Man found guilty of 2004 rape in Overland Park apartment

Kansas City Star

January 31, 2008

A Johnson County jury heard two versions this week of what happened in 2004 after a man and woman played volleyball and had drinks in Westport.

After deliberating almost 10 hours, the jury on Thursday found Gregory A. Anderson guilty of raping the woman, now 39, in his Overland Park apartment.

Several months after Anderson was arrested, prosecutors contended, he promised cash and the use of credit cards to a fellow jail inmate if that inmate could prevent the woman from testifying against him.

Prosecutors charged Anderson, 43, with solicitation to commit first-degree murder, but the jury found him guilty of a lesser crime: solicitation to commit aggravated intimidation of a witness.

Inmate Keith Procter testified previously that Anderson had not asked him to kill the woman but did ask him to make her 'go away.' However, this week, Procter testified that he could not recall what Anderson told him.

Sentencing will be March 27.

The woman testified that she believed Anderson had slipped a drug into her drink at the bar on June 6, 2004. She said she had no memory of what happened for about four hours.

When she came to, she testified, Anderson was having sex with her in a bed. She said she tried to push him off, but he did not stop.

Defense attorney Scott Toth, however, questioned why it took her 17 days to report it to police. Toth said the woman had been with Anderson and kissed him the night before the two played volleyball.

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