A jury trial for a Waterloo man accused of sex crimes began this week at the Monroe County Courthouse.

Travis W. Turner, 49, is facing three counts of sexual assault by force in connection with an incident that occurred in late January 2022 in the 700 block of Mahala Drive in Waterloo. 

As described by Monroe County State’s Attorney Ryan Webb during opening statements on Tuesday, the incident began on the evening of Jan. 28, 2022, as Turner had several friends and work associates at his house for a party.

The alleged female victim’s boyfriend was one of Turner’s coworkers. Though both members of the then-couple were present at the party through much of the evening, the boyfriend left early with the expectation being the alleged victim would get a ride home from someone else or sober up enough to eventually drive her own car home.

Webb went on to describe how, as remaining party attendees left through the late evening and early morning – leaving only the alleged victim – Turner dragged her into his bedroom and ultimately pinned her onto the bed to assault her, pull her hair and treat her forcefully.

The boyfriend, using the Life360 location sharing app the couple both had installed on their phones, noted during his trial testimony Tuesday that the alleged victim’s phone battery had died at Turner’s home.

He made several calls to her before and after checking the Life360 app, the boyfriend testified Tuesday, waiting until shortly before noon to return to Turner’s house to check on her.

The boyfriend testified he then found both her and Turner passed out on Turner’s bed, at which point he woke her up without waking Turner, and the two returned to her grandparents’ house where she was living at the time.

As the boyfriend had stopped to get food for the two of them on the way there, he encountered her in the driveway, at which point she spoke about the sexual assault.

The alleged victim then spoke with officers from the Waterloo Police Department and went to Mercy Hospital South for care and to undergo a rape kit, which was transported back to the WPD and ultimately Illinois State Police for testing.

Additional points from Webb’s opening statement included DNA evidence which was found as well as physical evidence that was recorded – namely clumps of the alleged victim’s hair found in Turner’s bed and bruises on her body which were photographed by the nurse who cared for her.

Webb also told the jury the alleged victim’s recounting of events has been consistent through the past two years – though he indicated that Turner’s initial claim there was no sexual encounter between them changed as the DNA matching took place.

The defense’s opening statement was provided by T.J. Matthes of the St. Louis law firm Rosenblum, Schwartz, Fry & Johnson.

Much of Matthes’ description of the incident was similar to Webb’s, though he described the sexual activity which occurred, including the hair-pulling and bruising, as “consensual, rough sex” rather than any kind of assault.

The attorney further told the jury that the alleged victim and her boyfriend had been in a “toxic” relationship for some time leading up to the incident, with several domestic disturbance calls made to police.

The alleged victim, Matthes told jurors, had felt guilt and regret following the encounter and had made the rape accusation against Turner in order to avoid additional conflict with her boyfriend.

Matthes also noted in his opening statement how the alleged victim had been found with her clothes on, saying she had put back on her tight pair of jeans after the encounter and returned to the bed because she felt comfortable with Turner.

Responding to Webb’s point about Turner adjusting his recounting of events, Matthes said Turner had been concerned about losing his job upon being interrogated by police and first hearing the assault accusation against him, so he simply denied that any sexual encounter had occurred at all as an immediate reaction.

The trial is expected to continue through this week, with numerous witnesses – including the victim and Turner – offering testimony before the jury.