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2-Year-Long Court Battle Ends

Dunkirk Hotel Manager Has Rape Charge Reduced To Harassment

MAYVILLE — A Dunkirk hotel manager accused of raping an employee during a Christmas party has pleaded guilty to harassment, bringing an end to a two-year-long court battle that included a hung jury, special prosecutors and subpoenaed Facebook Live videos.

Ranjit “Randy” S. Aulakh is scheduled to appear in Chautauqua County Court on April 11 for sentencing, far from the third-degree rape charge he was indicted on by a Chautauqua County grand jury. Instead of a state prison sentence, Aulakh now faces a fine with no jail time as second-degree harassment is considered a violation in New York.

Aulakh’s guilty plea comes on the heels of a second trial that had been scheduled to begin last week.

The crux of the case begins more than two years earlier — the night of Jan. 8, 2017 — at the Clarion Hotel Marina and Conference Center in Dunkirk. Aulakh was accused of rape after one of his employees told police she had been drinking at the Christmas party that had been taking place at the hotel and awoke to the assault. The woman — whose identity The Post-Journal is keeping private due to the nature of the accusations — immediately called for help and was taken to the hospital for an examination.

At trial, Aulakh said he had sex with the woman twice after the party ended, but maintained that both encounters were consensual.

According to Fredonia attorney Daryl P. Brautigam, who has been representing Aulakh for most of the case with his son Andrew Brautigam, Aulakh wasn’t aware of the rape accusation until he had been indicted by a grand jury only a week after the incident was reported. With a conviction, the Class E felony carries a sentence of 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison in addition to having to register as a sex offender.

The Erie County District Attorney’s Office was called in as a special prosecutor due to a conflict between the Chautauqua County District Attorney’s Office and Aulakh’s first defense attorney, Jason Schmidt, who unsuccessfully ran for DA the previous year. Erie County Court Judge Susan Eagan was also brought in due to a backlog of cases in county court.

According to testimony from the first trial, the woman said in the minutes following the Jan. 8 Christmas party, she went to a fourth floor hotel room where a smaller, personal party had been taking place. The woman, who worked part-time as a housekeeper at the hotel, testified that she left the second party because she was “highly intoxicated.”

She said her friends helped her get another room on the first floor of the hotel so she could get some sleep as she had to work early the next day.

At trial, the woman said Aulakh entered her room but quickly left after she told him some of her friends were coming to pick up some personal items. However, the woman said Aulakh returned a second time and raped her on the bed.

“I could do nothing but just lay there,” the woman said in court. “I tried to nudge him but it wasn’t working.”

Asked if she said anything during the encounter, the woman said yes. “I was telling him to stop,” she said. “I was telling him ‘Why are you doing this? I hate my life — I want to die. I don’t want to work here no more.'”

Afterward the woman said Aulakh left the room while she called her friends on the fourth floor to explain what happened. Many of them rushed to her hotel room, while one called Dunkirk police.

The woman was taken to a nearby hospital where a rape kit was administered. She was also interviewed by hospital staff and authorities.

At trial, Aulakh provided a differing take on what happened that night. He said after the Christmas party, he and the woman went to the fourth floor room where the second party was taking place. There, Aulakh claimed the woman asked him for another room, at first telling her no. Aulakh eventually agreed, and one of the woman’s friends went to the front desk to get her a room key.

“When she got the key she came to me and said ‘Thank you very much for the room and (hugged) me and invited me to Room 129 and gave me one (of the keys) to the room,” Aulakh testified.

Aulakh went to the woman’s room around 10:15 p.m., at which time he said the two hugged and kissed for about 15 minutes before he returned to the party on the fourth floor. About 25 minutes later, around 11 p.m., Aulakh said he returned to the woman’s room and the two had consensual sex.

Not long after, Aulakh said he again returned to the party upstairs before returning a third time to meet the woman. The pair again had sex, but this time he said the woman asked for $500 when they were done.

“I said ‘Are you kidding me? Are you serious?'” Aulakh testified. “She said yes.”

Aulakh left the room — briefly returning a fourth time to retrieve a cellphone — and eventually traveled that night to Buffalo where he had business in the morning. Surveillance video taken from a hallway camera in the hotel confirmed Aulakh entered the woman’s room four times that night, twice for brief periods and twice lasting about 15 to 20 minutes.

After the alleged rape, the woman said she was contacted by a friend who also works at the hotel to discuss what happened the previous night.

“She basically tried to convince me not to press charges, and she ended up on the phone with someone, and she was basically telling me that if I don’t press charges I could make some money off the situation,” the woman said in court.

