Update, July 6, 2020: The Alameda County District Attorney’s office dismissed the charges in this case in 2017, Berkeleyside has learned. Bay City News reported that the charges were dismissed after the jury deadlocked 7-5 in favor of acquittal.
Original story: A woman whose car got locked inside a Berkeley parking garage, and accepted an offer of a place to sleep from a man she knew, woke up in the morning to find him raping her, according to police.
The incident took place Wednesday, April 8, according to court papers requested by Berkeleyside after learning of the man’s arrest.
According to those documents, just after midnight April 8, a woman realized her car had been locked inside a Berkeley parking garage.
A 22-year-old man described as an acquaintance, William Joseph Ryan III, offered to let her sleep at his apartment until the garage opened.
The woman accepted the offer and they went to Ryan’s apartment in the 1900 block of Oxford Street, Berkeley Police Officer Dave Marble wrote in papers related to Ryan’s subsequent arrest.
According to police, the woman went to bed and “Ryan curled up next to her and held her hand.” She told him she was uncomfortable with that, and “Together they agreed that their relationship was just platonic.” They both went to sleep.
At 6:30 a.m., however, the woman woke to find Ryan raping her, according to court papers. She yelled and asked him what he was doing.
“Ryan told her that he thought she was awake,” Marble wrote. The woman went into the bathroom, where she stayed for 45 minutes, then left the apartment and called police to report the rape. Police arrested Ryan on Wednesday at 11:45 a.m.
Friday afternoon, the Alameda County district attorney’s office charged Ryan with the rape of an unconscious person. The woman is not named in court papers due to laws that protect the identity of alleged sexual assault victims.
Ryan was scheduled to appear in court Friday morning for an arraignment hearing. He is no longer in custody, having been released on a $100,000 bond, according to online records maintained by the Alameda County sheriff’s department.
His next court appearance was not immediately available Friday afternoon.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Officer Byron White, of the Berkeley Police Department, has posted information online about safety, consent, and other resources. Read more about sexual assault in Berkeley in past Berkeleyside coverage.
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