MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For the second time this year Ibrahim Hamid is being tried in Monongalia County Circuit Court for the same offense after a jury failed to reach a verdict in June.
Hamid is charged with second-degree sexual assault.
Both the state and defense agree on much of what happened the night of April 27 and into the early morning hours of April 28.
The Dominion Post does not typically name the victims of sexual assault.
Having just finished her master’s program the victim went to meet friends at a bar in downtown Morgantown where she had a few drinks, a whiskey sour and a shot of tequila for sure, the victim testified Tuesday. She also said she remembered having a beer but couldn’t remember if she finished it.
She took an Uber to the bar and intended to take one home – that was the routine when going downtown, she said.
At some point in the night, the victim couldn’t find her friends and her next memory is of being in a vehicle before it jumps to being in the McDonald’s drive through.
Hamid and the victim went through the McDonald’s drive through, where she ordered her usual order.
That’s where the agreements stop. Monongalia County Prosecuting Attorney Perri DeChristopher asserts that the testimony the victim will give and evidence will prove that she was sexually assaulted. Defense Attorney Lance Rollo said Hamid’s encounter with the alleged victim was entirely consensual.
Her next memory, the victim testified, is of someone on top of her. She said she struggled and pushed the man and slapped him.
She remembers him asking if she was on her period in a Middle Eastern accent and him telling her to flip over so he could go from behind. She remembers leaving the vehicle, which she thought was a car but the investigation proved to be a van, but not exactly which door she used.
Her phone was left at the bar and she couldn’t get it until the evening of April 28 and when she did she asked her friends what happened before telling them she thought she was sexually assaulted.
Jurors heard from Laura Schmidle, a sexual assault nurse examiner, who performed the exam on the victim after she decided to report the crime the next day.
Schmidle walked the jurors through her report and what she did with the victim during the exam.
She told Rollo that her job was to collect evidence and it wasn’t her job to determine if the encounter between the woman she examined and Hamid was consensual.
Dr. Daniel Long, a clinic psychologist, told jurors that the victims of trauma frequently experience memories coming back over periods of time and out of chronological order.
He said it can’t be predicted when or what might be remembered by a victim of trauma.
The trial will resume 9 a.m. Thursday because the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals declared today a judicial holiday. Judge Russell Clawges, presiding over the case, said in light of that he had no choice but to recess until Thursday.
By William Dean, Dominion Post