A man accused of raping and assaulting a Roland woman who climbed a utility pole in 2016 -- resulting in a loss of power to 8,000 Little Rock residents and severe burns on about 30 percent of the woman's body -- is innocent, jurors decided Friday.
Before the verdict, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Erin Driver said Friday in a nearly empty courtroom that the jury's decision on whether to convict Courvoisiea Allen, 25, would come down to one thing: did the jurors believe the woman who said Allen raped, stabbed and threatened to kill her on Oct. 4, 2016.
Police officers found the woman at 4:13 a.m. that day in the parking lot of HomeGoods at the Promenade at Chenal shopping center in Little Rock. She had skin peeling off of her body, and electricity had been knocked out to more than 8,000 people about 45 minutes before.
The story she told police and investigators changed between the first night and the courtroom. At first she said the man who attacked her had a gun. Later she said he had a knife.
Defense attorney Willard Proctor said inconsistencies in the woman's account cast doubt on her allegations.
"A web of lies and inconsistency," Proctor said. "Her version is just not believable."
Driver, however, said a woman who received upward of 15,000 kilovolts pulsing through her body would be in an inordinate amount of pain and likely did make mistakes in her initial report.
The woman had second-degree burns on about 30 percent of her body, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Quiller said. Burns covered her chest, neck, arms, torso and genitals. She spent three weeks in the hospital and underwent multiple skin grafts.
During cross-examination Thursday, Proctor had the woman sign a slip of paper in front of the jury that said she had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, that she was not currently on medication for those conditions, and that she had in the past used illegal drugs. Proctor also told the jury that she had been homeless.
He then placed the slip of paper onto a projector, where it stayed for more than two hours of the woman's three-hour testimony.
"For at least two hours, she had those words staring her in the face," Driver said. "She was humiliated, but she got up there. Why would she lie? Why would she do this?"
Quiller also raised the issue of the woman's mental status and the role it played in the reported crime.
"Even if [she] is all of these things, it doesn't make her a liar," Quiller said. "The defense wants you to think she doesn't matter. That she's a throwaway."
In his closing statements, Proctor said he was not "picking on her because she was homeless."
"I'm not saying she'd unreliable because of her mental illness," he said. "I'm saying she's not credible because she's in denial of her mental illness."
Allen, who did not testify during the trial, faced a life sentence on charges of rape, kidnapping, second-degree battery, false imprisonment and terroristic threatening. He was cleared of all charges.
"The defense is trying to have it both ways," Driver said in the trial. "She is so crazy, yet intelligent enough to concoct this story. ... In order to find the defendant guilty, all you have to do is believe [the woman.]"
After the trial's conclusion, Allen hugged his mother, who had testified in defense about his character. Another man clapped him on the shoulder.
"They shouldn't have even brought this to trial," the man said.
Metro on 04/13/2019