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SALT LAKE CITY — A rape case that was prosecuted by the Utah Attorney General's Office after the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office declined to file charges due to lack of evidence was dismissed by a judge at the preliminary hearing stage.
Christopher Jordan Anger was 19 when he was charged by the Utah Attorney General's Office with forcible sodomy and object rape, first-degree felonies, in June 2016.
But in a rare move, 3rd District Judge Katie Bernards-Goodman declined to bind the case over for trial, dismissing it at the preliminary hearing level with prejudice, meaning the case can never be refiled and the record can be expunged.
"Victim's statement and ineffectual movements, mostly continuing the act of sex, are not capable of supporting a reasonable belief that victim revoked her consent," the judge wrote in her ruling.
During a preliminary hearing, prosecutors only have to meet a low "probable cause" standard to convince a judge that there is enough evidence to show that a crime occurred and that it was likely committed by the defendant. In most cases, that low standard is met and a case is bound over for trial. The higher trial standard of proving a case "beyond a reasonable doubt" is not used at a preliminary hearing.
The case was originally screened multiple times by the district attorney's office, which declined to file charges due to insufficient evidence.
"We believed then and we believe now, based on the evidence, we could not prove the case and it could survive the filing," District Attorney Sim Gill said Friday.
Despite sharing with the attorney general's office the specifics of why they had problems with the case, the attorney general's office filed charges.
Anger's defense attorney, Ed Brass, believes the case should never have been filed and he's bothered that his client's name and the case against him became public.
"It is a shame that a 19-year-old had his name mentioned in the paper and on KSL in connection with such awful charges and then the charges proved unfounded," he said.
In 2015, an 18-year-old woman drove Anger home after a party because he had had too much to drink. When they got there, they had consensual sex. The woman, however, claimed at some point the sex became nonconsensual.
Gill said his office reviewed the evidence several times and found a contradiction in a police report. Sexual assault cases are difficult and can have a "huge impact" on people's lives, he said. And because Gill believed the allegations could not be proved, he was concerned about filing charges.
He admitted he was "surprised" when the attorney general's office took the case.
"We have great respect for the Salt Lake D.A.'s Office and understand why they declined to prosecute the case," attorney general spokesman Daniel Burton said Friday. "After receiving additional information to consider, the Utah Attorney General's Office believed it had sufficient evidence for a reasonable likelihood of success at trial."
Both Brass and Gill said they were not aware of any additional evidence in the case that the attorney general's office had.
