The Dublin firefighter arrested on rape charges in Boston over St. Patrick’s Day weekend last year appeared in court Monday for a final pre-trial hearing before his second trial. Terence Crosbie (38) is set to be tried again after his first trial resulted in mistrial in June. Jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict after deliberating for 22 hours.
On Monday attorneys reviewed questions for the next round of juror vetting. Defence attorney Daniel C Reilly asked that the jury pool be questioned once again about potential biases due “the fact that the defendant speaks with an Irish accent”.
Mr Reilly also asked that jurors be asked additional questions about the defendant’s foreign nationality due to the recent increase of “news regarding ICE”.
Jurors will also be asked about their opinions regarding infidelity. “There was evidence of [Mr Crosbie] kissing another woman prior to the allegation at the hotel room,” Mr Reilly said. This encounter captured on CCTV was separate from the alleged assault.
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Prosecutor Erin Murphy asked that the jurors be asked for potential biases against the complainant due to the fact that “that she had gone back to the hotel room with a man that she met at the bar”.
Jury selection for the second trial is slated for next week and the case will be presided over by a new judge, Justice Joshua I Wall.
Mr Crosbie is charged with raping a 29-year-old woman while his colleague Liam O’Brien was asleep and snoring in a shared hotel room. Mr Crosbie denies the allegation and testified to jurors in the first trial that he “had no physical or sexual contact” with the complainant at all.
The complainant testified that said went to the Omni Parker House hotel with Mr O’Brien after meeting him at The Black Rose bar in downtown Boston. She claimed the two had consensual sex and then fell asleep in separate beds and that she woke up to an Irishman she did not know actively raping her and disparaging Mr O’Brien.
The complainant and prosecutors allege that that man was Mr Crosbie and presented jurors in the first trial with CCTV evidence of Mr Crosbie entering the room at the time in question and the complainant leaving a short while later. The complainant reported the assault that morning, March 15th 2014. The defence argued that the complainant was an unreliable witness due to intoxication.
The DNA evidence collected from the complainant revealed two male profiles one of which matched Mr O’Brien but there was not enough evidence to conclusively identify the second party, jurors in the first trial heard.
Mr Crosbie and Mr O’Brien were part of a group of more than ten members of the fire brigade who flew to Boston to march in the St Patrick’s Day Parade that Sunday. Mr Crosbie was questioned by police on Saturday. He was pulled off an airplane and arrested later that evening after attempting to take an early flight home.
