Court asked to review evidence in rape case

By Kimberly Miller

Arizona Daily Wildcat

A 19-year-old student who was formally charged with sexual assault in January will be appearing in court today to ask that evidence in his case be reviewed again by the grand jury.

And, a plea of not guilty was entered Wednesday by a 21-year-old student accused of sexually assaulting a female student in November.

Peter Michael James will be in court at 10 a.m. today with his attorney Stanton Bloom. In an appeal to the court, Bloom states he believes a review of evidence in James' case may influence the grand jury to repeal the indictment.

"I'm making an allegation that certain things that occurred in the grand jury were not properly done," Bloom said. "There was a misrepresentation of the facts and only certain details, that the police wanted to come out, were presented."

James, an undeclared sophomore, was indicted by a grand jury Jan. 13 for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old student Nov. 5. The alleged rape occurred at the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house, 1550 N. Vine Ave., where James is a member.

In Bloom's 20-page motion he alleges that the victim in the case told police an account of what happened Nov. 5 that was different than what was presented to the grand jury.

"They didn't give evidence that would show that the sex was consensual," Bloom said. "I think that some things she said to the police would show that this was not a rape."

Bloom said the fact that the victim did not report the rape until Nov. 7, two days after it allegedly happened, is evidence that she did not initially believe she was sexually assaulted.

"She didn't even think she was raped," Bloom said. "She told police herself that she didn't think there was enough evidence to prosecute."

But UA Police Sgt. Brian Seastone said there was nothing in the police report about the victim's belief that there was a lack of evidence.

Bloom said he believes many legitimate sexual assaults occur at the UA, but said this is not one of them.

"I'm sure there are a lot of date rapes at the UA where force was used to make a woman have sex but that's not the case in this situation," Bloom said.

The Pima County attorney prosecuting the case could not be reached for comment.

In the second case, Peter Hart Pisciotta, a business and public administration and criminology major, pled not guilty to one count of sexual assault.

Pisciotta was accused of sexually assaulting a female student Nov. 1 at the former Delta Chi fraternity house, 1701 E. First St.

Read Next Article