Jim Brown’s Accuser Takes Stand in Rape Case

A 33-year-old woman who claims she was beaten and raped by former professional football star Jim Brown told her graphic story Tuesday as the lead-off witness in Brown’s preliminary hearing.

Brown, now an actor, is accused of assaulting the woman--with whom he frequently played basketball and tennis--in his Hollywood Hills home last Feb. 19.

The woman spoke calmly as Brown looked on solemnly.

The 5-foot, 2-inch schoolteacher said she was visiting Brown, 49, after he invited her over late that afternoon. The attack occurred, the woman testified, while she, Brown and Brown’s house mate, Carole Moses, were watching TV in the actor’s bedroom.

The woman said she refused Brown’s request that she lie down beside him and, moments later, as she walked toward the bedroom door, Brown slapped her on the head.

‘Flew From Bedroom’

“I flew from the bedroom into the hallway,” the woman recalled. Her reaction, she continued, was to say, “I’ll blow your head off,” even though she had no weapon.

Brown then struck her about 15 times, she said.

Then, the woman testified, the actor mopped up her blood and said, “ ‘Well, I’ve gone this far, I might as well go all the way.’ ”

He proceeded to undress her and carried her into the bedroom, where he and Moses molested her, the woman said. According to police reports, the woman had claimed shortly after the incident that Brown, 49, struck her several times with a closed fist. However, she testified Tuesday that Brown slapped her, rather than punched her.

And, although she told police she had been raped, she said at one point Tuesday that through her physical and emotional willpower, she was able to resist Brown’s attempts to “penetrate” her. But later, she testified that Brown had actually partially penetrated her.

‘Not Happy’

“I’m not happy with the discrepancies; I’d be a liar if I said I was,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Dino Fulgoni told reporters later. The prosecution also called two other witnesses--police crime experts who inspected evidence recovered from Brown’s house--before resting its case.

Brown’s lawyer, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., said he may call Moses to the stand today. Moses, 22, has already told a county grand jury that the alleged victim had actually tried to molest her on Feb. 19. The woman was injured, Moses said, while Brown was attempting to halt an ensuing fight.

Outside court Tuesday, Brown, who is not expected to testify, reacted bitterly toward the day’s developments.

“It doesn’t take a genius to detect those lies,” he said of the woman’s testimony.

“My complaint has been about the district attorney’s office and the Police Department pursuing this,” he added. “This young lady deals with impossibilities and contradictions--she calls the police liars--and these people will take that seriously and carry me through four months of this. (It) is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

Municipal Judge Candace D. Cooper will rule at the hearing’s conclusion, possibly today, whether Brown should stand trial.