An attorney for an Idaho man accused of rape and currently jailed in Contra Costa County has filed a motion asking a judge to release the defendant on his own recognizance, suggesting that the accuser’s personal history severely weakens the potential case.
The attorney for Eric Ferguson, 49, stresses in the motion that a Superior Court judge should ultimately consider dismissing the case. A hearing for Ferguson is scheduled for Tuesday, according to court documents.
“This motion will be made on the grounds that defendant’s investigation has revealed such an overwhelming amount of exculpatory evidence, most, if not all of it being admissible at a jury trial, that it would be nearly impossible to obtain a conviction at trial,” Ferguson’s attorney Carlos Vega wrote in the motion. “As a result of this newly discovered evidence, unknown to the prosecution based on their investigation, or lack thereof … bail as currently set constitutes an impermissible preventative detention.”
Ferguson is currently in custody at the Martinez Detention Facility in lieu of $5 million bail.
Ferguson was arrested in May by a group that included Oakley police detectives, officers in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Kootenai (Idaho) Sheriff’s Office deputies and U.S. Marshal’s Service agents. Authorities said he was the primary suspect in the kidnapping and rape of a woman more than 20 years ago.
Prosecutors in Contra Costa County have charged him with forcible rape; forcible oral copulation and kidnapping for ransom, according to court records.
The alleged rape happened in 2002. In court records, Vega — a former Santa Clara County prosecutor — says the victim gave two statements to the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office, but that the agency did no follow-up beyond collecting a semen sample for DNA analysis. A match on the sample led to the arrest.
Since Ferguson’s arrest, Vega argues in court documents, the defense has uncovered evidence that the victim lied to police and had a sexual relationship with Ferguson for close to a year before breaking up.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Paul Graves, who is prosecuting the case, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Oakley Police Chief Paul Beard said at the time of Ferguson’s arrest that the attack happened when a young girl walking her dog was approached by a man who got out of a vehicle, pointed a gun at her, ordered her into the back seat and forced her to perform sexual acts.
Vega told the judge that summation couldn’t be further from the truth.
“In a dystopian world,” Vega wrote in the motion, “where down is up and up is down; a place where a defendant must prove his innocence instead of the prosecutor proving his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, Mr. Ferguson would still stand a good chance of being acquitted at trial based on what has been uncovered by the defense at this time.”
