ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
Defense attorneys plan to call 17 witnesses to testify in a preliminary hearing Thursday for two Virginia Tech football players arrested in December on rape charges.
This is an unusual strategy because preliminary hearings normally involve only one or two prosecution witnesses taking the stand to provide an outline of the state's case.
We have a right to "put on a defense," said Matt Pethybridge a member of the law firm representing James L. Crawford, a reserve wide receiver, and starting fullback Brian L. Edmonds.
However, Pethybridge agreed that calling defense witnesses is an uncommon defense tactic at a preliminary hearing. According to court records, the firm of Painter, Kratman, Pethybridge, Swindell and Crenshaw had papers served on 32 people to testify at the hearing.
"We will not call all of them, maybe half," Pethybridge, spokesman for the firm, said Monday.
The preliminary hearing is set for Thursday at 3 p.m. in Blacksburg General District Court before Judge J.T. Frith. At a preliminary hearing on a felony charge, such as rape, a district court judge must decide if there is sufficient evidence to send the case to a grand jury. The grand jurydecides whether to indict the defendants before they can be tried in circuit court.
Blacksburg police arrested Crawford, 20, and Edmonds, 22, on Dec.16 after another Tech student reported the men raped her after a party at their apartment on Dec.14. Each man was charged with rape and attempted sodomy. They are free on $45,000 bond pending the trial.
Both players deny having sex with the woman and accused her of filing charges as part of a plan to extort money from them. In response, the men jointly filed a $32 million lawsuit the day after their arrests charging that the woman slandered them and interfered with their future ability to earn money as professional football players.
Skip Schwab, Montgomery County assistant commonwealth's attorney, is prosecuting the case. Court documents show the state has subpoenaed five people as possible witnesses, including the alleged victim.
Schwab would not comment about the defense's extensive list of witnesses except to say "it doesn't happen very often."
The purpose of a preliminary hearing, Schwab said, is for the court to determine if there is probable cause to believe that a crime was committed and that the defendants were the ones who committed the crimes.
Generally, the defense does not put on witnesses and reveal its case, or what the witnesses will testify to, before going to trial at the circuit court level.
"[The defense] is usually very limited," Schwab said.
Even the state's case is limited because the level of evidence need only be "probable cause." It does not have to prove the charges "beyond a reasonable doubt" as it will have to if the case goes to trial in circuit court.
Among the defense's list of potential witnesses are six Tech football players and the alleged victim. Several police officers connected to the case are on the list as well as a doctor who examined the woman and several female students who attended the party at the players' apartment. Also listed is a television reporter for WDBJ (Channel 7), Tracy Altizer, who interviewed and aired portions of the interview with the woman who filed the charges.
During the interview with Altizer, the woman said she was intoxicated at the party and the men took advantage of her after everyone else left in the early morning hours of Dec.15. Once she realized the men were raping her, the woman said, she yelled for help and the men ran.
The men countered that the woman came back after she left the party, broke into their apartment early Dec.15 and assaulted Crawford by hitting him with a boot as he lay sleeping. The men filed complaints with the Blacksburg Police Department. The woman said she did return to the apartment "because she wanted to hurt them like they hurt her," Altizer reported.
No charges have been filed against the woman, however, based on the men's complaints.
Edmonds, a senior at Tech, and Crawford, a sophomore, were suspended from the team for the rest of the season after their arrests and missed playing in the Orange Bowl. Two days after the arrest, Tech Athletic Director Dave Braine said: "Brian Edmonds will not ever play football again at Virginia Tech. James Crawford's future is up in the air."
LENGTH: Medium: 81 linesby CNB