PORT CLINTON — Arica Waters sat with her back straight, a pink pen poised over a legal notepad, as the man she claims assaulted her took the stand before a visiting judge in Ottawa County on Tuesday morning.
She watched silently from her wooden courtroom chair, taking steady notes and listening to arguments from her defense team, made up of Toledo-based attorney Sarah Anjum and nationally recognized victims rights attorney Laura Dunn.
Ms. Waters, 29, of Lyndhurst, Ohio, stands accused in Ottawa County Common Pleas Court of lying to police about being raped by Jeremy Berman, a former Put-in-Bay detective, in July, 2020, while she also was employed by the department as an officer for the summer season.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost charged the woman in October, 2020 with two counts of making false alarms, one of which is a fourth-degree felony. The other is a misdemeanor.
Prior to the start of testimony, Ms. Waters waived her right to a jury trial and requested a bench trial be held before retired Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Janet Burnside, who stepped in when Ottawa County Judge Bruce Winters resigned from the case.
During his opening statement, state prosecutor Drew Wood shared several strings of text messages that he said suggest Ms. Waters consented to sex with Mr. Berman.
“The evidence will show that the defendant knew she had not been raped. She knew it in the moment. She knew it afterwards. And she never forgot it,” Mr. Wood said.
The state is claiming...
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