Sarkis Meguerditchian's shoulders slumped ever so slightly in a 3rd District courtroom last week as he realized his life had been given back to him.
Meguerditchian was accused last November of aggravated attempted rape, a first-degree felony, for what police and the media then called a "gang rape."A 17-year-old girl told police Meguerditchian and another juvenile male attacked her at a party held at Meguerditchian's South Salt Lake home on Nov. 13.
But last week, Judge Leslie Lewis dismissed the charge after prosecutors said the state didn't at that time have enough evidence to present a case.
DNA tests showed the girl had recently had sex but not with Meguerditchian.
And though the girl identified Meguerditchian as her attacker in the preliminary hearing, she was not present at today's hearing. Prosecutors stated she now "would rather be arrested and thrown in jail" than participate in the case.
"It vindicates what he told me, which was he did not have any contact with her," Meguerditchian's attorney Ed Brass said following the hearing.
Though Meguerditchian said he is relieved that "justice was done," he and his family question why events unfolded as they did.
Meguerditchian said the girl called him the night of the party, asking to come over. The girls became drunk and disruptive, Meguerditchian said, and he asked them to leave.
"They kept drinking," he said. "They kept falling down, breaking glasses. One of them went and threw up in my closet. At that point, I'd had enough. I told them to leave and kicked them both out."
Meguerditchian doesn't deny something could have happened to the girl.
But he is adamant about his innocence.
Once notified, police were called in to investigate. After staking out the house during the early morning hours of Nov. 14, law enforcement teams forcibly entered the Meguerditchian home that afternoon.
Court documents state they discovered loaded guns and evidence of rape.
"They seized clothing, bedsheets and condoms at the scene," South Salt Lake police spokesman Darin Sweeten said. "Rape tests revealed there was sufficient evidence to support that sexual intercourse had occurred, and there was some trauma along with that. We had enough evidence to make an arrest, to satisfy our probable cause burden."
Meguerditchian, his parents, brothers, friend and the co-defendant were detained during a traffic stop soon thereafter, pulled from their car at gunpoint and handcuffed. One brother was 7 years old.
Meguerditchian was arrested shortly thereafter, and he spent 40 days in jail while awaiting trial.
"It was horrible," Meguerditchian said. "When I was in there, I didn't think I'd ever get out."
As her son waited in jail, Lucy Meguerditchian said she tried to talk to the police.
"We told them what happened," she said. "The South Salt Lake police said, 'No, we don't want to hear you.' We told them she (the girl) was lying. We had so many witnesses. But instead, they used a SWAT team. They broke our house. They pointed a gun at a 7-year-old boy. South Salt Lake did not want to hear the truth. They just wanted the big case."
Sweeten defends the actions of the officers performing the traffic stop, who he said were following procedures established for detaining suspects in high-risk situations. He also maintains the officers had enough evidence to arrest Meguerditchian.
"Typically, whenever you have a felony arrest or a high-risk traffic stop, everyone is taken into custody," Sweeten said. "It's unfortunate the child had to be involved in that, and I can understand how he could be frightened. But we all know that young and younger children are committing heinous crimes. It would be unsafe for us to ignore that."
Sweeten said the arrest was meticulously planned and executed to ensure everyone's safety.
"I'm sure some of the stuff going on could be perceived as being intimidating and threatening," he said. "But some of that is by design, so people know who is in charge and so we can get everyone through the situation safely."
Meguerditchian said he doesn't know why the girl accused him.
"The DNA test came back, and I guess somebody did do something," Meguerditchian said. "I don't know who. I just know it had nothing to do with me."
Today, he said he is just trying to put the experience behind him.
"I'm angry, but what can I do? I've got to get on with the rest of my life. I feel justice was served."
Judge Lewis' dismissal allows the state the power to charge Meguerditchian again, if evidence surfaces implicating him.
E-mail: jnii@desnews.com