Opinion ID: 1425642
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Michael Pietila

Text: At 8:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1980, Michael Pietila walked to a party a few blocks from his home in West Hollywood. He stayed until 12:15 a.m., then left for another party in a different part of Hollywood. To that end he began hitchhiking on Santa Monica Boulevard. A dark sports car, possibly black or red, pulled up and the driver offered Pietila a ride. Pietila recognized the driver as a man he had met at the Spike approximately two years earlier. At that time, Pietila had gone with the man to his car, where the two had smoked marijuana and then orally copulated each other. Pietila had no further contact with the man, but had seen him five or six times at the Rusty Nail. Pietila thought that at the time the man had possibly stated his name as Robert or William. Pietila positively identified defendant as the man. Pietila accepted the ride. Defendant started driving on Santa Monica Boulevard, but soon turned onto a side street and parked. He asked Pietila if he would like to go home with him to Long Beach. [8] Pietila declined. He asked if Pietila would like to smoke some marijuana, but Pietila again declined. Defendant produced some liquor which they both drank. He then asked Pietila to engage in oral sex with him; Pietila replied he did not want to have an orgasm in case there was an orgy at the party, but proceeded to orally copulate defendant. Defendant again asked Pietila to go home with him to Long Beach, but Pietila said he wanted to go to the party in Hollywood. Defendant resumed driving, and offered Pietila money to go home with him. Once more Pietila refused. Defendant again turned onto a side street. He stopped in a dark parking lot and asked Pietila if he could sodomize him. Pietila said no, but instead orally copulated defendant a second time. He then said he would walk the rest of the way to the party, and got out of the car. He had walked about six yards when he looked back and saw defendant coming toward him with some kind of bat, holding it back as if about to swing. Pietila screamed and ran away; he heard defendant swearing at him as he fled. Pietila did not report the incident to the police. Eight months later, after seeing a flyer at the Spike, he contacted the Gay Community Services Center. That group put him in touch with Detective Thies, who interviewed him and showed him a photographic array, from which Pietila chose defendant. Pietila's sister testified she dated defendant twice in March 1979, after conversing with him when he telephoned her brother. Defendant had told her his name was Robert. She stopped seeing defendant after her brother told her of their homosexual encounter.