A state appeals court has upheld the conviction of Paul T. Imes, who was charged with sexually assaulting a SUNY Buffalo State student nearly five years ago.
The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court rejected Imes’ contention that he had consensual sex with the student.
Imes, now 27, is an inmate at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility serving a 12-year prison sentence.
During the State Supreme Court bench trial in 2010, the woman said she accepted a ride from Imes on the night of Oct. 13, 2008, while walking in the Kensington-Bailey neighborhood. The two stopped at a store, and afterward she refused his request to have sex, she said. He drove her to a warehouse on Perry Street and raped her, she said.
As Imes drove from the warehouse around midnight, the student was able to flag down a passing police patrol car, and that began a 15-mile chase along the Niagara Thruway and then onto East Delavan Avenue. The chase ended when he crashed into a patrol car.
The five-judge panel in Rochester said the weight of the credible evidence supports the verdict and that the sentence was not unduly harsh.
The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court rejected Imes’ contention that he had consensual sex with the student.
Imes, now 27, is an inmate at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility serving a 12-year prison sentence.
During the State Supreme Court bench trial in 2010, the woman said she accepted a ride from Imes on the night of Oct. 13, 2008, while walking in the Kensington-Bailey neighborhood. The two stopped at a store, and afterward she refused his request to have sex, she said. He drove her to a warehouse on Perry Street and raped her, she said.
As Imes drove from the warehouse around midnight, the student was able to flag down a passing police patrol car, and that began a 15-mile chase along the Niagara Thruway and then onto East Delavan Avenue. The chase ended when he crashed into a patrol car.
The five-judge panel in Rochester said the weight of the credible evidence supports the verdict and that the sentence was not unduly harsh.