Nevada high court reinstates sex assault charges against Arizona chiropractor

Sexual assault charges have been reinstated against an Arizona chiropractor accused of victimizing a woman in 2012 at the Palms.

District Judge Michael Villani dismissed the case against Marino Scafidi in June after concluding that the state of Nevada had destroyed crucial evidence, but the state Supreme Court reversed the judge’s decision in January and sent the case back.

“The state’s just happy to move forward with the case,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Dena Rinetti said Thursday.

The case stems from Scafidi’s encounter with a woman he met through the online dating service Match.com. Although the woman’s name appears in court documents, the Review-Journal typically does not identify victims in sexual assault cases.

After Scafidi’s criminal case was dismissed, he filed a civil rights lawsuit against Las Vegas police and the Palms. The civil case is pending in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

According to the lawsuit, Las Vegas police and Palms security officers unlawfully searched Scafidi’s hotel room and conspired “to not preserve exculpatory evidence.” As a result, the complaint alleges, Scafidi was falsely charged.

Scafidi, now 34, and the woman went on a date on Sept. 1, 2012, at the Palms. During most of the date, according to Scafidi’s lawsuit, the woman “indicated her romantic interest” in him.

The woman drank alcohol during dinner and later in Scafidi’s hotel room, the complaint alleges. In the early morning hours, they went to the resort’s Rain nightclub to dance.

At about 3 a.m., according to Scafidi’s lawsuit, he and the woman went back to his hotel room, where she sent multiple text messages to her friends.

Eventually, the complaint alleges, Scafidi and the woman “engaged in consensual sexual acts” and “agreed to videotape portions of their sexual activity.”

The video recordings demonstrate that the woman “acquiesced in, and actively enjoyed, the sexual activity,” according to the complaint.

Later, the lawsuit alleges, the woman “began to experience symptoms of a psychotic episode.” The document suggests that the episode was caused by an adverse reaction between her alcohol consumption and a prescription anti­depressant, Wellbutrin.

According to Scafidi’s lawsuit, the woman walked into the bathroom, called 911 and stated, “He’s going to kill me.” She also falsely claimed that Scafidi had a gun, according to the document.

Although the woman was taking her prescribed antidepressant, tests of her blood revealed that she did not ingest any illicit drugs, according to the lawsuit, which indicates she had a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 percent.

The lawsuit claims Scafidi also provided a blood sample, but the defendants destroyed it and chose not to test it for drugs or alcohol. The defendants also destroyed the alleged victim’s blood and urine samples, according to the document, and chose not to examine her cellphone.

In dismissing the case, Villani wrote, “In certain circumstances, the state’s failure to preserve any single piece of evidence could prejudice a defendant, but said prejudice could be cured by an advisory jury instruction. However, in this case, an advisory jury instruction cannot cure the prejudice of three missing pieces of crucial evidence.”

The Supreme Court concluded that Scafidi failed to demonstrate that the woman’s Wellbutrin levels “would have created a reasonable doubt that did not otherwise exist.”

Also, according to the order, the record does not support Villani’s finding that Scafidi’s blood was collected as evidence. Rather, the blood was drawn to screen for sexually transmitted diseases, according to the high court’s decision.

However, the record does support Villani’s finding that evidence in the form of text messages, which were not preserved, “was foreseeably exculpatory,” the Supreme Court concluded.

The court then sent the case back to Villani to consider whether the appropriate remedy is to dismiss the case “or to give a curative jury instruction.”

At a hearing on Thursday, Villani set a schedule for lawyers on both sides of the case to file briefs on the issue. He will hear arguments July 24.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at 702-384-8710. Find her on Twitter: @CarriGeer.