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Logan • A Tuesday sentencing hearing was delayed for a former Utah State University fraternity member who sexually assaulted two women.
Jason Brian Relopez, 27, pleaded guilty in February to first-degree felony attempted rape, and third-degree felony forcible sexual abuse.
The defendant was originally charged with aggravated sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping and rape, all first-degree felonies.
Relopez's sentencing hearing was derailed after prosecutors raised concerns about a psycho-sexual evaluation done in the case — an evaluation that was a critical component to the plea deal.
If evaluators found Relopez was a low risk to re-offend, prosecutors had agreed to recommend probation with a year in jail with credit for time served, and he would enter a treatment center, according to a plea agreement document. But if he was found to be a medium or high risk, prosecutors would recommend concurrent prison terms of five years to life for the attempted rape and zero to five years for the forcible sexual abuse count.
Relopez's results indicated he was a "low moderate" risk to re-offend, but Deputy Cache County Attorney Barbara Lachmar argued before 1st District Judge Brian Cannell that two of the tests administered were "invalid and inaccurate."
"This testing, it measures physiological responses to certain scenarios," Lachmar said outside of court. "The way that I describe it is, he flat-lined everything. They can't make any assessment on that."
But defense attorney Shannon Demler asked for the results to stand, saying that his client simply had no response to the scenarios presented and that prosecutors want to re-do the evaluation in hopes of getting a result that could land his client in prison.
"We took the risk," Demler said of the plea agreement. "It's probably the most risky thing I've ever done as a defense attorney."
The judge agreed to delay Tuesday's sentencing, and scheduled an April 13 evidentiary hearing, where the doctor who evaluated Relopez will testify about the testing process and the validity of the results.
During an August preliminary hearing, a 19-year-old USU student testified that during a night of drinking at the Sigma Chi fraternity house on July 12, 2015, she and Relopez started making out.
But she became terrified, she testified, when Relopez slapped her across the face and then raped her five to six times throughout that night.
She said she never explicitly told him, "No," but said she did not give consent to the assault.
She went to police a week later.
The other alleged victim, a 20-year-old USU student, testified she was raped by Relopez inside her Cache Valley home as the two were studying together in October 2014.
She said the two began making out. But when Relopez asked her if she "wanted to go all the way," the woman testified that she said, "No."
Relopez, however, pinned her arms and legs down and raped her, she said, ignoring her pleas to stop.
That woman said she didn't go to the police about the encounter until nearly a year later, when she heard through a Greek life adviser that Relopez had been accused of raping the 19-year-old woman.
In plea documents, Relopez admits attempting to engage in sexual intercourse without the consent of one victim, and that he attempted to touch the "anus, buttocks or breast" of the other victim without her consent.