Agee pleads guilty to rape

A Charlottesville man pleaded guilty Tuesday to raping a former University of Virginia law school student in a case that spawned a controversial lawsuit.

John Henry Agee admitted to sexually assaulting the woman, then 23, as she walked home from a party in September 2005 and acknowledged in an Alford plea that prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a rape conviction.

Agee, 38, faces two life prison terms when he returns to court Jan. 18 for sentencing.

The victim, who has since transferred to Georgetown University, originally identified another man as the rapist. Christopher Matthew was charged, but police released him after DNA evidence showed he was not the attacker.

Matthew is now suing the sexual assault victim for $750,000, alleging defamation and malicious prosecution. The case is pending in Charlottesville Circuit Court.

“We are very sorry for what happened to Mr. Matthew,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Elizabeth Killeen said, marking the first time prosecutors have addressed Matthew’s lawsuit in court.

Killeen said Matthew was as much a victim in the case as the law student, that the victim was under stress at the time she identified Matthew and that police are required to err on the side of public safety and follow where evidence leads them.

Two days after Matthew was released from jail, a forensic biologist from the state lab notified city police that Agee’s DNA sample from the state database matched DNA collected from the victim.

Killeen recited other evidence that would have been presented at trial, including a description of the events from the night of the assault.

The victim had just moved to Charlottesville and attended get-to-know-you law school functions Sept. 2, 2005, including skits, dinner and a party, Killeen said.

Throughout the evening and into the night, the woman drank nine to 11 beers, Killeen said, and around 12:45 a.m. decided to walk home from a party on Jefferson Park Avenue because she had lost her wallet and could not pay for a cab.

During the walk home to Jefferson Ridge Apartments, Killeen said, the woman noticed a man following her. Nervous, she considered calling 911 on her cell phone but the man talked to her and seemed to be concerned that she didn’t know where she was headed.

Killeen said the woman waited for the man to pass then decided to take Sunset Avenue toward home. Next, she was grabbed from behind and dragged off the road into the woods near the Rivanna Trail.

“Her first reaction was to physically resist,” Killeen said, describing how the woman kicked Agee in the groin and ran.

Agee caught the victim, Killeen said, and began choking her, so the woman stopped resisting and tried to talk him out of raping her. She talked about religion, her boyfriend and even offered her attacker money.

Killeen said the victim was afraid of being raped, so she tried different tactics to prevent the assault, including not protesting when he first touched her, but he raped her anyway.

The victim pretended to pass out, Killeen said, and waited until Agee left the area. When she started to get up to leave, he returned, and helped her gather her things.

They both left the wooded area and, once on the roadway, walked separate ways, according to Killeen.

The victim found her cell phone and called 911. Killeen played a portion of the call in court, in which the victim could be heard pleading for help and crying. Initially, the woman said she was not raped, but also asked for a rape exam. Killeen said the victim was in denial.

“It is in the context of ‘I can’t believe this happened to me,’ and ‘Why has this happened to me?’” Killeen said.

Once police arrived, they discovered two hoop earrings and the victim’s underwear in the woods where she said she was attacked. They stopped Matthew, who was walking home, and brought him to the scene, where the victim identified him based on the sound of his voice.

The woman was taken to a hospital where a nurse collected forensic evidence and noted injuries, including bruises to the victim’s elbow and red marks on her neck and upper arm. The victim’s clothes were also covered in dried mud and vegetation, Killeen said.

Once Agee was identified as a suspect, he was taken to the police station and questioned for more than three hours, Killeen said. For more than two hours, Agee maintained that he was being set up by police because they could no longer pin the rape on Matthew, Killeen said.

Then, Agee changed his story, telling detectives that he had had sex in the woods earlier that night and that the victim must have picked up his DNA that way, Killeen said.

Finally, Killeen said, Agee claimed that he attended the same party as the victim, that they walked on JPA together and that she consented to his advances.

Killeen said the victim agreed with the terms of the plea agreement, which call for prosecutors to drop two felonies against Agee: abduction with the intent to defile and attempted forcible sodomy. He pleaded guilty to object sexual penetration and entered an Alford plea to rape. There is no agreement as to sentencing.

The convictions will not trigger a probation violation for Agee’s two previous convictions in 2001 for attempted malicious wounding of his child’s mother and assault and battery of a police officer.

Judge Jay T. Swett said he would delay acceptance of the guilty pleas pending receipt of a presentence report.