Was lawyer intimate with teen or raped by him? Both versions drawn in Fresno trial
Family law attorney Jennifer Walters, who is on trial for allegedly having sex with a minor, flatly denied she had an intimate relationship with the teenager despite evidence from the prosecution that among the thousands of messages between the two were heart, hug and love emojis.
Walters, 42, has maintained that she was more of a motherly figure to the teenager who became so infatuated with her that he eventually raped her in her Fresno law office.
Prosecutor Kaitlin Drake said Walters wasn’t raped. She knowingly began a sexual relationship with the teenager when he was 13 and continued it for four years. It ended in 2019 after he told his parents about what happened. Walters was investigated and later arrested and charged with 15 felony counts of sexual assault.
If found guilty on all the charges, she faces a maximum of 24 years in prison.
Attorney testifies that she was raped
During Walters’ testimony on Monday and Tuesday in Fresno County Superior Court, her attorney Mark Broughton showed the jury how Walters opened up her home to her children’s friends and how she generously helped the teenager out on several occasions, including buying him an iPhone.
But she also testified that by the summer of 2015, the teenager began showing signs of affection toward her. He told her he loved her. She once caught him napping in her bed while she was out of the house. And he tried to kiss her while she was doing laundry.
Walters said she talked to his parents about it and they assured her they would speak to their son. The two families eventually moved in together to help each other out. The teenager’s family was having financial trouble and Walters was recently separated from her husband.
The financial arrangement continued for a while, until Walters had to sell the house due to her own financial struggles that also included her law practice. She changed locations several times to reduce her costs.
Walters testified it was in her office where the teenager sexually assaulted her in July 2019. She had asked him to give her a ride to her office so she could pick up some files and in exchange she would buy him Taco Bell. He agreed and while she was collecting her files, he sat on a futon in her office playing video games on his phone.
“I said, ‘Let’s go,’ but he he didn’t get up, he pulled me down onto his lap,” she testified. “I don’t remember what he said, but I stood back up and sat down beside him. He was acting strange and I asked him if he was OK. He asked me, ‘You love me, right?’ He then grabbed my face with both hands and tried to kiss me. I told him, ‘You can’t do that.’ He grabbed my shoulders and I ended up on my stomach.”
Walters testified she was raped and sodomized. They left the office together, stopping at Taco Bell before driving home.
The teenager apologized later that night after seeing Walters was distraught, she testified.
“I told him, ‘How could you do that to me?’”
Walters testified that she chose not to report the incident for several months, fearing embarrassment, and the possibility the teenager would try and concoct a story to protect himself in case she accused him of rape.
Prosecutor focuses on SnapChat exchanges
Under cross examination, Drake painted a different picture of the relationship between the teenager and Walters.
Drake introduced page after page of messages between the two of them using the instant messaging app SnapChat.
In some of the messages they used emojis showing hugs and love. Walters even created a bitmoji resembling her and the teenager.
In other, more explicit messages, the teenager talked about wanting to have sex with Walters. Drake asked her several times why she allowed him to say those things to her.
Walters testified that she tried to redirect the conversation away from sex to other subjects.
Several days after Walters said she was sexually assaulted, she and her family traveled to Italy for several days. During that time, Walters continued messaging with the teenager about issues he was having with a girl. He also apologized for spending all the money she gave him for a recent trip to the Central Coast.
Reading the message to the jury, Drake said the teenager told Walters he was sorry and that it wouldn’t happen again.
Drake said Walters’ response was: “Why would you do that to me, you are supposed to make me feel better, not used again.”
The teenager replied that he wasn’t thinking and that he was not used to her being gone for two weeks.
“She tells him, ‘You are going to have to work it off,’” Drake said, reading the message.
Drake asked Walters if she meant anything sexual by the phrase “work it off.”
“No,” Walters said.
In one string of messages while Walters was in Italy, she told the teenager that she loved him and to get some rest. He responded with an emoji showing hugs. She apparently was disappointed at his response.
She wrote, “Where is my ‘love you?’”
Drake pointedly asked Walters why she responded that way.
“You were sexually assaulted on July 22 and while in Italy you want to make sure your rapist tells you that he loves you, too?” she asked. ”Doesn’t it sound like someone who desperately wants some affection?”
“It probably sounds that way,” Walters said.
The trial continues Wednesday.
This story was originally published September 27, 2022 at 5:40 PM.
