This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled Wednesday through Friday for former Utah State University linebacker Torrey Green, 23, who has been charged in seven sexual assaults that allegedly occurred between November 2013 and November 2015, while Green was a student.
The charges were filed after a Salt Lake Tribune story in July prompted Cache County prosecutors to re-examine sexual assault allegations lodged against Green in 2015.
Since July, prosecutors have investigated at least 15 sexual assault allegations against Green. He has been charged in 1st District Court with six counts of rape, one count of aggravated kidnapping, three counts of forcible sex abuse and two counts of object rape.
See testimony from Wednesday's hearing below. Testimony is scheduled to continue Thursday.
—
4:15 p.m.
L.P. always promised herself she would tell police about the October 2014 night that Torrey Green allegedly sexually assaulted her if she learned that other women had come forward.
So when she saw The Tribune's July 2016 story about the other allegations, she knew she had to report to police.
"I don't want that girl to feel alone because she's not," L.P. told the court Wednesday.
L.P. met Green on Tinder, the dating app, and eventually agreed to go on a date with him. Green took L.P. back to his apartment, she said, to watch a movie.
Shortly after the movie started, she said, Green started to kiss her and she said no. She kept fighting against his advances, she said, but he continued to pursue her.
When she tried to leave, Green allegedly pushed her into the bathroom, forced her legs apart and began grinding his body against hers while they were both clothed. She was able to exit the bathroom, but Green then pinned her to a wall and continued to press against her, she said.
L.P. was terrified, she said, and it became clear that the only way to get out of the situation was with her words. She kept asking him what his mother would think of what he was doing, she said, and eventually he stopped.
Green drove her home and the next day, L.P. said, she informed her mother of what happened.
—
3:45 p.m.
Utah State University English Professor Anne Marie Johnson had seen a recent change in Carsen Davis in October 2014, while Davis was her student, Johnson told police during a recorded interview that was played in court.
And when Johnson read Davis' English essay about the alleged assault, she took Davis to the school to report and, potentially, get her support services, Johnson said. Davis, however, did not want to make a formal report or name Torrey Green as her alleged attacker, Johnson said.
Johnson noted that Davis stopped coming to class. Davis eventually dropped out of USU in 2015 because of the alleged assault.
Davis talked to police after The Salt Lake Tribune's July 2016 story about Green.
(Editor's note: The Tribune generally does not to identify victims of sexual assault, but Davis has agreed to be named.)
—
2:35 p.m.
Carsen Davis never named Torrey Green as her attacker after he allegedly raped her in October 2014, she said, because she was worried about ruining his life.
The two had met at Utah State University's Taggart Student Center on campus, she said. She thought he seemed nice and polite, she said, so she agreed to meet up with him again later.
On the night of the alleged attack, she told the court on Wednesday, Green picked her up at her dorm and took her back to his apartment for dinner. But they never got to dinner, she said, because he took her to his room to watch a movie.
Once there, they began kissing — which she said she consented to — but then he grabbed her buttocks and started taking things too far. She told him no and asked him to stop, she said, but Green laughed it off.
When she tried to get away, she said, he pinned her against the wall. She eventually ended up on the bed, she said, where he removed her pants and raped her.
Afterward, Green drove to a location where Davis' friend, Alec Westover, was living. She told him what happened, but didn't give details.
Davis didn't want to share information, Westover told police during a recorded interview that was played in court, but it was clear she was on the verge of breaking down.
She eventually told him that she was raped, Westover told police, but he said she didn't know the rapist's name or where he lived — just that he looked older and that he was dressed in USU apparel. Westover wanted to take her to the hospital, he said, but she refused.
Soon after, she wrote a paper for her English class about the assault. In that paper, she said she didn't know the name of her attacker.
"I was scared. I didn't want to ruin his life," Davis said, adding that naming him would "make it real."
Asked by the defense if Carsen had any physical proof that there was sexual intercourse between her and Green, Carsen said, "No."
On redirect questioning by prosecutors, Carsen said she transferred to a different school after freshman year. "I didn't feel comfortable living in Logan anymore," she said.
(Editor's note: The Tribune generally does not identify victims of sexual assault, but Davis has agreed to be named.)
—
12:35 p.m.
Allison, a friend of M.H., first heard that M.H. was raped in 2014, she told the court. M.H. was visibly upset and crying, Allison testified, but she didn't press the matter further.
But last August, the two women went to California with friends and The Tribune's story about Green came up in conversation.
Allison said M.H. asked the name of the alleged rapist and, after they looked up the story on a phone, M.H. disclosed that Green had raped her, as well.
They urged her to report the alleged attack, Allison said, adding that they said it didn't matter that other women had come forward with allegations against Green.
"We said, 'You need to report that,' " Allison recalled.
She said she later helped M.H. contact the police.
(Editor's note: The Tribune is using only Allison's first name to protect the identity of the alleged rape victim.)
—
12:15 p.m.
Andrew, M.H.'s on-again, off-again boyfriend at the time of the alleged assault, told the court Wednesday that he punched a hole in the wall when M.H. told him she had been raped by Torrey Green.
She previously told him that she and Green were hanging out, he said, and he didn't like it. He didn't feel Green had good intentions, he added, but he couldn't recall why he thought that.
He believes M.H. shared the details of the assault in late November or early December 2013.
