Witness testifies in attempted rape trial

By Vicky Wicks, Journal Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 26, 2005

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RAPID CITY — The state's chief witness, a woman in her mid-20s, sat in the witness chair Tuesday afternoon and then, obviously frightened, looked at the eight men and five women sitting in the jury box.

She was there to give her account of an ordeal in Rapid City on Aug. 8 that led to the arrest and prosecution in 7th Circuit Court of Eugene Hollow Horn Bear, 45, on the charge of attempted rape.

Under questioning from Lara Roetzel, chief deputy Pennington County state's attorney, the woman told the jury that on the evening of Aug. 8, she was walking from a relative's apartment in the 600 block of Main Street to another relative's house in the 800 block of Halley Avenue. She said it was after 9 p.m. and that she had been drinking earlier in the day.

When she left the apartment, she said, she saw the defendant on a street corner talking to a woman in a wheelchair.

Hollow Horn Bear saw her and said, "Hey, sis, where you going?" the witness testified. He then started following her, claiming to be protecting her because there are "a lot of crazy people," the woman said.

The witness told of walking north and east, through the parking ramp, past Dan's Supermarket and along railroad tracks with Hollow Horn Bear following behind her, talking to her, asking her if she was hungry, if she wanted a drink, if she wanted a cigarette.

At some point, Hollow Horn Bear walked off the path, stood by a tree and asked her to look at the tree, and she started crying on the stand as she said she got scared at that point, wondering who would be there if she needed help. She said, "I just crossed my arms and started walking really fast."

She said she crossed New York Street and approached stairs leading from one walking path up to another near The Journey Museum, and it was there that the defendant grabbed her around the neck and threw her to the ground.

The witness said Hollow Horn Bear straddled her, putting his weight on her, and punched her in the face before choking her, first with both hands and then with one hand while he used the other to pull up her shirt and grab her breasts.

She told of screaming while fighting back and said she pulled his hair, scratched him, tried to bite him and punched his face until his nose bled. He put his hands in her mouth and stretched it open, she said, but she kept screaming.

The woman said she got free of her assailant and kicked him before running to 5th Street and flagging down a passing motorist.

The good Samaritan, as Roetzel referred to him, picked the woman up and drove her to the Halley Street home of her relatives. No one was home, so the man took the woman back to the scene of the incident to try to find her sandals and partial dental plate, which probably got caught in her assailant's hair, she said.

The man then took her back to the apartment on Main Street, where she called police to report the assault.

The responding Rapid City police officer, Eric Lopez, testified in court Tuesday that he received a call of an attempted rape and met with the woman on Main Street. He said she was crying and upset, and although he could tell that she had been drinking, she did not appear to be drunk, he said.

Lopez testified that the woman's face was very swollen and red, she had scratches on her arms and legs and there was blood on her ear and arm, although she did not seem to be bleeding.

With the description the woman gave, investigators suspected Hollow Horn Bear might be the assailant and put together a photo lineup that included mug shots of the suspect, Lopez said.

The woman identified Hollow Horn Bear, and she testified in court that she had no doubt he was her attacker.

She also identified Hollow Horn Bear in court, pointing to him where he sat at the defense table between his attorneys, Thomas Diggins and Ellery Grey, Pennington County public defenders.

Testimony continues today with the rest of the state's case, including presentation of DNA test results, as well as testimony presented by the defense.

Contact Vicky Wicks at 394-8318 or vicky.wicks@rapidcityjournal.com.