NASHUA – The young woman with whom Hudson resident Ryan Reese is accused of having sex – despite, as prosecutors insist, the fact she was way too intoxicated to consent or resist – had been drinking, but she was “fine … aware,” “coherent,” talking and walking just fine, Reese testified Thursday on the third day of his trial.

“In your testimony, you said (the alleged victim) was sober enough” to consent to the sex acts, Assistant County Attorney Michael Miller asked in cross-examining the now 19-year-old Reese.

“Yes, sir,” Reese answered, adding that while it is possible the young woman was drunk, “she wasn’t as drunk as they’re trying to claim,” he said, referring to prosecutors and some of the witnesses who had testified earlier.

As Miller was about to ask his next question, Reese added, “Yes is yes, and no is no. But I was told ‘yes,’ sir.”

So ended the testimony phase of Reese’s Superior Court jury trial, which began Tuesday with lawyers’ opening statements and brought nearly a dozen witnesses to the stand before the sides rested on Thursday.

After the lawyers’ closing arguments, Judge Charles Temple read jurors their instructions. He then dismissed them for the day with orders to return at 9 a.m. Friday to begin their deliberations.

The jury, which numbered 14 – including the standard two alternates – going into trial, lost two members to dismissal on the first and second days, for reasons that weren’t disclosed.

That left the minimum 12-member jury, prompting Temple to make sure each of them realized the importance of seeing the trial through to the final verdicts.

Reese went to trial on four counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, on which he was indicted in December, roughly a year and a half after the June 2017 party at which the acts allegedly 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” to resist, due to her level of intoxication.

Reese, under direct questioning by attorney Timothy Goulden, who is representing him with attorney Robert Johnson III, said the alleged victim invited him to the party, which took place at the girl’s parents’ home in Hudson, and greeted him with a “Fireball shot” when he arrived.

He said he socialized for awhile. Then upon feeling a bit woozy from drinking, he sat on a couch, also described throughout testimony as a chaise lounge.

The alleged victim came into the room and, Reese testified, “got on top of me … she was grinding on me, kissing me … everything was consensual.”

When she asked him a question, Reese said, he responded, “no, I don’t have a condom.” But according to prior testimony, the girl told him she was on birth control.

She led Reese by the hand into a bathroom off her parents’ bedroom, where, he said, she partially disrobed, and the two began interacting sexually.

“Was she awake at that time?” Goulden asked. “Yes,” Reese answered. “Did she at any time tell you to stop?” “No,” he said.

Goulden reiterated some of Reese’s testimony in his closing argument, but began by criticizing police who investigated the allegations.

“This is a case where professional police work took a back seat from the beginning,” Goulden said, claiming that the officer and detective who conducted interviews failed “to interview any of the other 10 people who were there,” instead focusing only on the alleged victim, her sister, and several of their close friends.

Had the alleged victim been unconscious, as the prosecution claims, Goulden said, she wouldn’t have been able to tell him she was on birth control. Goulden suggested police “cherry picked” witnesses to interview, and as a result “did not obtain key evidence.

“There is so much reasonable doubt in this case you could fill this courtroom with it,” he added.

But Assistant County Attorney Cassie Devine, who delivered the prosecution’s closing arguments, told jurors, they “have seen a lot of pain in this courtroom the past three days,” and the entire case “is a tragedy for all involved.

“And the author of this tragedy is Ryan Reese,” Devine said, gesturing toward the defense table.

One of the witnesses the defense called, who made about a 12-second phone video of what was purported to be the alleged victim on top of Reese in the chaise lounge, “contradicted every single point” he told defense investigators in February, Devine said.

Reese was “well-prepared” to testify, Devine said. “He had an answer for everything. But this was not a consensual act. He liked (the alleged victim). He saw his chance … and he left her unconscious on the bathroom floor to drown in her own vomit, had her sister not found her when she did.”

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

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