She said it was rape and the three accused men said it was consensual...in the end a jury believed the 17 year old student. Or at least the seven out of the nine jurors who voted this evening to convict Roman Petzold and Francis "Pancho" Lopez of rape. They were charged for an incident that occurred at a house in Belama on April 13th of 2005. The 17 year old victim – a high school student at the time – told police that her boyfriend Kenroy Cain picked her up and took her to a home in Belama where they had sexual relations.
After they were done, she says "Pancho" Lopez entered the room and propositioned her for sex. She refused and she said he attacked and then raped her. Thereafter she said that Albert Forman entered and he too wanted to have sex and she again said no. He offered to give her back her uniform in return for sex. But after, he refused to return it. That is when the third defendant Roman Petzold entered the room and he too raped her.
During the trial both Petzold and Forman testified that they had intercourse with her but that it was consensual. Lopez only gave a statement from the dock admitting too that he had sexual relations but that it was consensual.
The jury deliberated for five hours before returning the guilty verdicts by a 7 to 2 majority of guilty for Ptzold and Lopez. There was no verdict for Forman and they were sent back into the jury room for further deliberations. Late word from the Supreme Court is that they were unable to reach a verdict and so Forman will have to be retried.
