By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A 30-year-old woman testified yesterday that a former male friend touched her inappropriately while she drifted in and out of consciousness at her home last year.
Charles Sealy III, 31, was present as the complainant testified in his judge-alone trial for indecent assault before Justice Jeannine Weech-Gomez.
Prosecutors allege Sealy removed the woman’s underwear and rubbed her vagina and buttocks on the night of January 30, 2025.
The woman told defence attorney Christina Galanos that she had known Sealy for more than a decade and that they were friends.
She said that on the night of the alleged incident, she agreed to give Sealy a ride home after he asked her.
The pair had reportedly been at Kirky’s bar before going to Goodman’s Bay Beach. The complainant said she stopped at the beach on the way to Sealy’s home because she felt faint and wanted to compose herself before making the long drive to Southwest Ridge.
When Ms Galanos questioned why she took what the defence described as a longer route to Sealy’s home, the complainant said it was the route with which she was most familiar.
The defence said the complainant later took Sealy to her home, where they entered through the back door.
The complainant said she used the back entrance because she did not want to upset her boyfriend, with whom she lived.
She acknowledged that she did not tell her boyfriend that she had been at the beach with Sealy or that she had taken him to their home that night.
Ms Galanos suggested that the complainant and Sealy had been on a secret date, which the woman denied.
She also denied that there had been flirtatious behaviour or a sexual history between them. She denied ever willingly showing Sealy her breast or asking to see his genitals.
The complainant also rejected the suggestion that she intended to take Sealy to her home because she wanted more than conversation that night.
The defence suggested that she knew her boyfriend would return home late because of Junior Junkanoo.
The complainant said that while at her home, she saw Sealy preparing an illegal substance on her kitchen counter. She said she objected because she was breastfeeding at the time and gave him a plate only so he could move the substance off the counter.
She denied the defence’s suggestion that she closed the blinds and adjusted the couch because she was preparing to be intimate with Sealy.
The complainant said she told her daughter to go upstairs before the alleged assault.
She said that after that point, she began drifting in and out of consciousness.
The woman testified that she woke up and discovered that her underwear had been removed. She said she confronted Sealy about why they were off.
According to the complainant, Sealy replied: “What you mean? I was giving you a massage. Why you think I got the olive oil?”
She said she lost consciousness again and, after waking, reviewed security footage from the home that allegedly showed Sealy massaging her and touching her inappropriately.
The complainant said Sealy then rearranged the room and she tried to conceal from him what she had discovered.
She told him he had to leave and asked whether his ride had arrived. When Sealy said it had not, she offered to drive him to another location and did so.
The complainant said she was upset, furious and afraid after viewing the footage and denied that the massage was consensual.
Ms Galanos questioned the woman about what the defence described as inconsistencies in her statements to police.
She said the complainant’s February 1, 2025 statement did not mention confronting Sealy after discovering that her underwear had been removed, although the encounter was included in a subsequent statement on February 3.
The complainant said she gave a more detailed account the second time because she had time to recover from the stress of the alleged assault.
While she acknowledged that she did not call police that night to have Sealy removed from the home, she said she should have.
Christina Saunders also represented Sealy.
Shanika Carey and Betty Wilson appeared for the prosecution.
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