Published September 1, 2005 in issue 0435 of The Hook

By COURTENEY STUART

Did Matt Hamilton drug and rape Annie Hylton, or was she an "energetic drunk" who had consensual sex with Hamilton? That's the question a jury considered earlier this week.

Plaintiff's attorney Ed Wayland opened the nearly $1.85 million civil suit between two UVA students on August 29 by tracing how Hylton allegedly went from a happy and intelligent first-year student volleyball player into a lonely young women experiencing so much pain that she began hiding out in her dorm and needing medication just to fall asleep or leave her room.

"She sat in that room, and in front of her were a couple of razor blades," Wayland told the court during opening arguments. "Her intention was to cut her wrists."

A "sad, shocking case," as Wayland put it, the suit pits Hylton against 2003 graduate Matthew Hamilton, who was set to testify after the Hook's deadline that what happened on the evening of December 8, 2001, was purely consensual.

As revealed in previous Hook stories, the night began at a downtown restaurant and ended up at Hamilton's fraternity, Delta Tau Delta. After a brief side trip to a friend's apartment, Hylton and Hamilton returned to the fraternity. Shortly after midnight, Hylton began feeling ill. Wayland promised that testimony would suggest she spent as much as two hours vomiting in a fraternity bathroom.

The next thing she recalled, Matt Hamilton was forcing sex upon her, and she felt immobilized by a drug Hamilton must have slipped her, Hylton claimed.

"There are only two people who know what happened," countered Doug Winegardner, Hamilton's attorney. "Matt will tell you there was no drugging, that during the evening she drank quite a bit. They played two drinking games. They were getting along. There was kissing and flirting. She took her own clothes off, asked for one of his t-shirts, and climbed into the loft bed. He got in bed with her."

During jury selection, Circuit Court Judge Edward Hogshire held up a copy of the Hook bearing Hylton's photograph and the headline, "Her day in court: UVA date rape case goes to trial." Hogshire instructed the jury of five women and two men to stay away from that and other media reports.

After opening arguments, Hylton offered sometimes tearful testimony. Her life, she says, wasn't the same after the alleged assault. Her grades suffered, and her ability to form relationships with men was impaired.

She feels the effects to this day, she testified. Particularly painful are "flashbacks" to Hamilton during intimate moments with her new husband, Mark McLaughlin, whom she married on August 7.

At those times "I have to say, 'I love you, Mark," Hylton explained, to banish memories of the alleged attack.

On cross examination, Hamilton's attorney Winegardner pointed out that Hylton missed Dean's list only once, by 1/100th of a point, and that in the fall of 2002, she had a 3.76 average. In addition, she pledged a sorority in the spring of 2002, just months after her alleged assault.

She met McLaughlin, he pointed out, nine months after the alleged rape, and dated him for the rest of college.

On day two, the court heard from Dr. Eugene Corbett, a witness for Hylton, who testified that he believes the events that night were more consistent with drugging than with mere alcohol consumption. He ruled out food poisoning and said the abruptness of the onset of Hylton's symptoms led him to the conclusion that her physical condition was the result of a slipped drug.

"This looks like a Mickey Finn case," Corbett said.

Dr. Joseph Saady, a state forensic toxicologist, testified for Hylton that the tests performed on her blood and urine following her examination at the emergency room were not designed to show various types of date rape drugs that could have been used.

But as Winegardner pressed, both Corbett and Saady acknowledged Hylton's condition could have been brought on by alcohol alone. There simply was no physical evidence to prove the presence of a date rape drug, Winegardner insisted.

Following testimony by several of Hylton's friends and her mother, the prosecution rested. Winegardner called several of Hamilton's friends to the stand, who claimed Hylton seemed drunk but entirely conscious and was joking with them from her perch in Hamilton's loft.

Hamilton's star witness and fraternity brother Ben Decker called Hylton an "energetic drunk" who playfully teased him in Hamilton's room between 2 and 3am.

During the evening, Decker testified, Hylton leaned up against Hamilton and clasped hands with him.

Another friend of Hamilton's, Garrett Gluth, testified that Hylton, embarrassed over the vomiting incident, confessed that she "really liked" Matt and didn't want him to think she was a "stupid first year."

Both Decker and Gluth insisted that she declined repeated offers for rides home in order to stay with Hamilton.

Hylton has testified that this period was all a drug-induced blur.

The trial resumed Wednesday, August 31, after the Hook's production deadline.

Hamilton declined to speak with the media after the second day of the trial.
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