A 19-year-old from Lawrenceville is charged with raping a woman he met at a pool party, Gwinnett County Cpl. A.J. Grissom said.
Charles Patrick Williams faced a preliminary hearing on the rape charge Thursday morning. The hearing was held to determine probable cause for the charges to move forward.
Williams met the woman, also 19, at a pool party in Buford on June 2, Grissom said. The two talked throughout the party, and eventually began “making out.” The kissing and touching involved in the making out was all consensual, Grissom said.
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After a midnight trip to a nearby Waffle House with a handful of other partygoers, Williams volunteered to take the woman home. They sat in Williams’ car, parked outside the pool, talking and kissing. At some point, Williams sexually assaulted the her, Grissom said. She did not say how long the incident lasted or give other details related to the alleged assault.
When the woman returned home, her mother noticed she was speaking in a “broken” voice and she immediately took a shower, Grissom said. The next day, the woman texted Williams and told him “What you did to me last night, you can’t do to me or any other girl.”
Williams responded “I know,” said he had been getting “mixed signals” from the woman and that the host of the pool party told him she wanted to have sex, Grissom said. The woman responded that she had not wanted to have sex because she had never met Williams before that day.
She told a coworker about the assault on June 6, and was encouraged to file a police report. The woman gave Williams’ phone number to Grissom in their initial interview. When Grissom called Williams, he told the detective he was a “good guy” and that he thought he had “smoothed out the situation” with the woman.
Williams’ attorney asked for the rape charge to be dismissed, saying there was not sufficient evidence besides the woman’s statement, and that the statement could be unreliable because the woman was drinking at the party. Gwinnett County Assistant District Attorney Mikaela Henderson objected to that motion, say a “few drinks” do “not entitle anyone” to sexually assault another person.
Gwinnett County Magistrate Judge Bob Mitchum denied the request to dismiss, finding probable cause to have the charges proceed. Williams remains in the Gwinnett County Detention Center without bond.
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