Opening arguments were heard in Wilkes Superior Court Thursday morning in the trial of a former North Wilkes High School custodian accused of raping a student after a football game.
Alvis Bruce Calhoun, 64, of 325 Montieth Acres, Hays, is charged with second-degree forcible rape, second-degree forcible sex offense, taking indecent liberties with a student and four counts of committing a sexual act on a student.
Prosecuting for the state is Assistant District Attorney Kisa Posey and defending Calhoun is attorney Jay Vannoy of North Wilkesboro. Presiding over the trial is Judge Martin McGee of Concord.
Posey said that on the night of Nov. 4, 2016, the victim, then 17-years-old, left campus with three male friends during the Wilkes Central-North Wilkes varsity football game in Hays.
The four drank a quantity of Four Loko malt beverage, with the victim becoming highly intoxicated, Posey said. Her companions dropped her off at North Wilkes around midnight, refusing to take her home.
By then, the high school was deserted except for Calhoun, a custodian who was picking up trash and locking up the facility, the prosecutor said.
The girl approached Calhoun and asked for a ride home. Calhoun agreed and the two left in his pickup truck.
She initially asked if her father could be called, but Calhoun said he didn’t have cell phone service in that area.
Posey said the girl was so intoxicated that she was vomiting and going in and out of consciousness.
Instead of driving her home, Calhoun drove to a dirt road off of Traphill Road, where he pulled her pants down and raped her, Posey said. Afterwards, Calhoun took the girl home.
An investigation of the incident by the Wilkes Sheriff’s office began two weeks later, Posey said.
Prior to being contacted by law enforcement officers, Calhoun called an assistant principal at the high school and said, “I guess I need to resign,” Posey said.
Vannoy said his client admits taking the girl home, but denies raping her. He said he didn’t know the victim, but recognized her as someone who had once come to his residence with his granddaughter.
Vannoy said his client stopped his truck because the victim was getting sick. He said Calhoun got out of the truck to help the girl get back into it.
He said that when Calhoun walked around the truck, he saw the girl had pulled her pants down and was laughing.
The attorney said his client told the girl to put her clothes back on and then drove her home. He said he spoke to the girl’s father at the residence.
Charges were filed after interviews were conducted by detectives with the sheriff’s office.
Posey and Vannoy both conceded to the jury that the case boiled down to the girl’s word against Calhoun’s.
