WOODLAND — The second trial of a former UC Davis student accused of raping a fellow student got underway this week in Yolo Superior Court.
Lang Her’s first trial in May 2015 resulted in a hung jury, the panel voting 8-4 in favor of acquittal on allegations that he raped a drugged and unconscious victim, identified in court by the initials “Y.X.,” at his Davis apartment in July 2012.
Her, 26, maintains the encounter was consensual.
“The defendant may not seem like a rapist. He may not look like a rapist,” Yolo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven told Her’s second jury of eight men and four women during opening statements Wednesday. “But on July 10, 2012, he was a rapist.”
That night, a group of students had gathered at Her’s apartment for a party. A drinking game ensued, and 19-year-old Y.X. “got very, very drunk,” Raven said. She began vomiting and passed out in a bedroom after Her and another friend carried her upstairs.
At about 3 a.m., Y.X. awoke to “a horrible pain,” and realized someone was sexually assaulting her, Raven said. The assailant later checked his cell phone, and the light from the device revealed it was Her.
A distraught Y.X. confided in her classmates at UCD about the incident later that morning, and she filed a police report two days later. She was expected to testify in the case today (Thursday).
An examination of Y.X. later revealed sperm DNA that matched Her’s profile. The defendant, who has pleaded not guilty, contends that Y.X. agreed to the encounter.
“What happened that night was absolutely consensual,” defense attorney Chris Carlos said in his opening remarks to the jury, noting that his client plans to testify in his own defense.
Carlos noted that Y.X. announced the alleged rape as part of a performance class she was attending that summer at UCD, and that it marked “the beginning of a freight train that was headed right at Lang Her.”
The defense attorney said he plans to call to the stand numerous character witnesses, as well as an expert who will testify that 98 percent of sex offenders display certain personality traits.
“Lang Her has none of those traits. He’s absolutely a normal person,” Carlos said. “Y.X. is not telling the truth. That’s what I expect the evidence to show.”
The trial, expected to last about two weeks, is being held in Judge Paul Richardson’s courtroom.
Her, a onetime landscape architect major at UCD, has since left the school after reportedly violating a no-contact order with Y.X.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene