LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Prosecutors dropped their case Thursday against a Las Vegas teenager who was accused of raping another teenager while others filmed it, his attorney said.
Prosecutors dropped the case as Aiden Cicchetti’s attorney, Ross Goodman, was preparing to present his evidence on the second day of his client’s preliminary hearing, Goodman said.
The other teenager had told police that she and some friends were invited to a party bus on Friday, March 24. After a bout of drinking, the group eventually made it to a home in Henderson, a police report said.
According to the report, when the teenager “came to,” she was in Cicchetti’s kitchen and was naked aside from a corset top and a blanket wrapped around her waist.
The teenager told police she was later sent a Snapchat from her friend saying, “LMAO look what I found on my phone.” A message contained three videos that showed the victim in the backseat of her car with Cicchetti, both without pants, while Cicchetti performed sex acts on her while others in the car “watched, laughed, and recorded on their phones,” the report said.
According to the report, in two videos, Cicchetti can be seen performing sexual acts on the victim while she cried, “No, no, no.”
Goodman said the other teenager’s account did not match up to what the evidence would have shown, should the preliminary hearing have moved forward.
“There were three witnesses in the car who contradicted her entire story reporting that [the teenager] initiated sex for close to 45 minutes before dropping Aiden off at his house,” Goodman said in a statement. “She insisted on returning one hour later to hang out with him. The home security video shows [the teenager] walking, texting, and showing no signs of impairment. Contrary to her claim of being blackout in Aiden’s house for four hours, she was only inside of the home for eight minutes. She decided to file a false police report to cover up after watching the embarrassing video of herself forgetting the home security and Snapchat messages where she admitted to having consensual sex would prove her allegation to be false.”
According to the report, Cicchetti initially told police he wanted to talk to them “because he would never sexually assault someone.” According to the report, Cicchetti told police that the sex was consensual. He later told detectives that he did have sex with the victim, but that “he did not want to, and her friends forced him.”
Cicchetti initially faced three counts of sexual assault. Because prosecutors dropped the case, it was effectively closed on Thursday.
Signs of HOPE’s 24/7 crisis hotline can be reached at 702-366-1640. Its online chat services can be reached through this link. If you believe you were a victim of a sexual assault, you can also call your local police department or 911.
