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Police: Teen raped impaired girl in her car while others filmed
A Las Vegas teenager is accused of raping a “drunk and incoherent” girl while others watched, laughed and recorded the act on their phones.
Aiden Cicchetti, 17, was arrested in March on three counts of sexual assault. He made his initial appearance on Wednesday in Las Vegas Justice Court and was released on his own recognizance.
A Metropolitan Police Department arrest report, released this week, described how Cicchetti raped the girl after a night of partying.
Cicchetti’s attorney, Ross Goodman, said in a statement Friday that the sex was consensual and that police failed to interview witnesses whose accounts contradict the police narrative.
On the night of March 24, according to the arrest report, the girl went out partying with friends and met with someone named Aiden on a “party bus.” She and her friends took shots and drank from a bottle of unknown liquor that Aiden had, the report states.
The girl told police her vision became blurry, and “she was dizzy and nauseous.” She said the last thing she remembered was leaving a house party in Henderson and walking to her car. She told police she woke up in Aiden’s kitchen with her pants and underwear missing but a blanket wrapped around her waist, and she returned home around 3:40 a.m.
According to the arrest report, later that day Cicchetti messaged her on social media and referenced the sexual encounter. The girl thought he was kidding, according to the report, but the following day she received a message from someone that said, “LMAO look what I found on my phone,” along with three videos of her in the back seat of her car with Aiden, who was performing sex acts on her.
The videos were recorded by people who could be heard laughing, according to police.
The following day, a Monday, the girl showed the videos to her friend at school, who said she should report what happened.
After the matter was reported to a school wellness counselor, the dean of students confiscated a phone that had received the videos, according to the arrest report. Police redacted the name of the school.
Goodman said Friday that Cicchetti has attended online school for the last year and a half.
Police reviewed three videos, which were from three to 11 seconds in length, that were sent to them by the girl. They described the girl as “barely conscious” in the videos and noted that she could be heard saying ‘stop’ while Cicchetti had sex with her, according to the report. One video captured the girl crying “no, no, no,” the arrest report states.
Goodman said Friday there was no evidence that the girl “was incoherent or otherwise blacked out.”
Cicchetti told police he was drunk and had blurry vision but was sober enough to control his actions. When asked if he had sex with anyone the night or morning of the party, according to the arrest report, “he said no.”
After police ultimately confronted him with the videos, Cicchetti confirmed it was him in the videos and began to cry, according to the report. He said the sex was consensual and later said the girl’s friends had “forced him” to have sex with her.
His mother, an attorney, was present during the police interview.
Cicchetti was taken to juvenile hall. On Tuesday, he was booked into Clark County Detention Center, booking records show.
At a Wednesday hearing, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Rebecca Saxe heard arguments on his custody status and released him.
Multiple attempts to reach the Clark County district attorney’s office for comment on the sexual assault case were unsuccessful.
Cicchetti is due back in court on June 21.
Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @davidwilson_RJ on Twitter.