photo by: Mackenzie Clark

The Lawrence Police Department's Investigations and Training Center, 4820 Bob Billings Parkway, is pictured on Feb. 11, 2020.

A drunken Christmas house party came to an abrupt end when an attendee reportedly woke to find a man raping one of the hosts, who was unconscious, court documents allege.

Andrew Elliott Ferguson, 22, of Lawrence, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, according to court records. He is charged in Douglas County District Court with one count of raping a victim who is unconscious or physically powerless, or in the alternative, who is incapable of consenting because of intoxication “reasonably apparent” to the offender.

The Journal-World requested and received the Lawrence police affidavit supporting Ferguson’s Dec. 14, 2019, arrest at his home in west Lawrence. Allegations in affidavits have not been proved in court, and defendants in criminal cases should be presumed not guilty unless and until they are convicted.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office has declined two requests from the Journal-World to release Ferguson’s booking photo.

According to the affidavit:

Ferguson was invited to a “Litmas” party — or “lit” Christmas — hosted by a 20-year-old woman and her roommates. The woman reportedly told police that she had about a dozen small shots of vodka throughout the night, and as the party died down, she and a few others, including Ferguson, went into one of the bedrooms, where she had more vodka. It was much more than she usually drank, she said.

The next thing she remembered was waking up to Ferguson on top of her, asking if she was awake and “Is this OK?” according to the affidavit. She passed back out, and when she woke up again, Ferguson was having sex with her, she told police.

The woman said she “freaked out” and didn’t know what to do, and she tried to nudge a friend passed out next to them, to no avail. She said she was scared that if she yelled or fought back, Ferguson would get aggressive with her, according to the affidavit, so she kept her eyes closed and looked away from him. She said she could only mumble when Ferguson grabbed her chin and turned her face toward himself, asking if she was awake.

She passed out again, then woke up to hear one witness yelling “Get the (expletive) off her … she’s asleep … are you kidding me.” The witness reportedly pulled the woman off the bed and into a different room, then threw Ferguson out of the house, according to the affidavit.

The witness reportedly told police that “the only time he talked to Andrew during the party was when Andrew was bragging to him about how much money and ‘hoes’ he was going to have in three years when he graduated from Pharmacy School,” the affidavit says.

When they all went into the bedroom, the witness said, Ferguson wouldn’t leave the woman alone despite her telling him to stop touching her. Eventually, the witness said, he knocked Ferguson’s hand away from the woman and told him to leave the room. Ferguson did, but came back about half an hour later, according to the affidavit.

The witness reportedly told police that he fell asleep on the floor, but when he woke up, he saw Ferguson engaged in sex acts with the woman. When he saw the woman’s face, he could tell she was unconscious, he told police. Then he started shouting at Ferguson to put his clothes on and leave; Ferguson responded by insulting the witness and “calling him fat,” according to the affidavit, but the witness “grabbed or pushed Andrew down the stairs and out of the front door,” according to the affidavit.

Another witness reportedly told detectives that “she had issues with Andrew because she believed he had raped her the week prior,” but that she’d said he could come to the party since he’d already been invited and she’d just stay away from him.

The woman told police that once Ferguson was out of the house, she broke down crying. One friend told her they needed to gather her clothing and go to the hospital. The woman said she was “extremely stressed and panicked,” so she drank a few more small shots to try to “cope with everything and not freak out.”

Accompanied by her friends, the woman went to Lawrence Memorial Hospital to have a sexual assault examination but was told it could not be performed because she was too intoxicated. But the nurse collected her clothing, and the woman went home and slept most of the day before going back to the hospital, according to the affidavit.

The woman said she wanted to file charges against Ferguson because she had concerns that he’d do it again to someone else, according to the affidavit.

Officers found Ferguson at his home the next evening, took him to LPD’s Investigations and Training Center for an interview and told him that a rape allegation had been filed against him. They asked him if he wanted to waive his rights and speak with them.

“Affiant notes Andrew attempted to act surprised and advised due to the seriousness of the offense he would like to speak to a lawyer first,” an LPD detective wrote in the affidavit.

Ferguson was booked and released from the Douglas County Jail on $100,000 surety bond, according to the jail’s booking log. Court records show he has retained the Swain Law Office, and his next court appearance is set for Tuesday. Attorneys did not respond to the Journal-World’s email seeking comment Friday.

As of Friday evening, Andrew E. Ferguson was listed as a student in KU’s online directory.