Jordin testifies sex was consensual

Spokane businessman Arlin Jordin, on trial for rape and indecent liberties, told a jury Tuesday he thought he was having consensual sex with a woman who spent the night at his apartment in 2004.

The woman and three others who had similar contacts with Jordin testified earlier that they had sex against their will with him after being given what they now believe were drug-laced hard liquor drinks.

Defense witness Howard Michaelsen, a toxicologist at Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories, told the jury that no traces of date-rape drugs were found in comprehensive tests done on a urine sample from the woman identified in the charges.

Traces of liquor, equivalent to a 0.14 blood-alcohol level, and marijuana were found in the woman’s urine during the comprehensive tests, Michaelsen said. Those follow-up tests were ordered after an initial screening test at a Spokane hospital showed positive results for date-rape drugs – a screening later determined to be a false-positive.

The initial test was used by police to get a warrant to search Jordin’s apartment, where various prescription drugs, including pain medications and muscle relaxants, were found.

Jordin, a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran who has been in the real estate and insurance business since 1970, testified about meeting the woman named in the charges after she responded to an ad for an apartment.

After an initial short meeting at his apartment, Jordin said, he called the woman back about three weeks later and asked her if she wanted to finish drinking frozen margaritas they had made during her first visit.

By then she had found another apartment to rent, but she agreed to return to visit him about 9 p.m. after doing a final cleaning where she had been living, Jordin testified.

The two of them each drank 1 1/2 margaritas, then had a straight shot of Jack Daniels whiskey, followed by a Jack Daniels on the rocks, Jordin said.

“Did you put anything in her drinks?” defense attorney Bevan Maxey asked his client.

“No,” responded Jordin.

At some point in the evening, the woman asked for a back massage and quickly began disrobing, with his assistance, on his living room sofa, Jordin testified. In a short time, she voluntarily followed his suggestion that they retire to his bedroom.

Jordin testified the two engaged in what he believed was consensual sexual contact, but he was unable to have intercourse with her because of his intoxicated condition.

“I told her, ‘I’m sorry I’m such a lousy lover, but I drank too much Jack Daniels,’ ” the defendant testified.

Maxey asked the defendant if he had raped the woman or forced her to engage in sex against her will. Jordin answered “no” to both questions.

“At any time did you force her to do anything against her will?” Maxey asked. Again, Jordin replied, “No.”

The woman slept the night in his bed, and he offered her an aspirin, orange juice, toast and yogurt in the morning after waking her so she could get to work on time, Jordin testified.

In earlier testimony, the woman said instead of going to work, she went to a hospital at the advice of a friend, and medical authorities called police.

The defendant also testified about meeting one of the three other women, who testified as prosecution witnesses in an attempt to show he was involved in a “common scheme or plan.”

That woman, a longtime acquaintance, also spent the night at his apartment at her request after they shared drinks, but they didn’t engage in sex, Jordin testified.

Responding to other questions, the defendant said he couldn’t specifically recognize the two other women who testified earlier that they were forced to have sex against their will in 1998 after accepting drinks from Jordin.

“Did you put anything in the drinks for either one of those ladies, if that’s what happened?” Maxey asked.

“No,” Jordin responded.

During cross-examination, Deputy Prosecutor John Love asked Jordin if he ever asked the woman identified in the charges if she wanted to engage in sex with him.

Jordin said he never asked that question.

Under another line of questions from the prosecutor, Jordin said he had the various prescriptions at his apartment for pain control but only rarely took the drugs.

The jury panel is composed of four men and 10 women. Two members of that group will be selected as alternates and won’t participate in deliberations expected to begin after closing statements today.