Loyola Students Admit Socializing With Alleged Rapist; 'Didn't Want My Friends To Hate Me'
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Two Loyola University students admitted Tuesday that they socialized with the man they have accused of sexually assaulting them in the days after the alleged attack in their dorm rooms on the school's Lake Shore campus.
"I didn't want any of my friends to hate me if I came forward," the 20-year-old alleged victim said in a preliminary hearing, explaining why she had feigned normalcy after the alleged attack on Jan. 13 and even invited Colin Cahill Kennedy to her birthday party. "I was afraid of what people would say."
The woman's best friend, who Cook County prosecutors said was assaulted the next morning, also conceded that she let Kennedy stay in her dorm room after her fellow classmate told her that Kennedy had "hooked up" with her while she was "blacked out."
"I thought of him as a friend, so I did not know what to think of it," the 19-year-old woman said at the hearing as Kennedy stood inches away from her, in front of Judge James Brown.
Brown ruled that there was enough probable cause against Kennedy to proceed with a March 12 arraignment. But after Tuesday's hourlong hearing, Kennedy's lawyer, Robert Kerr, said the accusations by the women sounded like "buyer's remorse."
"I understand being scared. I understand being afraid and being confused at the time that it happened and maybe even days after. But . . . they maintained a relationship [with Kennedy]. They invited him out places, waiting for him to go places. They initiated phone calls. They initiated text messages unsolicited by my client," Kerr said.
During the hearing, the women told assistant state's attorney Joell Zahr that Kennedy, 18, told them he needed a place to stay because his roommate hadn't returned from winter break and he didn't have a key to his own dorm. The 19-year-old woman agreed to let him stay on her futon for a few days, but after a night of hard partying, the 20-year-old woman said she woke up naked with Kennedy on top of her in her dorm in Fordham Hall.
"He was my friend. I trusted him," the 20-year-old woman said, recalling that she was so intoxicated she couldn't speak and went in and out of consciousness during the alleged attack. Kennedy left his khakis and Polo shirt on the woman's floor and ended up knocking on the other woman's room at 3 a.m. that morning with only his boxers on, according to court testimony.
Kennedy told 19-year-old woman that he felt "bad about what happened" with the other woman. Kennedy's host also received texts from her classmate who wrote: "I can't believe he did that."
Still, the 19-year-old woman held a party in her dorm room that night, inviting a group of people that included Kennedy and his first alleged victim.
When the guests left, the 19-year-old, who had two glasses of wine, testified that she was in bed with her eyes closed when she felt Kennedy "cuddling" up against her. The woman told Kennedy to stop "50 to 60 times" and tried to fight him off but she said he pressed her down with one arm as he allegedly raped her in the early morning hours of Jan. 14, according to testimony.
"I told him to stop it because he would regret it like the night before [with the other victim] . . . I was screaming louder and louder," the woman said.
The woman, who said she nervously cleaned her kitchen after she the alleged attack, said she didn't call police while Kennedy slept for the next seven hours.
The 19-year-old, like the other alleged victim, admitted that after that day, she attended two Trivia Night events, which Kennedy also attended, at the Pumping Company restaurant on Jan. 15 and Jan. 22, where Kennedy was arrested a few days later.
When grilled by Kerr about her continued friendship with Kennedy, the first alleged victim collapsed in tears as a sheriff's deputy rushed a chair to her.
That woman admitted that after the alleged attack, she sent Kennedy a text that said "N - - - - - hurry up," before she and their other friends met up. She also said she tagged Kennedy in Facebook pictures and invited him to "rage" on Jan. 25 at the Dugout Bar and Grill. Kennedy attended that celebration.
But when Kennedy came up to hug her that day, the woman said she rebuffed him. "I was really pissed off," she said.
The alleged victims held hands before they testified Tuesday and grabbed onto each other as they left court.
Kennedy, who attended the lengthy hearing with his parents, has since withdrawn from Loyola and has moved back to California, Kerr said.
Kennedy is out on bond after posting 10 percent of his $300,000 bail.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
