Judge asks for more briefs after hearing in rape arrest

A WSU student accused of second-degree rape appeared in Whitman County Superior Court Friday for a pre-trial hearing.

Ruddy Aladina, 24, was arrested in December after a WSU student went to Pullman Regional Hospital asking for a rape kit and reported that Aladina allegedly forced her to have sex with him in his apartment after the two had met on the dance floor at Stubblefields.

Aladina pled not guilty to charges in December and was released on bail at that time.

The purpose of Friday's hearing was to determine whether statements Aladina made to police when they questioned him would be admissible at trial.

Pullman Police officers Michael Crow and Brian Chamberlain testified on the arrest following questioning Aladina at his residence two days after the alleged incident under what Crow called a "ruse."

Crow had spoken to Aladina over the telephone and asked to speak to him, stating he may have been a witness to an assault.

"I told him he was a potential witness to a crime at Mike's (Stubblefield's) and he agreed to speak to me," Crow told the court Friday.

Crow was wearing a body camera when he and Chamberlain went to the residence, and that video was shown to the court. It shows the officers arriving and Aladina answering the door and motioning for the officers to come inside.

Crow began to question Aladina about going to Mike's Dec. 13, asking him what he was there for, when he arrived and when he left.

About four minutes into the video, Crow asked Aladina about the girl he had met that Friday night.

"She wanted to go home, and I drove her home," Aladina was recorded stating.

After a few more minutes of questioning, in which Aladina stated he had taken the girl back to his apartment and the two had made out but not had sex, Crow stated the officers' purpose in being there.

"She's claiming you raped her," Crow stated on the video recording.

The questioning continued for about another 20 minutes before Officer Crow told Aladina he was under arrest for rape after he determined there were inconsistencies in Aladina's story.

Aladina's Miranda rights were read to him at the point of arrest.

"There was substantial probable cause to arrest him ," Judge David Frazier said during the hearing. "I don't see this as being coercive. He gave expansive, lengthy answers to questions."

The admissibility of the statements was not determined Friday. The judge asked defense attorney Steve Martonick, and Prosecutor Denis Tracy to present additional briefing.

Noting that the Miranda rights were not read at the time the officers stated their purpose for being at Aladina's residence, Frazier said he wants to determine if the reading of the rights was delayed for the purpose of obtaining a confession before an arrest.

Another hearing was scheduled for this Friday at 1:30 p.m.