Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 3, 1993 TAG: 9307030142
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Circuit Judge William Sweeney found Flinn guilty of rape and forcible sodomy.
Taking the witness stand in his defense, Flinn, 22, said the woman consented to have sex with him and another man in a car at the boat landing last November.
His testimony contradicted his first statements to police when he said he had never been to Bedford County, where the sexual assault took place.
Friday, Flinn said he first lied to police because he was scared. He has been convicted of three previous felonies, although none of them involved a sex crime.
He said fear also caused him to flee the rape scene when a Bedford County deputy on patrol pulled into the parking lot at the Hardy Ford public boat ramp.
He fled on foot, stole a pickup truck from a nearby house and left the state. He was arrested driving the truck two weeks later in Kentucky.
Flinn also gave a different account from those of previous witnesses of what occurred earlier that night.
He testified that he was out drinking in Roanoke with Claiburn Roscoe Dooley Nov. 28 when they met a woman at a bar downtown.
They gave her a ride to a bar in Southeast Roanoke and shared five or six pitchers of beer there, he said.
In testimony Thursday, the woman claimed they met at the Southeast Roanoke bar. She said she left with them when they offered her a ride home.
But Flinn contended she didn't want a ride home. She wanted him to take her to buy some crack cocaine, and she began fondling him sexually in the car, he said.
They ended up at Smith Mountain Lake.
Flinn said she performed oral sex on him while Dooley had sex with her at the same time. Flinn said he also had sex with her, but he denied sodomizing her.
He said she consented to everything.
He admitted beating her. He said he got angry when she performed oral sex a certain way. "I was just so drunk. I lost control and hit her."
The woman, 24, suffered a broken nose.
"I admit I got a little rough, but I never forced her," Flinn said.
In fact, he said that after hitting her, they resumed having sex. "I didn't think she was hurt that bad."
The woman has maintained she consented to nothing.
On Thursday, Dooley, who has pleaded guilty to rape and sodomy in the case, also testified. He supported Flinn's story that they met the woman at the first bar.
But he did not support Flinn's consent defense. He said Flinn forced the woman to perform oral sex on both of them and beat her when she protested. He testified that she was raped.
In his closing argument, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz asked Sweeney to look at the evidence.
Blood from the woman's broken nose was smeared across the car seats and on the hood and rear bumper. Hairs were found that had been forcibly removed at the roots.
From the start, when the deputy first arrived on the scene, the woman said she had been raped. Her story never changed, Krantz said.
Both Flinn and Dooley changed their stories. Flinn at first said he wasn't there. Dooley originally said he was passed out and didn't see anything.
Finally, Krantz asked the judge to look at Flinn's flight. "He knew he'd been caught, and he ran and he kept on running."
Flinn's defense attorney, James Richards, argued that Flinn's flight was understandable under the circumstances. He was a convicted felon, the woman was yelling rape, and the deputy had his gun on him.
Richards also pointed to the victim's prior conviction in Roanoke of filing a false rape charge. She contends that it wasn't a false charge, however.
If so, Richards asked why, after having been raped before, would she accept a ride with strangers?
Sweeney acknowledged that rape charges often are difficult to prove. Flinn, Dooley and their accuser all have criminal records and seem capable of lying, he said.
But he said, "In a sexual offense, violence and consent are simply incompatible."
Sweeney delayed sentencing until after a background report on Flinn can be prepared. Each charge carries a penalty of five years to life in prison.
by CNB