Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 15, 1993 TAG: 9307150101
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Noemi T. McKenzie, who was Miss Massachusetts in the pageant at Indianapolis that summer, filed a civil suit in Marion (Ind.) Superior Court on Tuesday, five days before the expiration of the two-year deadline for making a damage claim.
McKenzie, of Woburn, Mass., claims the incident occurred on July 18, 1991, during a pageant rehearsal.
McKenzie said she reported the incident to pageant organizer J. Morris Anderson, who reportedly told her that Tyson was "just showing that he was in a good mood."
It was during the same rehearsal that Tyson met Desiree Washington, the contestant from Rhode Island. Early the next day, Tyson met Washington and took her to a hotel room where she says she was raped. Tyson was convicted of rape and other charges and is serving a six-year prison term. An appeal is pending before the Indiana Court of Appeals.
McKenzie didn't testify during Tyson's rape trial. Her lawyer, Richard Darst, declined comment Wednesday on the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
by CNB