Incoming freshman charged with second degree rape

in connection with Aug. 19 incident in Pearce Hall

By Jane Martin

Former EWU football player Dalis Bruce pleaded not guilty of rape in the second degree at his arraignment hearing on Sept. 10, at the Spokane County Superior Court.  Bruce was arrested on Aug.19, just three days after arriving in Cheney, according to court records.

Second degree rape includes a situation when a person engages in sexual intercourse with another person while the victim is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless or mentally incapacitated.

The alleged assault occurred sometime after 1 a.m. on Aug. 19, according to court records,  after a member of the EWU volleyball team had been drinking with her roommate and two members of the EWU football team for several hours in her room in Pearce Hall.

Records state that the woman and her roommate had been picked up by two members of the EWU football team from “an unknown volleyball house” around 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 18 and returned to the girls’ room, where the four students played games and drank a fifth of vodka mixed with Gatorade.

One of football players admitted to furnishing the vodka, which the four of them drank together, according to court records. The report states that he believed that the woman “was already under the influence of alcohol when he picked her up earlier and prior to her consuming the vodka he brought to her room.”

According to the reports, between 10 p.m. and 12:26 a.m, the group went to the room of one of the football players in Pearce Hall to play Apples to Apples, but the woman was too intoxicated to play and was escorted back to her room where she began vomiting and collapsed on the floor.

One football player called the poison control hotline at around 12:26 a.m. because he thought the victim was suffering from alcohol poisoning while another tried to clean up the vomit, according to court records.

The woman’s roommate and friends went out and left the victim on her bed.  At approximately 1 a.m., another member of the volleyball team noticed that the woman’s door was wide open and saw that she was sleeping with no one else in the room, according to the affidavit of facts.

The teammate found the woman’s roommate and went back to check on the woman, who was unresponsive when they tried to wake her.

The teammate told the roommate that she would be back to check on the victim after taking a shower. When she returned, the report states that she noticed that the door was only open about two feet. The records state that she looked through the doorway and saw “only the lower half of two bodies on [the woman’s] bed.” The man, who was on top, was only wearing shorts at the time.

Court records state that the teammate testified to proceeding to another room “only to remember that [the woman] should be passed out, returned and found that the door was now shut and locked.”

The teammate then found the woman’s roommate and a couple of others to return with her to the woman’s room, according to the report.

The report states that the roommate unlocked the door “and upon opening it observed the defendant Bruce naked and on top of [the woman] who was also naked from the waist down.. it appeared that the defendant Bruce was having sexual intercourse with [the woman] who was still unconscious.”

They told Bruce to get out of the room and tried to wake the victim after he left, according to the court records.

One football player said in his testimony that the victim was still unconscious and only responded after they called out her name.

The teammate then called a friend for help and assisted the victim in taking a shower after she regained consciousness, according to the statement of facts. The teammate called home and her mother reported the incident to campus police.

EWU Police responded to the call and found the woman still unresponsive. When she regained consciousness, she agreed to let officers search the room and consented to a voluntary blood-alcohol level test, according to the statement of facts.

Police contacted Bruce at his room in Pearce Hall and transported him to the EWU Police Department for an interview. Bruce first denied having intercourse with the woman, but later admitted to some sexual contact, according to court records.

Following the interview Bruce was placed under arrest for rape in the second degree.

A secondary charge of residential burglary was added later for unlawfully entering the room of the victim.

Bruce was dismissed from the football team on Aug. 21, according to an EWU press release.

His pretrial conference is set for Nov. 11 at 9:30 a.m. The trial is scheduled for Nov. 26 at 9:30 a.m.