Jury hears phone call between rape suspect, woman

CANTON — Raymond R. Bjork Jr. confessed to kissing and having oral sex with a drunken Ogdensburg woman, but vehemently denied having sexual intercourse with her, according to a recorded call played Thursday in St. Lawrence County Court.

Bjork, 38, is accused of forcing his way into her home on Valentine's Day 2009 and raping her after she passed out following a night of heavy drinking. A jury of seven men and five women listened intently to a nearly 15-minute conversation recorded between the woman and Bjork.

An Ogdensburg detective recorded the telephone call a few hours after the alleged rape occurred while the woman was being examined at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center, Ogdensburg. It was one of three "controlled calls" the woman placed to Bjork, and the only one that was taped.

Bjork is heard during the recording recalling the events of how the woman opened the door for him after he repeatedly rang the doorbell on a cold winter night. She apparently stumbled on the staircase while walking back upstairs to her bedroom.

Once in the bedroom, he began kissing her on the lips and after several minutes, starting taking off her clothes. Bjork then continued describing how he performed oral sex on her before she became startled and asked him to leave.

"You told me to get out so I got out," Bjork said in the recording.

The woman later raised her voice in disgust after hearing Bjork's version of events.

"I don't believe your story," the woman said in the recording.

She later asked him why he would have sex with a woman who blacked out.

"I woke up with my leg up around your shoulder, and you were totally inside me. You were totally penetrating me," the woman said in the recording.

Bjork stared straight ahead while the tape recording was being played to the jury.

The woman's cousin, who partied with her that evening, testified later Thursday about how Bjork assisted her in getting the woman into her home. After placing the woman in her bed, Bjork and her relative went downstairs to leave. But Bjork hesitated and wanted to stay and talk with the woman. He left once her cousin's husband came inside the house.

The cousin then dropped Bjork off at a friend's home in Belmont Courts shortly before 3:30 a.m. and went home. About an hour later, she was awakened by the woman continuously ringing the doorbell. The woman then told her about being raped.

Several witnesses also testified Thursday about how Bjork rubbed up against the woman and her cousin on several occasions while at the Kozy Korner Tavern on New York Avenue that evening. She had met Bjork that evening for the first time and repeatedly denied his advances at the tavern.

Ogdensburg Detective August J. Bonno, now a sergeant, told jurors that he didn't find any signs of the woman's home being broken into while investigating the complaint.

Bjork is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual act and single counts of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse, second-degree burglary, second-degree burglary as a sexually motivated felony and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle.