GREENFIELD — She’d gotten a few friends together for dinner and drinks. It was her birthday. They were celebrating.
She had a margarita at a Mexican restaurant. Someone bought her a shot of tequila. Then they headed to a bar, where she had a few beers and a few more shots.
From there her memories become fuzzy, she said. Like a jigsaw puzzle with some pieces missing.
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She was too drunk to drive, she knows that; she was intoxicated enough that she threw up twice, once in the bar and once in the backseat of her friend’s car. She’s sure she passed out at some point.
She didn’t invite Mark Warren inside. He says he carried her up to her bedroom, but she doesn’t remember that either. All she knows for sure is that she woke up to a taste of cigarettes in her mouth, and she had to push him off of her.
Warren, 41, 6245 N. County Road 250E, Greenfield, is standing trial in Hancock Circuit Court this week. He faces a single charge of rape as a Level 3 felony, records show.
On the first day of the proceedings Tuesday, the victim took the stand to detail for a jury of 12 Hancock County residents what she recalls of the alleged incident.
Prosecutors say she was too intoxicated to consent to any sexual behavior; but Warren, who denies the allegations, says the woman made the report to police only because she was embarrassed by what happened.
Warren is in an employee of the City of Greenfield; and because of the case’s connection to local government, Hancock County prosecutors asked that a special prosecutor be appointed to oversee the case.
Mary Hutchison, a deputy prosecutor from Madison County, was appointed to represent the state’s evidence this week.
Warren’s attorney, Bryan Williams, also hails from Madison County. The Anderson-based litigator is being assisted in the proceedings by a private investigator, who was hired at the county’s expense.
The incident dates back to January 2017.
The woman said she knew Warren mainly through his work with the city’s vehicle maintenance garage. But they also have a few mutual friends, she said.
Warren was not among the people she’d invited out to celebrate her birthday, she told the jury. But he was at the bar she and friends visited after their dinner; he was there already when they arrived.
The woman said Warren walked right up to her and asked what she was drinking. She didn’t answer, she testified; she headed for the bathroom instead, without speaking to him.
But Warren bought her a drink anyway, perhaps more than one, she said. Many people bought her drinks that night, she said.
The next thing she remembers is seeing him sitting in the front-passenger seat of her friend’s car as she was being driven home.
And then he was in her living room. She thought maybe he was just checking to make sure she’d gotten inside OK.
And then, in a brief moment of consciousness, she realized Warren was assaulting her, she told the jury. She had to force him off of her, she said, and then passed out again almost immediately.
A friend of the victim’s, who also testified Tuesday, recalled having a conversation with Warren in the driveway of the victim’s home. She, too, was too drunk to drive and was trying to decide if she needed to stay at the victim’s home to help take care of her, she told the jury.
But Warren talked her out of it, she said.
“He told me I didn’t need to stay,” she told the jury.
After offering details about the assault, the victim testified about her actions the following morning.
She’d asked Warren to leave; but he didn’t have a car at her home and couldn’t find a ride. So, she drove him to his house and dropped him off.
Later, she drove herself to the sexual assault treatment center in Madison County, where she was examined by a nurse who is specially trained to collect rape kits.
That nurse testified Tuesday that the woman had no physical injuries, which is common among victims of sexual assault.
Warren’s attorney criticized the victim’s spotty memories, telling the jury in his opening statement that they’d need to think carefully before deciding who to believe.
Friends saw the woman go into her home with Warren on her birthday, Williams said. One friend even teased her about it via text the next morning.
But Hutchison said Warren knew the woman was too drunk to consent to sex. He took advantage of her, and then bragged to friends the next day, she said.
In her opening statement, Hutchison told the jury about her plans to present a series of text messages obtained from Warren’s cellphone by investigators.
In one note to a friend, the defendant states his plans to have sex with the woman — he identified her by name, according to court documents — that night. In messages to another friend the next day, Warren stated he and the victim had engaged in sex acts, Hutchinson said.
Warren faces a single Level 3 felony count of rape, which carries a maximum penalty of 16 years in prison. The trial continues today at 8 a.m. in Hancock Circuit Court.