(Editor's note: The Tribune is using only Andrew's first name to protect the identity of the alleged rape victim.)
—
11:45 a.m.
M.H. testified that she didn't tell police about the November 2013 night Torrey Green allegedly raped her because she didn't realize it was happening to other women.
That year, she met Green on the dating app Tinder. She agreed to meet him at Utah State University's library, she told the court. He came off as charming and cute, she said, so she agreed to meet up with him again, this time at his apartment.
He made her dinner, she said, and they talked about fried chicken and music. Eventually they ended up in Green's bedroom, she said, where they began to watch a movie and he gave her a massage. But then he started taking her clothes off, she said, despite her repeated requests that he stop.
He told her that she would like it, she said. And then she alleged that he raped her on his bed.
Afterward, she said, he was viewing a YouTube video on his phone. He told her he liked women who were sassy because you couldn't make them have sex.
Within 24 hours after the alleged assault, she said, she told a friend what had happened.
M.H. said she would occasionally get text messages from Green after the alleged assault. She also saw him on campus a couple of times, she said. She would greet him normally, she said, but inwardly she was upset.
She decided to report the alleged assault to police after speaking with friends in August 2016, following The Salt Lake Tribune's story about Green, she said.
—
11:15 a.m.
As the preliminary hearing actually gets underway, prosecutors call alleged victim M.H., who was a Utah State University student when she met Torrey Green through the dating app Tinder in November 2013.
—
10:50 a.m.
Judge Thomas Willmore, the presiding judge in 1st District Court, denied a defense motion to recuse Judge Brian Cannell, saying there was no evidence of prejudice toward defense attorney Skye Lazaro in a search warrant for her office signed by Cannell.
Willmore questioned why Lazaro had waited until last night to file the request for recusal, instead of when the warrant was filed two weeks ago. Lazaro said she was on a plane to Mexico for vacation and hadn't had time since she came back.
Willmore asked the prosecutor, Spencer Walsh, why he chose to file a search warrant on Lazaro's office.
"In all my years ... I've never seen a search warrant issued on an attorney's office unless she was accused of a committing crime," Willmore said.
Walsh assured Willmore that prosecutors are not accusing Lazaro of a crime, explaining he was under the impression that Lazaro had the phones belonging to Torrey Green in her possession.
Walsh admitted he could have written the search warrant better.
Willmore said the language in the search warrant "is not directed against Ms. Lazaro or alleging she committed a crime, it's alleging that Mr. Green committed a crime. There's nothing that I can see that impugns Ms. Lazaro or shows any bias or prejudice in [the behavior] of Judge Cannell against Ms. Lazaro or Mr. Green."
Willmore also officially quashed the search warrant, which Walsh said they were not going to serve anyway.
The preliminary hearing was now to resume.
—
9:40 a.m.
Moments after a judge resolved evidence issues ahead of a three-day preliminary hearing for former Utah State University linebacker Torrey Green, who is charged in seven sexual assaults, the defense informed 1st District Judge Brian Cannell they want to recuse him.
The judge, appearing irritated — he said he never saw the motion — called a temporary halt to the proceedings so he could consult the presiding judge.
Cannell said he can't rule on anything with the recusal motion outstanding.
"You need to lead with that," Cannell told defense attorney Skye Lazaro in reference to the recusal request.
Cannell had already ruled on several other motions Wednesday morning, including a separate motion to continue the preliminary hearing.
The motion for recusal claims the judge is biased against the defense because he signed a search warrant to seize from Lazaro's office a phone belonging to Green.
Lazaro claims the search warrant alleged that the phone had been used "to commit or conceal a pubic offense..."
By signing the search warrant, Cannell "made a finding that Defense counsel was essentially unethical and concealing evidence and/or a party to illegal conduct," the defense motion states.
Lazaro asked in her motion that Cannell be immediately recused and that the preliminary hearing be continued until the presiding judge could make a ruling.
Before leaving the bench, Cannell told attorneys that presiding Judge Thomas Willmore will review the motion and will likely make a ruling sometime Wednesday. Until then, court has been recessed.
Prosecutors noted that the language in the search warrant language was "boiler plate" and that the issue was resolved without actually executing the warrant.
—
9:21 a.m.
Cannell has ordered that the preliminary hearing will continue today despite Lazaro's request to continue the proceedings.
—
9:15 a.m.
Deputy Cache County Attorney Spencer Walsh told 1st District Judge Brian Cannell that the evidence was given to defense attorneys in December.
Lazaro then backed off on the claim that prosecutors "willfully" withheld evidence — but said the defense still hasn't seen some of it because some of the downloads were empty or didn't show properly.
"I don't think that changes the fact that these people are not here to testify and they want to show just the videos and we haven't seen them," she said.
—
8:30 a.m.
The attorney for a former Utah State University linebacker charged in seven sexual assaults has filed a motion to postpone his preliminary hearing, which was set to begin 9 a.m. Wednesday.
In the motion, filed late Tuesday, Skye Lazaro states that Cache County prosecutors on Monday emailed her a list of evidence — including a number of video-recorded interviews with witnesses — they expect to use during this week's proceedings. Lazaro states that she does not have this evidence and would either like time to review it or have the state barred from using the evidence this week.
"It appears the State has willfully withheld evidence from [Green] based on the State's plan to introduce the above listed evidence at the preliminary hearing in the above listed matters," court documents state.