On Friday, charges were dismissed against, John Phillip Burnside, 33, of Hanahan. In September he was arrested and accused of violently raping a Ladson woman after meeting on Craigslist—an accusation he’s vehemently denied from the very beginning.
“She actually sought him out and asked for the specifics of the activity,” said Andy Savage, the attorney representing Burnside. “The solicitor took the evidence. It was pretty strong in terms of it being consensual.”
The encounter
Investigators say on August 19th, Burnside went to the woman’s home after meeting through a personal ad on Craigslist.
“We discussed the expectation of the meeting in detail to include all events during the encounter,” Burnside told The Berkeley Observer. “The alleged victim even Googled and searched websites for the encounters that she said she did not consent to and viewed them prior to our encounter.”
Deputies say when Burnside arrived at the woman’s home, the two began having sex and began “spanking” her. She reportedly told him, ‘stop, you are hurting me.’
According to the affidavit, Burnside continued to hit the woman even as she pleaded with him to stop, and then pinned the victim to the bed using his hands and body to prevent her from moving.
Officers say he then rolled the woman onto her back and tied her up with rope and later forced her to perform oral sex on him.
“After the encounter, there were messages that read ‘thank you’ and that sort of thing. So we had a pretty good case going into the preliminary hearing. And, frankly, I thought the case would be dismissed at that time,” stated Savage. “But the police testified that they hadn’t reviewed the record which just mind-boggles me, and they testified under oath that they hadn’t read the text messages.”
Burnside doesn’t deny having ‘rough sex’ with the woman, however, he says none of it was ever forced.
“After the encounter, she was untied and we then discussed in detail the encounter, also discussed in detail her plans for the day. She said that she was tired. She was going to take a nap. She escorted me to the door. I then left,” stated Burnside. “In the text messages after the encounter, she said, ‘Thank you, sir. I enjoyed myself. I’m going to sleep well tonight. I’m going to be sore in the morning’—all those are exchanged and shown in her text messages.”
Burnside meets with Charleston Co. deputies
Weeks after the encounter on September 10th, deputies contacted Burnside and asked him to come up to the sheriff’s office for questioning.
“We arranged a time and place to meet which was in the detective’s office on a Tuesday morning. I showed up there, had no idea what it was about.”
Bunside said he told detectives that he did not know the name of the woman whom he had the sexual encounter with.
“They told me where she lived, and I remembered from her location about her and thinking maybe she was in trouble and maybe needed help. I gave them a statement only for them to tell me that I was under arrest, and that they had a warrant for my arrest,” stated Burnside. “She (the woman) didn’t know really anything about me. The only thing she knew was that I drove a new black Mercedes and that was exchanged in text messages
Up until that moment, Burnside says he had never been in trouble with the law or had ever been arrested.
“The people that truly know me know that I wasn’t capable of doing anything like this. If I was ever to go to jail it would be for the exact opposite,” said Burnside. “If I saw a man lay his hands on a woman, I would gladly go to jail for it because it’s an injustice if you don’t.”
Bond Court
When Burnside appeared in bond court to face the allegations, Judge Lombard denied him bond.
“She said what a heinous and violent crime this was without ever hearing my side of the story,” stated Burnside.
According to Burnside, although he was unable to see his alleged victim’s face, he heard her testimony in court.
“When I was at the bond hearing, and they denied my bond, she rehearsed a coached statement. It was so coached, it wasn’t even funny,” stated Burnside.
Searching For The Truth
According to Burnside’s attorney, as soon as he took on the case, he subpoenaed the woman’s phone records. There had been 537 messages exchanged between Burnside and the woman both before and after the incident.
“She attempted to erase the text messages from her phone,” stated Savage. “Everybody thinks that deleted messages are deleted but they’re not, and you can recover those with the proper software. We recovered them and had them at the preliminary hearing. I had all the websites she had gone to in order to prepare for this engagement.”
Savage says her messages also included information about her toys, how to use them, which one went wear, etc.
“Two messages before the last message on the day of the event was, ‘Can you come 15 minutes later because I have to take my children to school?’ And then the next one after that was, ‘Can you stop by and pick up some new batteries?’” stated Savage.
Savage says he also sent one of his investigators to his client’s apartment to recover any additional evidence.
“He picked up all the toys that were there and all the literature and everything else—including 50 feet of blue nylon rope,” stated Savage. He’s coming Monday (today) to pick up his personal property.”
Once the case got to the solicitor’s office, Savage says he handed them their investigation.
“The solicitor assigned to the case reviewed our investigation and went back to the sheriff’s office, and I guess even called in the victim,” stated Savage.
Savage says after it became clear that the woman was not forced to do anything against her will, the charges against his client were dropped.
Motive for the allegations
Several months after the accusation, Burnside says he’s not sure what prompted the woman to go to police several weeks after the encounter.
“I don’t know if she had a significant other maybe that was going to find the marks on her and she decided it was better to create a false allegation than to assume responsibility for her decisions,” stated Burnside. “It’s not on me to judge her. It’s on God to judge her. She’s going to have to step in front of God one day, and she’s going to have to answer the question. God has to judge me as well.”
Savage says money did not appear to be a motivating factor.
“I know she was very uncomfortable and sought medical advice, and I think that the explanation of somebody doing that unwillingly is probably easier to deal with socially than telling people that ‘this is what I was doing,’” stated Savage.
What’s Next
Once the charges were dismissed Friday, Burnside was removed from house arrest. He says he now hopes to move on with his life and do everything he can to deter others from falsely accusing others of sex crimes they did not commit.
“For me, my unfortunate circumstances has prompted me to reach out to other people, lawmakers, so that this injustice doesn’t happen to others,” stated Burnside. “Look up the statistics of how many people are falsely accused every year of rape. The people who are falsely accused could face up to 30 years in prison, the rest of their life as a registered sex offender.”
When asked if the woman who made the claims against get Burnside could be charged, Savage says the odds are slim.
“There should be, but they never do, though,” stated Savage. “False accusations are so common–at least from my perspective.”
According to Burnside, after this incident landed him jail, he said he has no desire to go back on Craiglist or any other online dating sites.
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