AFTER six jurors and two alternates were empaneled Monday afternoon, the prosecution and the defense made their opening statements in the jury trial of William Abraczinskas, who is accused of rape — a charge he denies.
Abraczinskas, a former law clerk for Judge Kenneth L. Govendo, is represented by Assistant Public Defenders Charlene Brown and Karie Comstock, while Chief Prosecutor Chester Hinds and Assistant Attorney General Frances Demapan represent the CNMI government.
William Abracszinkas
Superior Court Judge Pro Tempore Elyze M. Iriarte is presiding over the case.
In his opening remarks, Hinds said, “The victim was raped, sexually assaulted on April 8, 2023. William Abraczinkas had sex with the [alleged] victim without her consent. [She] did not consent; she did not say yes. Instead, she pleaded and begged the defendant: ‘Please, William, don’t do this.’ The defendant did not listen…and that is why we are here today…because no matter what, consent matters. If a person had sex with another without their consent like the defendant did…they will be charged like the defendant.”
According to Hinds, the alleged victim helped the defendant settle down on Saipan after he was hired as a law clerk for Judge Govendo. A friendship developed, Hinds said, “a work friendship.”
“She helped the defendant because of her dedication to the court and her judge…and she also helped the defendant as a friend …and wanted him to feel at home here in Saipan,” Hinds added.
Chief Prosecutor Chester Hinds
“That morning on April 8th…she decorated the church [at] 6/7 a.m. to prepare for Easter next day. After that, she had a lot of errands to run to get food to prepare for Easter lunch. While doing those errands, she stopped at her mailbox and found some mail for the defendant. She felt that this mail may be important so she called the defendant. He asked if [she] would drop it off to him later after she was finished running errands. She agreed. She arrived at the defendant’s apartment around 4 p.m. She called from outside for him to come and get his mail. He didn’t answer, and after a few tries, she decided to go up to his apartment. When she got there, she asked why he didn’t answer his phone. He said ‘Because I wanted you to come up.’ He asked her to come inside. She went in and gave him his mail. She noticed that he had been drinking vodka and Diet Coke out of a big cup. They talked for a bit and the defendant asked her to go swimming with him in the pool. She didn’t want to go…but he persisted. The defendant told her that he didn’t have any friends and that he was alone. The defendant told her that he would give her clothes to swim in. Even though she thought better of it, she said, OK.”
According to Hinds, the defendant “gave her swimming clothes and they went to the pool. She sat on the side while he swam. After a bit, the apartment manager told him that he couldn’t swim there because he didn’t pay. The apartment manager and the defendant began to argue. To avoid things from escalating because the victim knew the defendant had been drinking, she told him that they could just go to the beach. They went and swam. When they returned to the defendant’s apartment, he showered first. Then she showered. When she was done, she realized her clothes were in the guest bedroom. She got out of the bathroom [and] she noticed that everything was dark. The TV that had been on was turned off and so were the lights, and that’s when she saw the defendant hiding naked. He came up to her and pulled the towel off her. This made her turn around to where they were facing each other. She panicked and struggled to hold onto the towel, but when the defendant lowered his body on hers, he was too heavy for her to get away. She yelled, ‘William don’t!’ She continued to struggle and the defendant said ‘I won’t hurt you if you won’t stop me.’ ”
Hinds said the defendant “sexually assaulted her…and when he was done, he fell asleep.”
The defense
In her opening statement, Comstock showed images of emojis to the jury, and said, “Text messages between people who are co-workers and friends… The person who contacted William originally to get more paperwork and set up an interview — that was the [alleged] victim, and she works as judicial assistant to Judge Govendo. You will hear from the victim that this was her first time being so involved in the hiring processes. Once William arrived on Saipan, she took him to the bank to set up an account so he could get his first paycheck. [She] took him to the phone store, took him to look at cars. You will hear from [her] that she did not imagine the kind of relationship [they would have]…following him to restaurants, swimming at the beach, and visiting his apartment.”
Assistant Public Defenders Karie Comstock and Charlene Brown
Comstock added, “William would encourage the victim to get out and have fun. She sent him videos of her dancing. He joked with her. What he didn’t know [was] that the victim would tell the investigator just a few weeks later that she thought that they could have an intimate relationship.”
Comstock said the defendant “was completely unaware of the victim’s feeling. She told the detective that she was violently, violently, assaulted by her coworker and that during that assault she feared for her life. She thought she was going to die. She thought William would kill her. And yet you will see some more text messages following the weeks of the event when she thought that she would be killed by William.”
Comstock said the alleged victim “told the detective that she was so drained and so upset, and so emotional…after she was so violently attacked that she just wanted to cry and take a shower to be clean. But then she remembered that she left William’s car headlights on. Within an hour of being supposedly violently raped, she was messaging him, ‘I tried to wake you up. I couldn’t wake you up. I hope you see this on time. Your lights are on.’ ”
Comstock said the defendant saw “her message regarding the headlights on Easter Sunday morning, April 9. He checked his car and found that his battery in fact was dead. He messaged the victim: ‘Hey, no big deal, the battery is dead. If you have time on Sunday maybe you can come and help me jumpstart my battery.’ The [alleged] victim immediately replied, ‘OMG, did it die. I will be there I just need to get jumper cable for my truck.’ She apologized to William, who told her to stop apologizing, ‘We are friends, LOL, hanging out with you is the best part.’ [She] told William that she was going to shower, get jumper cables and head down before going to church. She even questioned if he knew how to use jumper cables. She texted him, saying that she was showering, followed by a smiling emojis, within an hour of saying that she was raped.”
Comstock added, “Not only did she come and help jumpstart his car, but they also saw each other Sunday night and watched television together. Monday morning, she had text messages for him with a lot of directions for what he needed to do for work. He responded with ‘LOL you Bossy,’ and she responded, ‘Time to work, Cougar.’ Monday evening, the [alleged] victim texted, asking him what was the name of the show they were watching, referring to Sunday evening. He did not remember the name of the show. She even texted him, ‘Please don’t go to the pool anymore or do I need to be there with you to stop you,’ with another emoji, a laughing smiley face emoji, followed by ‘Just kidding’ and another kissing emoji. Then a week later she claimed that she was raped,” Comstock added.
She told the jury that “they will hear [that] the [alleged] victim drove to William’s apartment and hitched William in her car, just the two of them, drove to the Hyatt and went to watch the sunset. You could take notes, please take notes. Note the times and the dates of the events and the messages between the victim and William. Note when you hear the [alleged] victim says when she was assaulted, when she felt that William was threatening her reputation and her job. That’s when she decided to file rape charges. When we are at the end of all the witnesses’ testimony, we’ll come back here and help you piece together this timeline and we will ask you to render a verdict of not guilty on all counts.”
The jury trial will continue at 9 a.m. today, Tuesday, with the government calling its first witness, Detective Shannon Dela Cruz, followed by the judiciary’s human resources officer, Michelle Guerrero.
According to Variety news files, after the complaint was filed against him, Abraczinskas was detained and then released on a $100,000 unsecured bond but placed under house arrest.
