A Lancaster man was charged Friday after allegedly raping a woman in a State College apartment and filming the assault on his phone.
Seung Hwan Shin was being held at the Centre County Correctional Facility in lieu of $500,000 bail after a preliminary arraignment before District Magistrate Kelley Gillette-Walker. He is charged with rape of an unconscious victim and sexual assault, as well as two misdemeanor counts of indecent assault and four counts of invasion of privacy.
According to the criminal complaint, State College Police were called to the apartment by the victim’s roommate just before 7 a.m. on April 10. The victim, whom police described as ‘visibly distraught’ upon their arrival, said she had returned home earlier that morning from a party and was intoxicated when she fell asleep in her roommate’s bedroom.
The victim said she awoke to someone helping her to her own bedroom, where she fell onto her bed and passed out again. She woke to realize that her pants and underwear had been removed and that Shin was having sexual intercourse with her. When she tried to make noise, Shin allegedly quieted her and began kissing her, then telling her not to make noise because her roommate was in the next room.
At that point the victim said she noticed Shin was holding his phone but tried to hide it behind his back. She said she demanded to see the phone and what he was doing with it, but Shin did not respond. She said she grabbed the phone and demanded his password but Shin would not provide it.
‘The victim stated Shin asked for forgiveness and to not call police since they were all international students,’ according to the affidavit of probable cause.
Shin and the victim had met about a month and a half earlier, and Shin said he had come to State College to visit another friend. He said he had communicated with her throughout the night and that the victim had text messaged him to pick her up from a party. Shin told police he was jealous the victim had been out with other men and agreed to pick up her and others and take them to the victim’s apartment.
Shin later asked the victim’s roommate where the victim was and that he went to the bedroom to ‘play with her,’ meaning to tease her because she passed out. Shin told police that when he helped her back to her bedroom she was unable to walk on her own. When they got there, he said they fell onto her bed and began kissing and then had intercourse.
Asked by police if the sex was consensual, Shin said ‘I don’t want to say that she consented but she didn’t say no,’ according to court documents. He admitted that he did not receive the victim’s consent before taking photos and videos.
Shin gave police written consent to look at his cell phone. They found two photos of the victim nude from the waist down. They then found two videos of a man having intercourse with a woman who appeared to be unresponsive and moaning uncomfortably in apparent pain. Shin said the woman in the photos and videos was the victim and the man in the videos was him.
The victim told police she had never discussed having sex with Shin, and she said she did not consent to intercourse or being filmed.
Shin’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
