Opening Arguments Held in Gray's Rape Trial

Attorneys in the rape and kidnapping trial of Windham resident and former Salem Planning Board member Jeffrey Gray used their opening arguments to paint vastly different pictures about the events that led up to his arrest.

Gray's trial opened Wednesday morning in Rockingham County Superior Court and jurors heard disturbing details about allegations of sexual encounters Gray had with the accuser.

A prosecutor said the sexual encounters were not consensual and that Gray held her "hostage." But a defense attorney for Gray said the accuser made up the allegations.

Gray, 50, has been incarcerated since March 2011 when his accuser, a 36-year-old woman from New York City, told police Gray raped her and held her against her will at his Windham home.

Gray faces nine charges of aggravated felonious sexual assault, one count of kidnapping, one count of sexual assault and one count of simple assault during this trial.

Prosecutor Geoffrey Ward told the jury the accuser was seven-and-a-half months pregnant with no money and dealing with chronic pain when she posted an ad on Craigslist looking for a place to live on March 1, 2011.

Ward said Gray responded to the ad two days later and he and the accuser spoke online. They exchanged pictures of each other and Gray agreed to pay for her plane ticket from New York City to Boston. The accuser would not pay any rent and would just need to do light housework for Gray, Ward said.

"He assures her, 'I'm not scamming you, I'm not trying to take advantage of you,'" Ward said. 

She was in New Hampshire March 5, Ward said. For the next three days, the situation for the accuser at Gray's home was "what was promised."

But on the night of March 8, Ward said the accuser noticed paperwork stating Gray was 48 years old after he'd told her he was 40. She confronted Gray about what she'd found and, according to Ward, "this is when things changed."

Ward told jurors Gray got angry and threatened to kick her out of the house. From there, Gray told the accuser she had to have sex with him or she couldn't stay.

The accuser refused, went into the bathroom and when she came out, Ward said her phone had disappeared. Ward said Gray went into her bedroom holding a roll of duct tape and told her to "turn around." When she refused, Ward said Gray began hitting the accuser. He did not use the duct tape, but Ward said that was the first time Gray raped her.

Ward described was happened next as "bizarre." He said Gray started "acting like a baby" and wanted the accuser "to play the role of his mommy." Ward said Gray then raped her again.

Gray left the room thereafter and later returned with an adult-sized diaper, demanding the accuser put the diaper on him, Ward said, and when she refused, he hit her again and told her to shut up.

Ward said Gray put on the diaper and when he needed to urinate said he didn't want to go in the diaper. Despite her pleas, Gray urinated on her, according to Ward.

Ward said Gray then took the accuser into his downstairs home office and showed her a "pornographic fetish video" with an adult female acting as a mother and an adult male asking as a baby. Ward said Gray raped her while they watched the video.

This continued until 2 a.m. when they went to bed and Ward said during the night "there were times when he would wake up and she would wake up and she'd be raped again."

In the morning on March 9, Ward said Gray raped the accuser once again around 8 a.m. He told her to take a shower and from there Ward said Gray informed her it "wasn't going to work out" and he'd be taking her back to Logan Airport in Boston.

On the way there, the accuser grabbed Gary's car registration from his glove box when he went into a convenience store.

"He discards her at Logan Airport," Ward said.

The accuser went to the first officer she could find to report what she said had happened to her. Salem and Windham detectives executed a search warrant at Gray's home on March 11 and Gray admitted to having sex with the accuser but said it was consensual.

The duct tape, used adult diapers and a blue blanket that smelled of stale urine were found by police exactly as the accuser had described them, Ward said.

Ward said the jury will have to determine if they think the sex was consensual.

"She'll tell you she didn't agree to any of it," Ward said. "She found it incredibly wrong. She found it sick. This was not what she wanted to be doing at all."

Defense attorney Julia Nye went in a decidedly different direction with her opening remarks. She tried to characterize the accuser as attempting to get away from her mother's control in New York.

Nye said the accuser identified herself online as "Mamita4UPapi," which Nye equated to "mommy for daddy."

Nye said Gray and the accuser chatted online for over 10 hours before she came to New Hampshire. According to Nye, the accuser gave numerous different reasons why she needed to get out of New York, including that her mother was selfish and demanding, that she couldn't apply for Section 8 housing and later that she had actually applied but had been rejected, among other reasons.

They discussed the idea of having sexual relations and Nye said the accuser told Gray "she liked (sex) just as much as any other person."

Nye said they went to several stores at the Mall at Rockingham Park when she came to New Hampshire. Later they watched TV on Gray's bed and "had sexual contact," Nye said.

But on the morning of the 9th, Gray told the accuser it wouldn't work out, and from there the accuser made up the rape allegations, Nye said.

"Weird, role-playing sex may have happened," Nye said. "But there is no evidence that sex during the weird role-playing was not consensual...(The accuser) said she was struck in the head repeatedly throughout the night. There's not going to be any physical evidence that matches that description."

Nye also said there is no physical evidence that Gray raped the accuser.

"This is a case about a woman in distress from being rejected and needing a sympathetic story to go home with," Nye said. "Jeff Gray is innocent."

The trial is expected to last several days.