Jason Lee: Verdict due over alleged rape of Irish student

A US judge hearing the trial of the former New York banker accused of raping an Irish student two years ago will deliver her verdict at 11am (4pm Irish time) on Wednesday.

New York State Judge Barbara Kahn today heard closing statements in the three-week trial of Jason Lee (38) who prosecutors allege raped the then 20-year-old student at a party in his rented summer house in the Hamptons, a resort popular with wealthy New Yorkers.

The Irish woman returned to Mr Lee’s rented house in the early hours of August 20th, 2013 after she, a female friend and her brother, whom she was visiting in the nearby resort of Montauk, met Mr Lee and a friend at a local nightclub, Georgica.

Prosecutors allege the then Goldman Sachs banker barged into a downstairs bathroom that morning as the student was changing after swimming in a pool at the house and that he pinned her to the ground and raped her.

Mr Lee, who faces up to 25 years if convicted, denies the charges. His lawyers maintain he and the Irish woman had consensual sex at the East Hampton house.

In her closing statement, prosecutor Kerriann Kelly said Mr Lee made 49 calls or text messages in the two and a half hours he spent in his car outside the house that morning after police were called following a dispute between the victim’s brother and Mr Lee’s friend.

The contacts included a call Mr Lee placed to Goldman Sachs at 6.22am that morning, which, Ms Kelly described as “the panic call - I’ve got a problem”.

Mr Lee also had repeated contacts with various taxi companies and with another friend, who was not at the house, about the names and numbers of attorneys who might help him. His friend also suggested a police sergeant who might “make a call” on his behalf.

Ms Kelly told the judge these calls, texts and his behaviour were “indicative of only one thing: the fact that he knew he did a really bad thing, that he raped a girl and had a really bad problem”.

She said that Mr Lee’s decision to keep the dress which the Irish student wore during the alleged rape showed “the consciousness of guilt loud and clear”.

She argued that the former banker “destroyed her innocence”.

In his closing statement, defence lawyer Andrew Lankler said inconsistencies in evidence showed "loud and clear" his client and the Irish woman had consensual sex.

There were “clear and fatal inconsistencies and outright contradictions” in the evidence, he said, adding that Mr Lee should be found not guilty.

The trial is being heard by a judge, and not a jury, at Mr Lee’s request, in Suffolk County criminal court in the town of Riverhead, about 130km from Manhattan.

The Irish J-1 student had been spending the summer working in another US state and was visiting her brother before her return to Ireland.

Mr Lankler told the court he did not know much about the alleged victim but he had “an idea about her culture attitudes”.

He noted how the student and her friend had joked earlier that evening that Mr Lee, who is of Asian descent, resembled the character Chow from The Hangover comedy films, a character analogous to Mr Yunioshi in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's that played on racial stereotypes.

Mr Lankler suggested the student may have made up the allegations because her friend saw her leaving the bathroom with Mr Lee. He suggested she was concerned she offended her “cultural sensitivities” and that she couldn’t imagine “having sex with that guy.” He acknowledged she was upset leaving the bathroom but he put this down to tiredness after a long night.

He speculatedher brother, who also saw them leaving the bathroom, might not have been aware that his sister was sexually active and that he may not have been able to “handle” his sister having “a sexual liaison with an older man of Asian descent”.

Mr Lankler wondered whether this had something to do with the brother’s decision not to travel from Ireland to testify at the trial.