Evan Reed Rape Case Dismissed After Victim Testifies She Woke Up Dizzy, In Pain Following Alleged Attack By Tigers Minor League Pitcher
[WARNING: The following article contains graphic sexual language]
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) - Disgusting and disturbing allegations came to light in testimony in a preliminary hearing for Detroit Tigers minor league pitcher Evan Reed, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met at a bar in March.
Judge Kenneth King ordered the case be dismissed, immediately provoking an argument by prosecutors who begged the judge to look further into the law. The judge stood firm, saying there's not enough evidence there was any assault.
Reed, 28, was accused of raping a 45-year-old woman at a Detroit casino hotel on March 30 — the day before Opening Day. He was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
As proceedings began, Motor City Casino hotel security video was put into evidence that showed Reed and the alleged victim getting out of a taxi, the victim stumbling around and at one point falling in the street, with Reed helping her to her feet.
"It appears as though he's carrying her, the female," said Judge Kenneth King, describing the video. "I'm not sure if the video shows he set her down. I can't tell if someone else has come to assist as well."
"I can't tell but it looks like he's carrying her on his back now," King said, adding that Reed appeared to head into the hotel at that point.
"At one point in the video, she falls flat on her back, she has to be lifted and carried by the defendant into the casino," the judge said when announcing his decision.
King said there's no doubt the alleged victim was incapacitated when she entered the hotel with Reed; "The problem is what happened in that hotel room ... no one knows," he said.
That came after the alleged victim took the stand, testifying that she'd had a couple of Grey Goose and tonics at a Royal Oak bar that night when someone flagged her down and invited her to sit at their table. That's where she met Reed, allowed him to buy her a third drink — asking for another vodka tonic— and danced with him.
The friend she was at the bar with that night testified as well, echoing much of her pal's story.
The friend told police she also suspected something had been put in their drinks, saying she "felt very strange ... hot, disoriented and paranoid," and that the alleged victim's behavior at the bar, where she was kissing Reed and sitting on his lap, made her uncomfortable. "It was out of character for her," she said.
She also told police Reed was "fixated" on her friend and was "staring her up and down."
For the victim's part, she testified the third drink didn't taste the same, "a little more bit sour than usual," she said, who will not be named in media reports as an alleged rape victim.
After that, the woman testified, Reed offered her a shot and she said no. "The last thing I remember is just my body feeling funny. I completely blacked out from that point on and I don't remember a single thing."
She added that everyone at the table was talking but they sounded "robotic ... like I was in another world," and that she'd never felt like that before.
She said she didn't recall leaving the bar; and next thing she remembers, the woman testified, she was with Reed in bed and both of them were nude. The judge, though, just wasn't convinced. "I don't have any evidence as to what the rape kit showed, I don't know if there was any intercourse that took place at all," the judge said, later adding, "Is there a question of credibility? Perhaps."
The judge added he didn't believe her claim that she didn't know the men at the bar were Tigers players.
"I don't think she was incapacitated," the judge said.
That Night
The victim testified that she had bruises on her arms and legs, her head was pounding, her neck and body hurt and she was dizzy. The judge noted she never testified about having pain in her private parts.
The alleged victim testified, "There was a brown stain in the bed, on the sheets," that looked like "a bowel movement," she said.
"I then remember a foul smell in the room and then seeing that spot and then thinking, 'What happened?' I don't remember doing anything," she said.
That's when, the woman said, Reed asked her if she could get pregnant. "His voice didn't sound right," she testified.
The alleged victim testified that she sat on the edge of the bed for a little bit, and then got up slowly. "I recall walking, holding onto the wall and walking into the bathroom," she said.
The woman said she entered the shower and stood with her head against the shower wall. "I was feeling dizzy," she said. "The next thing I remember is water on my back, and after that Evan was behind me and having anal sex with me."
The alleged victim said she never consented to the act — telling Reed that he was hurting her and to stop; but that he kept going. When Reed eventually did stop, she said, he cleaned himself off and she tried to do the same. "My head was not right, my body was not telling me to do that. I didn't have the strength. I felt like a rag doll," she testified.
"I then walked...stopped at the counter to look at myself and I was just really pale, like I had died and come back to life my face was so white. I walked back to the bedroom and laid down because I wanted to go back to sleep. My mind was telling me all I wanted to do was go back and sleep," she said.
At that point, she said, Reed tried to have oral sex with her, and she didn't consent. "I kept turning my face, and said 'What are you doing?' I didn't want him to do that. All I wanted to do was go to sleep," she said. The judge noted in his decision that both times when she had the presence of mind to tell him "no," Reed stopped.
After the failed attempts at fellatio, the woman said Reed told her he had to be somewhere and she needed to get her things and leave. She said she was still naked when he brought her her purse and told her she should find a taxi.
A cop later called to the hotel room as part of the investigation testified there was feces on the bed and on towels in the room; no evidence was collected from the room, he said.
The Next Day
The woman said she was able to find her dress but not her cell phone or her underwear; and, before leaving the room, asked Reed where they were. He replied, 'MGM,'" she said.
She left the room, accidentally wandering into a restricted area of the hotel, a casino employee helped her find her way outside and called her a cab.
"I was just crying hysterically and very upset. My head was still hurting and I was seeing double," she said. When the cab drivers asked her what was wrong, "I said I was raped and can you please help me find my way home?"
The woman said she went home and crawled into bed, and was awoken by her ex-husband at the door who said everyone was looking for her. She Facebook messaged a friend, "I thought I was gang raped."
That night, she said, she went to Royal Oak police who told her she had to go to Detroit police. She also went to the St. Joe's Hospital where she told them she'd been raped and she thought someone drugged her. The hospital referred her to Royal Oak Haven House to have a rape kit done.
In cross-examination by Reed's attorney, Dave Gorcyca, the alleged victim was asked if she'd walked by Reed's table in the bar multiple times, trying to get his attention — which she denied.
The alleged victim has said she didn't know that Reed was a professional baseball player until after the night of the incident. Gorcyca disputed that claim, asking her if she texted her friend, "I'm sitting with Tigers guys, dummy."
"Those weren't my exact words," she responded. " I didn't know who they were. I was assuming they were ball players because they looked like ball players, but I had no idea who they were," she said, adding that she had "a gut feeling" they might be Tigers.
Gorcyca asked her if she remembered sitting on Reed's lap at the bar, giving him a lap dance, or putting her hand on his crotch. She said no to each. Asked if she recalled falling down, falling into a gumball machine, leaving the bar, the cab ride, or talking to Reed in the hotel room — she again said no.
When Gorcyca asked her why she didn't flag down police when she left the hotel — as a police car was parked outside — she said she didn't see it.
The woman said that when, the following day, she told her ex-husband what had happened he set her up an appointment to talk to Detroit police.
Reed admits the two had sex, but he said it all was consensual. The defense has called the woman's claims " bogus allegations."
Talking to WWJ's Sandra McNeil and other reporters outside the courthouse, Reed was obviously elated that the charges were dismissed.
"It's pretty plain to see that people...you know...people wanna take stuff from you, and you can't let them do that; you have to protect what you have," Reed said.
"It's not my time or place to bash the accuser. Her lies caught up with her," he said.
