Smith’s Accuser Goes on TV to Defend Herself : Interview: Patricia Bowman says she wants her identity known in order to help rape victims and to fight claims she is psychologically troubled.

The woman who accused William Kennedy Smith of rape told a television audience Thursday night that she wants her identity known now so that she can urge rape victims to tell their stories and can defend herself against claims she is psychologically troubled.

In her first interview since her allegations were disclosed nine months ago, Patricia Bowman told ABC-TV’s “PrimeTime Live” that she is “terrified that victims everywhere who have seen my case . . . will not report because of what’s happened to me.”

She said she had come out from behind the electronic dot that obscured her face during broadcast of the trial to show that “you can survive.”

“I’m not a blue blob,” she told interviewer Diane Sawyer. “I’m a human being. I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Bowman, 30, accused the nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) of raping her at the Kennedy family’s Palm Beach estate March 30. He was acquitted of rape and battery charges Dec. 11 after 10 days of trial and 77 minutes of jury deliberations.

Bowman’s attorneys have said repeatedly that she has turned down financial offers for her story--some of which rose as high as $500,000. But asked if she would continue to rule out financial offers, Bowman said: “I can’t answer that right now.”

Bowman expressed bitterness that Smith’s lawyer, Roy E. Black, had said after the trial that he thought her mental condition deserved investigation. And she said that she hopes Smith does not forget the case soon.

“If that man is suffering any repercussions from the last nine months, he should, in my mind,” she said. While she insisted that she does not mean to be vindictive, she added, bursting into tears: “It’s incomprehensible for me to live every day of my life knowing how ruthless that man was in attacking me. . . .”

She strongly defended Moira K. Lasch, the Palm Beach County prosecutor who has been widely criticized for allegedly mishandling the case.

“I consider myself blessed to have had a brilliant, in my mind, human being,” she said. Lasch and her fellow prosecutor Ellen Roberts “did the best job they could.” Lasch, she said, “is a very proud woman. She is also very compassionate.”

Bowman said that she had “never been treated for psychiatric problems.” During the trial, there was testimony that a psychological counselor she was seeing had told her to “get a life” the night before the incident. She said that the many gaps and inconsistencies in her story resulted from the trauma of the event. “If I was going to contrive testimony, don’t you think I would have filled in the memory lapses?”

Bowman said that she was literally knocked off her feet when she heard news of the verdict as she stood in one of the state attorney’s offices.

“I remember just leaning up against this door frame. . . . And the next thing I remember is . . . they were helping me get up off the floor,” Bowman said.

She also sounded skeptical about defense lawyer Black’s statement Dec. 12 that the Smith family and Smith’s legal team had prayed for her at the Kennedy mansion the night the verdict was rendered.

“It’s quite well known about their PR campaign,” she said.

She described how difficult she found it to read and watch pretrial stories about Smith.

“Each and every day from 5 to 7 and in each and every newspaper, I had to see the face of the man who raped me. That’s hard. Then I had to see the face of the man who raped me change into a man with a puppy, a man kissing schoolchildren. . . ,” she said.

Bowman, a full-time mother who lives largely on a trust fund, has said that she plans to spend some of her spare time counseling rape victims.

Meanwhile, an attorney for Smith, Mark Seiden of Miami, suggested the interview showed that Bowman had only wanted attention all along.

Bowman’s stepfather, Michael (Gerry) O’Neil, said in Thursday’s Miami Herald that “it’s too late to hide, I’m telling you. Now’s the time to let everybody know and get on with our lives.” O’Neil is director and former chairman of General Tire, now known as GenCorp.