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Last updated on Monday, September 19, 2016
(BLOOMINGTON) - The rape charges against former Indiana University student Aaron Farrer have been dismissed.
According to police reports, a woman says that on September 24, 2015, Farrer took advantage of her drunken state and raped her. But Farrer told police the woman consented to the sex and initiated the act.
According to police, the woman was drunk after a night of drinking with her friends and asked 21-year-old Farrer, a neighbor, to stay with her so they could go out to the bars and continue partying. He agreed.
Both she and Farrer agreed that they had sex that Night, but the woman claims she was so intoxicated that she couldn't have consented to the act therefore it was rape.
She showed police a text message that Farrer sent her the next day apologizing for his actions, saying he was responsible for what had happened.
But Farrer told police that the woman was drunk, but had demanded sex from him. He told police he tried to fend off her advances, but then complied.
He filed a complaint against the woman in October accusing her of coercing him into having sex.
The now-21-year-old woman said she may have initiated the sex, but she couldn't remember consenting because she was too drunk.
Police arrested Farrer on Oct. 6, charging him with rape in which the victim is mentally disabled or deficient, unable to consent. He posted the required bond -- $2,500 cash -- and was released from jail that day after promising to appear in court for his Oct. 13 initial hearing, where he pleaded not guilty.
In November, a sexual misconduct hearing on the incident was held before a three-person panel in a conference room at IU's ethics office. They heard evidence in the case and found in woman's favor, holding Farrer accountable for what had happened. He was expelled from IU, where he had been a cadet on the IU police force and an ROTC officer.
However Farrer argued that it was the woman, not him, who initiated that sexual encounter, but the criminal case moved forward.
Then the first week of September Monroe County Prosecutor Judith Coffey filed a motion to dismiss the case.
The woman was shocked and asked to meet with the prosecutor.
Chief Prosecutor Bob Miller told the woman there was insufficient evidence to move forward with the case, saying the dismissal was inevitable saying under Indiana's rape statute, a person's impairment or level of intoxication must be so great that they are unaware of the sexual conduct which was not what happened in this case.
The woman who now suffers from a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis has a therapy dog, and is set to graduate from IU in December.
Both her and Farrer are thinking of filing civil lawsuits.
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