Sen. Kennedy Denies He Knew of Pending Case

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), reacting Friday to reports that he failed to talk with police about an alleged rape on the family’s Palm Beach estate over the Easter weekend, said he never knew then that his nephew was being accused of rape.

A Palm Beach police affidavit released Thursday said detectives asked to interview the senator at the seaside mansion on Easter Sunday, the day following the alleged attack, but were told that he was out, and later that he had left town.

In fact, the senator did not depart until the next day, police say. Kennedy eventually spoke to police from Washington.

Kennedy’s nephew, William Kennedy Smith, was charged Thursday with second-degree sexual battery, Florida’s equivalent to rape, and misdemeanor battery in connection with the alleged attack at the Florida estate early March 30. Smith, 30, a medical student at Georgetown University, has denied wrongdoing.

Speaking at a news conference Friday, Kennedy said: “I was never, never told that weekend that there would be an alleged charge against Willie Smith that he had raped a young woman.”

Kennedy said the estate’s chief of security, former FBI agent William Barry, who had spoken to police, told him “there was going to be a sexual harassment (charge)--never used the word rape, never used the word rape--against my nephew, William Smith.”

Kennedy said after police first came to the kitchen of his family’s estate, “I was told that there had been stolen property, my mother’s stolen property, (and it) had been recovered. I was going to take steps to have someone go down (to identify the property, an urn) the next day.”

Palm Beach police said in the affidavit that Kennedy was asked to contact the department, but the senator said: “I was never told to call the police about any allegation of rape by Willie Smith.”

The alleged victim, a 29-year-old Jupiter, Fla., woman, accused Smith of raping her after meeting him in a nightclub and agreeing to give him a ride back to the Kennedy estate. She said she asked a friend who picked her up after the alleged attack to take the urn as proof that she had been at the estate.