Judge rules against women

PORT CLINTON — A visiting judge denied two court motions in ruling against the defense counsel for a woman facing a felony trial for allegedly lying about being raped. The ruling was dated Oct. 21 but was not filed until Wednesday. The two-page court document was prepared "for the upcoming pre-trial conference" and was filed just hours before the scheduled telephone hearing in State vs. Waters. The hearing Thursday morning was cut short, however, when unidentified callers to the phone number listed in the court docket refused to identify themselves. The judge intended to bar the public from attending the hearing and instructed a court official earlier to bar a reporter from attending. Whatever she intended to discuss about the ruling that was prepared for the conference she intended to keep private. "We have spoken to the judge and she will conference with the parties individually," Ottawa County court administrator Katelyn Ritzler told Ohio associate attorney general Drew Wood, defense counsel Sarah Anjum and others who were on the phone call. She ended the call at that point. Visiting Judge Janet Burnside at a plea and sentencing hearing Dec. 6, 2019. Sandusky County Prosecutor Tim Braun, left, and his attorney, Lucas County Bar Association president Peter Rost, sit at the defendant's table. Register photo/David Livingston In her ruling, Judge Janet Burnside denied defense counsel Anjum's request for co-counsel that Anjum made after it was disclosed that a prosecution witness accused her and defendant Arica Waters of conspiring with another woman to make up lies about the witness. Wood withheld that information from the court earlier. The man told a Hancock County detective he wanted Anjum and the other woman investigated, alleging they are trying to discredit him by accusing him of rape. Anjum and the other women deny the allegation they colluded, but Anjum wrote in an earlier court motion that she was asking for co-counsel because of the threat she could be charged in the future. Burnside gave no explanation for her ruling. The judge also denied a request from Anjum that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost be compelled to turn over to the court the entire investigative reports from two prior rape complaints against the man Yost says is a victim being falsely accused. Yost, in a counter-motion, suggested the one alleged victim was a "willing participant" in a threesome, and the other alleged victim was dreaming about being raped. Burnside gave no explanation why she was siding with Yost against the women. Anjum on Thursday filed a new request asking that two women who have accused the witness of rape be allowed to testify about how they interacted with the witness prior to the alleged sexual assaults. There's a pattern among all three women and the man that involves drinking and intoxication, Anjum wrote.