NASHUA – The teenager Hudson resident Ryan Reese is accused of raping at an underage drinking party nearly two and a half years ago had never consumed more than a few sips of beer at any one time – but a few hours into that party, the girl had done enough shots and guzzled enough liquor to render her unconscious and incapacitated, the girl and her sister told a Superior Court jury Tuesday.

It was while she was in that state, according to prosecutors, that Reese, who was an acquaintance of the girl, took advantage of the girl’s inability to function and began sexually assaulting her, first on a couch then in a nearby bathroom, where the girl’s sister would find her sprawled unconscious on the floor with her clothes “all messed up,” it is alleged.

However, attorney Timothy Goulden, who is representing Reese with attorney Robert Johnson III, described a wholly different scenario of what happened during the course of several hours at the Hudson residence owned by the girl’s parents.

“The evidence will show that a 16-year-old girl, a young woman, took things too far, and rather than tell her sister and parents about what happened, she told them she’d been raped,” Goulden said in his opening statement.

Her motive, Goulden added, “was to avoid the consequences of her own actions.”

Reese, 19, was indicted on four counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault in December 2018, about a year and a half after the alleged acts took place. Two counts accuse him of having sex with the girl without her consent, and two allege he committed the acts while the girl was “physically helpless” due to her level of intoxication.

Testimony is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. today in Courtroom 3 at Hillsborough County Superior Court-South. The trial is scheduled for four days.

Goulden on Tuesday rejected the notion that the girl was intoxicated to the point of incapacitation, and prosecutors’ claims that the girl passed out on a couch, and at some point Reese went over and began kissing and fondling her while she was unable to resist, or give consent, because of her level of intoxication.

Instead, Goulden said, it was Reese who first lay down on the couch, which was also described as a chaise lounge, after “he started feeling the effects” of alcohol he was drinking.

The alleged victim, Goulden told the jury, “came over and got on top of Ryan and started kissing him … and the two of them started making out.”

Not only was the girl “awake” and “aware” of what was going on, Goulden said she “spoke to Ryan … their conversation included where they could go to be more private.”

She took Reese by the hand, Goulden said, and led him into the bathroom that’s off her parents’ bedroom. “They discussed birth control; Ryan said he didn’t have a condom, she said it’s OK because she’s taking birth control,” Goulden said.

“I submit to you she remembers everything that took place,” he told jurors.

“In short, the evidence will show you that Ryan Reese did nothing, other than go to this party, drink alcohol, and did the same thing (the alleged victim) did: Used bad judgment as teenagers,” Goulden said.

Under direct questioning by Assistant County Attorney Cassie Devine, who is prosecuting the case with Assistant County Attorney Michael Miller, the alleged victim’s sister testified she came home from a day at the beach to find the house teeming with partying young people.

She wasn’t overly concerned, she testified, because she knew, or knew of, many of her sister’s friends and they never gave her reason in the past to be concerned.

She said she went in and walked through the house looking for her sister, and upon discovering a puddle of vomit at the foot of her parents’ bed, she began to clean it up.

The last place she checked for her sister was her parents’ bathroom, but when she tried to open the door, “someone slammed it shut,” she said.

She said she called out to her sister, and a few minutes later, Reese exited the bathroom.

“Did he say anything?” Devine asked. “No, but he smirked at me,” she answered. She then looked in the bathroom and saw her sister unconscious on the floor.

She testified that she shook her sister by the shoulders and slapped her face to try and bring her around. She eventually opened her eyes, but “she looked super confused … I tried asking her what was going on, but she wasn’t responding.”

Asked why she didn’t call for medical help for her sister, she said she “didn’t want to get her in trouble,” adding that she didn’t think her sister’s condition was all that serious.

But the next day, when the alleged victim put together enough of what she could remember, she confided in a friend of her parents – who later that day told the parents what their daughter had told her.

“Very upset” is how the alleged victim’s sister described her parents’ reaction. Her father punched a wall; her mother broke down in tears, she testified.

The father called police, who took a report, interviewed the girl and her sister and took photos of bruises on the girl’s arms and one of her legs.

Goulden, in cross examining the alleged victim Tuesday afternoon, went over in fine detail the statements she gave initially, then when she was interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com, at or @Telegraph_DeanS.