Woman alleges she was raped in Cape cab last year

A judge set the trial of Charles Faverty for Sept. 13.

She had been drinking that night, she admits that. She doesn't remember much. She admits that, too.

But the 48-year-old Cape Girardeau woman says she knows "without a doubt" that she didn't give her cabdriver -- Charles A. Faverty -- permission to have sex with her last August in the back seat of what was supposed to be her safe ride home.

"He saw that I was passed out," said the woman. "He thought he could do that without me knowing. He violated my body and no matter how much I drank he didn't have permission to do what he did."

Faverty, 43, of 401 S. Pacific, Apt. 7, has pleaded not guilty to felony sexual assault charges. A jury will decide who's telling the truth during a trial Sept. 13 before Circuit Judge Ben Lewis at the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson. Lewis set the trial date Monday.

Faverty could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Amy Metzinger of the state public defender's office, said she could not discuss the details of the case except to say that Faverty categorically denies the charges.

Faverty has been placed on unpaid leave by Kelley Transportation Co. since the alleged incident, according to manager Kim Kelley. If convicted, Faverty faces up to seven years in prison, a $5,000 fine or both.

Police and prosecutor Morley Swingle say in court papers that Faverty forcibly raped the victim Aug. 8 after picking her up at 11 p.m. at the Recovery Room bar on Independence Street in Cape Girardeau.

Faverty drove her near her home, police say, where he allegedly raped her in the back seat of his cab after she had passed out. Court papers say that because the woman was drunk she was unable to give her consent to have intercourse.

The woman admits she had been drinking beer for nearly 12 hours when friends called Kelley Transportation for a cab to take her home. She maintains she had not normally been a heavy drinker and that she was going through an especially rough time following her mother's death and a nasty divorce after 13 years of marriage.

"I couldn't handle it," she said. "So I drank a lot for three months last summer. I just couldn't handle all the losses in my life."

She also had recently gotten a DWI. So when she got drunk that night, her friends called a taxi to take her home.

"I was too drunk to drive," she said. "So I thought the safest thing was to call a cab."

During the drive, the woman says she passed out, calling it a "blackout." She regained consciousness a short time later and saw that Faverty was raping her, she said. Despite having memory lapses that night, she is certain she didn't give him permission to have intercourse with her.

"When I realized what he was doing, I said, 'Leave me alone,'" the woman said. "He pushed me away from him. ... He didn't try to hold me back. But I know there were no words spoken between him and me. I never told him what he did was OK."

After the alleged incident, the woman says, she gathered herself together and got out of the cab. She called police the next morning after consulting a lawyer.

She said she has struggled with feelings of guilt since then.

"I felt like part of it was my fault because I was so drunk I couldn't take care of myself," she said. "I have a lot of bad feelings about myself. But I don't want him to be able to do it again to somebody else. He needs to be punished."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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