"You are here because the defendant Kailan Meserve raped two women"

That is the statement Deputy District Attorney Brie Bennett started her opening arguments to the jury in the Kailan Meserve jury trial.

"You are here because the defendant, Kailan Meserve, raped two. The first woman, we will refer to as Jane Doe. Came to visit friends, look for work, went to the Yellow Rose. It is a social community, she met a number of people, hung out with the defendant Kailan Meserve and one night they went to the Yellow Rose. They all drank a lot and she doesn't remember much. She blacked out.She talked to other people, she had passed out and disappeared for a while.Some people thought that maybe Mr. Meserve had something to do with it. Next night, there is a ping pong event at the Community Center. Mr. Meserve offered to give her a ride home. They are in the car for a while, he asked her to do things she wasn't comfortable with, asked him to take her home, he didn't. He took her to his property, called her his bitch, asked her if she had sex with anyone else, he threatened to kill her. If you don;t do what I say, I will kill you, freeze your body and feed it to the animals."

"He made her take off her clothes, he took off his clothes, did number of sex acts with her she did not want to do." Ms. Bennett then described the forcible oral sex, forcible sexual intercourse, "biting her breasts and arms that hurt for several days."

"Every time she tried to object, he would threaten her, force her, at one point he made fun of her when he was choking her. He drove her to a friend's house. She was concerned about telling friends at first. It took her a week and a half to tell her friends. She reported the incident in two weeks."

"Another victim Jane Doe #2. Incident happened in 2013. She didn't have the courage to come forward until she heard someone else had. She had only been to Petrolia twice before. She was in Humboldt County. She went to visit her friend Ashley in Petrolia. Ashley and Jane Doe #2 met with Mr. Meserve and his wife. They were all going to the Yellow Rose. Mrs. Meserve cooked dinner, they hung out., all were flirty and free. They went to the Yellow Rose.  At some point, Mr. Meserve and his wife went home. He came back, socialized."

 After they went home, Ms. Bennett described where Ashley and Jane Doe #2 were sleeping in the house. "You will hear from Ashley that she does not remember much because she had a lot to drink. Jane Doe #2 woke up with Mr. Meserve on top of her. He started kissing her. She said, what are you doing? Don't you have a wife and kids? Every time she tried to get away he stopped her; he put his hand over her mouth. Took her clothes off, performed oral sex, penetrated her, he couldn't maintain an erection. He put his penis and testicles in her mouth. Bit and sucked on her breasts."

"Mr. Meserve left. He came back, a second time.. Again, on top of her, did everything he did the first time he was there. When he left the second time, she work up Ashley. You will hear from Ashley. She remembers being woken up and Jane Doe #2 crying. When they woke up next morning, Mr. Meserve wanted to talk to Jane Doe #2. She left and went back to the Bay area."

"Jane Doe #2 did not call the Rape Crisis Center. She heard about Jane Die #1 and felt bad that she hadn't come forward. Jane Doe #1 and #2 have never met each other, never spoken and yet they have similar stories."

"I am confident that when you hear the evidence, you will be left with one conclusion, the defendant is guilty on all counts."

Previous Posts:

http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2016/03/kailan-meserve-jury-trial-confirmed.html
(this has all the previous posts from March 2015-September 2014 with another link to all previous coverage)

Previous post (with other links): http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2015/08/one-count-dismissed-two-counts-not-held.html
(this has a link to all previous coverage, including details from the preliminary hearing, which has details of the alleged sexual assaults)