A former Grand Rapids officer charged with sexual assault drunkenly barged into his alleged victim’s home and raped her despite repeatedly being told to leave, a prosecutor said today in opening statements at the man’s jury trial.
Ryan Bruggink spent the night of Nov. 24, 2014 drinking at two locations while repeatedly texting his former girlfriend that he was going to come over, Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Kemperman told jurors in opening statements Tuesday.
Bruggink is charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The trial before Kent County Circuit Court Judge Donald A. Johnston got underway with jury selection on Monday.
Bruggink contends the sexual encounter was consensual.
Bruggink stumbled up to the woman’s Wyoming home about 3:30 a.m. Nov. 25 and tried to get in through a locked door, Kemperman said.
“She has her foot behind the door to prop it so he can’t get in,’’ Kemperman told jurors. “He reaches through the door with his hand, grabs her by the face and shoves her back into the home.’’
Once inside, Bruggink refuses to leave and says he wants to sleep on the couch, Kemperman said.
“He can hardly stand up,’’ he told jurors. “She’s praying that drunkeness finally causes him to pass out and goes into her room.’’
Bruggink eventually awakes and enters the woman’s bedroom, where she is asleep with her six-month-old daughter, Kemperman told jurors.
He attacked the 29-year-old woman, and the confrontation moves out of the bedroom, he said.
The woman “screams and fights with everything she’s got to get this guy off of her,’’ Kemperman told jurors. “She throws a plastic garbage can at him. Finally he puts on his boots and leaves.’’
Bruggink, he said, ignores “one of the most fundamental rules that we have in the law. Quite simply? No means no.’’
Defense attorney William D. McCririe told jurors that Bruggink did visit the woman that night, but said the sex was consensual.
“This was a mutually beneficial rough sex relationship between these two people,’’ he said in opening statements. “Think about how many times these people have done these very same things with each other.
“Listen to the things that they would do when they got together and then decide if no meant no.’’
The woman took the stand where she described how Bruggink later admitted to having sex, but told her it was with her consent.
“I asked him if he knew what happened,’’ the mother of three told jurors. “Like I said, he was very drunk and he said ‘yeah, we had consensual sex, and he was laughing.’’
“OK, I want to make sure we’re clear. Did he say the exact word ‘consensual,’’’ Kemperman asked.
“Yes,’’ she responded. “And he was laughing,’’ Kemperman asked? “Yes,’’ she said.
Bruggink, 25, is charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and first degree home invasion stemming from the Nov. 25, 2014 incident at his ex-girlfriend's home in Wyoming.
Bruggink, who was living in Byron Center, was hired as a Grand Rapids police officer on June 16, 2014. The victim reported the assault on Dec. 1, 2014; Bruggink resigned the following day.
Michigan State Police handled the criminal investigation. Bruggink was charged on Jan. 27, 2015.
If convicted, Bruggink faces up to life in prison. Testimony will resume Wednesday. He remains free on bond.