Posted by news intern Ben Steiner

Early in the morning on March 9, a man was admitted to a local emergency room with a broken, bloody nose, facial fractures, and possibly other undocumented injuries related to a sexual assault. Police were called to the scene to interview the victim about his attackers. Even though his face was dripping with blood, according to a police report, the man was reluctant to talk to police. Eventually, he gave this account:

At around 1 a.m. the man said he arrived at a small house party in Ballard with a friend. However, he "became quickly uncomfortable because they were using cocaine," he told police. Once the party's only female left, the man decided he was going to leave too. However, the three remaining men told him he couldn't leave.

The three remaining men "blocked the door," the victim told police, then began making threats about "sexual acts." The cornered victim says he told them that "nothing like that was going to happen." At that point, the three men allegedly started "punching and kicking" him.

The police report notes that the victim "made no further comments about them trying to sexually assault him."

According to the victim, sometime during the alleged assault he managed to grab some car keys and escape in an unknown person's car. He drove to his girlfriend's house and she immediately drove him to the hospital.

But after persistent questioning from police, repeated claims that he did not want police involvement, and a bit of coaxing from his concerned girlfriend, the assault victim admitted that the car belonged to another woman. When called for a statement, she told police that the victim had borrowed the car from her and had been driving it all day. She also identified herself as the victim's "fiancee."

When police returned to question the victim in light of the fiancee's claim, he "started laughing and said that he broke up with her four months ago." He then took painkillers and would not provide any further details.

Officer Testerman says he checked the man's clothes and found "blood on the pants but no signs of a physical struggle." The exact details of the situation are still unclear, but the victim left the situation with several "facial fractures," hospital staff told police.