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Rape conviction is upheld

BY JOHN STEVENSON : The Herald-Sun, Oct 31, 2006 : 7:07 pm ET

DURHAM -- Addressing a witness-credibility issue that echoes the Duke lacrosse rape case, the state Court of Appeals has upheld rape and sex-offense convictions against Anthony Michele Lofton of Durham.

Among other things, Lofton's unsuccessful appeal contended that a trial judge should have dismissed the charges because -- as in the Duke case -- the accuser allegedly gave inconsistent accounts of what happened.

A defense attorney said the various accounts were "all over the place" and could not be reconciled.

"Her story is not believable," an appellate brief said of Lofton's victim. "And then, which story?"

But the appeals court saw things differently.

It wrote in a unanimous opinion that, "Contradictions and discrepancies in the testimony or evidence are for the jury to resolve and cannot warrant dismissal."

Durham lawyer Woody Vann, who represented Lofton, said Tuesday he agreed with that conclusion.

"An accuser can give five different stories, but if all of them indicate she was raped, it's got to go to a jury," said Vann.

Reasonable doubt?

Still, a large number of inconsistencies easily could create reasonable doubt and sway jurors toward acquittal in any given case, Vann added.

"Contradictions are very relevant, amazingly relevant, as they apply to a jury's evaluation of the evidence," he said.

But Assistant District Attorney Tracey Cline, who prosecuted Lofton, said Tuesday that inconsistencies in a victim's story should come as no surprise to anyone.

"When you see criminal activity, whether as a victim or a witness, you are shaken up and traumatized," Cline said. "Little inconsistencies are to be expected. The question is, do they matter? If there are no inconsistencies and every detail is always the same down to the last iota, you begin to think the person's story was rehearsed."

The victim testified that Lofton entered her bedroom, lay down beside her, began massaging her shoulders and restrained her when she tried to leave. She said he then engaged in various forms of sexual activity with her.

Subsequent tests showed that semen on the victim's shirt conclusively matched Lofton's DNA, and that semen stains on her panties and genital area might have come from him.

Lofton, 37 at the time of the crimes, was sentenced to between six and nine years in prison after being convicted in Durham County Superior Court last year of second-degree rape, second-degree sexual offense, sexual offense by one in a parental role and incest.

As in the Lofton case, defense lawyers have made much of apparent inconsistencies and contradictions by the accuser in the Duke lacrosse case, in which three players are charged with raping and sodomizing an exotic dancer during an off-campus lacrosse party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in mid-March.

"She's made so many different statements that anything she says is exculpatory, simply because it's inconsistent with everything else she said," defense lawyer Joe Cheshire said recently of the accuser.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-783667.html

* The Herald-Sun's Ashley desperately needs a trial to sell newspapers- latest audited figures show a 7.3% decline in circulation.

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