State v. McFadden

A woman was camping with her friend when she met Samuel McFadden (defendant). McFadden spoke to the woman about the energy-healing services of Reiki that he performed. The woman agreed to cut McFadden’s hair in exchange for his Reiki services. The woman went to McFadden’s tent and was instructed to lay down on her stomach on an air mattress. McFadden began to give her a massage and told her to remove her bikini top because it may constrict her chest from expanding. McFadden began to touch the woman under her bikini bottoms in the area between her anus and vagina. The woman testified that she was confused, but McFadden told her to relax. The woman said she was not relaxed, and it was apparent because she was not comfortable with him placing his hands in that area. The woman did not tell McFadden not to touch her there or ask him to stop. The woman then realized that McFadden had put a finger inside her anus, at which point she pushed up and announced she did not like it and that she was done. The woman left the tent. McFadden testified that when the woman came to his tent, he told her that he would be “addressing all of her organs, including her sexual organs,” and asked whether she was okay with this. McFadden claimed that he had described the process he was going to perform and asked the woman multiple times during the process to speak and communicate with him. McFadden was charged with sexual assault in the second degree. During a jury trial, the judge did not give instructions that consent could either be expressed or implied. The jury found McFadden guilty. McFadden appealed, arguing that the woman had given implied consent to the alleged assault.