A trial began Wednesday morning for former fraternity president of Temple University, Ari Goldstein.
Goldstein was the president of Alpha Epsilon Pi. Temple suspended the fraternity in April 2018, after one of Goldstein’s victims reported her allegations to police.
Inquirer.com reported that the accusation by a now 23-year-old will mark the beginning of Goldstein’s sexual assault trial. Goldstein is being charged with forcing himself on two women on different occasions inside his frat house bedroom. The first incident took place in 2017.
During the first incident, he allegedly invited the then 21-year-old woman up to his room after a night of partying. It was reported that two had met previously and had sex before.
In Nov. 2017, the victim and Goldstein started to have sex again.
It was reported that during this sexual encounter, the victim asked him to stop. Instead of stopping, he allegedly shoved his hand into her mouth and held his arm down against her chest, Inquirer.com reports. After that, it was reported that Goldstein forced her to perform oral sex on him.
The second incident occurred in Feb. 2018, in which Goldstein allegedly attempted to assault a freshman.
The second victim took the stand on Wednesday morning and said she didn’t report the encounter until the other women’s allegations were publicized. The victim described his behavior to friends, but didn’t really want to be involved in the legal process.
The opening remarks for the trial started Wednesday. During Assistant District Attorney Zachary Wynkoop’s opening statement, he said the case was focused on Goldstein refusing to listen to the woman as she declined his advances.
“What this case is really going to boil down to is one word, two letters: No,” Wynkoop said in the statement, according to Inquirer.com.
Goldstein’s attorney, Perry de Marco Sr., said that a lot of the behavior that is expected to be talked about during the trial is typical on college campuses.
De Marco said that the women accusing Goldstein are “confused,” and added that situations can become fuzzy because a woman can “dress like a hussy.” De Marco also said when women take drugs with men, dance with men and lead them on, everything can get tricky.
“We have no idea, in today’s world in sexual matters, what is right and what is wrong,” de Marco stated. “If you don’t want to get burnt, don’t stick your foot in the fire.”
It was reported that testimony will continue for the rest of the week.
