A University of Southern California student has been cleared of rape charges following the release of multiple surveillance videos.
Prosecutors claimed that Armaan Premjee, 20, sexually assaulted their 19-year-old client during an April 1 encounter after a night out at a local club, according to Yahoo.com.
The woman told police that she was too drunk to remember the sexual encounter.
Premjee was subsequently charged with rape in May.
Security footage was released from Banditos Taco & Tequila showing the alleged victim walking out with Premjee. “I’m very grateful for these tapes,” says Premjee. “She put her arms around my neck, she started kissing me.”
The nightclub footage also showed the woman making “sexual gestures” before getting into an Uber with Premjee. They rode back to her dorm where additional video footage shows her signing him into her building.
“She knew what she was doing. She was able to stand on her own two feet. She led the way,” Premjee told CBS News.
After reviewing the footage, a California judge dismissed the case, stating that the videos were a “very strong indication” that the female was the aggressor and that there was consent.
USC is reportedly conducting its own student misconduct investigation since the school’s consent policy does not align with the court case ruling.
In 2014, California was the first state to adopt the “active consent” policy, which requires affirmative consent from both parties before engaging in sexual activity.
Although the policy can vary from state to state, says the New York Times, it standardly requires a verbal or nonverbal “yes” before sexual activity.
Other states have stricter consent laws, such as Indiana, which requires sobriety in order to give consent.
A comparable situation occurred in 2015 at Indiana University, where a male student was expelled following an investigation by the school’s Title IX office into an alleged sexual assault of a female student who had been drinking.
Conversely, the criminal case was dropped by the state citing insufficient evidence.
“The key issue here is evidence,” says Premjee. “In most sexual assault cases, there’s not video evidence like there was in my case. Innocent men are put in prison for that, or are punished, or kicked out of school.”
