Orange County Sex Crime Defense Attorneys
Registered sex offender reportedly taped himself raping women
October 3, 2011
dailybreeze.com
By PAUL ANDERSON
original article
A registered sex offender videotaped himself in his Huntington Beach apartment raping several women, two of whom he got so drunk that they couldn't resist, before being apprehended by police within sprinting distance of the Mexico border, an Orange County prosecutor told jurors today.
But James Ernest Bledsoe's lawyer told jurors that they will not hear any proof that his 30-year-old client gave the alleged victims "a blue pill" or that he forced himself on the four women in 2007. Defense attorney Jeremy Goldman said his client dated the women, got intoxicated with them and had consensual sex with them.
Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker painted a starkly different portrait of Bledsoe as a man who failed to properly register as a sex offender and who targeted young women because they were easier to ply with alcohol and take advantage of. When Bledsoe was arrested in December 2007, Huntington Beach police said he was on parole for lewd act on a child.
A search of Bledsoe's mother's home yielded several DVDs labeled with the names of women and dates, Walker said.
Bledsoe faces two counts each of rape, rape of an unconscious person and rape by use of drugs, one count each of assault with intent to commit a felony, oral copulation by force, oral copulation of an unconscious person, oral copulation by a controlled substance, sexual penetration of an unconscious victim, sexual penetration with an intoxicating substance and sexual penetration with a foreign object.
Bledsoe, who is also charged with four misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy and failure to register as a sex offender, would met his alleged victims in bars, get their phone number and call them later for a date, Walker said.
In October 2007, he gave a 21-year-old woman a drink in his car after picking her up for a date, Walker said. The woman had little recollection of the rest of the evening, but woke up in a man's boxer shorts and shirt, the prosecutor said.
The woman-- identified only as Sarah in court -- felt like she had such severe flu symptoms that she went to a hospital, where she was asked if she wanted a sexual assault exam, Walker said. She declined, thinking she had not been sexually assaulted, the prosecutor said.
But a DVD that Bledsoe allegedly made shows Sarah "murmuring, mumbling and mostly incoherent" as the defendant put her in front of the camera and performed sex acts on her, Walker said.
"You'll see him pull her hair to keep her up," Walker told the jury, adding that at one point, the woman vomited on him and he flung her off of him.
Another video recording of "Lana" dated July 2007 shows the woman drunkenly mumbling she did not want to have sex because she was too intoxicated to enjoy it, Walker said.
"At some point you'll see her head fling down like a rag doll" as she was put in a variety of sexual positions in front of the camera, Walker said. "At the end, you'll hear the defendant say, 'Lana, are you awake? I thought you were awake."'
That woman also felt flu-like symptoms the following day after a date with Bledsoe, Walker said.
Lana, who was suspicious something happened but wasn't sure, went out on a couple of more dates with Bledsoe, but she did not drink, Walker said.
On one of those dates, Bledsoe made a drink for her, but she refused it when she saw him put a small blue pill in it, Walker said. When she confronted him, "he became irate," the prosecutor said.
On another occasion, Bledsoe met "Holly" at the Sutra nightclub in Costa Mesa, Walker said. The woman got heavily intoxicated and vomited, and the next thing she remembered was waking up with four people, including the defendant, asking her if she was OK, the prosecutor said.
Bledsoe offered her a ride home and she agreed. On the way to her house, she agreed to his suggestion that they instead go to his place, where the two got into his hot tub and he gave her a drink, Walker said.
On a video recording, "She keeps saying, 'No, no, no,"' and "cries in pain as she's penetrated," the prosecutor said.
Bledsoe's neighbor testified that the defendant told him he liked younger woman because it was "easier to give them alcohol, easier to hook up." Brian Beaudry also testified that Bledsoe told him he secretly videotaped the women as he had sex with them.
Beaudry was also expected to testify that he saw a blue pill in vomit next to Bledsoe's car, Walker said.
Goldman said jurors will hear no direct evidence from blood tests or otherwise that the alleged victims were given a "date rape" or any other type of drug.
The defense attorney said Bledsoe told his mother to give police a DVD of him having sex with one of the alleged victims because he thought it would exonerate him. Because he was a registered sex offender, Bledsoe videotaped his sexual encounters to "protect him against false allegations," Goldman said, adding that the videotapes "do not reflect conversations he had with these women before or after the sexual contact."
Bledsoe "clearly exercised poor judgment," particularly when he ditched his car and fled for the Mexico border after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman in December 2007, but did so with his prior conviction on his mind, Goldman said.
"His fear of being falsely accused led him to flee and he made a poor decision," Goldman said. "He didn't think the system would give him a fair shake ... Please keep an open mind until you hear all the evidence."
