Former banker accused of raping Irish student had no injuries, court hears

The former Goldman Sachs executive accused of raping an Irish J-1 student, in the Hamptons, had no sign of injury on the day of the attack, according to the testimony of a local detective.

Jason Lee (38) is on trial or the assault and rape of a 20-year-old Irish student, identified in court only as D.D., at the home of Rene Duncan (1 Clover Leaf Lane), in East Hampton, Long Island. Lee has pleaded not guilty.

The alleged assault is said to have taken place about around 6am in the morning in the downstairs bathroom of the beach house. Lee and Duncan had met the Irish student, her brother and friends at a local nightclub. After the club they continued the party in the house.

The trial began Wednesday at the Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, Long Island. Acting State Supreme Court Justice Barbara R. Kahn is presiding and Lee waived the right to jury last week. Kerriann Kelly, head of the Suffolk County District Attorney's major crimes division is representing the Irish student, D.D. while Lee is represented by Andrew Lankler of Baker Botts, a law firm headquartered in Houston along with Edward Burke Jr. of Sag Harbor.

Detective Ryan Hogan testified in court, on Thursday, that he collected Lee’s clothes worn and photographed him on the day of the alleged attack. Lee’s defense lawyer Andrew Lankler asked him if Lee had any injures. Hogan said “a little cut on the cuticle of his thumb.” He went on to confirm that the cut was consistent with someone who bites their fingernails.

On Wednesday the court heart a graphic description of the attack. The Irish student alleges that Lee held her down and covered her mouth as he raped her. She claimed the attack only ended because she kneed him in the genitals.

A taxi dispatcher, from Montauk, a nearby town, said she had received a call from a man seeking a cab just after 6am on the night in question. Yadira Holandes-Vlazquez said she did not take a name as it was not company policy. The man wanted to go to the Surf Lodge hotel, in Montauk, about 25 miles from the East Hampton’s house. She told him the cab would take some time and the caller said it was an emergency.

He called her back saying “Where the f*** is my taxi?’ ”

She told the court the caller was “agitated, like he was definitely under stress.”

The court had previously heard that after the police arrived on the scene that nigh Lee had disappeared. He was later found curled up in the fetal position in his car. He had said he was embarrassed and drunk and had fallen asleep. His phone records showed he had been calling for cabs.

Holandes-Vlazquez told the court that Lee sounded like a “typical city American who wanted everything now”.

Lankler asked her if Lee “sounded like a pushy New Yorker who wanted his cab and wanted it now?” She said “Yes.”

Detective Hogan interviewed Holandes-Vlazquez after the attacked about these calls.

On Wednesday afternoon retired Detective William Rathjen, a fingerprint expert with Suffolk County Police Department, testified that two fingerprints in the middle of the inside door of one of the two downstairs bathrooms belonged to the Irish student.

However, he said he was unable to identify who had left swipe marks and a palm print but said that from 20 years’ experience he believes they all came from the same person and “developed very quickly” from the top light prints to the lower heavier prints.

The lawyer for the prosecution Kerriann Kelly asked Rathjen if these swipes and palm prints could have been made by someone trying to open the door from the outside.

The prosecution alleged that Lee pushed the bathroom door. The Irish student tried to push the door closed but failed and feel backwards. Kelly said the victim “left fingerprints behind her as proof.”

The lawyer for the defense Lankler pointed out the detective was unable to say with a degree of scientific certainty that the same person created these prints

Photographs of the finger-printed door, the house and Lee’s car, were presented to the court in evidence.

The trial will resume on Monday morning. The alleged victim is expected to testify next week.