Woman testifies against Blue Ash man accused of raping her after meeting on Hinge
By Karin Johnson
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BLUE ASH, Ohio (WLWT) — A Northern Kentucky woman who said she was raped by a man she met on a dating app came face to face with him again.
Brian Karr, 34, of Blue Ash is charged with two counts of rape, two counts of sexual battery, felonious assault and gross sexual imposition in this case.
“They had met on a dating app called Hinge,” said Caitlin Broo, assistant prosecutor for Hamilton County.
After chatting on Hinge, Karr and the alleged victim decided to meet in person.
Their first meeting took place at his Blue Ash apartment, where they watched a Bengals game and kissed.
On the stand Tuesday, the alleged victim admitted they did talk about sex.
“Did you agree at any point during that conversation to have sex on this date?” Broo asked.
The woman replied, “No.”
The two ended up at a bar in Reading where the woman said she had one Long Island Iced Tea before blacking out.
“The next memory is waking up in his apartment, and I was being forced to perform oral sex,” the woman said.
She said she blacked out again.
“That pain is what wakes her up, pain. The next thing she feels is Brian Karr grabbing her,” Broo said.
Defense attorney Caleb Baum told the jury a slightly different story.
“Our stance is clear. This was consensual sex between two consenting adults,” Baum said.
During cross-examination, defense attorneys played a video of the alleged victim in a room with detectives at the Blue Ash Police Department.
She can be seen scrolling through her phone.
Defense attorney Jay Clark asked the woman if she was deleting messages in front of detectives. She said she was.
“Deleting messages that you didn’t want them to see?” Clark asked
“Yes,” she said.
The woman said the messages were ones she sent one of her girlfriends about she was having a good time with Karr at the bar.
“One of the messages was, you were telling her that you were looking forward to hooking up with him?” Clark asked.
“I don’t remember that message,” the woman said. “It is possible.”
The alleged victim will be back on the stand Wednesday.
Jurors are also expected to hear from a nurse who treated the woman after the alleged rape and a Blue Ash detective.
Karr is charged with similar crimes in two other separate cases. After the alleged date rape made headlines, a second person came forward. A young girl reportedly saw an article and screamed to her mother, “I could have saved her. Oh my God, I could have saved her.”
Court documents state that the girl described herself as Karr’s “secret keeper” and said several years prior, when she was 7 years old, he sexually assaulted her.
Another woman then told police that Karr raped him in 2012 after the two had been drinking.
All of the cases are being tried separately.
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