(UnitedVoice.com) – Two years ago, a CIA officer admitted to carrying out a horrifying string of sexual assaults on multiple women. Now he’s backed out of his plea deal and is challenging how agents searched his phones. There’s a real chance he could walk free, despite his earlier confession.
On May 31, 2020, Mexico City police arrested CIA officer Brian Jeffrey Raymond after passersby reported an unclothed woman calling for help from his balcony. He was detained but not charged — but then, US authorities started investigating. On Raymond’s phone, they found videos and photos of at least 21 unconscious nude women taken over a nine-year period. When investigators tracked down some of the alleged victims, they had no memory of any sexual encounters with Raymond, but at least one remembered feeling “woozy” and blacking out after drinking a glass of wine he’d given her. Raymond’s internet search history included phrases like “Ambien and alcohol and pass out” and “passed out girl.”
Raymond resigned from the CIA after his arrest, but he was arrested again that October in Colorado, denied bail, and detained in federal prison. In June 2021, he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse as part of a plea bargain. Then, last November, he dropped a bombshell; he asked a federal judge for permission to withdraw his plea, and his request was granted.
Now, Raymond is arguing that the case against him is mostly based on the photos recovered from his phone; he claims these contain “no objective evidence” that he actually assaulted the women. He’s also claiming that he had refused to give federal agents the passwords for his phones and only surrendered them under pressure. If Raymond takes the case to court and the images from his phone are disallowed because of how they were obtained, the case against him is likely to collapse from lack of evidence.
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