The lawyer for a local man charged with a brutal sexual assault in Denver says his client will soon return home to Victoria now that all charges have been dropped.
Colby Messer was charged with sexual assault after an incident in a Denver hotel room in November. The victim told police she couldn't remember arriving, but could recall being sexually assaulted with several items by multiple men in a hotel room.
Four charges against Messer were dropped in August, and this week the remaining two were dismissed, with the Denver District Attorney's Office saying they no longer believed the charges could be proven in light of new information.
"Within an hour of leaving the hotel, there's closed circuit TV footage of her on the phone calling someone she'd met on a social dating site, and then she mislead police about it," says Messer's lawyer, Kenneth Eichner. "That was really huge. Not the fact that she went out afterward, but that she lied to police on several occasions about it."
Eichner says Messer had no contact with the victim, and that he was actually passed out at the time of the alleged assault. He says the district attorney's office described the incident as a blackout sexual assault, but he was able to disprove that.
"We went and called the state toxicologist, and showed through scientific tests that she was, in fact, sober."
Eichner describes Messer as an outstanding Canadian citizen and a great guy, and says the accusations have been traumatic on him, his parents, and his community.