Judge will allow testimony, with limitations
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By the Lincoln Journal Star
A judge will let an alleged sexual assault victim testify she had an unusual hangover after she awoke at the residence of her accuse attacker, but with one important condition.
Lancaster County District Court Judge Jeffre Cheuvront, in an order Thursday, said the woman may not speculate on the witness stand that she could have consumed something in addition to alcohol “without actual evidence of the presence of such substances.”
The judge issued the ruling in the first-degree sexual assault prosecution of Pamir Safi. Safi, 33, is scheduled to go to trial July 9 on an allegation he sexually assaulted a then-21-year-old University of Nebraska-Lincoln student in October 2004.
In a pre-trial motion, the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office requested that the woman be allowed to testify about how she felt after she awoke at Safi’s apartment Oct. 31, 2004.
The woman told police investigators at the time that her hangover was unlike her previous reactions to alcohol.
Cheuvront at the hearing Wednesday said he was concerned such testimony could imply to jurors that the woman had been drugged before the sexual encounter with Safi. The judge said he knew of no physical evidence or expert opinion in the case record to support that implication.
In the order Thursday, Cheuvront said the woman may testify “she felt bad or terrible, that she had a bad hangover, that she had never felt this bad after a night of consuming alcohol.”
But, he continued, “she may not directly, or indirectly, speculate she may have consumed substances other than alcoholic beverages without actual evidence” to support such speculation.
The trial would be the second in the case. The first trial ended in a hung jury in November.
Safi and the woman met at a downtown Lincoln bar Oct. 30, 1994. After sharing several drinks, they drove in Safi’s vehicle to his apartment, where they spent the night.
The woman claimed she had no memory of riding to the apartment. She told investigators she awoke the morning of Oct. 31 with Safi having non-consensual sex with her.
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