Possible Witness Tells of Smith Date Invitation

William Kennedy Smith invited a 25-year-old woman to the movies just hours after another woman claimed he raped her, the young woman said in a pretrial statement made public Friday.

Margaret Scheid said Smith and his cousin, Patrick Kennedy, approached her as she walked her dog along the beach on March 30 and that, after they talked, Smith invited her “to go to the movies with us tonight.”

She said they told her their telephone number but she never called because she had a boyfriend.

Scheid has been listed as a potential defense witness for Smith’s rape trial, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 13. When questioned by lead prosecutor Moira K. Lasch, Scheid said she did not know of any information she had that would help Smith’s defense.

Her account was one of the few new versions of events surrounding the alleged rape. Many of the more than 20 statements made public Friday concerned defense questioning of likely state witnesses who had given earlier statements to prosecutors.

Among the new statements was testimony from Denny Abbott, the rape crisis counselor who has talked often with the 30-year-old woman who says that Smith, the nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), raped her at his family’s estate in the early morning hours of March 30.

For weeks after the alleged attack, the woman was “an emotional wreck” who expressed fears about the Kennedy family and Smith, Abbott said under defense questioning.

“She was very fearful of reprisals,” Abbott said. “She kept constantly talking about being fearful of being hurt and having her daughter hurt. That was her primary concern.”