Testimony for defense disputes rape account

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Testimony for defense disputes rape account
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, October 5, 2008

TORII STATION, Okinawa — Hours after she was allegedly raped Feb. 17 by a U.S. Army specialist, the alleged victim didn’t tell anyone she had been attacked until she was at an Okinawan hospital being treated for massive bleeding.

According to testimony at an Article 32 hearing here Friday for Spc. Ronald Hopstock Jr., the woman, who worked at an Okinawa City bar, had many opportunities to report the alleged rape, but kept silent until a co-worker who arrived at the hospital after the woman was examined suggested rape was the cause of her injuries.

The defense contends she remained in the hotel room with Hopstock where the alleged rape occurred until well after 8 the next morning, when Hopstock put her in a cab and gave her his last $20 for a ride to the house where she was staying with other bar hostesses.

But she could not find the house, and the cab took her back to the hotel, where she sat in the lobby for more than 45 minutes waiting for her friends until a hotel employee noticed she was bleeding and called for an ambulance, according to testimony produced by the defense.

Hopstock steadfastly denies he raped her, despite undergoing weeks of 12-hour days of questioning by Okinawa police in the months after the incident. He stuck to the same story he told an Army Criminal Investigation Command agent the day after the incident, according to court testimony.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57892