By Patrick McNamara
The credibility of the victim
was the focus of much of the closing arguments on Thursday in the trial of a
former Tucson police officer accused of raping a woman while on duty.
Benjamin Gaballa is accused of
two counts of sexual abuse and two counts of sexual assault in an August 2013
incident. He’s on trial in Pima County Superior Court before Judge Brenden
Griffin.
“She was in a position where
she felt like she had no other option,” Deputy Pima County Attorney Frances
Kreamer Hope said of the woman who accused Gaballa, 23, of raping her in a
midtown parking garage where he had stopped on the way to jail after he had
arrested the woman.
Prosecutors Kreamer Hope and
Kellie Johnson portrayed the woman, whom the Arizona Daily Star has not
identified, as the victim of Gaballa’s unwanted advances and coercion.
“ ‘Something for something,’
those were not (the victim’s) words,” Kreamer Hope said, referencing testimony
in which the victim described how Gaballa said he could help her out.
The incident at the center of
the trial occurred when the defendant and another officer were called to an
apartment near North First Avenue and Prince Road in reference to a domestic
disturbance.
There they found the victim’s
then-boyfriend had called police to report her violations of a protection
order.
The victim, an immigrant to
this country and non-native English speaker, testified she did not read or
understand the meaning of the order. She also testified she had been living
with the man at the time and the two had sex shortly before police arrived.
Police arrested her, and
Gaballa placed her into custody and set out to take her to the Pima County
jail. The woman testified Gaballa suggested he could intervene in her case if
she agreed to have sex with him.
Testimony from the victim and
GPS data collected from Gaballa’s squad car showed that instead of driving to
jail, he drove to a parking garage near East Grant Road and North Campbell
Avenue.
There, the woman testified,
Gaballa let her out of the car, removed her handcuffs and began fondling her
breasts. She said he used a condom when her raped her standing at the passenger
side of the car.
After the alleged assault, the
woman attempted to flee, forcing Gaballa to chase her into Campbell Avenue.
Defense attorney Michael Storie
said the woman’s lengthy criminal history and record of lying to police put her
account of the incident into question. He counted at least nine times the woman
has been arrested and her repeated violations of protective orders.
“She doesn’t respect our laws,”
Storie said.
He also questioned the
seemingly contradictory statements she made to police .
He also said Gaballa ended up
at the parking garage because he made a wrong turn. Storie also said the woman
had slipped out of the handcuffs and attempted to escape, which was the reason
Gaballa had to stop before reaching the jail.
The prosecution said a police
investigation determined Gaballa fabricated the story about an attempted
escape.
Storie also said DNA evidence
did not prove his client raped the woman.
He didn’t discount, however,
that the two had sex. But he said if they had, it was part of an agreement.
“If you believe there was sex,
it was absolutely consensual,” Storie said.
Kreamer Hope said the fact that
Gaballa had arrested the woman and was taking her to jail was evidence that the
sex was non-consensual. She also said the woman’s criminal past did not change
the fact that Gaballa sexually assaulted her.
The jury began deliberation
Thursday afternoon.