Motions pile up in false rape case

PORT CLINTON — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost won't say what message he's sending by prosecuting a woman for allegedly falsely claiming she was raped. He also refuses to answer any questions about why he's ignoring two other women who say they were raped by the same man. From left, O'Brien, Yost, Wood and defendant Arica Waters The attorney general hopes to convict Arica Waters, 29, on a felony falsification charge at trial later this year in Ottawa County's court. Carol O'Brien, Yost's chief counsel in charge of criminal prosecutions, also has not responded. A press secretary for Yost, Steve Irwin, is the only person in Yost's office who did write back, but he refused to answer any questions. "When the case is over and the truth comes out, the shift of public perception will change," Irwin told the Register. He did not specify what the perception is now or how it will be after the trial. Nobody from the attorney general's office has talked with the other two women who say they were raped by the same man who will testify as the victim at Waters' trial. Ready for trial? An attorney for Waters maintains Waters also was raped — that she was too inebriated to give consent — and she claims the state is withholding evidence about the two other victims. The state did not even disclose that there were other complaints and did withhold for weeks and months two investigative reports about the other rape allegations against the man, who will be the lead witness for Yost against Waters. The Register has been unable to locate any previous criminal case in the state — similar to Waters' — in which a woman was taken to trial for lying about being raped. Yost refuses to address why he agreed to pursue this case. If she's convicted, Waters, of Lyndhurst, could be sentenced to up to 18 months in a state prison. Associate Ohio attorney general Drew Wood, the assigned special prosecutor, did provide the court with parts of the other rape complaint reports last month after the Register reported about their existence, but he's retained other portions of the records and wants to exclude them from the trial. Anjum Sarah Anjum, Waters' attorney, has demanded full disclosure, and she's accusing a private investigator working on behalf of Yost's victim of making false allegations against her and Waters. The man contacted a detective conducting one of the investigations. The private investigator alleged that attorney Anjum, Waters and the alleged rape victim in Hancock County all might have conspired in some fashion to falsely accuse Yost's witness. That's untrue, according to Anjum. "Even though these ridiculous allegations were not supported with any evidence or proof, it appears that (the) Hancock County (detective) did conduct some investigation into the matter before it was dropped," Anjum wrote in a recent court filing. The private investigator provided the Hancock County detective with phone numbers used by the women, and phone records were subpoenaed. There was no connection between them found, according to the report. What you need to know Yost and O'Brien have refused to say why Waters, a Black woman, was charged with falsely accusing the man, but the other women, who are both white, weren't charged. They also have declined to say if there is concern that prosecuting Waters might result in a perception among rape victims that they too could be prosecuted if they report being raped and prosecutors don't believe them. Wood, in a court filing, isolated two small portions of the 68-page report filed by the Hancock County detective that the alleged victim there might have been "just dreaming" about being raped and that she "questioned if it was really a memory." The other alleged victim, a woman who said she was raped by Yost's witness and another man in Port Clinton in late 2008, declined to pursue charges, Wood wrote, and told a detective she "might have been a willing participant." Wood did not provide the court context for that statement and did not mention the woman's blood alcohol content showed she was too drunk to consent. He also did not including in the filing that the woman told the detective it would have been "quite unlike" her to have consensual sex that way, and that she penned a six-page, handwritten statement in which she repeatedly alleges she was raped. Wood also did not respond to inquiries from the Register. Wood, Yost and O'Brien all declined to address questions about concerns that information the court is getting from them about the other rape allegations is being improperly withheld and later censored. They want a judge to bar the two other women from testifying at Waters' trial about Yost's witness and exclude information about their complaints. Yost also wants Anjum to be prevented from cross-examining their witness about the other rape complaints, according to court filings. Here comes the judge Ottawa County Judge Bruce Winters, in a surprise move on Oct. 8, recused himself from the trial after presiding over it since Waters was indicted in October 2020. Winters gave no reason for his decision. The Ohio Supreme Court is expected to announce the appointment of a visiting judge this week. When the new judge gets named, he or she will have docket full of motions on which rulings must be made. Here's a list of pending motions: • Defense request that another attorney be appointed as co-counsel in response to the accusations that Anjum, Waters and the the woman in Hancock County conspired to falsely accuse Yost's witness. • Prosecution request that the other alleged rape victims be barred from testifying and that information about their complaints be excluded. • Prosecution request that defense counsel be prohibited from cross-examining the witness/victim about the other rape complaints. • Defense request for hearing to present oral argument against barring the other women from testifying and excluding evidence and cross-examination. • Prosecution motion to exclude testimony from an expert witness about trauma. * Read more at the links below.