On Friday the 13th, prosecutors in D.C. filed four documents with the judge in Bill Rausch’s ongoing sexual assault case.
The first was a motion to exclude evidence of the victim’s sexual history. Why? Because they monitored closely the absurd actions of Rausch’s lawyer during the protection order hearing last year. Rausch’s strategy in that case was to “slut-shame” his former girlfriend. His lawyer – a woman, herself – asked the victim watch private sex videos she’d taped with Bill, in what appeared to be an attempt to intimidate her into dropping the case. Didn’t work. And in the end, the judge in that case found that Bill had likely committed the crime of stalking, ordering him to take 22 sessions of domestic violence counseling, and pay the victim $1,813 – money she spent on a new security system after he came to her apartment. They don’t want that ridiculousness to continue in this case.
The second motion asks the judge to allow them to use testimony from coworkers and friends of the victim. Immediately after the attempted rape, the victim told friends and coworkers about it. An investigation was conducted by Ray Group International. In fact, we now know that Bill lost his job because of this assault – they allowed him to resign before he could be fired.
Third, a motion to limit testimony involving this reporter. The defense wishes to suggest that Bill wouldn’t be in trouble at all if I hadn’t reported on his crimes, and that somehow I influenced the six separate women who have come forward claiming everything from sexual harassment to abuse. The prosecutors point out that the victim went to police the day after the assault, years before she met me. The prosecutors suggest that if my interactions with the victims becomes a focus of the defense, it would open the door to the Maura Murray case and prosecutors would be free to discuss Bill’s involvement in that case.
Finally, the prosecutors revealed their intention to bring up Bill’s other crimes at trial, specifically the time he pushed the victim down the escalator on the Metro. They state they have evidence that such a crime occurred and that it provides background that further explains his actions the night of the alleged sexual assault.
To summarize – the state is anxious to take on Bill at trial.
Despite years of constant attacks and smears against you and your tenacious investigative work, the facts and the truth will prevail. Thank you James for all your hard work, keeping your blog going and these updates. I think Maura was really suffering at UMASS. Too much stress for a young woman. Not enough emotional or financial support. Broken dreams and disapppointments. Living in a small college dorm room by herself, struggling to juggle part-time jobs and a long distance relationship with disappointing, controlling partner, ongoing family drama, struggling to maintain a grueling nursing school schedule (sleeping days and working nights) not having a decent car to drive, dealing with a constant lack of money and fear of losing her scholarship after the credit card fraud and car accidents. After Maura left WP, I wish she had been able to take a break from school and re-group.