Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 16, 1993 TAG: 9302160325
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Medium
TYSON ASKS FOR NEW TRIAL
Mike Tyson's lawyers asked an Indiana appeals court for a new trial Monday, saying he would have beaten a rape conviction if a judge had not denied the jury certain tools of evidence."We want a new trial in which all the evidence can be presented to a jury," attorney Alan Dershowitz told a group of law students after two hours of argument before a three-judge appeals panel.
The Indiana Court of Appeals panel is not expected to rule on the request for at least two months.
Inside the state Supreme Court chamber, where the hearing was moved to accommodate scores of reporters and spectators, Dershowitz headed a defense team that criticized Superior Court Judge Patricia J. Gifford's handling of the case.
Gifford denied a jury the necessary tools of evidence by blocking testimony from three defense witnesses and refusing jurors a chance to consider whether his accuser had consented to sex, the former heavyweight boxing champion's lawyers said.
"It is obvious if they had these tools, they would have acquitted Mike Tyson," said Nathan Dershowitz, another defense attorney and the brother of Alan.
Prosecutor Lawrence M. Reuben said there wasn't a legal basis for an appeal.
"This appeal is not about re-weighing evidence, as the defense would have you do," he said.
Neither Tyson, who is serving a six-year prison term, nor his accuser, Desiree Washington, attended the hearing.
Following the appeals hearing, Alan Dershowitz met privately with Tyson at the Indiana Youth Center near Indianapolis, where the boxer is imprisoned.
"I just reported to him how the case had gone," Dershowitz said.
Tyson was encouraged, the lawyer said. "He's very anxious to have a new trial. He would like to prove his innocence."
Dershowitz said he told Tyson that he couldn't predict how the appeals judges would decide, but was encouraged by how well-informed about the case they were.
"He's waiting to hear," Dershowitz said.
Tyson, 26, was convicted last year of raping Washington in his Indianapolis hotel room in July 1991. She was a contestant in the Miss Black America beauty pageant, and Tyson was in town to promote the event.
In a separate but related appeal, Tyson's lawyers said Gifford also should have granted a new trial after discovering evidence that Washington had signed an agreement with a lawyer who later left the case.
That's proof, Nathan Dershowitz argued, that Washington made up the rape story to get rich by suing and selling the rights to her story.
"It's for money," he said, calling the document a "smoking gun" proving Washington's alleged scheme. "That's the only reason you have a contingency fee agreement."
Among those at Monday's hearing was boxing promoter Don King, who said he planned to visit Tyson with news of the hearing. Also there was Camille Ewald, companion to the late Cus D'Amato, the boxing trainer who shaped Tyson into a champion, and the woman Tyson called "Mom" after his own mother died. She left without commenting.
Nathan Dershowitz argued that Gifford should have permitted testimony from witnesses who said they saw Tyson and a woman embracing in his limousine outside his hotel. One witness saw Tyson and the woman walk arm-in-arm into the hotel, he said.
Gifford said the witnesses came forward during the middle of the trial, too late to be heard. Prosecutors said the defense had kept them hidden to spring them at the last minute.
Alan Dershowitz said the defense couldn't bring the witnesses forward until they had been interviewed to make sure they were telling the truth.
Washington's attorney, Deval Patrick, said in a statement from Boston that Monday's arguments broke no new ground.
\ TYSON APPEAL\ CLAIMS BY DEFENSE\ \ Trial judge Patricia J. Gifford erred by blocking testimony from witnesses who might have challenged the believability of accuser Desiree Washington.\ \ Gifford should have permitted jurors to consider whether Tyson mistakenly believed Washington consented to sex.\ \ Gifford should have stopped prosecutors from arguing before the jury that the defense is not obligated to tell the truth.\ \ Gifford should have prevented jurors from listening to Washington's call to 911 reporting the alleged attack. Defense claims Washington invented the attack to sue Tyson and that the call might have been part of the scheme.\ \ Prosecutors manipulated court selection procedure to pick a supposedly sympathetic judge.\ \ Two appeals issues were ordered sealed by the court and remain under seal.