A top defence lawyer on Thursday called for anonymity in sexual assault cases to be extended to defendants as well as alleged victims after a jury cleared her prison officer client in less than three minutes.
Amelia Fosuhene said, although Khalil Mejia, 29, had been found innocent of any crime, a shadow would hang over him in the minds of many and that it was unfair that alleged victims could not be named, but defendants could.
“It should be the case in trials like this that nobody is identified until a verdict is reached, and then only in the event of a conviction,” Fosuhene said.
“This young man has the stigma of having been accused of this offence and she, who cannot be named because of reporting restrictions, does not.
“Clearly the jury could not have believed her because the verdict was so quick. I’m quite upset for him because he is a young man of impeccable character.”
Mejia was acquitted by the jury of five men and three women after a three-day Grand Court trial.
He was charged with two counts of sexual assault on a woman in her 20s at Rum Point beach on 30 July last year.
The court heard the two had known each other since about 2017 and that they had spent time together, including a trip on Mejia’s jet ski at the popular beach before the alleged sexual assaults happened.
Fosuhene said the accusation and the long wait between the alleged offences and his eventual acquittal had taken a terrible toll on Mejia and his family.
“Lives are ruined; reputations are tarnished when people see your name linked with certain allegations in the media,” she said.
“People don’t know if they’re true or not – they’re not in court to hear the evidence. The only hope we have is that every time the media prints someone’s picture or someone’s name, once there is a result, they print that too.
“His family were in tears outside because they knew the hell he had been through and I’m glad I could help. He did not deserve this.”
The court earlier heard a total of 17 character references for Mejia, including from superior officers and colleagues in the prison service, as well as from people from “every walk of life”.
A prison service supervisor, Steve Miller, wrote that Mejia showed “empathy and integrity” in his work with inmates and colleagues.
He added Mejia was “always willing to lend a helping hand and help those in need”, had “an unwavering commitment to serving others”, and was of “outstanding character, integrity and moral standing”.
A prison custodial manager said Mejia treated people from all walks of life with “dignity and integrity”.
She added that the offences he had been charged with were not “characteristic of his true character”.
Ben Brown, for the Crown, said in his summing up that the woman had made allegations to police the day after the attack and had stuck to her version of events.
He asked the jury if it was reasonable to suppose the woman “just decided to go to Bodden Town police station and make an allegation”.
Brown said that would mean she had maintained a lie for a year and came to court, where she was “very visibly distressed” as she gave evidence.
He added, “That just doesn’t make sense.”
He added she had also removed Mejia from her account on the social media app Snapchat after the alleged incident, although there had been no argument or falling out between the two.
Brown said, “She told the truth to the police, she told the truth to you at this trial. If you’re sure she was telling the truth, the correct verdict is one of guilty.”
But Fosuhene told the jury, “He is decent, honourable, he is kind. That’s not the kind of person who just suddenly launches himself at a woman and indecently assaults her.”
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