Jury mulls accusation that Windsor Locks man raped East Hartford woman
Mar. 20—RAPE TRIAL
DEFENDANT: Larry Percy Jr., 38, who has listed an address on Chapman Chase in Windsor Locks
CHARGES: Two counts of first-degree sexual assault, one count of fourth-degree sexual assault
STATUS: Free on $200,000 bond; jury deliberating
A jury began deliberating Monday on the case against a Windsor Locks man who is accused of raping a relative after she let him spend the night at her East Hartford home.
Final arguments Monday in the case against Larry Percy Jr., 38, who has listed an address on Chapman Chase, made clear that the central issue will be the woman's credibility.
Percy didn't testify during the Hartford Superior Court trial, which included less than two days of testimony last week.
Percy is facing two counts of first-degree sexual assault, reflecting different acts the woman says he performed on her, and a single count of fourth-degree sexual assault, involving a claim of lesser sexual contact.
She alleged that all the sexual activity occurred without her consent, as he held her down in bed on July 17, 2017.
The family relationship between Percy and the woman isn't close enough to run afoul of Connecticut's incest laws.
The woman told a male friend and her therapist that she had been sexually assaulted, but she waited more than 13 months to report the incident to police.
Meanwhile, the woman met with Percy, his father, and two others in June 2018 to discuss the issue.
In arguing that the woman was credible, prosecutor Anthony Bochicchio told the jury that one issue is how well she could recall the events.
He said she gave police a 19-page statement describing what had happened — and that her trial testimony, more than 5 1/2 years after the incident, was consistent with the statement.
But defense lawyer Wesley S. Spears argued that she could have read over the statement repeatedly before testifying.
The prosecutor also argued that the woman has no financial interest in the outcome of the case.
What she wanted, he said, was an apology.
Bochicchio acknowledged that the woman showed bad judgment in several things she did, including letting Percy share her bed, not reporting the incident to police right away, twice going out on Percy's boat with him and others in the days after the incident, and texting him.
Still, the prosecutor argued that her accounts of events before and after the incident were corroborated by others, including defense witnesses.
"With an incident like this, what more could she be corroborated on?" he asked rhetorically.
But the defense lawyer stressed that even the male friend the woman brought with her to the meeting didn't corroborate some of what she quoted Percy as saying there, including references to using the opioid drug OxyContin, being suicidal, and having an out-of-body experience.
Spears argued that there were seven areas of reasonable doubt in the case, starting with the woman's mental health, which he said included post-traumatic stress disorder, fatigue, anxiety, depression, relationship problems with her 7-year-old son, and a recent "bad breakup with a married man," who had five children.
The married man is Percy's friend, Spears added.
Other factors the defense lawyer cited included the woman's failure to seek medical treatment and a written message two weeks after the incident in which she told Percy her cellphone was lost and let him know how to stay in touch.
"No one is going to stay in contact with the person who raped them," Spears said.
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