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| Friday, June 14 Prosecutors hope video enough evidence for trial Associated Press |
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ALAMEDA, Calif. -- On a dimly lit videotape shown in court Friday, the woman who accuses Oakland Raiders lineman Darrell Russell of recording her alleged rape appears at times unresponsive and at times reacts in ways defense lawyers say show she was consenting.
Prosecutors charge that Russell, 26, drugged the 28-year-old woman at a San Francisco night club and then held the camera as two friends raped her at the home of one of Russell's teammates in the early hours of Jan. 31. All three men have pleaded innocent to 25 felony counts.
A judge must decide whether the case goes to trial, which one defense lawyer conceded was probable. The hearing in Alameda County court will resume, and likely conclude, July 1.
On Friday, Russell sat with eyes averted as the 21-minute segment played on a small television.
On the tape, the camera focuses on the woman and Russell's two friends in a darkened bedroom strewn with debris.
His two friends never appear to physically force the woman into sex, though her apparent awareness waxes and wanes and she is often limp. On several occasions, she actively engages the men.
Though the sound quality is poor, the woman laughs at one point and exchanges words at another.
Prosecutors allege Russell, a former No. 2 overall selection in the NFL draft, laced the woman's drink with the "date-rape drug'' GHB.
Earlier this week, the woman testified she was feeling fine that night until Russell allegedly mixed a cocktail -- orange vodka, with orange and cranberry juices -- at Harry Denton's Starlight Room. She said soon after she blacked out and remembers little, except visions of "the red light, the camera, and somebody on top of me.''
She testified she does not remember giving consent.
In an interview taped Feb. 1, Russell told police the woman could have been drugged, but added he couldn't envision how someone might have had a chance to spike her drink. He said the woman twice consented verbally to group sex -- once in the back seat of his Range Rover during the ride back to Alameda, and again before Russell produced his two friends.
His interrogator on that audio tape asked why he made the suggestion. Russell said he knew the woman had, in the past, had sex with Russell and then another man in the same night -- namely, Raiders safety Eric Johnson, in whose house the alleged rape occurred. Johnson is not charged.
Russell's lawyers have tried to cast the woman as a "groupie'' out for cash.
Russell, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, is serving a one-year NFL suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy. He has not commented to reporters since the hearing began Monday.
Under California law, he could be found guilty of crimes allegedly committed by either of his two friends -- Na'eem Perry, 25, and Ali Hayes, 27 -- because he did not intervene.
Outside court, Hayes' lawyer said he thought the tape exonerated his client.
"It's not a pretty sight,'' attorney William H. Du Bois said. "But I don't think it's a crime.'' |
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