected to finish today or Friday.

Hall, a native of Port Orchard, Wash., left EWU last winter and now attends Tacoma Community College. If he ever wants to re-enroll at EWU, Hall must face a student conduct board that could bar readmission.

The victim left EWU last spring to return home to Spokane. She hopes to attend college elsewhere next fall.

“I know that the law takes time, but it’s a bunch of bull that it’s taken nine months,” she said Wednesday.