Rape trial of former Rutland police officer underway in Worcester Superior Court

WORCESTER — A rape trial of a former Rutland police officer is underway in Worcester Superior Court, after an earlier conviction was vacated.

Jurors were selected Tuesday morning in the case of Jason D. Briddon, who was charged in 2008 of raping a woman he met at a bar in May 2007. He was convicted after a second trial, the first ending in a mistrial.

While on bail after his initial rape arrest, he was arrested again for raping another woman. He was convicted in the second case and in 2010 sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison.

A separate trial, for the earlier rape charge, ended in a hung jury. A second trial ended with a conviction and a sentence of 18 to 20 years.

That conviction was vacated in 2022 by the state Appeals Court, after Briddon argued that his defense lawyer should have called his wife to the stand. By the second trial, Briddon and his wife were in a contentious divorce and Briddon’s lawyer elected not to call her to the stand.

Briddon, who was a Worcester Regional Transit Authority bus driver and a part-time Rutland police officer at the time of the alleged assault, is once again being charged with rape and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Addressing the 12-member jury plus two alternates, the prosecution and the defense made their opening statements Tuesday.

While the alleged victim “didn’t come from a picture-perfect family,” Assistant District Attorney Emily R. Meyers said Briddon took advantage of her vulnerability and went against her will and her consent.

Meyers said the alleged victim, a single mother with a 5-year-old son in 2012, had an argument with her boyfriend after the two were drinking that day.

She followed her boyfriend into a bar and when he refused to come home, she left the bar crying, Meyers said.

The woman befriended a female stranger who was smoking a cigarette outside a bar on Water Street and the stranger invited her to go in the bar and have a drink with her friends, Meyers said.

The woman did.

After they went to another bar, Briddon handed the woman, who was 27,years old at the time, an open beer; soon after, she started to feel ill and expressed that she was weak and dizzy and wanted to go home, Meyers said.

She accepted a ride from Briddon, a man she just met that night, who she thought was trustworthy because she believed he was a Worcester police officer, Meyers said.

It turned out that Bridden was a longtime employer at the Worcester Regional Transit Authority and a part-time Rutland police officer for three years.

Instead of driving her home, Briddon drove the woman to a rooming house, Meyers said.

When she asked what he was doing, Briddon said he was getting more beer. The woman told Briddon that she didn’t want anymore beer and that she couldn’t walk, Meyers said.

Briddon carried her up the stairs to the second floor of the rooming house and threw her down on a box spring, at which time she hit her head and passed out, Meyers said.

When she came to, the woman found Briddon on top of her, having sex without her consent, Meyers said.

In his statement to the jury, Darren T. Griffis, the attorney for the defense, said the prosecution wants the jury to turn a blind eye to the evidence and ignore inconsistency in the woman’s testimony, which, he added, is complicated, muddled and unclear.

Griffis said a group of friends were celebrating a birthday at a bar at Kelley Square.

One of the friends went outside for a smoke and saw the woman walking up Water Street, crying and upset.

The woman was at a cookout all day with her boyfriend and she followed him to a bar in the area, Griffis said.

The partygoer who was smoking invited the alleged victim inside to have a drink and join her group of friends.

It is at this point that the narrative gets muddled, Griffis said.

The woman can’t be sure of her explanation of how the beer in question came to be, while her details and location of the bars and the “rooming house” and the truck she was in are inconsistent and “don’t add up.”

When Worcester Police Lt. William O’Connor got involved and investigated the rape, he drove the woman around the city for hours, Griffis said, and she had trouble locating the place that she was talking about.

Looking for a place with a connection with Briddon, O’Connor centered on 59 William St., which is where the WRTA Union office is located, and of which Briddon is a member, Griffis said.

O’Connor’s investigation essentially ends there, Griffis said.

Finishing up his closing statement, Griffis reminded the jury that when there are doubts, the defendant has the benefit of the doubt.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Rape trial of former Rutland police officer underway in Worcester Superior Court