Two women gave victim-impact statements in Santa Barbara Superior Court Monday afternoon in the case of a man accused of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in January.
Robert Harold Goldman, 28, originally was charged with felony rape of an unconscious or asleep person, and rape while a person is prevented from resisting by any intoxicating or anesthetic substance.
He later entered a plea deal and is expected to plead no contest to a felony count of assault by means likely to cause great bodily harm.
In the agreement, which Judge Clifford Anderson approved at a previous hearing, Goldman will be sentenced to a year in jail, but be eligible to apply for the electronic monitoring program, and five years of probation, during which he will be tested for drug and alcohol use.
He will be ordered not to have any contact with the victim for 10 years, but is not required to register as a sex offender.
Anderson was not in court Monday, and the sentencing hearing was transferred to Judge Michael Carrozzo’s court.
However, Carrozzo delayed the sentencing until Nov. 29 so that Anderson can handle the case.
Two women spoke in court Monday to give victim-impact statements, including the victim in this criminal case and an alleged victim from a previous case in which Goldman was never criminally charged.
They both live out of the area and came to court for the hearing, so Carrozzo had them speak, and said transcripts of the statements will be provided to Anderson before the sentencing.
In person, the statements were filled with emotion, and the woman identified as Jane Doe No. 2 paused several times to catch her quavering breath.
They spoke facing the judge and the back of Goldman’s head as he sat next to his attorney, Robert Sanger.
Jane Doe No. 1, the victim in this criminal case against Goldman, is a Los Angeles resident in her late 20s, according to authorities.
“What I woke up to on the morning of January 31st has haunted me since,” she told the court.
The woman described waking up on the couch where she fell asleep the night before, with Goldman on top of her.
“I see him see me,” she said, then the man got off, walked away, and out of the house.
There was a bottle of dish soap nearby and the liquid covered the lower portion of her body, she said.
She got an Uber ride and spent the next several hours with police and the sexual assault response team at the hospital.
She didn’t remember everyone she was with the night before, or what the last bar was they visited. She had been “out of it,” was drunk and fell asleep. She wasn’t able to give consent and she never would have if she had been awake, she said.
“It’s the feeling of being violated and not able to fight back,” she said, and having “someone inside you that is not welcome.”
She has a fear of strangers now and is anxious. She’s had nightmares about Goldman and his attorney, Sanger.
“I have lost part of who I am – you took it,” she said.
Goldman didn’t take responsibility for his actions and lied about them, she said.
“I hope the part of you that gets turned on by an unconscious woman and a bottle of dish soap dies.”
She told Carrozzo that she is supportive of the plea agreement because she wants to move on with her life and have the criminal case over as soon as possible.
A woman in her 20s identified by the court as Jane Doe No. 2 said she worked with Goldman at the local company Graphiq starting in 2012.
It was a close-knit work community, and he became a trusted friend, she said.
In 2015, after her mother died of cancer, she was at a wine bar with Goldman and opened up about how she was coping with losing both her parents to cancer, she said.
“This is the last thing I remember before I was found naked in the street, draped in an item of clothing a kind homeless person had placed over my body. I was found in a state of utter incoherence, incapable of providing my name or birth date,” she said.
Her keys, clothing and phone were in Goldman’s car, found by police, she said, saying he told authorities the pair had consensual sex the night before.
“I do not know how he explained engaging in sex with me, then leaving me naked and unconscious in the street before driving home with all my property in his car,” she said.
She said she decided not to pursue criminal charges and moved to San Francisco.
“To see that my inaction, my cowardice enabled Bob to prey on at least one other woman causes me terrible angst,” she said.
“The single most troubling component of this plea bargain is that Bob will not be mandated to register as a sex offender,” she said. “He has demonstrated a propensity for sexual assault and I am confident that other non-suspecting victims like myself and Jane Doe will be no doubt similarly victimized by him in the future.
“Moreover, he will be able to perpetuate a lie to his friends, coworkers and future employers about the nature of offenses he has committed.”
Carrozzo then allowed Goldman, who is not in jail custody, to stand and make a short statement.
“I’m deeply sorry for what I did,” he said.
He said he didn’t expect forgiveness but prayed they’d “be OK.”
He said he was working on a new way of living, but didn’t say what that means.
The sentencing hearing was delayed to Nov. 29 in Anderson’s courtroom.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.