Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992 TAG: 9201310053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Medium
TYSON ACCUSER TESTIFIES
Mike Tyson's teen-age accuser told a jury Thursday the former heavyweight champ pinned her on a bed with his forearm, stripped her, raped her and laughed while she cried in pain and begged him to stop."I said, `Please, you're hurting me! Please, stop!' And he started laughing, like it was a game," the 18-year-old woman told the jury in Marion Superior Court.
Tyson, 25, is charged with rape, confinement and criminal deviate conduct. If convicted, he faces up to 63 years in prison.
The woman, a college student and a Miss Black America contestant, testified in a clear voice about meeting the boxer at a pageant rehearsal on July 18 and making a tentative date with him.
She said she had gone to bed when Tyson called her from his limousine and asked her to go out. She said she agreed after he said they would talk and sightsee.
When she got to his car, she said, "He grabbed me and tried to kiss me. I kind of jumped back, and he said, `Oh, you're not like these city girls. You're a good Christian girl.' "
The woman said they stopped at Tyson's hotel, presumably so he could make a phone call. They were watching TV and talking casually when Tyson's tone suddenly changed, she told the eight-man, four-woman jury.
"He said, `Do you like me?' And I said, `I don't really know you. You seem OK.' And his voice changed, just like that. He said, `You're turning me on.' "
The woman said she told Tyson, "I don't know what you think I came up here for, but I'm going to the bathroom, and when I come out I want to see Indianapolis, like you said."
Tyson agreed, but when she emerged from the bathroom he was sitting on the bed wearing only his underwear, she said.
"I was terrified," she said. "I said, `It's time for me to leave.' He said, `Come here,' and grabbed my arm. I said, `Stop! Get off me!' I tried to fight. It was like hitting a wall.
"He kept saying, `Don't fight me, don't fight me, relax, don't fight me,' " she said.
She said he assaulted her and she begged him to stop.
Tyson's lawyers briefly cross-examined the woman, who was the second prosecution witness, before court adjourned for the day.
In opening statements, special prosecutor Greg Garrison portrayed the accuser as a selfless overachiever dazzled and destroyed by the superstar boxer. The defense depicted a gold-digger who concocted a story of rape out of anger.
"Our contention is, [she] bears false witness against Mr. Tyson," said defense attorney Vincent Fuller. "She found herself treated as a one-night stand, and she has a compelling desire for money."
Fuller indicated that Tyson will testify in his own defense.
Kycia Johnson, one of the woman's roommates at the pageant, testified that when the woman returned from her date with Tyson, she said, "He's such a creep. He's such a jerk," and said he had tried to rape her.
In the days after the alleged attack, the formerly bubbly, talkative woman became withdrawn and distant, Johnson said.
"I asked her what happened, and she said she went to the hospital because `Mike raped me,' " Johnson testified.
She said the woman explained that she had at first used the word "tried" because "I was scared and didn't think anyone was going to believe me."
Fuller said the woman consented to sex with Tyson, then became outraged when he said he was too tired to walk her downstairs to the limousine afterward.
"She leaves in anger - not because she had been raped, but because she had been disillusioned," the attorney said.
Garrison described the woman as a high school honor student and Sunday school teacher who worked with retarded children and was Big Sister to a foster child. She came from a family of boxing fans, and was thrilled when she met Tyson and he paid special attention to her.
After she returned from the pageant, she slept with her mother because she was plagued by nightmares, Garrison said.
Fifty people, most of them women, rallied outside the courthouse in support of Tyson's accuser, carrying signs that said, "No means no" and "Rape is an act of violence."
Tyson "walks in every day among a bunch of cheering fans, but she's got to hide her face and her name," said Gloria Lowe-Walker of Indianapolis. "We want to show her we support her right to say `no.' "