photo by: Nick Gerik

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St.

Prosecutors argued Tuesday that a rape reported in a Haskell Indian Nations University dormitory was an act of betrayal between longtime friends.

The defense countered that the incident was a consensual threesome that the reporting woman regretted after the fact.

The trial for the second of two former Haskell students accused of rape began Monday with jury selection. Tuesday morning the attorneys offered jurors their opening statements in the case.

The defendants, a 21-year-old man and a 20-year-old man, are accused or raping a 19-year-old fellow student on Nov. 15, 2014, in a university dormitory.

The 21-year-old suspect, whose trial began Monday, faces two felony counts of rape, one felony count of aggravated criminal sodomy, one felony count of felony attempted rape and one felony count of attempted aggravated criminal sodomy.

In June a trial was held for the 20-year-old suspect, who faces two felony rape charges and one felony count of aggravated criminal sodomy. The jury in that case failed to reach a unanimous verdict, and a mistrial was declared. A second trial is scheduled to start for the 20-year-old suspect on Dec. 12.

On the evening of Nov. 14, leading into the morning of Nov. 15, the woman, the suspects and their friends were drinking and spending time together in the school’s dormitory, prosecutor Mark Simpson told jurors. Both the woman and the two suspects lived on the building’s second floor.

The suspects and the woman have all known each other since childhood, Simpson said.

Past the dormitory’s 2 a.m. curfew, the woman found herself alone with the two suspects in their dorm room, Simpson said in opening arguments; the 21-year-old suspect then began to kiss the woman, who was seated on his bed.

The woman told the 21-year-old suspect to stop, Simpson said, but he was only deterred for a second.

“He does it again, but this time he’s aggressive,” Simpson said.

The woman then asked the 20-year-old suspect for help, Simpson said, but he approached the bed and held her down as his roommate raped her. Several minutes passed before the woman was able to leave the room.

Once outside the room, the woman was able to speak with her friends and the police were called, Simpson said.

While defense attorney Angela Keck agreed that the three had sex, she told jurors that the encounter was consensual. The incident may have been “strange,” she added, but that’s “because it was a threesome.”

The woman and the 21-year-old suspect dated prior to the incident, Keck said, adding that her statements to investigators were inconsistent.

In addition, the investigators’ techniques were not thorough, Keck argued.

“What is clear is that (the woman) didn’t want anybody to know about it,” Keck said, citing the woman’s initial reluctance to call police.

Both men were arrested Nov. 15, 2014, and were later released from the Douglas County Jail after each posted a $75,000 bond. Both were expelled from the school after the incident.

The trial, which is scheduled to last seven days, will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.