Judge rules man accused of BYU gropings to stand trial

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PROVO — A judge on Thursday ordered a man to stand trial on charges of groping two women while jogging on the BYU campus.

Nathan Eric Fletcher, 23, is charged in 4th District Court with two counts of sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor. Sixteen women claim they were groped by a jogger earlier this year, but Fletcher's charges are based on just two of those incidents, on March 15 and March 19, because investigators did not find sufficient evidence in the other cases to file charges.

Several members of BYU's track and field team testified during the second day of a preliminary hearing Thursday regarding video footage that was shown to the entire team during the early stages of the investigation. The footage was taken from two different parts of campus and showed brief clips of a jogger running in and out of the camera's view.

In one of the videos, the jogger can be seen reaching out and touching a woman's chest while running past her.

Each witness identified Fletcher, a former member of the team, as the jogger in the videos, either because the jogger was dressed in what appeared to be team-issued attire consistent with what Fletcher owned or based on their familiarity with Fletcher's specific running style.

Travis Fuller, a member of BYU's cross-country and track team, said he recognized Fletcher's gait from training alongside him. He recalled the feeling he got after watching the footage for the first time.

"It dropped my gut. It just wasn't what I would ever expect," Fuller testified. "I didn't want to believe it at all. I was constantly trying to deny it. I just continued to be just more and more convinced that it was him. It's not the Nathan Fletcher that I know. I did not want to believe that."

Jared Franson, an athletic trainer for the team, also identified Fletcher in the video based on his running style, which he had observed extensively while working with him on the team.

"It looked exactly like Nate Fletcher's run from behind. Right when I saw it, Nate came to mind," Franson said. "The trunk rotation and the way he holds himself was definitely unique to Nate."

Almost none of the witnesses, however, could identify the jogger based solely on physical appearance because the video was either pixelated or shot from a distance.

The clothing in both of the videos closely resembled attire issued during the season Fletcher began running with the team. In footage from the March 15 and March 19 incidents collectively, the jogger was seen wearing a black beanie, white-rim sunglasses, a gray hooded sweatshirt with dark markings on the front, a gray long-sleeve shirt with two white tags, white gloves, short shorts with markings on the legs and Asics running shoes.

All those items were seized by police from Fletcher's residence during the investigation.

Fletcher was also identified in the surveillance footage from the March 15 incident by a 19-year-old Pennsylvania woman, who testified on Aug. 28 — the first day of the preliminary hearing — of being attacked. She said she recognized her assailant in the video because of the short shorts he was wearing that day.

However, the woman was not able to pick Fletcher out of a lineup of people.

Defense attorney John Allan says he was not surprised by the judge's decision to bind Fletcher over for trial and said his client plans to let a jury weigh the evidence. He says Fletcher has consistently maintained his innocence.

"He has said that from the beginning, he still says that 100 percent. He hasn't wavered at all," Allan said.

The attorney questioned the testimonies from the track and field team members because he said the footage was shown to the entire team as a group, giving them the opportunity to discuss it before consulting investigators. Identifying who is in the video is also a challenge.

"The suggestibility of having over 100 people all together watching a video, that's a concern," he said. "I can't say I know a lot about running patterns and that type of thing, but to say it's similar to a fingerprint, I think that's going a little bit too far."

Prosecutor Marcus Draper argued, however, that identifying a person by their running style could be strong evidence against Fletcher because of how much the team members trained together.

"These are people who are his friends, people who know him very well, who ran with him in some cases hundreds of times," Draper said. "They're very confident.

Draper said plea negotiations have been unsuccessful, though he didn't rule out the possibility of a resolution later on.

Fletcher's wife, Christa, sat next to Fletcher's parents during the hearing Thursday, but the family declined to comment to reporters.

The two charges each carry a potential maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. Fletcher is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 9.