Medical Student Says She Was Raped by Smith : Courts: Reports by two others of attempted assaults are also filed in connection with a Palm Beach, Fla., case against Sen. Kennedy’s nephew.

A 26-year-old medical student alleged in a sworn statement released Tuesday that “a ferocious, almost animal-like” William Kennedy Smith raped her three years ago in Washington after taking her to his home from a picnic where she had become “incredibly drunk.”

In a separate sworn statement, a former girlfriend of Smith’s cousin, Matthew Maxwell (Max) Kennedy, said that she twice fought Smith off after he attacked her in 1983 in a guest bedroom of his family’s Manhattan home. Then 19, the woman said that she decided against reporting the incident to authorities after Max Kennedy told her, “It’s no big deal.”

The statements, along with one from a third woman who said that Smith tried to sexually assault her in Washington three years ago, were filed with a Florida court Tuesday by the prosecutor in a rape case against Smith, nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Prosecutor Moira K. Lasch could have submitted the statements under seal to keep them private. Her decision to make them public drew criticism from Florida defense lawyers, who feared that the statements will prejudice prospective jurors.

Smith, 30, is accused of tackling and raping a 29-year-old Jupiter, Fla., woman at the Kennedy family’s Palm Beach estate last Easter weekend. He has pleaded not guilty and branded the allegations as “outrageous lies.”

The witnesses’ statements, filed under a Florida court rule that makes it possible to introduce at trial evidence of similar actions in the past, include elements similar to what the Florida woman says happened to her last March 30. None of the women reported the incidents to police.

Two of the women, whose statements were made public Tuesday, said that they were motivated to come forward by unfavorable news reports on the character and sexual history of the Florida woman.

The medical student who alleged that Smith raped her in his Washington bedroom three years ago said: “If he gets away with it, then the message is going to be clear that this is OK.”

Names of all the women were included in the statements, but The Times does not publish such information as a matter of policy.

The medical student said that she tried to stop Smith from raping her but “there was no way he was going to stop” and that she “sort of passed out at some point in the middle of it.”

She said she was awakened at 7 a.m. the next day by a phone call to Smith from his then-girlfriend. Smith, alongside her in bed, motioned to her to be quiet while he insisted to his girlfriend that no one was in bed with him.

After the call, she said, Smith “wasn’t very nice to me,” adding that he “just very rudely was reading the paper right in front of me” when they had orange juice on his patio.

Prosecutor Lasch learned of the medical student when the National Enquirer reported the incident in April without using her name, according to the woman’s statement; a reporter for the supermarket tabloid served as an intermediary in arranging for the prosecutor to interview her.

In the 1983 incident in New York, the woman accepted Smith’s invitation to spend the night at his family’s house a few blocks away from a party they had attended.

After Smith, whom the woman described as “pretty drunk,” showed her to the guest bedroom and said good night, he tackled her and pinned her to the bed, she said.

She told of resisting his advances, saying, “Willie, get the hell off of me,” and finally wriggling out from underneath him and regaining her feet.

At this point, she said, Smith apologized, saying he didn’t know what had come over him and promising it would not happen again. But a moment later, he did it again.

The woman, who described herself as being in good shape from running, biking and lifting weights, again managed to fight him off, according to her statement.

Her then-boyfriend, Max Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, minimized the incident, she said. She later broke up with Max Kennedy, the woman, who is now married, said but they have remained good friends.

About a week after the Palm Beach incident, the New York woman said that Max Kennedy called and said he was sorry that he had not taken her seriously when she complained to him in 1983.

“He said: ‘Sounds like Willie has a really big problem. He needs some help,’ ” the woman said.

Max Kennedy, 26, a law student at the University of Virginia, was married earlier this month and could not be reached for comment. Lasch said Monday that she intends to call him as a prosecution witness.

The third witness’ statement, that of a former Georgetown medical student, related that she saw Smith at a party in the spring of 1988. She said that he invited her and others to his apartment afterward for another party. There, she said, he attacked her.

The woman, now a doctor with a specialty in physical and rehabilitative medicine, said that, “without any warning, he grabbed me by my wrists, threw me over the couch and I landed on the floor,” pinned by his weight.

She said that she tried to “talk this fellow out of it.” He backed away but soon tried to coax her up a spiral staircase to a loft. She resisted and fled.

The woman said that she did not go to police after the attack “because I know how powerful his family is.” She said that he seemed to be “upstanding” and that she feared the lack of another witness would cause authorities to doubt her story.

She said that she changed her mind after the Palm Beach incident partly because of reports that Smith had warned the alleged Palm Beach victim that no one would believe her.

“I thought . . . with my reputation I could maybe lend a hand to that,” the physician said.