PALO ALTO — A home violence cost has been dismissed for a Stanford College professor who unwittingly drew huge consideration to the case final 12 months when his reported disappearance throughout a backpacking journey in Washington state brought on a court docket delay.
Hunter Fraser, 45, had persistently asserted that an damage suffered by a former girlfriend two years in the past was an accident ensuing from horseplay between him and his then-9-year-old daughter at their Stanford residence.
Tuesday, a decide granted a request from the Santa Clara County District Lawyer’s Workplace to drop a associated felony cost of corporal damage on a partner or cohabitant.
The felony case towards Fraser was characterised by a shifting narrative by which the reported sufferer initially informed police the state of affairs was an accident, then later reported an assault.
“This has been a devastating two-year ordeal,” Fraser stated. “It’s deeply unsettling how a simple accident was manipulated into a narrative portraying me as an abuser, something I am not and never have been.”
He added: “I am relieved the record has finally been set straight and I am grateful to all those who supported me during this painful time.”
In response to his legal professional, Fraser was chasing his daughter and pushed open a door, not understanding that his girlfriend was behind it. The ensuing pressure reportedly knocked her right into a wall.
In August 2022, Fraser was charged with a misdemeanor that was later elevated to a felony, and he has argued that the violence allegation was made solely after he and his girlfriend ended their relationship.
Final 12 months, the felony cost withstood a preliminary examination — a listening to by which a decide guidelines whether or not the proof is powerful sufficient to warrant a trial — and was continuing towards trial till a dismissal movement filed by Fraser in September was evaluated by Decide Thomas Kuhnle over the previous few weeks.
Fraser is a biology professor and medical researcher who runs the Fraser Laboratory at Stanford and is a member of Bio-X, Stanford’s interdisciplinary biosciences institute. He additionally works with the college’s Maternal & Youngster Well being Analysis Institute, the Stanford Most cancers Institute and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.
Throughout a deliberate 40-mile backpacking journey in Olympic Nationwide Park in June 2023, Fraser stated he slipped on a snowy slope and hit his head, leaving him disoriented as he walked 15 hours a day for 2 days, which included traversing a path that wasn’t on his map.
That interval overlapped with a June 9 court docket listening to that Fraser claims had been rescheduled previous to him occurring his journey. He was nonetheless within the woods effectively previous his scheduled return, which prompted a large search by authorities that lined greater than 70 miles of trails.
On June 11, Fraser reportedly made his option to a street the place he encountered two hikers who gave him meals and drove him to a ranger station.
Initially Revealed: November 20, 2024 at 2:08 PM PST
