Patrick L. Thompson, who is charged with 13 different crimes including several rape charges involving a 15-year-old girl. The trial started Monday. June 12, 2023.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — Dressed in a dark suit with a blue shirt and tie, Patrick L. Thompson paced back and forth behind the defense desk inside Hancock County Circuit Court Monday afternoon. Thompson was waiting for a jury of five men and seven women to arrive in the courtroom and take their seats in the jury box to hear the start of his rape and sexual misconduct trial.
Thompson, 41, 8900 block of Rawles Avenue, Indianapolis, is the former New Palestine man who lived in the county when officials allege that he raped and committed sexual misconduct crimes against an underage girl in January 2021.
Thompson faces 13 charges, including five Level 3 felony counts of rape and five Level 4 felony counts of sexual misconduct with a minor as well as three misdemeanor charges of furnishing alcohol to a minor and battery resulting in bodily injury. According to a probable cause affidavit, on Jan. 2, 2021, officers from the New Palestine Police Department were asked to investigate a report of sexual assault that had occurred the night before at a home on West Stonehaven Lane in New Palestine.
The state’s case is being presented by Hancock County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Aimee Herring while Thompson is being defended by Indianapolis attorney John Razumich. The case was assigned to Hancock County Superior Court 1, but the first day of the trial was heard in Circuit Court by senior judge Daniel L. Pflum.
After hearing the instructions for the trial from Pflum, Herring presented her opening argument to the jury. She stated that the incident happened on New Year’s Day, 2021, when the victim, a 15-year-old girl at the time, went with her best friend, who was 17 at the time, to Thompson’s home to have a few drinks.
Thompson, Herring noted, gave both the minors alcohol and then told the jury that one drink, which Herring stated the mother told the victim she could have, turned into numerous drinks. Herring said the victim’s best friend told officials that he initially saw his father slap then choke the victim, but didn’t know what to do so he went to his bedroom.
“They’re children,” Herring said of the intoxicated minors.
Herring noted the best friend then saw his father take the victim into his father’s bedroom. That is where Herring told the jury Thompson raped the girl and committed sexual misconduct.
“He knows his friend is in there with his dad and he knew it was not right,” Herring said.
Herring noted the best friend began knocking on his dad’s bedroom door and the victim eventually opened it, but was half-dressed. The best friend then took the victim to his room, dressed her and the two jumped out a first floor window to avoid seeing Thompson again, Herring told the jury. The two then called a grandmother who called police, Herring said.
According to the probable cause affidavit surrounding the case, during questioning, Thompson admitted supplying the two minors with alcohol but told investigators he could not remember anything else that might have happened because he was intoxicated, the affidavit said.
During his opening argument, Razumich told the jury that his client, Thompson, was “absolutely hammered,” that night, but that Thompson was told the victim was of legal age (16) and that he and the girl had consensual sex. Razumich noted Thompson did give both the underage teenagers alcohol, but believes the evidence will show the girl wanted to have sex with Thompson.
“She lied to cover-up what she had done,” Razumich said to the jury. “She was a willing and active participant … If she agreed, that’s not rape.”
The first witness in the case was a police officer, Tyler Batton from the New Palestine Police Department, who told the jury it was clear when he interviewed the victim she had been crying and that she was afraid of getting in trouble because she was intoxicated. Batton noted he contacted the Department of Child Services right away due to the girl’s age.
The victim’s mother also took the stand during the opening day of the trial and told the jury her daughter’s best friend was the defendant’s son and that she gave her daughter permission to go to her best friends father’s house because she thought it would be OK.
The woman also noted she keeps a close eye on her children, but did agree to let her daughter have one drink to celebrate the New Year.
During the second day of testimony Tuesday in Superior Court 1, the victim told the jury she and her best friend, Thompson’s son, didn’t know how to get out of the situation they were in after her best friend’s dad started making advances toward her and hit her when the best friend was not in the room.
She described how her best friend’s dad, Thompson, who has admitted to a sexual encounter, sexually abused her on the sofa when her best friend was in his bedroom and then how the man took her into his bedroom and sexually abused and assaulted her again.
“He told me ‘come to my room,’ and I told him I didn’t want to,” she said. “I was hurt and I was scared… But, he dragged me to his room.”
The victim noted she was crying and was terrified because she didn’t know what was going to happen next. When Herring asked her to identify the man, the victim said she didn’t know what he looked like. Thompson was sitting at the defense table. The victim’s best friend however noted when he testified, the incident happened to the victim who was visiting his house for the first time with his father being there and that the three of them were the only ones present.
The trial is expected to take several days and wrap up later this week.
