Jury finds Mercer County man not guilty of second-degree sexual assault

 

PRINCETON — A circuit court jury found a Mercer County man not guilty Thursday of second-degree sexual assault after listening to testimony including a police interview in which he told a police detective that according to his research on Google, a woman who takes off her shoes and socks is indicating that she’s willing to have sex.

Jurors heard testimony in the trial of Walter James Ratliff of Bluefield, who has been charged with second-degree sexual assault. Detective-Lieutenant Kenneth Adams with the Bluefield Police Department said while being questioned by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney David Pfeifer that he received a call at 5:25 p.m. on July 9, 2020 about a sexual assault at a Union Street residence. Police arrived on scene less than a minute later.

Adams said that when he and other officers reached the address, they met a woman known to them. At that time, she was “erratic, emotional and possibly intoxicated.” She stated that Walter Ratliff had raped her after she passed out, and that he fled after she woke up and told him that she was calling the police.

Officers then went to Ratliff’s Union Street apartment building and found that the building’s front door window had been broken out.

“It took us a little bit of time to get somebody at the door,” Adams testified. Ratliff and a woman who was with him answered, and he was detained. Adams said Ratliff was not under arrest at that time. Ratliff transported to the police department and a search warrant for his home was obtained.

At that time, the woman who said Ratliff had raped her was becoming more confused, Adams said. Her mother was contacted and told that her daughter “was not in good shape” and needed to go the hospital for a rape kit and treatment. She was later given Narcan to prevent an overdose.

“She had told me at the house that she thought he gave her something either in a drink or something like that,” Adams said, adding that she had a drug addiction.

Ratliff agreed to be interviewed, Adams said. He was still not under arrest and had been read his Miranda Rights. A recording of that interview was played for the jury.

During the interview, Ratliff told Adams that the woman had come to his home that day and asked him to come to her house and help her clean up. He then said that she showed him a baggie, which he said that refused to touch –that contained heroin. She then used some of it and “next thing I know, she’s out.”

Adams told Ratliff that the woman said he was on top of her when she woke up. Adams also reminded Ratliff about DNA testing and other evidence that could be gathered, and urged him to tell the truth. Ratliff replied that ever since he was in school, he has done research on Google and read that when a woman took off her shoes and socks, she was willing to have sex.

“So the sex was willing sex?” Adams inquired.

“Yes,” said Ratliff.

Adams also asked Ratliff why he would be scared if police were coming to speak with him, and why he looked on Google to see if he could be accused of rape. Ratliff said he had lost his key and was in a hurry to get into his home “because I wanted to use the bathroom.”

The woman who was at Ratliff’s apartment when police arrived said that he had wanted her to flush pills away, but she had refused. Ratliff said in the interview that he had “bought them off somebody” and was not going to “rat” on them.

Adams then informed Ratliff that the two pills he had given his accuser were most likely “straight fentanyl,” and that the city police were selling large numbers of Xanax bars that were actually fentanyl. The largest dealer in those tablets was living in Ratliff’s apartment building, Adams stated.

“I can almost tell you for a fact if you got them off the guy upstairs, it was straight fentanyl,” Adams said.

The pills were tested at the West Virginia State Police Crime Lab and came back as a synthetic drug that is not a controlled substance, Adams said.

Pfeifer asked Adams if any DNA samples were sent to the crime lab for testing. Adams said he had not because Ratliff said he had had sex with the woman, and she said that it had happened.

Attorney Steve Mancini, who represented Ratliff, said that the alleged victim later implicated another suspect for the rape after she was medicated with Narcan. Adams said that the Narcan would not have affected the drugs she had been given.

Mancini asked Adams if Ratliff’s accuser was “very high” when police arrived and later became “erratic.” Adams replied that she was “distraught, emotional, crying and very intoxicated.”

After deliberations, the jury found Ratliff not guilty.

Second-degree sexual assault has a possible sentence of 10 to 25 years in prison, according to the West Virginia Code.

The trial was conducted before Circuit Court Judge Mark Wills.

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