A jury is weighing whether a former Olympic wrestler raped a woman after she had passed out drunk in a downtown bar or if she’s a “party girl” who consented to having sex in her dorm room.

After deliberating the fate of Stephen Anthony Abas for nearly two hours Friday the jury recessed for the weekend. They will resume on Monday.

Abas, 33, is accused of sexually assaulting a female wrestler in a May 15, 2008, incident at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. She was 20 at that time.

In closing arguments, Abas’ defense lawyer Dennis Hartley told the eight-man, four-woman jury that his client was the victim of a woman who was concerned about her own reputation.

“She’s a self-proclaimed party girl. She got kicked out of her dorm room by her own bad behavior,” Hartley said. “The party girl lived up to her name.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, the person being violated here is Stephen Abas by having to stand trial on these charges,” he added.

But Deputy District Attorney Jessica Gysin countered that the woman used the term “party girl” because “she felt guilty that the defendant had raped her.”

Gysin said Hartley’s argument amounted to saying that “party girls can’t be raped. It’s OK to have sex with somebody when they’re unconscious.”

“The defendant took advantage of an opportunity he had been wanting for a long time,” Gysin said.

The Gazette, which normally does not identify the alleged victims of sex assault, is withholding the woman’s name.

Abas, who won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, testified in his defense Friday.

He said he and the woman were drunk at the Ritz bar when he asked if he could go back to her room and she replied yes. Abas testified they later had sex and that the woman was conscious and willing.

When she later told a nurse and police that he forced himself on her, Abas said he was upset.

“It was so shocking at first. I was kind of taken aback by it,” he said.

But Gysin replayed a tape for the jury of a phone message Abas left on the woman’s phone answering machine after she accused him of rape.

“I apologize if it came off that way,” he said on the tape. “But I never wanted to hurt you. I never wanted to force myself on you.”

For more court coverage, visit “The Sidebar” blog at gazettedev.gazette.com

Becky Mares and Toni Mariani check out the new greenhouse at Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado. The greenhouse will provide fresh produce for the food bank year-round, and will also serve as an educational tool to teach the public about sustainability and growing one’s own food. Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, The Gazette