2 Sides Rest Cases at Trial In St. John’s Sexual Assault
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The defense and the prosecution in the St. John’s University sexual assault trial rested their cases yesterday after the final witness gave contradictory and at times confusing testimony. The prosecution presented 16 witnesses, but the defense opened and closed its case in one day with only two witnesses. Their testimony was intended to underscore the defense theme that the female student who says she was sodomized and sexually degraded by the three defendants had been provocative and appeared to have invited the sexual activity. But the main witness, under cross-examination from the lead prosecutor, Peter Reese, gave contradictory statements and had trouble remembering most of what he had witnessed on the evening of March 1, 1990, hours before the attack is said to have occurred. During almost three hours on the stand, where he nervously gulped glasses of water, William Collins, the former coach of the St. John’s University rifle club, said he “didn’t believe” the young woman when she came to tell him that she had been raped. But Mr. Collins also testified that he later told a university official that “there is a likelihood that a serious crime had been committed.” More : query.nytimes.com |