NEWS
BY TRAN NGUYEN
LANE COUNTY DA OFFERS PLEA DEAL IN RAPE CASE
Two men dodge rape charges
O
n Nov. 11, 2016, nine people told police they
witnessed an incident at Hi-Fi Music Hall in
which a man raped an intoxicated woman
while another man assisted him. Neither
man was prosecuted with sexual assault
charges and neither received a jail sentence for the
alleged rape.
The victim says she did not know the man who
raped her, but that she did know the man who assisted
her attacker.
Eugene Weekly couldn’t reach Hi-Fi for a com-
ment, but Hifi co-owner Danny Kime told the Regis-
ter-Guard in November that the venue is committed
to providing a safe environment for its patrons.
Police arrested both assailants and collected a rape
kit, surveillance footage and semen on the floor at the
scene, according to Eugene Police Department reports.
The night the two men were pulled off the victim, one re-
portedly told the other, “Dude I just f--ked your girl’s face!”
an EPD report reveals.
Prosecutors offered them a plea deal of five years proba-
tion for the Class C felony of coercion, a lesser charge than
the initial charge of Class A felony for rape in the first degree
with a mandatory minimum of eight years in jail.
Lane County Chief Deputy District Attorney Erik Has-
selman says this is because the victim “changed her story.”
EPD reports obtained by EW reveal that police know the
victim was pressured by friends and one of the assailants’
family members to recant her statement.
Hasselman tells EW that because prosecutors must
prove beyond a reasonable doubt the defendants commit-
ted a crime, the victim’s changing statements “were casting
doubts” and “didn’t give us the confidence we had in the
beginning.”
BB Beltran is the executive director of Sexual Assault
Support Service (SASS), a Eugene-based nonprofit provid-
ing advocacy and support to survivors of sexual violence.
She says traumatizing events can affect how victims’ brains
process information, especially if the victims are under in-
fluence of alcohol or drugs. “It could result in them remem-
bering the events in a nonlinear order,” she says.
District Attorney Patricia Perlow told EW in a Febru-
ary interview that rape cases are difficult to prove and that
her office’s ethical obligation is to prosecute only cases that
can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt (see EW Feb. 16
“Tracking the Backlog.”)
LOGAN HERBERT APPEL
PAUL ALEX KUZA
Logan Appel, 33, and Paul Kuza, 25, were arrested on
suspicion of rape in the first degree and charged with the
Measure 11 crime in November 2016. The victim knew
Appel for several months, and Appel told police that he
“loved” the victim and thought the act was consensual.
Kuza, whom the victim said she never met, requested
an attorney after learning he was being charged with rape.
“I’ve done nothing wrong, sir,” Kuza told police.
The victim, whom police noted “to be in a state of shock
and disbelief,” was hysterical as she thought she’d be safe
going to the concert with her friend Appel, according to the
heavily redacted police reports.
“No matter how many times I try to go through it in my
head, it’s still not f--king OK,” she told police as she broke
down in tears. “They just grab me like they could have this
control over me. No one asked me that.”
EW was unable to reach the victim for comment and is
not using her name to protect her privacy.
According to Appel, he and the victim had been drink-
ing, consuming wax marijuana and ingesting liquid LSD
before the concert. Appel, who claimed he didn’t know
Kuza, told police Kuza approached him during the concert
and asked if Appel and the victim were a couple. Appel
said he didn’t “own her.”
Kuza then told the victim “you’re mine now,” and Ap-
pel repeatedly told Kuza “it’s OK” to have sex with her, the
victim told police.
One of the witnesses told police that he confronted the
men, but they “tried playing it off.” He said Appel was
is tough to nail down just how confident we should or
should not be.
• We left the May 19 meeting of the City Club of
Eugene fairly confident that our dams, rivers and
reservoirs are safe despite the anticipated big earth-
quake. Erik Peterson, operations project manager of
the Willamette Valley for Portland district of the U. S.
