Alleged Martinez Rape Victim Called To Testify

By Bay City News

Defense attorneys for a former Contra Costa County sex crimes prosecutor accused of raping a junior colleague three years ago called the alleged victim to testify today in a hearing on a motion to dismiss the charges.

Michael Gressett, 54, is facing a 13-count criminal indictment alleging that he raped and sodomized the 32-year-old victim, referred to in court as Jane Doe, during a lunch break at his house in Martinez on May 8, 2008.

The indictment also charges Gressett with numerous enhancements, including allegations that he handcuffed the victim and used an ice pick and a gun during the assault.

Gressett's attorneys, Daniel Russo and Michael Kotin, have said from the beginning that the sex was consensual and the charges against Gressett were politically motivated.

They have argued in a lengthy motion that the indictment should be dismissed on a number of grounds, including an allegation that the state attorney general's office, which is prosecuting the case, failed to present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury.

Questions Russo put to Doe today centered around a $450,000 civil settlement with the county that was not disclosed to the grand jury, which the defense has argued shows that Doe had a financial motivation for reporting the alleged assault.

According to Russo, Doe testified before the grand jury on Oct. 6, 2009, the same day that the county board of supervisors approved the settlement in a closed session hearing.

Doe, however, said she had been unaware that the settlement had been ratified that day. She signed the agreement a week later, according to court documents.

According to the defense motion, the grand jury was still in session when the settlement reached its final approval, but the attorney general's office failed to disclose it.

In their opposition to the defense motion, the attorney general's office argued that they didn't disclose the civil settlement to the grand jury because they didn't know it had been settled.

Earlier this week, Robert Kochly, who was the district attorney at the time, and the two men working directly below him, Brian Baker and Paul Sequeira, testified that they had not informed the attorney general's office about Doe's civil claim either.

According to the defense motion, instead of disclosing the settlement, prosecutors argued before the grand jury that Doe faced discrimination in the district attorney's office for reporting the alleged assault.

In her civil suit, Doe, who had been a contract employee at the time of the alleged assault, claimed that she had been turned down for a permanent position in the office in retaliation for reporting the assault, according to the defense motion.

During her grand jury testimony, however, she allegedly said she believed she was not hired because of budgetary reasons, Russo said.
Doe said today that she didn't know why she wasn't hired, but believed it was a combination of budgetary reasons and retaliation for reporting the assault.

She said she didn't disclose the civil suit to the attorney general's office or to the grand jury because she had signed a confidentiality agreement.

Although the defense has argued that the civil suit shows that Doe had a financial motivation for reporting the alleged assault, Doe said today that she filed the claim because she thought it was the right thing to do.

"I felt that the way the county handled it after I reported the rape was at least inappropriate and frankly egregious," Doe said.

According to the attorney general's office, Doe reported the alleged assault to a private attorney four days after it happened, but said she didn't want to file a criminal complaint.

That attorney told the district attorney's office of the allegations and the matter was treated as an internal personnel matter for several months, according to the attorney general's office.

During that time, Gressett continued to prosecute cases and Doe continued to work in the same office as him.

The case was reported to Martinez police in late September 2008 and Gressett was arrested on Oct. 2, five months after the alleged assault, according to the attorney general's office.

Gressett, who had been fired from his job for misconduct, won an arbitration hearing in February, during which the district attorney's office was ordered to reinstate him. He remains free on bail and is on paid leave.

Attorneys on both sides are scheduled to argue the motions Sept. 16 in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez.

The case is scheduled to go to trial Oct. 31.