Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993 TAG: 9307020169
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Long
"She wanted it," Flinn said, according to testimony Thursday from the deputy, Ronnie Wright.
Flinn then fled from Wright - and eventually from Virginia.
But two weeks later, when Flinn was arrested in Kentucky, his story changed. He said that he had never been to Bedford County and denied any part in the alleged sexual assault.
The woman says Flinn and another man, Claiburn Roscoe Dooley, took turns repeatedly raping and sodomizing her and forcing her to perform oral sex.
Now Flinn has changed his story back to the original version, claiming she consented to have sex with them.
Flinn, 22, is on trial in Bedford County Circuit Court on rape and forcible sodomy charges. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
His attorney, James Richards, said in his opening statement Thursday that what happened at the Hardy Ford boat ramp was not the brutal attack that Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz would try to portray.
Rather, it was a case "where three drunken revelers go from a bar where they're at and want to continue their partying," Richards said.
But both Dooley and the alleged victim in the rape testified otherwise, although their stories also conflicted.
The woman, 24, testified that she met Flinn and Dooley at a bar in Southeast Roanoke on the night of Nov. 28 and they offered to give her a ride home.
She said she had consumed as many as 10 beers. She didn't know Flinn or Dooley, but Flinn told her that he worked with her husband, she testified. Flinn in fact did not work with her husband. She accepted the ride offer.
"I just wasn't using my head," she said.
Instead of taking her home, they drove to the Hardy Ford public boat ramp, she said. She protested but Flinn hit her in the head and told her to shut up, she said.
During the drive, they fondled her through her clothes, she said.
At the lake, Flinn stripped off her clothes, threatened to beat her and throw her in the lake and forced her to stretch out across the car's front bucket seats, she said.
She said Flinn forced her to perform oral sex on him, while Dooley raped and sodomized her. Then they switched and took turns, she said "at least four or five times."
At one point, she said Flinn hit her in the face and broke her nose. He also pulled a knife on her, took her out of the car and raped her on the ground, she said.
When Wright rolled up during a routine patrol, he saw Flinn first exit the car, which was parked at the water's edge, Wright testified. He wasn't wearing a shirt, his chest was bloody and his pants were around his thighs, Wright said.
The woman was naked and bloody and followed Flinn out of the car, Wright said. She ran toward the patrol car, he said.
"I asked, `What the hell is going on here?' Her immediate reply was, `They raped me,' " he said.
Flinn and Dooley then fled on foot. A search ensued, and Dooley was arrested about an hour later. Flinn was arrested two weeks later in Kentucky driving a pickup truck that had been stolen from a house near the boat landing.
In his testimony, Dooley didn't deny that the woman was raped. But he disputed parts of her story. Dooley has pleaded guilty to the rape and sodomy charges and is awaiting sentencing.
He said he and Flinn met the woman at a different bar from the one she claims. He said they shared five or six pitchers of beer and then drove to the bar in Southeast Roanoke where she said they first offered a ride.
They even argued about who would sit in the back seat, he said.
At the second bar, they shared another three or four pitchers, staying until closing time, Dooley testified. He said she sat on his lap at one point and they kissed.
From there, he said he fell asleep in the car as they were going home. When he awoke, they were parked at the boat landing and Flinn was beating the woman and forcing her to perform oral sex, he said.
Dooley testified that the woman then performed oral sex on him because Flinn forced her. He denied raping or sodomizing the woman, even though he pleaded guilty to the charges. He pleaded guilty only because he didn't want to take his chances with a jury, he said.
A jury may have set a harsher sentence than a judge.
Flinn's attorney, Richards, pointed out that Dooley changed his story after deciding to plead guilty. At first, Dooley had told police he was passed out and did not see anything that happened at the boat landing.
Richards also questioned the alleged victim about a rape claim she filed in Roanoke in 1989. She was convicted in that case of filing a false charge with police.
She maintained Thursday that she was raped in that case, but because she had been drinking then, too, she wasn't taken seriously. She pleaded guilty to filing the false police charge in frustration, she said.
The trial will resume today.
by CNB