La Plata, MD – A Charles County Circuit Court jury sitting before Judge H. James West heard opening arguments in the second-degree rape by force trial of Stephen Daniel Lancaster, 25 of Newburg Tuesday, Oct. 6 in La Plata.

Before the trial even began, family members of the defendant became upset when told they had to leave the courtroom.

All were subpoenaed to testify in the trial, and West told them they could not be in the courtroom while the case was being argued.

Several members began complaining loudly as they were escorted out of the courtroom by a deputy.

The opening salvo of the case was fired by Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah Freeman who said that the victim in the 2013 rape was having a hard time.

Her husband informed her he wanted a divorce after 22 years.

She had two daughters and two grandchildren living with her at the time.

“She was prescribed Xanax and Zoloft to deal with her depression,” Freeman said.

The prosecutor outlined how the victim’s daughter was scheduled to be married and Sept. 8, 2013, there was a joint bachelor and bachelorette party in Virginia. Mom stayed home and watched the kids.

Freeman detailed that there was a dispute at the party and the prospective bride “uninvited” her sisters to the wedding. When the mother tried to quell the dispute, her daughter “uninvited” her to the wedding as well.

The mother, wanting to get out of the house, went to Apehangers bar.

“She has a conversation with the bartender, who gave her a specialty drink, ‘Better Than Marijuana,’” Freeman said. “She drank those throughout the night.”

“She remembers a male coming up to her and saying, ‘you’re ——-‘s mom,’ telling her he knew her daughter,” she stated.

The victim got up several times to go to the bathroom and went outside to smoke and the man went outside with her to smoke as well.

At some point during the evening, she remember the man getting into an altercation with someone at the bar and she was pushed to the ground.

“From that moment, the victim was not sure what order of events followed,” Freeman admitted.

“She remembers going to leave Apehangers and she got hit on the head,” she said. “She remembers her head hitting a window. She recalls tasting blood in her mouth. Her next memory is lying face down in the parking lot naked. ‘It hurt,’ she recalled. There was pressure and pain all down her chest and extreme pain coming from her rectum. She felt that she was being penetrated in her rectum. All she remembers from that point on was waking up in her bed the next day.”

The victim had swelling around her left orbital eye socket and her lip was cut. She turned her clothing over to the police, everything but her panties because she said she wasn’t wearing underwear.

“She has no idea who was forcefully penetrating her anus,” Freeman said.

At this time the bride-to-be began asking her mother questions. The only person she remembered from the previous evening was the man who pushed her down.

“He was the only person who stuck out,” Freeman noted. “He daughter will tell you that for some reason Stephen Lancaster came to mind. Her daughter showed her a picture of Lancaster on Facebook and she said, ‘oh yeah, that’s him.’ ”

A DNA analysis found traces of Lancaster’s DNA on her jeans.

Charles County Assistant Public Defender Courtney Dixon told the jury that the Charles County Sheriff’s Office did a “shoddy investigation of this case.

“Stephen Lancaster is the only person she remembers from Apehangers,” Dixon added. “Your problem is to determine if the state can prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. They will not meet that burden,” she said.

“There were a few things left out,” she explained. “This woman was drinking all night and was also on Xanax and Zoloft. In the video from Apehangers, you will see her flirting and hanging on several men throughout the evening. She was dancing with these young men and at one time climbed on top of the bar and put on a show. At one point, she lifts her skirt and exposed her bra and panties. This is in direct conflict with the state’s assertion that she wasn’t wearing any underwear. Their story is fuzzy.”

She said there was no blood, no semen from Lancaster found on the victim’s clothing.

“This DNA they found on her pants is because she danced with him,” Dixon asserted. “Whose DNA is in her anus? Who were the other men she was flirting and dancing with? At the end of this trial, I am going to ask you to find Stephen Lancaster not guilty.”

Testimony resumes Wednesday morning.

Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com