The woman testified that she had previously thought of asking for money in lieu of pressing criminal charges prior to discussing the option with her friend.

The woman said she and her friend went to see Schmidt two days after the alleged rape at his Fredonia office. The woman said she first planned to ask for $10,000 but changed her mind and instead asked for $20,000 when she met Schmidt in person.

The friend testified that when the woman asked for $20,000, Schmidt said “It didn’t work like that,” and noted that the incident was a criminal matter and not a civil case.

The friend said the woman was open to receiving $15,000 but nothing further came from the discussion. Both the woman and the friend said in court that Schmidt drove the pair to the woman’s apartment after the meeting since they didn’t have a ride and it had been snowing outside.

Schmidt relayed what had been discussed between himself and the two women with the DA’s office. He later stepped down as Aulakh’s attorney and eventually became a witness for the defense.

Judge Eagan declared a mistrial in July of last year after the jury deadlocked. Brautigam filed a motion to dismiss the charge, and a hearing was held Jan. 11 of this year to discuss whether Facebook Live videos reportedly taken by the woman during and after the Christmas party had been obtained by the Erie County DA’s Office.

The woman testified at an evidence hearing that she had recorded two Facebook Live videos, one 20 minutes long and the other about 16 minutes long. She said she first turned the videos over to her attorney, who she retained for a possible civil lawsuit against Aulakh and the hotel.

The woman said after the alleged rape took place, she and her attorney went to the New York State Police barracks in Fredonia where a trooper downloaded photographs and the Facebook Live videos she had saved to her cellphone.

In his motion, Brautigam said he never received any material downloaded from the woman’s cellphone. It wasn’t until he issued a subpoena to the woman and obtained the videos that he saw what had been captured that night.

It’s in these videos, Brautigam maintains, that show the woman and Aulakh together at one point during the party.

Nicholas Texido, an assistant district attorney in Erie County and the prosecutor during the first trial, testified during the evidence hearing Jan. 11 that he knew the existence of possible photos or videos from the night of the party but never received them from the woman. Furthermore, Texido said he was not aware that the woman appeared friendly with Aulakh in one of the videos prior to the rape allegedly taking place.

The woman testified during the first trial she had no physical contact with Aulakh prior to the assault.

A state police investigator and the Chautauqua County assistant district attorney who presented the case to the grand jury also testified at the hearing that they could not recall seeing any videos from the night of the party.

In his motion to dismiss the charge, Brautigam said the Facebook Live videos “directly contradicted what the star witness for the prosecution had said at her trial testimony.”

In countering, Cathleen Roemer, an attorney with the Erie County DA’s Office, noted at the evidence hearing that jurors are routinely asked to either accept portions of a witnesses’ testimony or reject a portion of a witness’ testimony.

Roemer said the woman’s claim that she handed over the videos to authorities was inaccurate. In any regard, she said, the defense now had the videos and should be able to use them during the second trial.

Roemer pointed out that the woman called for help right after the alleged rape occurred.

“We know that she’s taken for an immediate rape kit even though she wanted to go home,” Roemer said. “She did not want to go for a rape kit, the officers took her anyway. And I believe the defendant himself testified at the first trial, and I believe there were many falsehoods that he stated which are only explainable by guilt. He has no reason to lie unless he did this.”

Before Eagan could issue a ruling, and before the second trial was set to begin, the prosecution withdrew the rape charge and replaced it with second-degree harassment. Brautigam said he asked Aulakh whether he’d be willing to plead guilty to the charge and end the two-year case.

“Randy’s very glad to get this matter behind him,” Brautigam told The Post-Journal. “He still maintains that the entire situation was consensual.”

In a statement to the newspaper, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said the case was difficult from the beginning. “The first trial ended in a hung jury, and the victim wanted closure in this matter,” Flynn said.

The DA noted that as part of his guilty plea, Aulakh waived the sealing of the conviction; the court issued an order of protection for Aulakh to stay away from the woman; Aulakh agreed to undergo an evaluation for sex offender treatment to determine if he needs counseling or treatment; Aulakh waived his right to appeal; the woman was allowed to be heard in open court; and Aulakh was required to apologize to the woman.

Flynn said his office plans to ask the court during sentencing April 11 to order Aulakh to participate in any sex offender counseling or treatment that may be recommended as a result of the evaluation.

“These conditions provided the victim with closure in this matter,” Flynn said.

Brautigam said Aulakh, who will not be required to register as a sex offender, has already apologized to the woman and is pleased with the outcome.

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