Defense Begins in Rape Trial of Police Officer : Court: Two witnesses testify that one of the alleged victims admitted to being a ‘sex addict.’

Defense attorneys for David Wayne Bryan presented their case Monday, calling a number of witnesses in an attempt to discredit prosecution testimony in the former San Clemente police officer’s trial on sexual assault charges.

Among the defense witnesses were the program director of a San Clemente alcohol and drug recovery facility and a Dana Point psychiatric technician, who both testified that a 21-year-old convenience store clerk Bryan is accused of raping had admitted that she was addicted to sex and always “felt bad afterwards.”

Glen Caulkins, program director for Glen Haven Residential Recovery Homes, testified that the alleged victim, while being treated at the facility, had bragged about her sexual prowess and a long list of men she had had sex with. Caulkins said he warned the woman against AIDS. He said she also had talked about suicide.

The convenience store clerk had earlier testified that Bryan took her to his home last January and raped her.

Laura Courtney, a technician at a Dana Point psychiatric hospital, said that the woman had told her she was a “sex addict.” But the woman also confided that David Bryan had raped her.

In addition, the defense called four San Clemente Police Department officials to rebut testimony by a former female officer who also alleges that Bryan raped her. The 25-year-old woman testified that she was fired from the department following her allegations against Bryan.

Two sergeants, a lieutenant and a captain testified that the woman’s appearance, lack of writing skills and poor attitude led to her firing, not her claim that Bryan had raped her at her home after they finished a night shift in June, 1990.

Bryan’s attorneys have denied that any rapes occurred, saying the sexual encounters were consensual.

Bryan, 33, faces eight felony counts in the rape of two women and the sexual assault of a third. Together, the charges carry a possible prison term of up to 40 years if he is convicted. Fired for violating Police Department regulations, he is free on $50,000 bail.

Before the defense began its case, the prosecution called a woman who testified that Bryan pursued her for months after she met the on-duty officer in the parking lot of a San Clemente bank in 1988. She had locked her keys in her car and had asked him for help.

Bryan gave her a ride to her home to get another set of car keys. The next day he showed up at her home and began asking her out on dates, she testified. She said she would not go out with him because she had learned that he was married and she did not want to go out with a married man.

“He wanted to know if I was interested in seeing him,” the woman testified. Later she said, “I was not interested in him.”

But Bryan showed up at her home early one morning and surprised her as she stood before the mirror in her bathroom, she testified. He grabbed her and pushed her into the bedroom and forced her onto the bed, she said.

“I said I did not want this. . . . I told him to get out,” she said. “I started to panic . . . and it kind of kicked in what was happening.”

She told the jury that she was able to free herself from Bryan and that he left the house.