A 3rd District jury has found a Layton man not guilty of raping a woman who said she was incapacitated after consuming a "date rape" drug two years ago.
The four-man, four-woman jury deliberated about four hours before acquitting David Memmott, 43, of rape, a first-degree felony, at the conclusion of a three-day trial Friday.It was the first rape trial in Utah that involved the use of GHB, a drug that can cause amnesia, make a person less inhibited and increase sexual desires, according to the federal Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA took GHB, short for gamma hydroxy butyrate, off the market in 1991, but it can still be mail-ordered legally from other countries.
The drug, which once was sold in health food stores and marketed as a steroid alternative for body building, a sleep aid and a relaxant, can cause high muscle relaxation and drowsiness when taken in larger doses, according to court testimony.
During the trial, the woman, who is now 24, testified that she met Memmott in November 1997 through her former boyfriend, who has since passed away.
Memmott testified that on March 8, 1997, he stopped at the boyfriend's house in Sandy for a brief visit about 11 p.m. Upon arrival, the boyfriend handed him a glass with a cloudy liquid, which he believed to contain GHB, and he drank it.
The woman said her boyfriend also handed her some cloudy liquid to help her relax. Before taking the drug, she asked a lot of questions because she is "allergic to everything."
The boyfriend said, "Would I give you something to hurt you?" and the woman said she drank the cloudy liquid.
A few minutes later, she agreed to let Memmott give her a neck and head massage, but soon she began to feel "extremely sedated" and "nauseous." She vomited in the bathroom and returned to the living room, where she said she collapsed.
"My insides were asleep," she said.
What happened next depends on who tells the story.
The woman said Memmott continued rubbing her head and began to tell her to disrobe. Memmott said she responded to his contact and assisted him in taking off her clothes.
The woman said that in an attempt to stop him, she went to look for her boyfriend and found him asleep. Unable to wake him, she lay next to her boyfriend, but Memmott picked her up and took her back to the living room, she said.
Memmott testified he asked her if she wanted to go back to the living room, and the two walked back together.
"At this point I was crying," the woman said. She said Memmott sexually assaulted her while she repeatedly said no.
"I told him, 'Don't do this. How can you do this . . . You're (my boyfriend's) friend,' " she said.
Memmott maintained the sexual encounter had been "very interactive and very participatory."
"She never said no," he testified.
Eventually, the woman said she passed out. She woke up in the middle of the night lying in the living room naked and freezing cold and went to sleep in the bed with her boyfriend.
The next morning she told her boyfriend about what had happened and contacted police.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Vernice Ah-Ching pointed to several inconsistencies in the woman's testimony and argued that the claim of rape was based on "buyer's remorse."
"What happened is that she and David had intercourse and afterwards, for some reason, (she) decided this was a mistake," Ah-Ching said.
Prosecutor James Cope said he felt "extremely disheartened" by the verdict but glad that the case was finally brought before a jury after two years.
"The jury has spoken and that's the way we do justice in this country," he said.