Army Corps of Engineers, and Ray Weldon, professor
in the University of Oregon Department of Earth Sci-
ences, talked about how to reduce uncertainty as
well as early warnings, family preparedness, mea-
suring risk and the need for more resources to bet-
ter understand the risk involved. In other words, it
• The protest at Standing Rock is no longer making
headlines, but the issue that drove the months-long
protest, the Dakota Access Pipeline, is not gone. The
Eugene Human Rights Commission (HRC) voted May
16 to support an ordinance advising the city against
renewing its current contract with U.S. Bank, which
ends in October 2018. U.S. Bank has invested heavily
in fossil fuel pipelines, including the Dakota Access
and Keystone XL. Those pipelines not only put Native
American people and lands at risk of a spill, they also
go counter to efforts to combat greenhouse gases and
climate change. Forty people showed up a the May 22
Eugene City Council meeting in support of divestment,
and 20 people spoke in favor of the city divesting from
U.S. Bank. Emily Semple, the City Council’s liaison to
the HRC, pointed out previously that there are many
“manipulating [the victim] so Kuza could get in be-
tween her legs.”
Another witness told police he saw Kuza raping the
victim and Appel “standing very close to Kuza and the
female,” but he was not sure whether Appel was help-
ing or getting Kuza to stop.
After arresting both men, police performed a penile
swab on Kuza –– the officer noted evidence of blood
and “a reddish brown tinge” on his penis head. Police
also collected Appel’s clothes then, but did not collect
a DNA swab from inside his cheek until Jan. 12.
Hasselman says the victim wasn’t consistent with
the details she told the police.
The victim told police she couldn’t remember how
the rape escalated or how it ended. She said she was
confused when the rape happened and that she “was
not able to see the events clearly.” She then separately
told a friend that Kuza might have slipped her something
when they were kissing, the police report shows.
According to Beltran, it’s common for sexual assault
victims to block out traumatizing memories as a way for
their bodies and brains protect themselves.
Beltran says a rape victim might decide to not report due
to fear of retaliation from the perpetrator, friends and family,
and not being believed or supported by the system involved.
“In order to have a safe community the onus for sexual
violence must be placed firmly where it belongs: on the per-
petrator,” Beltran says in an email. “It’s not simply a matter
of survivor’s reporting, but rather what happens after survi-
vors report.”
Hasselman says the plea deal was the best solution to the
case.
“[We] put a lot of time and effort in the case,” Hasselman
says. “We decided to resolve it, as it is now. We did it with
the victim’s knowledge and consent.”
On Jan. 10, the Lane County DA offered Appel a plea
deal for a lesser charge of coercion and a sentence of five
years’ probation. He was released from custody and is now
appealing a $500 assessment.
Kuza was set to go to court in May but ended up plead-
ing guilty to coercion in March. Kuza was charged with a
Class C felony for supplying contraband in March and was
sentenced to 30 days in jail, court documents show.
Despite witness statements from nine people and col-
lected evidence, the DA closed the rape case in March 2017.
No one was charged with a sexual assault crime. ■
reasons to divest from all large banks, U.S. Bank in-
cluded — she’d prefer to see the city do its money
management with local credit unions instead. Eugene
Municipal Code requires that city contracts give pref-
erence to goods and services produced in state. See
our story about last week’s HRC meeting online.
• Proposed changes to the Eugene park rules
to ban alcohol in all city parks don’t just prevent
neighbors from enjoying wine in the park — they dis-
criminate against the homeless. The ban would allow
those who can afford to buy expensive host liquor
liability insurance to have parties but exclude those
who lack finances. At the May 22 City Council meeting
Councilor Betty Taylor said, “We’re legislating against
simple pleasures people enjoy,” and that it’s time to
“make life pleasant for the people who live here.” Per-
haps it’s time to stop criminalizing dogs and beer in
the name of cleaning up the town.
SL ANT INCLUDES SHORT OPINION PIECES, OBSERVATIONS AND RUMOR-CHASING NOTES COMPILED BY THE EW EDITORIAL BOARD. HE ARD ANY GOOD RUMORS L ATELY?
CONTAC T C AMILL A MORTENSEN AT 541-484-0519, EDITOR@EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
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May 25, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com