By Missy Schrott | mschrott@alextimes.com
Warning: This article contains graphic details related to a sexual assault.
The homicide case of Karla Dominguez has left many disappointed with and upset by the city’s criminal justice procedures in the era of COVID-19.
At the surface, the case looks bad: Dominguez accused Ibrahim Bouaichi of raping her in October 2019. Bouaichi was indicted by a grand jury in January on five felony charges, including rape, but was still released on bond in early April. While out on bond and awaiting trial, Bouaichi shot and killed his accuser outside of her Alexandria apartment. He later committed suicide while being pursued by police.
A transcript of Bouaichi’s bond hearing acquired by the Times reveals details about the discussion that resulted in Bouaichi’s release, as well as previously unreported information about the night Bouaichi allegedly raped Dominguez.
At the time of the bond hearing on April 9, Bouaichi had spent almost six months in jail, having been arrested in October 2019 for the alleged rape. Following a preliminary hearing in December 2019, during which Dominguez testified, Bouaichi was indicted by a grand jury in January on the five charges – rape, sodomy, abduction with the intent to defile, strangulation and malicious wounding.
(Read the bond hearing transcript here.)
The April hearing lasted a total of 22 minutes. The judge considering the bond motion, now retired Judge Nolan Dawkins, was not the same judge who ruled over Bouaichi’s preliminary hearing, nor was the prosecutor at the bond hearing, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Strange, the same prosecutor who appeared at the preliminary hearing.
At the hearing, Bouaichi’s lawyers, Frank Salvato and Manuel Leiva, argued that Bouaichi should be released because they had a case for Bouaichi’s innocence, he had a right to a speedy trial, he would be at risk of contracting the coronavirus in jail and he was not a threat to the community.
In briefly detailing their case for Bouaichi’s innocence, the lawyers shared some of the details from the night of the alleged rape in October.
“I’m not going to get into a whole tit-for-tat or he said/she said in terms of the case, but I [will] give the Court a couple of tidbits with regard to the strength of the Commonwealth’s case,” Salvato said at the hearing.
Dominguez and Bouaichi had allegedly been in a relationship for four months at the time of the incident, Salvato said. The evening of the alleged rape, Bouaichi had driven Dominguez to the corner of 18th and M streets in D.C., where she worked as an exotic pole dancer, Salvato said. They then went to various bars.
Salvato said that after the incident, Dominguez told a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner that “she had had alcohol during the course of the evening and she could not even remember the quantity of alcohol, where the alcohol was taken, what she had to drink or anything along those lines.”
Salvato argued there were inconsistencies in Dominguez’s testimony at the preliminary hearing, what she told the SANE nurse and what she told a police officer.
In the Commonwealth’s version of the night’s events, relayed by Strange, Bouaichi was supposed to drive Dominguez to her job, but instead drove around to several bars trying to find cocaine. The two got into an argument, and Dominguez took an Uber home, according to Strange.
About an hour after Dominguez arrived at home, Bouaichi showed up at her apartment, Strange said.
“She ran into the bathroom inside her bedroom and locked the door,” Strange said at the hearing. “The defendant entered through the sliding glass patio door and broke into the bathroom. He strangled her and dragged her by the hair into the living room and kitchen area, dragged her back into the bedroom where he forced her to perform oral sex and forcibly raped her.”
Bouaichi allegedly stayed in the apartment with Dominguez all night, then left the next morning after he cleaned up a broken vase from the struggle the night before and removed a bloody pillowcase from the apartment, Strange said.
“When he left, the victim looked out and called her friend to call the police because she doesn’t speak English. There was a SANE done and she did have evidence of a genital injury,” Strange said.
In addition, Strange said that forensic evidence found at the crime scene corroborated Dominguez’ version of events.
“There was hair that has been pulled out and broken fingernails as well, and she also told the police that she even bit the defendant’s arm while he was raping her,” Strange said.
Detectives later found an injury consistent with a bite mark on Bouaichi’s arm.
After hearing arguments from both sides, Dawkins set Bouaichi’s bond at $25,000 – $5,000 for each indicted count – and ordered him to remain at his parents’ home in Maryland except to meet with his attorneys and pretrial services. Dawkins did not order Bouaichi to wear a GPS tracking device, and the prosecution did not request one.
In reviewing the details of the case, a former juvenile and district court judge, who spoke with the Times on the condition of anonymity, said she was not impressed with the prosecution’s performance at the bond hearing.
She said that the defense attorneys had a strong argument built on three prongs: evidence that Bouaichi was not guilty, his right to a speedy trial and their inability to effectively meet with him in person due to safety precautions at the Alexandria jail. The prosecution did not counter these arguments, she said.
“I just felt like the Commonwealth pretty much said, ‘Well, there’s a presumption here that he shouldn’t be let out, so judge, don’t let him out,’” the anonymous judge said. “I just felt that so many more points were made by the defense than the prosecutor.”
When asked how she would have ruled had she been hearing the bond motion, the anonymous judge said it would have been a difficult decision.
“I would have factored in how strong the defense argument was. I would’ve factored in that the Commonwealth didn’t counter most of the defense argument. And I would’ve remembered that there is a speedy trial right in our country,” she said. “It’s hard to say, but I probably would have [released him on bond] based on the strength of the arguments.”
While the anonymous judge largely reinforced the reasoning behind Dawkins’ decision, Pat Woodward, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, had different insights after reviewing the hearing transcript.
Woodward said he was surprised that Dawkins didn’t defer to the decision of Judge Donald Haddock, the judge who presided over Bouaichi’s preliminary hearing and bound it over to a grand jury.
“One of the things that really jumps out at me is that the judge [Dawkins] didn’t frankly defer to the fact-finding of a prior judge, who heard from the victim, especially when the defense counsel is challenging the victim’s credibility,” Woodward said. “That should have sparked an interest in the judge, like, okay, another judge has heard this and held this gentleman without bond.”
In addition, Woodward said he was shocked that the prosecution didn’t ask for GPS monitoring and the judge didn’t order it. He said it is a common requirement for defendants released from federal court, and suggested that the nature of the hearing was likely uncommon for the Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
“Maybe they’re not used to having folks charged with rape released, maybe that’s the issue,” Woodward said. “It doesn’t happen very often, but you’d think that they’d have a protocol where they at least ask for [GPS monitoring.] I’m just befuddled why they didn’t.”
The anonymous judge agreed she would have asked for stronger requirements on Bouaichi’s bond order, but acknowledged it might not have prevented Bouaichi from murdering Dominguez.
“I don’t know how you could’ve prevented this,” she said. “I don’t know if GPS tracking would have changed things, but if I was the Commonwealth, I probably would have asked for some stronger things.”
The full hearing transcript of Bouaichi’s bond appeal is available here.
(Read more: How accused rapist Ibrahim Bouaichi was released from jail)
