ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 TAG: 9608280030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
A judge has ruled that a woman who accused a Dublin man of raping her was not rendered helpless by the amount of alcohol she had consumed.
Circuit Judge Duane Mink found Jon Lockwood II innocent Friday of raping a woman he met at Arnold's of Radford restaurant Jan. 19.
Lockwood's attorney, Robert Jenkins, said his client was charged with raping the 22-year-old Radford University student "through her physical helplessness."
Lockwood admitted having sex with the woman, but said it was consensual.
Jenkins said the state had to prove that the woman was "suffering from an inability to communicate her unwillingness to have sex."
Testimony on Friday, however, showed the woman met Lockwood at the restaurant, kissed him while there, danced and invited him to her apartment. Jenkins said witnesses also testified that the woman got in Lockwood's vehicle on her own and gave Lockwood directions to her apartment.
After arriving at the apartment, the woman got sick, Jenkins said, and called out to her roommate. Later, her roommate left and Lockwood and the woman watched television and talked. Lockwood told police he asked the woman if she wanted to have sex and she agreed, according to court records.
The woman, however, said she does not remember having sex with Lockwood.
She testified that she "blacked out" at Arnold's and does not remember anything that happened after that point, Jenkins said.
Another witness told police she saw Lockwood kissing the woman on the deck at Arnold's and that it appeared the woman's arms were limp and her eyes closed, according to court records.
Jenkins said, based on the testimony, the judge ruled the woman was able to communicate and, therefore, was not physically helpless when she had sex with Lockwood.
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB