Certain factors at play, including medical ones, will show a Los Angeles Rams coach accused of sexual battery was not able to form the necessary criminal intent to commit the alleged offenses, the coach’s defense attorney said Monday.

The other factors are the medication he was taking after a stroke-related event and the alcohol he consumed the night of the alleged incident, said Vicki Podberesky, one of Ted Rath’s defense attorneys.

“...And that will lead you to the only one conclusion, and that’s that Ted Rath is not guilty,” Podberesky said.

She made the remarks to jurors in her opening statement as Rath’s trial continued in Ventura County Superior Court.

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Rath has pleaded not guilty to three counts of misdemeanor sexual battery in connection with an alleged June 2018 incident reported at a Moorpark home. Rath, the strength and conditioning coach for the football team headquartered in the Conejo Valley, is on a leave of absence while his case is ongoing.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Erik Nasarenko gave his opening statement Friday, telling jurors the Moorpark woman, who was 33 at the time, was asleep in her bed when she was awakened to hands on her buttocks.

The woman, who sleeps in the nude, claims the hands moved to her stomach and then her genitalia. When she rolled over she allegedly saw Rath by her bed, Nasarenko said.

Rath and his wife had met up with the woman and her husband at a charity event on June 15, 2018. Afterwards, they went out to a local bar then returned to the woman's house to keep the party going. Rath’s wife did not go there with them, Nasarenko said.

Other friends and neighbors would meet there, too, he said.

Podberesky said jurors needed to know what happened during an incident on May 7, 2018, to fully understand. That’s when Rath suffered a stroke-related event while at work and was rushed to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Podberesky said.

In a meeting that day, he felt as though he was nauseous, he couldn’t talk, his vision was blurry and he couldn’t concentrate, Podberesky said. And she said jurors would hear all of those things from Rath himself.

“He’s gonna testify in this case,” Podberesky said.

Rath spent a few days in the hospital and lost 14 pounds, Podberesky said. He then spent the next several weeks at home recovering before heading out to a charity event on June 15, 2018.

“It’s the first event he’s had any real significant amount of alcohol” since the May 2018 episode, Podberesky said. Since then he had been taking aspirin and Lipitor, she said.

But Podberesky said Rath suffered another kind of episode. He felt a “sensation” and woke up the next day feeling confused and achy. His memory of the night was not all there, she said.

During testimony, the woman's husband said they called authorities to report the incident a few days later, but first told a few friends, including one who was at the house the night the alleged incident occurred.

The trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday.

Megan Diskin is a courts and breaking news reporter with The Star. Reach her at megan.diskin@vcstar.com or 805-437-0258.