Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 20, 1995 TAG: 9505230023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BREEA WILLINGHAM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Whorley, 29, was accused of raping an 18-year-old woman Nov. 3 at the home of her friend. Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkhart said the rape charges were filed because the woman was heavily intoxicated, and therefore physically helpless.
Whorley and his attorney, Charlie B. Phillips, argued that because the young woman was not unconscious, she was not helpless.
The teen-ager testified that she and three friends were celebrating her 18th birthday at a friend's house that night. She was playing cards when Whorley and two other men came to the party, she said, and she simply said hello.
She admitted consuming "six to 12 beers, about three to five shots of Jim Beam, two screwdrivers and a couple marijuana cigarettes."
Later that night, the young woman said, she passed out on a foldout bed in the den, fully dressed.
"I woke up and somebody was on top of me having sex. My underwear was still on but they were pulled to the side.'' She told the man to get off her, and he did.
Whorley, however, testified that the teen-ager and her friend hugged him when he came to the party. Later, he went to the den after being told the young woman wanted to see him, and she consented to sex. He found out about the rape charges when the police came looking for him at his mother's house, he said.
Pattisall called the case "living, breathing, monstrous proof that if people get out and act irresponsibly and if there's no supervision and if we don't take charge, here are the results.''
"It's a shame and disgrace that conduct of this sort happened."
by CNB