Jim Brown’s Accuser Testifies in Rape Case

Pro football Hall of Fame player Jim Brown listened silently in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday as a woman accused him of beating and raping her.

Brown later told reporters the story was “ridiculous.”

Johnnie Cochran, attorney for the athlete-turned-actor, said he would call witnesses to answer the allegations made at a Municipal Court preliminary hearing, which will determine whether Brown, 49, must stand trial on charges of rape, sexual battery and assault.

Brown’s accuser, a 33-year-old former teacher, claimed that the ex-football star and his girlfriend, Carol Moses, 23, sexually assaulted her after a battle in which Brown blackened her eye, punched her in the stomach and perforated her eardrum.

Played Tennis

The woman, describing herself as a friend of Brown, said she confessed to him when they first met two years ago that she was a lesbian. After that, she said they frequently participated in basketball and tennis games together, and she occasionally stayed at his house in the Hollywood Hills. She said, however, there was never any romantic or sexual involvement.

Last Feb. 19, she testified, Brown invited her to his house. When she arrived, she said, Moses was there, and the three of them went out for take-out food, which they brought back and ate in Brown’s bedroom.

“Jim and Carol were sitting on the bed,” she recalled. “He calls me over and asks me to lie down. When I didn’t, I could see his irritation.

“I was getting ready to leave, and Jim hits me over the back of the head with his open hand. I flew from the bedroom into the hallway. I’m reaching for the door, and I said, ‘I’ll blow your head off.’ ”

With that, she said, Brown began chasing her toward the kitchen, saying, “Huh, what you say?” and hitting her repeatedly.

Losing Consciousness

“I’m up against the stove, and he starts choking me . . . . I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness,” she said.

Then, she said, he released her, and “he hit me once in the stomach.”

”. . . There was blood everywhere,” she recalled.

Brown got a mop and began cleaning up the blood, she said, then stopped and faced her again.

“He stood in front of me and said, ‘I’ve gone this far; I may as well go all the way,’ ” she said.

Brown then took off part of her clothing, picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, where he threw her on the bed, jumped on top of her and instructed Moses, who was in the room, to join in a sexual assault, the woman testified.

She said Brown repeatedly “attempted to penetrate” but did not succeed.

Later, during cross-examination, she said he had in fact “penetrated” her.

Broke Free

She said she eventually broke free, left Brown’s home and fled to the apartment of a girlfriend. The woman said they called police and she went to a hospital, where she told her story for the first time to officers.

Moses told a completely different story in grand jury testimony released several weeks ago. She said the witness made a lesbian advance toward her and that she punched the woman and brawled with her, while Brown tried to break up the fight. Moses also claimed there were two other people in the living room of Brown’s house at the time, while the accuser testified nobody else was there.

During cross-examination, Cochran stressed that the woman, who is 5 feet 2 and weighs 100 pounds, claimed to have been able to hold off Brown, who is 6 feet 2 and weighs about 230 pounds.

Outside court, Brown told reporters, “This is ridiculous. Everybody is lying . . . . I want the total truth to come out. All the truth. My name has been totally destroyed.”