The trial in Case No. 3AN-09-07868CR, State of Alaska v. Rollins, is being heard before Anchorage Superior Court Judge Philip R. Volland in the Nesbett Courthouse at 4th & I in Anchorage.
Wednesday, February 9 at the trial of Anthony Rollins: before a packed courtroom, the ex-Anchorage Police Department officer accused of serial rape while on-duty took the stand in his own defense.
Cross-examination by the prosecution is expected to resume on Thursday morning. Yesterday I created a Twitter list of people who are in the courtroom livetweeting the trial: go to http://twitter.com/#!/list/yksin/rollins to follow. So far, the list includes @GraceJangKTVA & @photogfank of KTVA Channel 11 News and @CarolynHallKTUU & @RebeccaPalsha of KTUU Channel 2 News.
Also Wednesday, my blog post of February 2, “Why I’m following the trial of alleged serial rapist Anthony Rollins”was crossposted as a “Voices from the Flats” feature at The Mudflats. The Mudflats gets a good deal more traffic & discussion than Henkimaa does, and there was some good discussion there yesterday. I made some comments there too, including my summary of Rollins’ defense strategy:
Rollins’ defense goes like this: “I had sexual relations with other women outside my marriage, which was wrong, & I did so while on duty, which was wrong, but I didn’t sexually assault any of the women: they came on to me, at least two of them told me I was ‘cute’ [he testified that this morning about victims 1 & 2], & sex that we had was consensual. So while guilty of betraying my marital vows and of doing so while on the clock, I am not guilty of these crimes I’m charged with.”
Per the tweets from KTVA & KTUU journos in the courtroom, Rollins’ victims & their family members hearing his testimony are very agitated about his testimony — shaking heads, rolling eyes, tears, anger, upset. APD officers in courtroom near one journo also agitated. Analysis: they believe he’s lying. Well, so do I.
My later summary as the trial recessed:
Trial recessed just before 1:00 PM Alaska time & will continue tomorrow. The D.A. questioned Rollins about three so far of his accusers. I tell you that it’s pretty hard just to read the tweets; I can’t imagine how much harder it must have been for victims & their family members to sit in court & listen to Rollins claim that he took a 24-year-old DUI suspect in pajamas in handcuffs to a police substation, calling her mother to let her know where he was, & then proceeding to have sex with her from behind — where he was the one to pull down her pants — was “consensual” & was “invited” by her.
That’s the kind of stuff people have been hearing him say today.
D.A. also questioned him about how many women he’s had sex with outside marriage since he married his wife (also an APD officer) in 1987. “I don’t know. More than once.” He apparently regards his contacts with these young women who were under his police authority as being “affairs.”
One’s gorge rises.
For the full comments, go to The Mudflats. Further down this post, links to media coverage of today’s proceeding. But first,
My tweets
- RT: @adndotcom: Ex-officer Rollins expected to testify in own defense today in sex assault trial. http://bit.ly/fCmDym #
- Featured today on The Mudflats: my 2/2 post on why I’m following trial of alleged serial rapist Anthony Rollins http://bit.ly/exEPff #fb #
- In court: @GraceJangKTVA & @photogfank again livetweeting. Rollins to take stand; courtroom packed incl. Rollins’ wife & APD cops. #fb #
- Also livetweeting Rollins trial: @CarolynHallKTUU & @RebeccaPalsha. #fb #
- Anthony Rollins trial: follow http://twitter.com/#!/list/yksin/rollins to see KTVA & KTUU livetweets. #fb #
- Rollins claims: all 4 victims he testified about so far flirted w/ him, 2 said he was “cute”. Serial rapist/serial liar both. #fb #
- Anthony Rollins trial: State now cross-examining Rollins. See http://twitter.com/#!/list/yksin/rollins to follow tweets of KTVA/KTUU. #fb #
- RT: @NathanFillion: Orbis book & Spidey are dead on, but what’s Amazon trying to say with this other “suggestion”? http://yfrog.com/h46wysmj #
- Rollins: RT: @GraceJangKTVA: Trial in recess until tomorrow. Attys expected to finish evidence tomorrow. Closing statements Fri or Mon #fb #
- RT: @GraceJangKTVA: Side note: Do not ever get on Chief Asst. District Attorney Sharon Marshall’s bad side #fb #
- @celticdiva Thanks! in reply to celticdiva #
Media accounts of today’s testimony
- 9 Feb 2011. “Former APD Officer Accused of Sexual Assaults Testifies” by Rebecca Palsha (KTUU Channel 2 News).
- 9 Feb 2011. “Ex-officer Rollins testifies sex acts were consensual — ON THE STAND: Former cop admits to some encounters, denies others” by Casey Grove (Anchorage Daily News).
- 9 Feb 2011.“Was it Rape or Consensual? Anthony Rollins Takes the Stand” by Grace Jang (KTVA Channel 11 News). (Video below.)
