Colleen Bitterman was a similar acts witness for the prosecution in the Coltrain (Jackson County) trial and her testimony was pertinent in getting a guilty verdict.    The media and the prosecution made a big to-do about the fact that Ewing was an avid mountain climber and owned a camping and hiking store in Ann Arbor.  Though he couldn't pin-point his whereabouts on the date of the Bitterman attack, he was able to document that he had been in Wyoming on a hiking trip just days prior.  With this information Eskridge made unfounded statements that Ewing was a "suspect in a number of unsolved rapes in the public parks of some western states."

Bitterman testified that Ewing was wearing hiking boots at the time.  Prosecutor Filip needed this testimony to point the finger at Ewing, the mountain climber, especially since Bitterman never got a good look at the face of the man who raped her.

What the jury never knew, however, was that Bitterman, who recalled a number of details about her attacker's clothing, could not recall what the man had on his feet.  This statement was contained in her police report.