The man accused of raping a former Boston University (BU) freshman is awaiting the verdict from his three-week trial which ended on Tuesday. After beginning deliberation at noon yesterday, the jury has reached a decision on at least one count, but will wait to announce its decision until all charges have been decided. <P> South Boston resident Abdelmajid Akouk, 33, was charged in Suffolk County Court with two counts of aggravated rape, making threats, breaking and entering, kidnapping, and indecent assault and battery, BU's Daily Free Press reported last week.
According to the prosecution, Akouk climbed through the basement window of BU's Loretto Hall on the night of Sep. 11, 1999 and made his way to the second floor women's bathroom, where the alleged rape occurred. The BU student had returned to her dorm from a party earlier that evening and was leaving the bathroom when the perpetrator allegedly attacked and threatened her with a knife. He then forced her to lead him to her room, where prosecutor's say he raped her while her roommate slept.
"Abdelmajid Akouk was a man on a mission: a mission to commit rape," said Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin in his opening arguments to the court.
Akouk's defense attorneys, led by Mary Ames, spent most of the trial trying to convince the jury that the female consented to intercourse. The defense argued that the details of the incident were suspect, given the number of contradictory descriptions of the night's events recounted by witnesses.
The female, who has since withdrawn from BU, was one of the first to testify. She denied the defense's claim that she allowed Akouk into the building and explained that she did not scream during her attack because the defendant threatened her with a knife. She broke down only after Akouk left the building, and her hallmates rushed to her aid.
According to the defense, the alleged victim was unclear on the exact location of the rape, and attorneys for Akouk argued that she initially reported to a nurse that it occurred in a toilet stall but later claimed she was attacked in a shower. The defense also cited contradictory testimony made by the woman's former roommate, who was in the room at the time of the rape.
According to the Daily Free Press, the defense pointed to initial statements to police in which the former roommate said she pretended to be sleeping, so as not to embarrass her roommate, whom she believed to be engaging in consensual sex. During her testimony on Monday, however, the former roommate flatly denied any such recollection.
These discrepancies led Akouk's attorneys to question the credibility of the woman's story. The defense dealt blows to the Commonwealth's case by challenging the BUPD's handling of the weapon found on the suspect at the time of his arrest; police officers allegedly did not use gloves when patting down Akouk. Ames and her colleagues also questioned the accuracy of BUPD records on the computer aided dispatch system, whose documented time was different than that of police testimony.<P>Both the prosecution and the defense rested their cases on Tuesday, as Akouk's attorneys opted not to bring their client or any other witnesses to testify in his defense.
The trial has served as a wake-up call for students at area schools like Tufts. Still, students at Tufts say they are aware of the low number of stranger rape incidents on campus and say that although safety should not be ignored, it is not their primary concern.
"When I consciously think about it, I realize that there is the potential for danger since our campus is an open campus, but normally I'm not thinking about that and I feel perfectly safe," sophomore Jane Dechongkit said. "Since we're college students, we are expected to know and take safety precautions ourselves."
"When incidences like the BU case first happen, people perhaps became a little more concerned, but over time it dissolves into an 'it could never happen here' mentality," junior Alex Alexiou said. "Somerville's not a bad area, but it's not a good one either, and you don't have TUPD all over the place anymore," Alexiou said.
Stranger rape, as was alledged in the BU case, is rare on most college campuses, according to Peggy Barrett, director of Tufts' Women's Center. "Typically the danger is not from strangers," Barrett said. "Acquaintance rape is far more common and often more difficult of a situation as well because it involves so much betrayal and loss of trust."
Tufts students say that suburban campuses like Tufts' and urban environments like that of BU differ in their safety conditions. "This case hasn't had too drastic of an effect on my view of safety because BU is a bigger university and it's harder to patrol than Tufts," Dechongkit said.
Programs sponsored by the Office of Public Safety and the Women's Center have worked in the past to raise awareness among the student body.
"The issues never go away," Barrett said. "Our goal is to help people protect themselves but also provide the resources they need in case."
