| For Immediate Release Case # 09ZF0047 September 24, 2009 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYER AND HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND CONVICTED OF RAPING AND SEXUALLY ASSAULTING UNCONSCIOUS WOMAN ON VIDEOTAPE
*Third co-defendant is awaiting jury trial
SANTA ANA – A Santa Ana City College football player and his friend from high school were convicted today of raping and sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman while she was incapacitated due to intoxication. John Paul Foster II, 23, Seaside, Monterey County, and Michael Alexander Clemmons, 20, Tustin, pleaded guilty today to four felony counts of rape of a person unable to resist due to an intoxicating substance, one felony count of sexual penetration by foreign object of a person unable to resist due to an intoxicating substance, and three felony counts of oral copulation of a person unable to resist due to an intoxicating substance. Clemmons and Foster and expected to each be sentenced to six years in state prison at their sentencing on Nov. 6, 2009, in Department C-35, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
Co-defendant Luster Mitchell Lewis, 21, Irvine, also a then-Santa Ana City College football player, was indicted on the same charges as Clemmons and Foster. Lewis is scheduled to face jury trial on Nov. 9, 2009, in Department C35, central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
The three defendants became friends while attending Tustin High School. Foster moved to Monterey County after high school and occasionally visited friends in Orange County. Clemmons and Lewis played football for Santa Ana City College at the time of their arrest.
In July 2008, Clemmons and Foster were partying at the Key Inn at 1611 El Camino Real in Tustin. Lewis is accused of parting with them. While she was highly intoxicated, Jane Doe was dropped off by a mutual friend who trusted the defendants to take care of her. She later passed out. Clemmons and Foster knew that Jane Doe was unconscious, incapacitated, and unable to resist due to intoxication. Foster used a video camera to tape the duration of the sexual assault.
Lewis is accused of removing the victim’s clothes and moving her from the bed to the floor. Clemmons repeatedly raped, orally copulated, and digitally penetrated Jane Doe. Lewis is accused of doing the same. One defendant is accused of ejaculating on the victim’s face. Foster sexually assaulted the victim on tape while holding the video camera by rubbing his penis against her face. Foster then handed the video camera to another defendant and urinated on Jane Doe.
Throughout the sexual assault, the non-responsive Jane Doe was unconscious and unable to resist because she was under the influence of an intoxicating substance. Clemmons slapped her in the face, told her to wake up, and held the victim’s nose closed to suffocate her in order to wake her up. Lewis is accused of doing the same. Jane Doe did not wake up on the video.