SAN JOSE — A California man’s imminent trial for allegedly raping a woman in San Jose three years ago could end with him serving life in prison, after a judge ruled late last month that his serial rape history in Norway can count against him for sentencing if he is convicted.
Emari O’Garrow, 47, is accused of coaxing a woman into coming to his apartment, where he allegedly forced himself on her and raped her. The victim’s description of the attack evokes his five prior rape and sexual assault convictions overseas, where he spoke to his victims with a tone and confidence that signaled that he not only was consciously ignoring their refusals to sex, but that their pleas to stop sexually excited him.
A trial brief filed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office states that in some of the previous crimes, he reportedly taunted victims about how no one would believe their rape claims. Norwegian judges and juries in six instances found him guilty of rape, and he served nearly a decade in jail and prison. He was also the subject of several other sex crime allegations that passed muster with judges but ended with jury dismissals.
O’Garrow’s attorneys with the county Public Defender’s Office have argued repeatedly in court and in legal filings that allowing his convictions in Norway to count as prior offenses locally is “more prejudicial than probative” and violates his due process. They contend that the way the convictions were secured is not equivalent to U.S. criminal law, particularly the fact that jury verdicts do not have to be unanimous in Norway.
In the San Jose case, expected to hold opening trial statements this week, O’Garrow is accused of inviting the reported victim to his apartment on Feb. 1, 2022, under the pretense that another couple would also be there. The victim’s first name is listed in court documents, but the Bay Area News Group will refer to her as Jane Doe because she is a reported sexual assault victim. It ended up being just the two of them, and over the course of the night, Doe spurned O’Garrow’s romantic advances, according to the police investigation.
O’Garrow’s behavior escalated to sexual touching that Doe repeatedly pushed away, and then he got angry and more physically aggressive, police said. At some point, he allegedly started to undress Doe — who by that point reported being tired and feeling the effects of drinking alcohol — and pinned her down.
After more physical restraining by O’Garrow — including not allowing her to go to the bathroom — Doe told police that she continued to fight O’Garrow as he raped her.
After she was eventually allowed to leave, Doe reported that she alerted a friend, called police and quickly went to a nearby hospital to get a sexual assault forensic exam conducted. San Jose police detectives obtained a search warrant for O’Garrow’s apartment and entered while he was away; they found that the bedsheets Doe described were in the clothes dryer, suggesting they were laundered after she left.
On Feb. 14, 2022, about two weeks after the initial police report, O’Garrow was arrested and has been held without bail in the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas ever since.
O’Garrow’s defense has scrutinized Doe’s credibility, pointing to her initial omission of having used cocaine the night of the encounter, and calling out a subsequent, unrelated rape allegation against a Los Gatos man who was investigated but not criminally charged. The public defender’s office and prosecutors are in dispute over whether that second case constituted a false rape report, but jurors will not hear about the matter at trial after a judge declared it inadmissible.
O’Garrow, a Los Angeles native, pleaded guilty to statutory rape in 2002 for a misdemeanor conviction, records show, before he moved to Sweden in 2003 to pursue a professional basketball career. A year later, he moved to Oslo, Norway, where he played professional basketball and coached an associated girls’ youth basketball team.
He was the subject of multiple sexual harassment complaints by his underage players in the ensuing years and was eventually terminated, records show. He was criminally indicted for a slew of charges in 2012, with the ensuing prosecution unraveling a string of sexual assaults that began almost as soon as he arrived in the country.
O’Garrow was convicted of raping one of his 16-year-old players in 2005; a 17-year-old player, also that year; a woman he was dating in 2006; a woman he was dating in 2010; and a woman he was acquainted with in 2012.
Records show that the 16-year-old victim told authorities that after O’Garrow raped her, he said to her, “No one will believe you.”
The rape convictions involving her and the 17-year-old victim were accompanied by convictions for misusing his position as a coach to engage in sexual activity. He was also convicted of attempting to rape, in 2010, a woman with whom he had mutual friends.
O’Garrow’s indictment also included charges that he sexually assaulted eight other people, including another one of his underage players. The underlying allegations were found credible by judicial panels at “main hearings,” which are roughly akin to preliminary hearings in the United States, but ultimately were dismissed by jurors, or in one case by prosecutors when the victim was unable to testify.
Accounts of the array of sexual assault allegations against O’Garrow paint a repeated pattern of behavior, highlighted by him physically overpowering them while they screamed, cried and aggressively fought back, and him insisting that they wanted sex with him by making statements including, “You know you want this.”
Several of the victims in the Norway convictions are listed as potential witnesses in the current San Jose trial, according to the lengthy pretrial brief submitted by prosecutors. Defense attorneys have stated in court filings that this puts them at an unfair disadvantage, since they would not be able to effectively scrutinize and probe their accounts given how much time has passed, and with no access to the underlying investigations.
The public defender’s office has also signaled that if O’Garrow is convicted, they would file a Racial Justice Act motion alleging selective prosecution, on the grounds that O’Garrow, who is Black, was prosecuted for Doe’s rape allegation while the Los Gatos man, who is white, was not.
A conviction would expose O’Garrow to a lifetime prison sentence on account of the five prior Norway convictions counting as prior strikes, surpassing the threshold of the state’s three-strikes law that compels lengthy sentences for repeat felony offenders.