Women testify in preliminary hearing for Ewing

Four of the five women who claimed a Holton man raped or at­tempted to rape them gave testi­mony in Jackson County District Court on Thursday about the sexu­ally-related crimes that he allegedly committed against them.

During a preliminary hearing that day, Jacob C. Ewing, 21, was bound over for trial by District Court Judge Norbert E. Marek on four sets of criminal charges alleg­edly stemming from incidents that dated back to January of 2014.

Ewing will face his fifth accuser in a preliminary hearing set for Tuesday, Aug. 30. Arraignment on the first four cases — and possibly the fifth — has been scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 21.

More than 20 charges — mostly sex-related — were involved in the four cases heard in Thursday’s hearing, but Marek dismissed a single count of aggravated kidnap­ping based on the testimony of one of the women and bound Ewing over for trial on the remainder.

The first woman to testify against Ewing, who alleged that the incidents involving her occurred in September of 2014 when she lived in Valley Falls, said her first im­pression of Ewing was that he was “a really good guy and genuine.” The two of them began dating over the objections of one of her friends — the third woman to testify against Ewing on Thursday — who already had a negative experience with Ewing.

“She told me it was not a good idea to see him,” the first woman said. “I just shot her down.”

Later that month, however, she was drinking with Ewing and oth­ers at his house when “everything got really fuzzy” and she passed out after she consumed a shot of hard liquor, she said. She alleged that Ewing raped her while she was “blacked out” but also that Ewing allegedly maintained that he did nothing of the sort.

“I remember thinking, yes, it did happen, and he’s lying to me,” she said. “It made me mad.”

Ewing was charged with rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and battery — the last of which was amended by Marek on Thursday into another count of aggravated criminal sodomy — in connection with the alleged incident involving the first woman. He was arrested June 10 on the charges but would later be released on bond.

The second woman to testify said she had known Ewing for “three or four years” prior to an al­leged incident that occurred on May 5 of this year — an incident that, it was reported, resulted in the first of the five cases to be filed against Ewing. At that time, Ewing invited the woman, a Topeka resi­dent, to hang out with him and a few friends at his house in Holton, she said.

It was later in the evening when the second woman told Ewing that she wanted to talk to him about something when he allegedly began to remove her shirt and told her to comply with his wishes or leave. After “he let me talk for a little bit,” she said, she objected to his wish to take all of her clothes off, but the encounter still ended with Ewing allegedly raping and hitting her.

After the alleged incident, the second woman said, she went to a friend’s house in Holton, where she was encouraged to contact law en­forcement about what had allegedly happened between her and Ewing. She also said “I wanted to kill him” after the alleged incident was over but agreed to fill out a report about the alleged incident.

Ewing was arrested the day after the alleged incident involving the second woman occurred and charged with rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, attempted aggra­vated criminal sodomy and other charges related to drug and liquor use. He was released on bond.

The third woman to testify on Thursday said she lived in Holton in January of 2014, the time she said alleged incidents involving her and Ewing occurred. She said she and Ewing were, for about a month, “more than friends but (in) less than a relationship” that occasion­ally involved sex, but when she said she did not want to have that kind of interaction with him any­more, he became “forceful.”

Ewing “told me that I wanted it before,” she alleged, adding that “I didn’t want it anymore” and that she “told him to stop” on one occa­sion when he allegedly attempted to coerce her into sex. Eventually, she said, Ewing stopped trying to do so after she attempted to get the attention of Ewing’s roommate at the time.

She said she attempted to relay what allegedly happened between her and Ewing to a friend who was the first to testify during Thurs­day’s hearing, noting that “I warned her to stay away” from him and that “she needed to watch out.” She also noted in court that she did not take details of the incident to law enforcement until this past June.

Ewing was later charged with attempted rape, aggravated sexual battery and battery as a result of the alleged incident and arrested on June 17, but later released on bond.

In the case involving the fourth woman to testify that day, Ewing was charged with two counts of rape, aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated battery, ag­gravated sexual battery. two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy. Marek dropped the aggravated kid­napping charge following the fourth woman’s testimony.

According to the fourth woman, who said she babysat Ewing when he was a child and stayed in touch with him after he reached adulthood, Ewing invited her to come to a party at his house this past January. The woman drove from her home in Lee’s Summit, Mo., to “play cards” and have a few drinks, but after consuming a few drinks, she said she “started to feel weird.”

During that night, she alleged Ewing had rough sex with her, but later suggested that one of the rape charges was an exaggeration, say­ing she “didn’t say no” to his sex­ual advances although she “did not give consent” to Ewing. She also alleged that if she attempted to get Ewing to stop while in the middle of a sexual act, it “would only make him go harder.”

“She just decided to quit fight­ing,” Jackson County Sheriff’s Of­fice detective Phil McManigal said of the fourth woman, who report­edly took her story to law enforce­ment on June 21. McManigal also said in court that the woman had “some hesitation” in coming for­ward with her account of what al­legedly happened between her and Ewing because “she was afraid of him.”

The woman also said that while she had planned to stay at Ewing’s house for almost a week in January, she would leave two days after ar­riving because “I didn’t feel safe there.” However, Marek dismissed the kidnapping charge, telling her that she had opportunities to leave despite Ewing taking her car keys and not giving them back until re­turning home the night she left.

She also testified that she re­turned to Ewing’s house sometime in February on his invitation, and the two of them had drinks before allegedly retreating to Ewing’s bedroom for sex. However, because of the nature of the events of that evening, she said, she left the morning after and did not attempt to contact him again until sometime in May after Ewing had been arrested.

Ewing’s attorney, Kathleen Am­brosio of Topeka, suggested that all counts in the case related to the February encounter between Ewing and the fourth woman should be dismissed, since “the woman said it was consensual, and at 35, she should know.”

Concerning the fifth case against Ewing, in which he was arrested and placed in jail with bond set at $200,000 cash, Marek said the case was “not as complicated” as the matter involving the fourth woman and would be heard on Aug. 30. Ewing remains at the Jackson County Detention Center.