Victim of Alleged Rape May Have Fled Because of History as Prostitute : Crime: Attorney for one of four men accused of sexual assault says the woman’s reliability as a witness is undercut. Prosecutors say they still hope to refile charges.

The defense attorney for a school security officer accused in a gang rape says the alleged victim’s background as a prostitute helps explain her failure to appear in court this week--an action that led to charges being dropped against all four defendants.

The woman has disappeared and the four men accused of raping her have been set free, prosecutors said.

The case drew widespread attention after the woman told authorities she was abducted while walking late at night to a store to buy baby formula.

Regardless of what the alleged victim’s background might be, prosecutors said, they are convinced a rape took place and are determined to file charges again if they can locate the woman.

But by Friday, the district attorney’s office had not been able to establish contact with her.

Robin J. Yanes, the attorney for defendant Victor Lopez Jr., a Long Beach school security officer, said he believed the prosecution’s position was weakened because the alleged victim worked as a prostitute and could not be counted on to appear in court. All these factors, he said, contributed to the dismissal of the charges against Lopez and three reputed gang members also accused of rape.

“The truth of the matter is we had witnesses who would have testified that she was a prostitute and was out working that night when the incident occurred,” Yanes said. “Her reliability as a witness is de minimis ,” or minute.

Yanes reiterated that his client is innocent, adding that the issue of consent would have formed part of the defense. All four men had entered not-guilty pleas before the charges were dropped.

A check of court records shows that the alleged victim was convicted of or pleaded guilty to prostitution charges at least three times in the last two years.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the woman’s background but speculated that if indeed she has a history of prostitution convictions, she might have failed to appear in court because she was reluctant to answer embarrassing questions on the witness stand or may have feared she would end up in jail for a possible violation of probation.

While prosecutors insisted they want to proceed with the case, they conceded that when a victim has a criminal record as a prostitute, the case becomes more complicated.

“It may make a case more difficult but it does not dissuade us,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Donoghue said. “We will prosecute a case just as vigorously (if the evidence is sufficient) whatever the background of the victim may or may not be.”

The incident began when Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies came upon a parked car in Long Beach about 1 a.m. Oct. 26. The car’s license plate was covered with plastic and two men were standing alongside the car. When deputies approached, they found two other men in the car with the alleged victim, a gun pointed to her head.

All four men were arrested and charged with a series of felonies, including rape in concert. The charges were dropped this week when the woman, who had gone to San Francisco, failed to appear in court--despite a plane ticket purchased for her by the district attorney’s office.

Regardless of what happens in the case, experts say, the pressing of rape charges when the victim is a prostitute is especially difficult. Yet, they say, prostitutes are extremely vulnerable to rape because they often work on dark and dangerous streets and their clients may be strangers.

Prostitutes’ claims are often dismissed by law enforcement authorities and they are often seen by jurors as witnesses lacking credibility, experts say. Many times, prostitutes--wary of authorities and reticent to become immersed in a court battle--will simply vanish, law enforcement authorities and social workers say.

In Oakland, the Police Department earlier this year admitted to closing some 200 rape cases without full investigation; many involved prostitutes as alleged victims. In Hollywood, police say a man has preyed on at least a dozen homeless women and prostitutes but repeatedly escapes punishment because his victims are reluctant to come forward. And in Pasadena, a Superior Court judge four years ago dismissed charges against a man accused of raping and sodomizing a prostitute; the judge said that a prostitute could not be a victim of rape because her activities put her outside the protection of law.

“There are animals down here (in poor areas of Los Angeles) just looking for prostitutes to rape because they figure they can get away with it,” Donoghue said. “Men who are out to do harm to women tend to pick on these women . . . because of a misconception that law enforcement won’t go after them.”

Counselors who work with rape victims say credibility is often a problem for any woman who is raped, and even more so when the victim makes her living by selling sex.

“The biggest problem is people don’t think a prostitute can be raped,” said Gail Abarbanel, executive director of the Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center. “People are never more judgmental than when it’s about someone who has been raped. . . . The bottom line is . . . anybody can be raped.”