WOODLAND — Trial proceedings began this week for a former UC Davis graduate student accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a house in Davis last year.
Ephrem Rukundo is charged with felony counts of oral copulation and sexual penetration of an unconscious person, as well as misdemeanor sexual battery, in connection with the April 26, 2015, incident in which he allegedly had sexual contact with the woman without her consent as she slept on a couch.
“She’s jolted awake when she feels a penetration in her vagina,” Deputy District Attorney Deanna Hays told the nine-woman, three-man jury chosen to hear the Yolo Superior Court case. A subsequent medical exam yielded DNA that showed “there’s no question Mr. Rukundo is the person she woke up to having sex with her.”
Rukundo, 36, has pleaded not guilty to the allegations. His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Dean Johansson, spent much of his opening statement describing the cultural differences between his client’s native Rwanda and the United States, where Rukundo arrived in 2010 to pursue his Ph.D. in international agricultural development.
“This case really is about implied consent and perceived consent,” Johansson said, urging the jurors to maintain open minds as they hear the evidence presented during the two-week trial. “It’s a case, ultimately, of he said-she said, with no witnesses to what actually happened that night.”
The alleged victim, now 22, was the first witness to take the stand earlier this week, recalling how she had come to Davis to visit her sister and attend a birthday party for a mutual friend.
She acknowledged drinking alcohol prior to and at the gathering but said she felt no more than “tipsy” during the evening, during which she developed a romantic interest in another female guest. She said she expected to leave the party with the other woman, but was left behind instead.
“I was upset. I cried,” said the woman, whose name is being withheld by The Enterprise because she is an alleged sexual assault victim.
Rukundo, who was dating a housemate of the party’s host, was among those who comforted the woman. She recalled falling asleep on the living room couch at about 1 a.m. as others went to their respective bedrooms. She said she awoke at about 4 a.m. to the feeling of being orally copulated, followed by penetration.
“I woke up — it was jarring,” said the woman, who recognized her alleged assailant as the housemate’s boyfriend, whom she had just met the night before. She said she cursed him and demanded his name, but he got dressed and left the house without answering her.
The woman testified that she immediately called her sister, and together they went to the Davis police station to file a report. They determined the alleged assailant’s identity via Facebook, and police arrested him about two weeks later.
Under cross-examination by Johansson, the woman said Rukundo did not attempt to restrain or injure her, nor did he force himself upon her when she confronted him. She also admitted feeling some “enjoyment” when the alleged act first began, thinking at that point that it was part of a dream.
However, “I never consented to any sexual activity with him, and I know that,” the woman said when Hays questioned her a second time. “You can’t f— girls when they’re sleeping.”
Testimony in the case resumes Tuesday in Yolo Superior Court Judge David Rosenberg’s courtroom.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene