photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Thomas J. Cormier is pictured during his rape trial on June 27, 2023, in Douglas County District Court.

Story updated at 7:05 p.m. June 27:

A woman on Tuesday told a Douglas County jury that she was repeatedly sexually violated in a Lawrence apartment by a man who is now standing trial for rape and who claims the encounter was consensual.

The man, Thomas J. Cormier, 22, of Maple Grove, Minnesota, has been charged with one count of rape based on an incident that allegedly occurred in October 2021 at Cormier’s apartment.

The woman, now 22, testified that the encounter between her and Cormier began with consensual kissing and then escalated to actions that the woman said she did not consent to and found painful.

She testified that she was scared and was willing to say anything to escape the man, who she said eventually tied her to a bed and continued to touch her after she asked him to stop.

“This case is about violation of trust, of privacy, and of one’s own body,” Assistant District Attorney Samantha Foster told the jury in opening arguments.

Foster told the jury how Cormier and the woman met, how the woman thought he was attractive and how the two eventually exchanged contact information on social media.

Eventually the two met up in Cormier’s apartment, Foster said, where consensual intimacy like kissing turned into nonconsensual activity that the woman found painful and that caused bleeding. As the woman tried to collect her clothes, Cormier stopped her, Foster said, and tied her to the bed with a belt.

Cormier’s defense attorney, Christopher Joseph, argued in opening statements that the entire encounter was consensual activity between two adults.

Joseph told the jury that the woman was indeed afraid but only after the incident occurred. He said she was not afraid of Cormier but of her friend, who he said was interested in having a relationship with Cormier.

The woman, who took the witness stand after opening arguments, said that she liked Cormier and had considered dating him. She said that she went to his apartment to talk and to get to know him better. She said that they listened to a couple of records on a record player Cormier had just gotten for his birthday.

“That’s when he grabbed my face and started kissing me,” the woman said.

A prosecutor asked the woman how she felt when he kissed her.

“I was surprised, but I didn’t mind it,” she said, but then Cormier’s actions became increasingly rough and painful, and she excused herself to go to the bathroom, where she discovered she was bleeding. Cormier, she said, came into the bathroom to check on her and took a picture of her in a state of undress without asking.

The woman said she then intended to leave and gathered her things.

“He took me and scooted me back on the bed. I was scared,” the woman said.

She said that’s when Cormier tied her to the bed with a belt and continued assaulting her with his hands.

“I was able to wriggle my hands free after a few minutes,” she said.

She said she put her hand down to stop Cormier and said, “Thomas, stop,” but he refused.

“I was trying to come up with something in my head to make him stop,” she said.

Eventually she was able to leave, she said, after promising him she would come back the next day. She said Cormier agreed to wait until the next day to have intercourse.

She said she then left the apartment and ran to another friend’s apartment in the same complex. She said the friend put her clothes in a plastic bag, and another friend called the police while the first friend took the woman to the hospital for a sexual assault exam.

The woman said that after the incident, Cormier sent her a message on Snapchat that read “that was the best first hang out I ever had”; she said she sent a message back that read “nice.” She said he continued to send her messages but she didn’t reply to them and eventually blocked him.

Both of the friends who helped the woman that night testified on Tuesday; one recalled the woman showing up on his doorstep crying and “covered in blood.” Jurors also heard from the nurse who conducted the sexual assault exam, who said she found lacerations to the woman’s genitals, some of which were actively bleeding, and bruises on the woman’s neck that were consistent with choking.

Also on Tuesday, several Lawrence Police Department officers testified about their initial contact with Cormier, and one officer’s body-camera footage of Cormier from that night was played back.

In the video, Officer Dustin Lister and two other officers meet with Cormier in the hallway of the apartment building. Cormier can be seen opening the door to his apartment and coming out into the hallway while shouting at the police and telling them he doesn’t know what’s going on.

Cormier specifically tells the officers that he did not have sex with the woman, that he and the woman had made plans to go out again the next day, and that he didn’t think the woman was unhappy with anything that happened that night.

“I thought I had a nice hookup and I was getting ready for bed. I don’t know what’s happening,” Cormier says to the officers in the footage. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The exchange grows heated several times, with Cormier cursing and yelling at the officers and saying that the police should not have to read him his Miranda rights. Midway through the video, his voice cracks as if he were crying. And at one point on the footage, an officer notes that Cormier is acting aggressive and swinging his hands wildly, to which Cormier responds, “You should shoot me, then.”

After the video was played in court, Joseph asked Lister whether anyone had collected video footage from the apartment complex that might show the woman leaving Cormier’s apartment “covered in blood.” Lister said no such footage had been gathered.

Cormier’s trial is expected to last through Friday. He is currently free on a $75,000 bond.

Editor’s note: This story has been revised to correct Cormier’s age.