Michael Richard Logan was sentenced March 27 to three years' probation--including alcohol and anger counseling--for assaulting Kimberly Boyden.
Logan and Boyden met in the early afternoon of August 12, 1996, at a Scottsdale bar. They had both had rotten days. The two chatted and drank together, Boyden accompanied Logan to his lawyer's office, they went to another bar. By early evening, the two were at Boyden's Scottsdale home.
From there, Logan's and Boyden's accounts of events change dramatically. She says he raped and beat her, then she fled, naked, from her home. He says they had foreplay, wrestled, she vomited and hit her head, and fled. He took off, too. Boyden spent most of the next three days in the hospital.
During Logan's trial, held in February in Maricopa County Superior Court, the state alleged that Logan broke Boyden's nose (aggravated assault) and bruised and bit her breasts (simple assault) during their encounter. Logan pleaded not guilty. After a four-day trial and a couple of hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted Logan of the aggravated-assault charge, and found him guilty of the lesser charge.
Judge Peter D'Angelo followed the presentencing report's recommendation that Logan, who had no similar prior offenses, be granted probation, rather than the maximum punishment available, a six-month jail term.
As the victim, Boyden was allowed to address the judge. Reading from notes scribbled on yellow legal paper, she told D'Angelo, "I do thank God he didn't kill me. . . . He is a threat to everyone he comes in contact with."
Logan's statement before the court was no more than a few softly spoken words. Slumped over, dressed in jeans and a tee shirt for his job as an electrician, Logan showed remorse, saying, "I take responsibility for what happened," adding that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person.
Logan did not respond to messages, sent via his attorney, seeking comment. His attorney, Howard Snader, declined comment. Logan's presentencing report does indicate that he intends to sue Boyden in civil court.
Brian Finkel--Boyden's gynecologist who examined her days after the assault, and a witness in the case--says he's pleased with the trial's outcome. Of Logan, he says, "He's going to be in intense probation. . . . I expect him to reoffend in very short time."
Finkel was Boyden's advocate and adviser as she fought to get her day in court. Initially, a grand jury refused to indict Logan on sexual-assault charges, and the case was not pursued. Boyden and Finkel pressured city and county prosecutors to bring Logan up on assault charges. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office decided to do so, after Boyden's story was published in New Times ("Not Victim Enough," March 27, 1997).
Deputy county attorney Lou Stalzer, who heads the criminal division of the county's Mesa office, says he, too, is satisfied with the trial's outcome, particularly given the lack of evidence.
Stalzer says the original problems associated with charging Logan had to do with the sexual-assault charge, because there were no eyewitnesses, and no medical evidence of rape. Stalzer maintains the assault charges were the appropriate ones, pointing out that the jury wasn't even convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Logan was responsible for Boyden's broken nose; Logan maintains she hit her face on the floor.
"I still have that belief today," Stalzer says, of the decision not to charge Logan with sexual assault. "There just isn't enough evidence."
Contact Amy Silverman at her online address: asilverman@newtimes.com
