ITHACA, N.Y. — Graphic photos of a man’s beaten face were flashed in a Tompkins County courtroom Friday as jurors heard the final arguments from attorneys about exactly how he ended up with a permanent scar on his lip and impaired vision.
The defense for Christy M. Tucker says the woman fought off the nearly 200-pound man after he groped and tried to rape her on a boat last summer after a day of drinking at Cayuga Lake with friends.
Just minutes after the incident, Tucker made a quick cell phone video where she said, “When a girl is about to be raped, she fights for her life.”
Assistant District Attorney Eliza Filipowski has said, however, that Tucker became violent after her boyfriend tried to grab another woman on the boat. She is accused of attacking her boyfriend and then turning her rage on the male victim after he tried to stop her from hitting his friend.
She’s charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and two counts of first-degree assault in relation to the incident.
“Do not believe anything that Ms. Tucker has said. Do not believe the crocodile tears. Do not be fooled.”
On Aug. 23, 2015, Filipowski, said Tucker and her boyfriend, along with the alleged victim and his female relative, were on the boat since about 11 a.m.
At some point, amidst the drinking of Patron tequila and Corona beer, Tucker’s boyfriend touched Tucker’s groin area. There was apparently no issue taken at the advance. But then the boyfriend made a pass at another woman, possibly trying to do the same thing.
That’s when Filipowski says Tucker became like a tornado.
“If there is any claim of self-defense, it should be attributed to the people’s case,” she said.
The male victim is the one who, when Tucker began hitting her boyfriend, tried to stop their fight.
She says Tucker began hitting him and eventually smacked his face a Corona beer bottle and a Patron tequila bottle.
“Christy Tucker is a crazy woman,” Filipowski said. “Do not believe anything that Ms. Tucker has said. Do not believe the crocodile tears. Do not be fooled.”
She said the woman beat the man so badly, he will be facing the pain, blurred vision and be left with a permanent scar on his lip for the rest of his life.
Tucker’s injuries, which include marks or bruising to her knees, neck and a possible black eye, are evident in pictures she took of herself but are not dated. She says the photos could have been taken at another time or that the injuries could have happened to her while the male victim was trying to to defend himself.
As for the attempted rape or sexual assault charge, as well as the video Tucker made immediately following the attack, Filipowski said Tucker was just trying to figure out how she could avoid getting into legal trouble.
“All those things did not happen,” she said about Tucker’s claims.
“I fought him off.”
Defense attorney Baker said, “Credibility is going to be an issue in this case. Who’s telling the truth? Who’s not?”
He said Tucker had a black eye, bruising on her neck and marks on her knees following the attack on the boat, among the proof to corroborate her version of events about what happened on the boat last summer.
He said Tucker was walking down stairs into the cabin of the boat when the alleged male victim groped the woman’s groin area and tried to penetrate her with his fingers.
She then punched him and was subsequently attacked by the man, who put her in a headlock and fondled her breasts, Baker said. She at no point hit him with bottles, but used her fists fight him off and then kneed him in the face, causing his split lip.
Just following the assault, Tucker made a video on her cell phone indicating that the man attempted to rape her.
In the background, another woman on the boat can be heard saying something unclearly.
Baker says the woman said, “He did not try to rape you. He was going to, like, touch you.”
This proves that the alleged male victim did in fact touch Tucker inappropriately, the defense said.
Baker also said the glass found by investigators on the boat doesn’t even fit the size or shape of either the Patron or Corona bottle.
“Treat them like a jigsaw puzzle folks,” he said about the recovered glass, which Tucker said belonged to a candle. The glass did not, as the prosecution said, belong to a beer or liquor bottle.
He asked the jury to find Tucker not guilty of all charges
The jury was released to deliberate around 1:30 p.m. and, as of about 4:30 p.m., is still deliberating. They’ll be permitted to continue until 6 p.m.