Former UFC and Bellator fighter War Machine (born Jon Koppenhaver) was back in court yesterday for a hearing on the sexual assault charges brought against him. The charges stem from his alleged beating of ex-girlfriend Christine “Christy Mack” Mackinday, during which it’s alleged he placed his hand on her genitals and threatened to rape her. David Ferrara of the Las Vegas Review Journal was in the courtroom and reported all of the details.
Just raped @ChristyMack She tried to make me wait until "after errands" As if! =p
— War Machine (@warmachine170) August 10, 2013
Brandon Sua, the defense attorney for War Machine, argued that Mackinday’s past career doing porn as Christy Mack had given her the “desire, the preference, the acceptability towards a particular form of sex activities that were outside of the norm.” While Mackinday alleged on HBO’s Real Sports that he raped her after tweeting the above comment (something she publicly passed off as a bad joke after consensual sex), that’s not what’s at issue here. Instead, it’s about him allegedly molesting her after a prolonged beating where he also attacked a friend of Mackinday, not just theoretical “rough sex.” While skeptical, Judge Elissa Cadish asked Sua for a written motion to make his argument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UjsjBT_rdA
Prosecutor Jacqueline Bluth argued that rape shield laws precluded such a defense, saying that Because she consented to those acts through her course of employment does not mean the defendant is then entitled to think he can do that to her. You can’t make that leap.” In the midst of all of this, War Machine blew a kiss at Bluth, which she then spoke about for the official record. While Sua claimed not to see the kiss, Judge Cadish scolded War Machine for gesturing at Bluth, to which he smiled and said “Yes, ma’am.”
Sua is also claiming that War Machine’s phone has text messages from Mackinday inviting him over, contradicting her statements that he showed up unannounced. Judge Cadish ordered Sua to turn the phone over to the prosecution by next week.
